piling wood on pipeline mats

[gunman63]

OK  heres one for ya,  have access to a lot of  pipeline  mats, no cost so that  part  isnt a issue,  whats the opinions of piling firewood on them rather than the  ground, we  arnt  talking a years supply, we are talking 4-500 cords, (firewood business), not  stacked,just loose pile like i do  now on the  ground. would the  water  wick up from  the  ground any to  speak of, would the  rain and melted snow drain away?

[beenthere]

Water shouldn't wick through them, and if sloped the water should drain away. If in a depression, then the water will pond.

How many mats do you have, and will you be able to scoop the wood off them with a bucket for loading?  Or will they just be in the way?

What are the mats like that you will get?  species, construction ??

[T Welsh]

gunman63,they would work and should not let moisture wick up through. but like beenthere said,can you drive over them with the loader to scoop up wood with out making a mess,I guess if you have a flat area and is well drained that if you dug them into  the ground and layed them in nice and tight they might hold if you scooped along the length of the matts,if you load cross wise you would be digging the timbers up all the time. just my thought! Tim

[WH_Conley]

Might want to think about nails and tires if you are going to use a loader to scoop the wood up. Somewhere along the way you will be pulling nails up.

[gunman63]

I was  thinking they  should  work decent,how many mats,? hundreds i guess, pays to have  connections. they would be level or a little slope to the  whole  pile, would  scoop up  length wise,  the more u use them  the more smooth they would  get  with  sawdust and  bark.  mats are  rough 16' long , i think  most are  40" wide  not over 48"  wide, because of hauling issues,  i think most  mats are 10" think, id have to measure the ones i have, , no  nails in them .

[Al_Smith]

Pipeline  mats ,had to Google that one .I worked on one pipeline in my life and not only are the pipeliners a different breed of cat but the lingo is too .What they call "skids " the rest of the world calls cribbing .Just short hardwood timbers about 4 feet long maybe 4 by 6 or so .

Now how in the world they ever got skids out of timbers remains a good question .Probabley like the word "spread " which in pipeliner talk is a work crew .Not to be confused with a bed spread or something to put on toast like butter .

So what's a mat?  Long cribbing bolted together or something  ?

[gunman63]

Not "cribbing or skids"   they are 8x8's or 10x10's bolted together, sometimes 16' long sometimes 24', to form a mat or pad, theres pics some where on this  forum somewhere i think, there used to cross low  ground, and swamps when  there putting in  the oil pipelines,  holds the  equipment up  and gives the welders dry place to  weld  pipe.

[gunman63]

search pipeline mats and some  pics come up,. but i anit  smart enough to them them  from there to here

[Al_Smith]

Okay ,gotya .

They use something similar  for crane pads in swampy areas ,kind of a portable road way .

Sure they'd work ,just heavy as lead .If they get screwed up just saw them up and burn them in a wook stove but most likely being oak they'd last a long time .

[AvT]

I pile the wood on the ground in windrows about 8 ft high crossways to the prevailing winds in and open area and the wood dries fairly well.  I'm sure it would be even better on your mats.  I would definately do it if I had some of those mats.

[thecfarm]

swamp mats by loggers in this area. See alot of them now that they are up grading the power lines. In our area hemlock in prefered for the mats. I drove by a sawmill somewheres in my travels and saw 100's of them all ready to go.

[MDLogging]

They work great.  I had enough to pile about 100 cord on and I even put old telephone poles in the ground and used mats for a wall so wood wouldnt spill over the sides.  We eventually poured concrete because I needed a spot for more than a hundred cord.  The mats I used were what was left off a job I did and it didnt make sense to buy more mats.  But if your getting them cheap or even free I wouldnt even consider concrete.