I've got some of each going right now mainly because I'm out of covering material. I have My wood stacked in a mowed area a decent distance from any trees with roughly 85% sun on it all day and predominate wind blowing through. I stack single rows with 2 ft between them.(Just enough room to shimmy in and straighten a leaning stack if needed.) My plan is to have it covered for 2 summers before burning.
Stopped by a local lumber store and now have permission to dumpster dive for lumber wrap. This piece appears to be 10 feet by 6 feet. If I crown my stacks slightly, it should be the perfect width to keep the top covered and allow water to runoff without any pooling. Here is the one I got today.
Lumber wrap is some tough stuff. Has to withstand open rail cars and being trucked around the nation. Staple it down good and it should give years of trouble free use. Great idea. Some of it should be much longer, if a person needed it. From 28' lumber and ~48' I joist, LVL's and such.
I actually use lumber wrap myself. My old man works at a lumber yard so I have an unlimited supply of lumber wrap and kindling (cut offs and lathe strip/lumber separators). Its the best I've come across so far.
I wasn't sold on the stuff until my local lumberyard delivered some 2x4's to me and covered it with a chunk of this. Owner of the yard told me I could have as much as I wanted.
Around here, off the ground, in the sun and wind, and top covered is the way to go... Some free pallets, scrap 2x4's and some roof tin scavenged from the dump. I made a couple with clear plastic roofs too.
I've been touting the benefits of used lumber wrap for years, it's good to see others are finally starting to use it. I cringe when I see people actually going out and paying for those cheap blue and orange tarps to cover their firewood. Pretty much all my firewood goes directly into my woodshed now, so I don't actually need any tops covers for that anymore, but I still use lumber wrap material all the time for my stucco business. When picking up a load of sand in the pick up I lay lumber wrap in the pick up bed first to facilitate removing the sand after and keeping the truck bed cleaner. I'll also lay some lumber wrap on the ground to keep a separation barrier between the dirt and rocks on the ground and the clean sand pile on top, and if the sand pile is gona be there for a while I like to top cover it to keep leaves and cats out of the sand. Also lumber wrap makes a great drop sheet to cover sidewalks and decks and what not to keep them clean while working. I'll also use lumber wrap to mask off large windows and doors to keep them clean. It can also be used to cover bags of cement material to keep them dry. I've also used lumber wrap in place of landscaping fabric to keep weeds from growing through bark mulch or rocks in landscaping applications. I'm sure I've saved thousands of dollars over the years substituting free used lumber wrap on just tarps, drop sheets, masking material, and landscaping fabric alone, not to mention the many other uses I've found for it over the years. You just can't beat the price.
Hey ErikR, really like that 2nd picture. I don't have a good place to build a wood shed close to my house, so I kind of like what you are doing for storage. I hope to build a one cord bin in the garage so I can move my wood from the stacks to the garage as needed. Those look tightly stacked. How long do you season your wood in those?
I like your setup there. On order of preference, I guess I would choose my top covering in this order: 1) wood shed with metal roof, 2) metal like you have 3) rubber roofing 4) lumber wrap. My tastes say 1, my budget says 4
HarvestMan, The 2 large bins hold about 1 cord + - each. One is 7'4" x 4' and the other is 8' x 4' . Both have the wood stacked a bit more than 4' high. I set 2 similar pallets on small concrete blocks. I used carriage bolts to bolt 2 pallets together and bolted the uprights on the 4 corners. