Covering the wood pile

[mattNH]

I have neighbors who always cover and some that never cover their wood piles.  Both sides of the argument are passionate and think the other is stupid.  I sit in the middle and smile.

I attached a picture of my wood pile uncovered from last weekend.  The seasoned is now covered and the unseasoned is exposed. 

So what do you do, cover or not?   

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[levans]

I leave mine uncovered through the summer and before the winter rains and snow start I cover it with black plastic or old metal roofing, this has always worked for Me.

[clww]

I've never covered any wood piles.

[NWP]

I always tell people to leave them uncovered. Once you are using it and if it is going to rain/snow, just cover enough to keep the wood dry from the precip. so it's ready to go.

[sprucebunny]

I use the splitter to make 'shingles' out of some of the 12"+ diameter straight grained logs. They are about an inch thick. Lay them on top of the pile with a little pitch until it's time to move the pile to the porch. The wood is on 4x4 pallets.

[stumper]

I will provide some insights from Pete Lammert, now retired forester from the Maine Forest Service.  Pete is an awesome wealth of knowledge about the utilization of wood in any form and I know he heated some with wood.   The state lost a lot with his retirement. 

On the subject of covering or not.  Cover it, but the cover should be above the pile not on the pile.  The cover should keep the rain and snow off but allow the sun to heat it and the wind to blow through.  This can be done by suspending a tarp above the pile, or inj my case a wood shed with no wall coverings.

I think everyone aggrees that the wood whould be off the ground.  Pallet work as does a shed.

The other pearl of his wisdom I alway remember regarded piling.  The wood should be piled such that a mouse could run through it, but the cat chasing it could not.

Professor Richard Hill of the University of Maine has done a ton of work on heating with wood, and likely we all have some of his work in our boilers, was supportive of the "Rick" method, but I do not remember what he said about covering.

[brendonv]

My woods on pallets, stacked along the outside, fed with a conveyor into a pile in the middle.  I'll cover the top before we get snow.  You have to let the air hit the sides. 

My buddy had his wood totally covered for a year.  Boy was that wood still soaking wet the day he took the tarp off.

[Al_Smith]

Mine is on pallets also .Probabley around 16-18 cord of which I'll only use 4 or 5 all winter .It's all tarped .

If I get any wet when I move it it just gets restacked and it isn't very much .What stuff I might cut over the winter just gets stacked and not tarped .That amount just depends on the weather because I've froze my butt off all my life and have reached a point in life I don't have to any more .

Now some might like to act like they are polar bears ,not I .

[thecfarm]

I had a wood shed at my other house. None here. I use to cover my wood to keep the snow off it. Now with my OWB is not that big of a deal. But if I was bringing wood inside of a house to burn,I myself would not want snow and ice on it.

[doctorb]

I play both ends of this discussion.  I have a wood shed which surrounds my OWB on 3 sides, so the issue of covering wood there is moot.  I also stack a smaller volume of wood outside on consecutive pallets.  I leave it uncovered.  When the weather is dry during the heating season, I'll take seasoned wood from the outside pile.  When wet or snowy, the fuel comes from inside the shed.  As soon as any area within the shed (I have 5 different places to stack wood there from 2.5 - 4.5 cords each) is emptied, I replenish it.  I do all this to minimize the moving of wood.  i pefer to keep the shed as full as possible.  I obviously benefit from living in an area that does not get snow cover all winter, and that does not freeze for weeks at a time.  I would imagine that uncovered wet wood that then freezes would be a pain.

[Al_Smith]

Well yeah Doc you about have to beat on it with a hammer to get the ice off .

We get that freeze and thaw also in these parts .Every so often though it gets cold and stays cold .

Oh I know people who  just mound it up in a big heap evidently to make a home for the possums and ground hogs and occassional skunk perhaps .I prefer to stack it myself although it takes an effort of sorts .At least the largest varmit I might get is a chipmonk  but all they do is provide sport for the owls and hawks and occassional stray cat .

[yellowrosefarm]

The first year we lived out here I didn't have a firewood shed. So I covered the pile before it snowed with a blue tarp. While I was at work, the wind got up and blew the tarp off, allowing 16" of snow to cover and soak it good. I struggled the rest of the winter trying to get that wood to burn and listening to the sizzle of the water evaporating. The next summer I built a shed and that served well for the next 20 years. Then I got the OWB and needed more storage so I got the live floor wagon you can see in my other post.  The rest of the big pile gets covered with a huge tarp I got free off of C-List. It's something like 60x80 and black on one side which I keep facing up. It's also full of mouse chewed holes so it lets air circulate. The only way I would go tarpless is if I had the time and patience to make one of those stacks where every piece is standing on end. I've seen a lot of those down in SW VA and imagine the weather sheds off like a split shake roof.

[wheelinguy]

we stack all of our wood on pallets, it hasn't been covered in the past.  This always leads to having to scrape of the snow and break the blocks apart.  This year we put some tubes in the ground with the intent of building a shed to cover the pile.  Never got to the shed building, but all the free sheets of roofing tin we got are laying on the stacks.  With the little bit of weather that we have had so far this year I am already glad to have the wood covered. so long story short I would go with covered but not enclosed.

[Local4Fitter]

I stack all my wood on pallets and cover just the top with free lumber covers (black side out) that I got from the local lumber yard. Next year I will build an open sided wood shed around the boiler.

[muddstopper]

My freshly split just stays in the piles until it is dry. The dry stuff I stack under a Carolina type carport, just the roof and open on all sides. I try to keep close to two years worth stacked under the carport and it just depends on how much I can find that gets left in piles around the carport.

