I plan on building a drying shed, closed on three sides with the front open for loading and unloading. Typical what most use. My question is, does it matter which way the open side faces? Our prevailing wind in from the SW. is there a direction you definitely do not want to face it?
I think it would be a better idea to keep all sides open like a pole barn. I know someone who had a three sided shed and couldn't get sufficient airflow and has to runs fans 24/7.
Mine is open 4 sides.
The main thing is that it be on pavement or otherwise flat, hard ground. Whatever the ground looks like, the wood will form to.
As YH said, open is best. IMHO long side into the prevailing breeze and 20' wide is enough... you don't want timber in there more than about 4 packs deep or it impedes air flow + enough overhang that it mostly keeps the rain out.
Theres a rule of thumb says you shouldn't stack timber more than 4 X the width of any pack for stability, so if your packs are mostly 4' wide then you can safely stack 16' high. So 20' to the roof at the gable ends is sensible... you need to be able to get that top pack up there without worrying about the guttering.
Cantilever design would be nice.... no posts in the way *swoon*
And site it so you can just keep adding on lengthwise as required.
I put up a 24x40 car port with open sides and it's worked out very well. Has 12' sidewalls with about a 15' peak in the center. I later added a framed lean-to to either side which helps keep the sun and rain out (as well as extra storage). I try to keep the lumber stacks towards the center so they're not too close to the open ends (sun and rain again).
At the time (3 years ago) it was just over $6k installed. Cheaper than I could have built something myself.
Alan
Another consideration for open-sided is that you can use shade cloth to control sun and rain exposure while still getting decent air flow. I use 30% shade cloth on the north and east side, 80% shade cloth on the west and south sides. This is standard pallet racking with a custom built roof.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/19572/TTS_AD_Rack_with_shade_cloth.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1540917603)
I'm in the process of taking down three high tunnel hoop buildings from a plant nursery. They're 25 x 48' x12' high and I intend to use one or two for drying sheds.
I'm planning on leaving the ends open (maybe add shade cloth) and the roof cover up maybe 5' on the sides. Got them for $700 ea, which I thought was reasonable.
Ok, you've convinced me. Open all sides. The west side (back of the shed) will be against a tree line so not much if any sun in the afternoon. The building(s) will be North to South length wise and East to West width wise. The East side (front) will be wide open space. Morning sun until it gets high enough before the roof starts to shade. Does morning sun when low in the sky cause wood to dry too quickly?
meh don't worry too much about sun. Sun can be a problem in the first few weeks but once the free water is gone it isn't likely to result in major degrade. It's airflow/ wind that dries timber, and too much of that early in the drying cycle can be a major problem.
Rain is more a concern with fungal issues than drying too... getting a few spots on it wont make much difference so long as there's airflow. A wet wind will still dry wood.
One of the secrets is to learn how to rotate your stacks. You want your wettest packs on the downwind side at the bottom, and the driest packs to windward at the top. That way the wind blowing through picks up moisture as it goes..... wind blowing through wet packs to dry ones just stalls drying in the dry ones. And the weight of multile packs atop them stops the greenest ones moving around so much.