Covering the wood pile

r.man · November 28, 2012, 07:40:14 PM

Al, most of the oldtimers around here would have some poplar or other lighter wood for a quick short burst of heat on days when the afternoon is warm. This would take the chill off the house without leaving a coal bed that would necessitate the opening of doors. One farmer I knew processed any poplar that fell on his land to use this way and to boil all of his sap in the spring. Waste not want not.

Al_Smith · November 29, 2012, 02:10:10 PM

Well yeah all wood burns and produces BTU's some is just better at it .

Years ago I worked with a man who just had a fireplace ,more for ambiance than heat .He brought back old maple bowling pins from his sons father in laws bowling alley by the trunk fulls .You'd just have to know George is all I can say .

He's also the same guy that had me up in a maple tree three different times doing a trim job after he said he was pleased with it the other two times .Which BTW was the last I ever climbed that tree or any others he had .I'm a nice guy just not that nice . ;)

Handymark · December 02, 2012, 07:24:44 PM

Where is the logic in seasoning firewood only to throw it in the furnace soaking wet or covered in snow and ice? One might as well cut it off the log and load it in the boiler.

Ironwood · December 02, 2012, 08:48:49 PM

In summer there is enough heat, sunlight and breezes to keep things heading in the right direction (drying) but by late Fall the moisture that falls takes ALOT longer to evaporate off and hence do ANY drying, so I would "cover" it at that point. I handle it as little as possible, from the pile to a 1.25 cord steel pallet with a couple homebuilt (modified) tin roofs, then cart it wherever it is needed (house or shop). I need to get the "top" on a few more bases I here.

Ironwood

Handymark · December 03, 2012, 09:00:34 PM

I built a similar covered pallet out of wood. If I could come up with enough steel my goal would be to have a years worth sitting out in the sunny pasture and bring them up to the owb as needed.

Ironwood · December 03, 2012, 10:23:31 PM

Ya know I almost hate to say this but just a little wet is ok for me. I keep my chimneys very clean and like a little slower burn, so I want it NOT hissing, but not over dry either....so it gets a little longer burn, at least in my shop stove.

Ironwood

thecfarm · December 04, 2012, 07:41:09 AM

I have an OWB,so I built a trailer to put my wood on. I was going to build about 4-5 and put my wood on them,each might hold a cord. But I'm still kinda cutting close to the house and bring my wood up behind the house and saw it up there and put it in the loader and dump it by the OWB. Than I have some up in the wood yard and I wait for snow and pack down the road and than I drag it up by the house and do the same thing with the loader.
I saw what I felt was a good idea the other day. Looked like a stacked 4 foot wide pile of split wood. They stacked it about 4-5 feet tall and on top they stacked it to form a shape of a roof. Than took a tarp and covered it up and took a few boards and ran the boards along the edge of the tarp and nailed-screwed them to the firewood. This gave it a good pitch and it looked like the snow and water would not stay on it.

petefrom bearswamp · December 06, 2012, 04:56:04 PM

I keep at least 3 years ahead on wood.
Paranoid perhaps, but at age 75 if i get infirm my wife can still burn wood until it's gone
This is 2 years worth in my 18X20 woodshed and another years outside uncovered cut in the spring and brought in the following early summer.
My wood has been 99 percent Ash for the past 4 years with about 2 to go.
this is from tops when I sold my ash in a panic about the EAB.
I have supplied my needs as well as my son's and a friend who helps at the mill.
Will get back on my woodland improvement program removing diseased and inferior trees after the ash is gone, health permitting.

Ironwood · December 06, 2012, 07:02:40 PM

Pete,

Hope you are well. Good for you three years out

Although I might have that much here for my shop as I just split about 6-7 cords of debris logs that had piled up over the years. Good to have it all "processed" I did tarp it with rubber roofing at the top. Only thing I didnt do that I should have was to lay pallets down at the bottom. I only burn "as needed" at the shop, house has NG and is very efficient, I would love to have a big BIG pit to dump whole logs into to burn. My buddy in Jersey has one, the pit is 8-10' deep and 6' diameter. The lid is steel and he lifts it off to load by excavator, and then replaces lid. The heat exchanger is in the flue of the chimney and once he ignites it in fall it doesnt stop until spring. It is quite impressive, he charges local tree services a tipping fee to boot... SMART guy..

thecfarm · December 06, 2012, 09:06:36 PM

Ironwood,That sounds like what I need.You guys talk alot about tree sevices. I have no idea where there are any in this area. When I was working,about 45 minutes from here,there was one. I use to get bark from them for free,but never saw any wood there.Than one day it was up for sale and they was gone. No idea where. Would be easier to burn someone else's wood than my own.

Ironwood · December 09, 2012, 10:43:05 PM

The system is COOL. It takes HUGE pieces, no splitting, and can burn green (so much heat) I swear you could incernerate a body in that pit. Mass of glowing coals, no/to little smoke AND they pay him :D So neat.....

ironwood

r.man · December 16, 2012, 08:44:52 AM

Pete, a friend of mine has 5 years of wood on hand and I finally thought it through myself and decided that it was a very good idea. Most people get to the point that they can't process the wood but can still burn it. When my friend reaches that point he can still burn wood for 5 years without the extra cost or hassle of having to deal with someone else. And I think overall he likes doing it.

petefrom bearswamp · December 16, 2012, 09:24:27 AM

I'll stick to 3 years worth as when my son and i are finished by late May or early June in getting the job done it leaves me more time to run the mill and tend to my woods.
When I can no longer process enough for me My son and grandson will take over this delightful chore.
So far this year i have only burned from my outdoor piles leaving the woodshed full.

brendonv · December 21, 2012, 09:53:36 AM

My problem this week is keeping the tarp on the firewood. Yesterday we split some more wood and covered it all nice, woke up this morning again with no tarp. Real PITA.