[shelbycharger400]

only one of my 7 + piles has a tarp on it.
Im burning stuff that isnt tarped right now. althou it did snow a bit, it isnt bad. I hate digging out firewood in deep snow.

The blue tarps basically only keep the snow off. they do very small amount as to keep water off, they leak like a sive on anything that pools in an area.

[Autocar]

I have a woodshed that holds probably three cords then I have about four cords just across the drive way from the garage. And I cover the top with black plastic. Like Al says you can have a inch of ice or wet snow froze to your wood and it becomes a pain in a hurry. If I hear on the weather we are suppose to get snow I try to cover the side that the snow is coming from. And normally if we get a northeast wind and they call for snow you better cover your woodpile  ;D

[r.man]

Besides having a foot or three of snow, crust etc on the top of your pile, if a tarp is not between that and your wood the water will have run into the pile and built up ice on the pieces as well as freezing them together. Break the wood apart and then chisel off the worst of the ice with an ax and then have it half kill your coals. In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it.

[muddstopper]

Rman, I think this sentence about sums up the whole debate.

"In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it."

If you plan on using your wood soon, why would you want it to be wet, froze, covered in snow, just before you put it in your stove. Nothing wrong in letting wood you dont intend to use right away, to be left in piles in the weather, it will season faster that way. Once seasoned and ready for use, stack it in the dry.

[Logging logginglogging]

Besides having a foot or three of snow, crust etc on the top of your pile, if a tarp is not between that and your wood the water will have run into the pile and built up ice on the pieces as well as freezing them together. Break the wood apart and then chisel off the worst of the ice with an ax and then have it half kill your coals. In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it.

Same here you must have a wood shed to have good dry efficient wood.

[Al_Smith]

Unless we get drowned with a winter rain usually the snow will only go down to maybe the first layer of wood in a stack if the tarp leaks .If it's wet like a sponge just toss it aside and get the dry .It'll dry out again then you can burn it some time .

Last winter I had a pretty good pile of bass wood which is about a poor of firewood as there is .I had been giving it away for camp fire wood .Been rained and snowed on all year .

Towards the end of the heating season it had been dry for a while and I burned a little of it when the temps were not as cold as mid winter .It did just fine believe it or not .

[proteus]

I have always stacked my wood on pallets and cover only the top with roofing paper. It gets a little messy cleaning things up in the spring, but get a lot of air flow which is critical for the drying process. I tried a tarp one year and it collected too much water. The water of course would freeze and make it difficult to get to the wood. I should have cut drain holes but didn't weant to ruin a good tarp ;D . I like to handle the wood as few times a possible so i stack it green cover it and use  it when it is ready.

[Local4Fitter]

Just came in from loading the boiler. The side of my 2400 has a sticker that says " wood should be split, covered, and allowed to season for at least 6 months. Makes sense to me.

[Al_Smith]

Well yeah that's probabley the way it should be stoked .However I've seen the larger models  fired from 40 pound chunks loaded in by the help of a skidloader .About half green but with a forced draft blower they will burn anything that will fit through the door .Chicken bones ,disposable diapers ,the neighbors cat ,you name it .

[DDDfarmer]

I thought I saw a putty cat...... :D

[r.man]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

Ironwood

[JuniperBoss]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

  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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[r.man]

JuniperBoss what species of wood do you burn?

[thecfarm]

JGL,welcome to the forum. Dry wood is important.

[WoodBurner19]

Hey Guys!   Loved stumbling upon this forum!!! I read all of your posts regarding firewood.
I have a 230 yr old Stone farm house that I heat with wood. I use a Hearthstone- Mansfield Soapstone Stove.
(I also have 2 gas furnaces) Currently have about 10 cords seasoned. I use a 6 mil plastic only covering the top layer,
pitched so water runs off. I'll use about 5-7 cords, depending on temps in central Jersey. NO ice or wet logs for me!

[Shotgun]

Welcome Woodburner,  There's lots of wood burning help here, as you can see.  Look around the forums, there's lots to see and learn from this site.  You've found the best forum on the Internet.  Lots of wood burning folks here.  We're family oriented and treat folks well.  Ask, and you be answered.

[WoodBurner19]

Thank You!

[thecfarm]

WoodBurner19,welcome to the forum.Do you have land to get your firewood off from?

[Woodsman416]

Great Site! Obviosly I'm new and just found you guys by doing a Google search while trying to find out why I couldn't get on to AS.

Funny coincidence, I live in Kingwood NJ which is only about two or three miles from Pittstown where WoodBurner19 is from.

I cut my wood the year before, stack and leave it uncovered until a couple of months before burn time. Than I cover the top of the stack with a tarp. I tie bricks onto the tarp and let them hang.  It keeps the tarp in place pretty good. I move it up to the house by the wagon load as needed.

[WoodBurner19]

Hey Cfarm! I have about 3 acres of woods & 2 acres of grass & home. I do have a few trees down from Hurricane Sandy still. I'll prob get to those this fall when the weather cools a bit. But I typically have my logger bring a load of fresh cut trees & use the grapple to boom them of in a pile. I get about 4 full cords when split, all hard wood. Some waste, but not much. I pay $150 a truck load. I lug it up & split it w my employees when we have a slow day. I'll post pics of my small operation, lol

[WoodBurner19]

Hey Woodsman!
Thats funny, I was in Kingwood this am! Were doing a siding job off Byram-Kingwood Rd. I too am glad I stumbled upon this site, I love all the different ideas that we have of getting the perfect wood,