Hello All, I am also a new OWB user. We live in the western maine foothills, recently installed and fired a Heatmaster G-200 Gassifier. So far really happy with the unit. My question, actually has nothing to do with the boiler, but I need some ideas on a wood shed.
Currently all of my wood is stored on pallets that I built sides on, I have a tractor with forks that I move them around with. I want to build a shed to partially conceal the boiler, while attractive it is more or less in the middle of my lawn, plus I want my wood to be under cover better and have a dry floor and covered place to load wood and what not.
My struggle is concerning the size of the wood shed, I have two thoughts:
1) build a shed big enough to hold one months supply, and cover the first foot or so of the boiler. Keep my wood on pallets and make the shed large enough or rather tall enough to drive the tractor part way in to place pallets in. Easy enough to move them around when empty, and load new. Still only manually handling the wood twice. Still would have to maintain good coverage on the wood in storage with tarps etc, plus mud-season would require a little more planning. But if you filled it up in late march, assuming the supply is good, I would likely be done with the boiler by mid-april if not sooner.
2) Build a much larger shed, and try to get a full seasons' supply in there. I am estimating around 8 cord to heat the house, so the shed would be pretty big. Due to that might be a bit large in the yard. Plus with the pallets I cannot stack wood too high, so I would need to come up with some other way to rotate the wood. (you've probably seen the "railroad track," thing on youtube that a guy made, super slick.
I am leaning on the smaller shed, with making more mobile racks. But I would love to hear people's thoughts on what they would do. I like the racks though, right off the splitter and onto a rack. Then I can move them around as I like.
The house i just bought came with a pretty good size wood shed. Id call it a small barn actually. Ive said that with an OWB you can never have too much wood. The wood will dry/season better outside on pallets. Im have about 3 face cords outside now on pallets with just the top covered with plastic.
My personal oppinion would be to build a big enough shed for wood for the entire season. Thats what i have and i love it. Fill that shed to the brim with dry wood and stack some outside for next year. Better to get ahead.
Sounds like you like the small shed idea. If a large shed would look out of place,than a small one will do it. I wonder if you could get some old steel roofing to cover your wood pallets some place else. You have a big tractor,must have room away from the house,kinda out of sight to do it?
I am planing something too. I am tired of the tarp that covers the wood when it snows.
Mine is 12 X20 with a 9 foot wide slider on the side and an 8 foot wide double door on the end. My wood stove front sits inside the building. After I built it I saw the amish south of me built theirs with the stove front sitting outside the nd by about 2 to 3 foot and built a roof out to the stove. This will let whatever smoke comes out when you open the door to escape. Mine gets kind of smokey sometimes. If I still had my saw mill I would add on to the one side so that I would have a 24 wide 20 foot long building
Thanks for the ideas. I won't completely tie in the boiler, so whatever I do, there would be a sizeable air gap above the stove so that smoke could escape. I may tie the sides in a big though so that it will block the wind and cut down on snow drifts.
I also plan not to put any doors or sides at all on the shed, that way plenty of air is moving around, of course this is a summer time project, so it will likely change four times before then... hahaha
CFFarm, just by your neck of the woods the other day. Having Davco rebuild the tranny top cover for my skidder. I love that place.
I have a few ideas. I think I want it about 12 feet high. I want to be able to dump my wood in the shed with my loader. I split my wood and I put it in the loader of my tractor. Yes,that will take more room,but less time handling the wood. I will build interior walls,leave a foot space on the bottom and leave about an inch space between each board. The space on the bottom will allow me to clean out any bark that gathers there. I doubt I will have boards all the way to the top. The inside boards are just to keep the wood from rolling down and hitting the outside wall.
I will have a hood over the door so the smoke will vent outside. But I like the setback idea too.
Since I did not use the correct pipe on my installation and lose some heat,I will have a small greenhouse on the back side of the shed. We might be able to grow greens all winter.
Than I want a narrow nut and bolt shed on each side of the shed. This will start on the 12 foot high and then go down to about 6 feet. I am thinking that might give me 2 shelves 2 feet wide and a 3 foot place for me to walk??
I drive by Davco quite often. He should be a sponsor on here.
