With pics to prove it. It has been obvious to me for years that I would benefit from top covering. But I just got around to it a couple months ago , still have another 2 years worth of supply that I haven't covered yet. I have been getting acceptable results from single stacks and no covering. The biggest problem has been my sapwood. I cut mostly standing dead oak. The sapwood is usually not in the best condition when CSS'ed. 3 years later, when it rains the sapwood is a saturated mush. In the past, I'll stack on the covered porch 3 weeks minimum to let the sapwood dry out before burning. That helps a lot but 6,7,8 weeks is noticeably better. YMMV
12 hours after a weekend of rain. West side of two stacks 30' apart. The stacks are about 50' long. The top covered stacks are completely was dry on both sides.
Without a top cover on my hoard, I'd flat out be SCREWED! Some guys in different climates have luck with no covering at all......but I've found it benefits me for a number of reasons. Keeps the moisture out during the storms, keeps the stacks warmer (my covering is black rubber roofing), and it keeps leaves and debris from building up on top and in between the wood and acting like a sponge and place for bugs to fester.....
I don't mean to give you a hard time , but is you wood laying on the ground ? . I like mine up, off the ground......the higher the better. I do like to cover mine if possible.
The sheet iron was dry before squeezing the mush. Didn't realize the puddle was going to run out of sight. Heartwood is nice and solid.
Excellent question. Its on poles and/or landscape timbers. Hard to tell with the leaves blown against it.
East side of a third stack. Water is defiantly flowing off the right end of the sheet iron, not onto the stack. Top covered is dry, water 2/3 down the uncovered.
With the hillbilly solar kiln as an exception, My stacks get covered (hopefully) before the rains start and most definitely before the snow starts. With a minimum of 200" annual snowfall, it pays to cover before winter. If I had a wood shed, the stacks would be covered all the time! (sorta) I understand that if the terrain you live in is flat wide open null of trees and with sustained winds, it would seem pointless to cover.
I am leaning towards only top covering during leaf drop and the 6 month period prior to burning a stack. Anyone out there doing this and having good results? I like the idea of top covering, but right now I don't have a good material for it; the rubber roofing and metal roofing options are out for me because they are just too expensive for the amount of wood I need to cover (150 feet long by 42 inches wide - double stacked rows on pallets). I am using tarps for what I am currently covering and not thrilled with these.
2.5 to 3 years in the uncovered stacks, then into the shed after we've had at least a week of warm, sunny weather, then into the shed. I shoot for no later than August to fill the shed. Any longer in the stacks uncovered and even Oak starts going a little south. Everything else is out there about 1.5 years.....maybe 2 before going into the shed.
To cover or not , I see lots of different opinions and I'll share my 2 cents although it's probably worth less than that! I think where you live and climate is the big reason to cover or not. I've never been on the west coast or to Alaska but I would assume those climates probably are alot different than central MI. My wood is stacked in rows outside until needed. I have some cherry, oak, ash, hickory, locust, ironwood, maple , ( basically all the local flavors ) that has been outside uncovered for 7 plus years. I was just out yesterday splitting some oak and did take time to look over the wood stacks ( wife thinks I'm nuts just walking around looking at my hard work) and you would never be able to tell how long those older rows have been there. All solid wood! I do wait till June or later but before snow for a good stretch of rain free days. Then I will start filling the round barn if it's needed for the coming winter. It holds 2-3 years worth so it's a every other year thing. I'm pushing 10 years ahead so I hope that wood is still good down the road !
That's excellent. I had some Oak poles in the ground for a few years and when I pulled 'em up and cut 'em up, they were still mostly solid. Other stuff that was css and left uncovered for about 3 years started punkifying.
Papa, my round barn in the avatar has white oak 4/4 board and batten siding . The oak siding does have some ground contact but no punk/rot at all. I built the barn about 15 years ago? Never sealed or applied any chemicals / paint to the oak at all. Amazing how rot resistant white oak is.
This windoze 8.1 platform is driving me insane it won't let me just up load stuff and when I try to download pics to my desktop so I can up load to this forum it gives me nothing but grief. XP was the best.F^*% 8.1 Sorry for not posting the pic.
Wife's PC runs windows 8. I am on a windows 7 version and see no reason I would want to "upgrade" to that POS windows 8. I have been the official "tech support" in our house since DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1 but no way am I ready to tackle the windows 8 POS. When she has trouble with it, as she does, I basically tell her "so sorry".