Ironwood · December 21, 2012, 09:04:31 PM

I use ALOT of old rubber roofing here, then put some logs on it, holds well.

Ironwood

JuniperBoss · January 06, 2013, 10:11:19 PM

I sure do cover my firewood. But, I think it's completely useless to cover the stuff ALL THE TIME. I leave all my rounds up in the woods where I cut them. They don't dry real fast laying on the ground, but I think that's ok. When they get to be pretty dry and cracked, I load em' up and take em' to the shed. They either get split right away or I leave them there to dry a bit longer before I whack em' with an axe. All the split stuff is put in the shed. Right now there is only about 2/3 of a cord in the shed that's split. When it's gone I'll start stacking it nice and pretty:).

JohnW · January 06, 2013, 10:47:01 PM

Quote from: brendonv on December 21, 2012, 09:53:36 AM
My problem this week is keeping the tarp on the firewood. Yesterday we split some more wood and covered it all nice, woke up this morning again with no tarp. Real PITA.

To keep the plastic (or tarp) on, I saw it in a magazine, tie two gallon jugs together with 3' or 4' of cord (rope, string, wire, whatever) and hang it over the wood pile. Put a pair of jugs every 8' or so, and I'm sure it will keep the plastic on. A picture's really worth a 1000 words here, I'm having a little trouble with the description.

beenthere · January 06, 2013, 11:15:33 PM

I just toss a few pieces of split firewood on the tarp (mine are of rubber roofing) and don't let the tarp hang over the sides. Seldom need to adjust them after a wind, but sometimes it happens.

Peter Drouin · January 11, 2013, 07:00:29 AM

For me I don't cover my wood at all. I cut and split and stack it, and then in aug or september when we have no rain for 2 weeks it all gos in the wood shed. about 8 cords. works good,in the spring when I cleen the chimney I have one pale of ash to cleen out, I have dun that for over 45 years and have good luck.
I just started my new pile to day for next winter

gspren · January 11, 2013, 04:30:06 PM

Quote from: Peter Drouin on January 11, 2013, 07:00:29 AM
For me I don't cover my wood at all. I cut and split and stack it, and then in aug or september when we have no rain for 2 weeks it all gos in the wood shed. about 8 cords. works good,in the spring when I cleen the chimney I have one pale of ash to cleen out, I have dun that for over 45 years and have good luck.
I just started my new pile to day for next winter

If your wood shed has a roof then you DO cover it.

Peter Drouin · January 11, 2013, 08:39:22 PM

If your wood shed has a roof then you DO cover it.
[/quote]

:D :D :D :D :D
gspren your wright
at 7.30 this moring Im thinking what you all did with the wood before it went IN the wood shed,Thats what I did today, was going to cut some cherry but looking at it this moring . Im thinking fire wood :D

forest · January 12, 2013, 07:44:35 PM

I vote for the three year supply of cured wood, and a pole shed with a good roof and good air drainage. If I have to store wood outside of the woodshed I use six mill plastic that laps the sides of the pile a couple of feet. It is kept off the ground and the sides are left open for good air flow. The wood is always split before it is piled. Some woods such as birch (rots if not split), poplar (which doesn't dry) if not split. Other wood such as black ash needs a couple of years to cure properly. Losing a quarter of the heat just to dry the wood before it can burn seems to me a real waste of my energy which is limited just north of 65.

JuniperBoss · January 12, 2013, 08:56:58 PM

Forest, you said "a pole shed with a good roof and good air drainage". What does "good air drainage" mean? Of course we all want our wood to dry nicely and stay dry, but why would you want the air to "drain" out of the shed? I assume you just mean that it has open spaces for outside air to come in and keep the wood dry. That makes sense. You want air to both come in and out, and to circulate around the pile, so that no water stays in the wood and no mold grows on it.
I do like your set-up. Once I get more wood I'm going to do exactly what you do, except I'll just use some scrap metal roofing instead of plastic.

Al_Smith · January 12, 2013, 09:22:14 PM

Like I said before most of what I burn is covered . It just so happened that evidently I had forgotten I had stacked about two face cords of soft maple in front of a 7 cord pile of good oak .It also just happened my tarp was just a tad shy of properly covering it .

Just today when I moved in my third face cord of wood which is all oak this time I can finally have perfectly dry wood .Plus it's oak not that danged maple .

JGL · September 28, 2013, 09:03:31 PM

I've being cutting firewood for the 30 years, there is nothing any simpler than to get your wood to dry for the winter. Try to cut it at least 6 months ahead, cut to whatever lenght you need,split, and stack bark facing up on pallets, cover top with canvas or plastic to stop rain to soak. I put my pallets on old cinder blocks so that air flows at the bottom and the pallets won't rot out. This procedure has worked for me for all these years.