Fire wood shed

[SLawyer Dave]

Pretty much whatever I can get.  I have an original 1910 natural gas homebuilt floor furnace that I haven't even tried to run in the last decade.  All of my heat comes from our woodstove.  I live in an area that has several large residential areas, as well as many thousands of acres of fruit and nut trees, with thousands more acres of farm and range land, all bordered by mixed deciduous and evergreen forests.  We also have had a series of federal, state and private tree farms and experimental tree gardens over the last 100+ years in the area, that have brought in trees from around the world.  Many of these non-native trees have been extensively cultivated in the area since.  So we probably have more variety in types of trees planted within 50 miles of me than just about anywhere in the U.S. 

I put ads on craigslist looking for people who have downed trees, or trees they want removed, and that is where I get the bulk of my wood.  Usual suspects are oak, (black, blue, valley, tan, live), eucalyptus, ash, walnut, almond, cedar and pine.  I have also burned a lot of madrone, olive, elm, mulberry, catalpa, maple, sycamore, and privet.  The eucalyptus is the hottest, (btu) burning firewood around, (even better than manzanita), and leaves a lot less ash due to its high burning point.  The oak and almond tend to be your longest burning high heat wood.  I know many don't like burning pine, but I love it for starting a fire, as you don't even need kindling, just a couple of pieces of paper and it burns nice and hot.  The rest tend to fall somewhere between pine and oak, giving varying lengths of burn and heat.   So while I stack the wood in the order I cut and split it, (so I generally will end up with clusters of different species), I generally will pull from several locations along the row so that I can get a good mix of wood in the covered shed.  This allows me to build the fire with quick and hot burning pine, which will quickly heat my house and then serve to keep a hot fire going with the other types of wood.   I especially like the oak and almond for burning overnight, as with the air turned down on my wood stove, they will burn all night long and leave me good coals in the morning, (which means my wife doesn't kick me out of bed in the middle of the night to add more wood to the fire).  =)

The other reason I don't want to store wood for long periods of time inside a shelter is because you are much more likely to create a wood destroying pest infestation, with the beetles, termites, etc., transferring from the firewood to the structure.  I saw that happen way too many times while I was working as a state licensed structural pest inspector.  While you may not think much of beetles or drywood termites infesting a small and cheap wooden structure, once they get established there, it is that much more likely that they will infest your house.  Most of these types of wood destroying pests can only be totally eradicated by tenting the house and fumigating it.  This can costs tens of thousands of dollars, so I generally don't recommend that any wood be kept inside any structure for more than a few months.

Hope this info helps.

[CTL logger]

This is my wood shed it is a 24x24 ft building with slat sides just got stock trusses at lumber yard put them 4' on center and metal roofing.

  

  

  

 

[thecfarm]

Nice building,cement floor and all. I would like to do something for my OWB too. Nothing as big as that,just don't really have the room out back like that. I kinda plan on making a hood,vent for the smoke to go out into. I have a light on mine that I turn on so the blowers won't come on when I'm feeding it. I want to hook up a box fan to the switch too.This way any smoke will go up into the hood and vent it outside. I hope.

[doctorb]

Very nice facility.  Very nice, indeed!

[CTL logger]

Thanks guys it took a few years to get to this point, I cemented half the floor at a time when time and funds would allow I've never had it full at once but it will hold 40 face cord. I want to ad a hood to push the smoke out but haven't got to it yet. 

[doctorb]

I would think that all you would need is an exhaust fan up toward the point of those eaves in the wall behind the OWB.  Ad a protective outside louvered cover and you're good to go with the smoke.

[thecfarm]

I'm just more concerned about everything turning black over the years. I just want to keep it looking good. Not enough smoke to make it bad for me inside.

[buckgrunt]

This is very similar to my set up.  My CB Dealer came to visit me last year and upon seeing my shed, he scolded me regarding enclosing the furnace inside a shed. He has heard of several OWB owners accidentally setting fire to their sheds from embers ending up on combustible material.  He does have a point, but just be careful.

[CTL logger]

This is very similar to my set up.  My CB Dealer came to visit me last year and upon seeing my shed, he scolded me regarding enclosing the furnace inside a shed. He has heard of several OWB owners accidentally setting fire to their sheds from embers ending up on combustible material.  He does have a point, but just be careful.

I suppose your dealer really wouldn't like the CB at my shop we took the roof off and slid it mostly inside the building, been this way for 11 years haven't had any issues yet. The floor in the woodshed is heated and helps dry the wood, we never cut wood til fall and it burns great. Put the smoke hood over it with fan and it pulls most of the smoke outside.

  

 

[thecfarm]

That will shut up the nay sayers about going outside to fill an OWB.  :D And a heated woodshed floor too. Nice looking hood. Mine won't look that good,but the same idea.

[CTL logger]

That will shut up the nay sayers about going outside to fill an OWB.  :D And a heated woodshed floor too. Nice looking hood. Mine won't look that good,but the same idea.

Thank you I had a local sheet metal shop make it I think it cost 75 bucks had a cheaper fan that melted some parts in it first then put in a barn style with all metal parts and it's been going strong for 9 years. It is great I've never shoveled snow or had froze together wood and my insurance company looked at it and have no issues with it.

[thecfarm]

Melted some of the plastic parts,    so my box fan might not work.  :(

[CTL logger]

Melted some of the plastic parts,  :o  so my box fan might not work.  :(

I'm going to say no. I think we had a heavy duty exhaust fan for a kitchen or large bathroom it had a nice steel hood but the plastic parts didn't make it too long. A steel blade is needed.

[thecfarm]

Guess I better start looking for one. Maybe a fan inside the exhaust pipe might do it too. One of those 6-8 inch round fans made for moving air.

[Engineer]

My Wood Shed.  This photo is a few years old, I've since replaced the pallets on the sides with vertical boards on the outside, and centered the posts on the blocks a little better by relocating the blocks.  It's 8 x 16 and holds about six cords head high.  I'm building another one this spring as I just ran out last weekend and it only lasted since November 1.



 

[John Mc]

Hey, engineer, is that shed just sitting up on the blocks, or do you have some of the posts sunk into the ground or otherwise fastened in place?

[gearman]

Bigger is better, I built 16x36 and wish I had gone 24x36.  I burn about 10-12 pulp cord/season. CB 6048.  I used green cedar boards as siding and 4x4 treated posts for support.  Would have used 6x6 posts, but the added weight (just the wife and I building this) made them difficult.  It was easier to add a few more posts.  If you have extra space, it will soon be filled with you plow blade, brush hog, skidding winch, tiller, etc.  I used a barn door track and can cover 2 of my 3 bays at any time.  I was worried about blowing snow, but have not had any problems with one bay being open to weather.  Open eaves and about 1 foot air space at ground level.

[John Mc]

Never enough space. 

I built a lean-to out of green hemlock off the back of my garage/barn about 5 years ago, thinking it would be firewood storage. I burn less than 3 cords/year (woodstove is my primary heat), so I figured storage for 6+ cords or so would be plenty.  Of course, the lawnmower and other miscellaneous stuff has taken up almost half the space since day one, and my wife and kids end up eyeing the rest of it each spring as the wood pile shrinks (my incentive to stay ahead on firewood).

One of these days, I'll build something else, and let this lean-to become equipment storage

[Engineer]

John Mc, the shed is just sitting on the blocks.  It's self-supporting, built out of 4x4 and 5x5 timbers I sawed on my old WoodMizer.  It can be picked up and moved if necessary.