Just a word of caution- check with your homeowners insurance and make sure they won't have a fit about having a shed too close to the OWB. I found this out the hard way >:(
My brother found out to . some one shoveled the ashes out of the OWB and left then in a wheel barrow wind blew a spark into his woodshed . Had to bring a foam truck form the airport to put it out . My small woodshed ( one cord ) is 20 feet from the boiler and has steel side and roof ends open face N & S boiler is W . The big one is 12 X 34 holds over 30 cords and is 6 feet from full .( 2 + years )
If you are going to leave the sides open I would look into one of those steel carports. It will be cheaper than a wood building and it is metal and the company installs them.
installing my 750 OWB now. here is my install thread
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,92218.msg1419412.html#top
I am planning a 25x16 shed with metal roof. also have planned a hot tub and greenhouse
plan to use a car or truck radiator for the greenhouse with a squirrel cage fan.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20176/FullSizeRender-7~0.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1428101127)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20176/FullSizeRender~2.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1428101215)
I have a converted three stall side barn / shed into which I placed my OWB years ago. Completely open on one side.
This has been an excellent arrangement for me. sorry about the dark photo. Windows at the back wall provide through and through ventilation. I use my outside wood stacks when the weather is dry, and my covered ones in the shed when it's wet. Shed can hold about 16 cords when full.
Oh, and cleanout ashes ALWAYS are shoveled directly into a metal trash can! Don't do cleanouts when the wind is up.
X2 doctorb on the wind . In the winter I just dump them in the snow and the plow takes care of them . Also I carry a 5 pail of ashes in my plow truck saved me 3 times this last snow .
Thats a great looking barn/woodshed there, awesome that you have that much room. I don't want to do something quite that large, but a nice dry area, and plenty of storage right near it would be great. Definitely want cover over our heads when loading, and at the very least a month's supply of wood. The more I think though, might be best to make it big enough to last the full year.
Thank you so much everyone
Quote from: mf40diesel on November 21, 2016, 06:25:45 PM
.............make it big enough to last the full year..........
best idea
Obviously, the amount of room each of us can devote to wood storage differs. I would opine that your shed should ideally hold at least a single winter's supply of wood. Here's a couple of pics of my outside stacks....
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20176/FullSizeRender-8~0.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1428101091)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20176/FullSizeRender-9.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1428101020)
They are directly in front of the shed and, as you can see, have one stack that's being used and one stack of green wood that will wait until another year. Don't forget beenthere's creed, "Oak takes 2 years to season."
I only like to stack wood only once, so I keep the inside full, remembering what is unseasoned and which sections are ready to go. And I use to outside stacks when the weather is dry. Has worked well for me.
Man, you've got a lot of wood in the set back area.
I really don't like stacking wood more than once, which is why I have been thoroughly enjoying the pallets (or at least some moveable racks) as I can go directly from the splitter to a rack. The tractor loves moving things multiple times haha.
As long as they are covered that doesn't seem like a big deal to me (whether with tarps or something else) We have plenty of space to build the wood shed, I am just concerned that a great big shed will look a little silly in our front yard.
Placement of the boiler had to be more or less where we placed it, if I had put it on the other side it would have spoiled our view of the mountains, and the other way would have demanded a ton more underground work.
Yes. I have a lot of wood. I have enough, and often a bit more, for two years. My e-2300 likes dry wood.
MF40diesel I like you don't like handling wood. I burn 10 to 15 cords a year in my Garn depends on the winter. We use it year around to heat our water. One thing I have learned over the years when building sheds is to make them a big as space and money allows as they always fill up. I am lucky as I have nice pole sheds and store a years worth of wood on dump trailers that I have aquired over years some were build from old dump trucks and some were bought as a projects some one had started. My garn sets in my 60 by 120 shed in another shed and has about one cord storage in there. Normally I just unload out the trailer right in to the Garn. I have a sliding door on the garn barn and can unload to the Garn or to the racks. It is nice to be inside out of the weather when loading and firing the Garn.
Here is the back end of my wood shed as I finish filling it for this year. Center part is 12 feet wide with a 12ft. high door. Over all length is 32ft. and wide enough to store the elevator under roof as well as a plow and bush hog.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/43757/image.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1475541099)
plan to do the same with my Multitek 1610EZ
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/27421/1610_ez_-_side_-_Passenger_Rear.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1480025181)
photo was taken where i purchased it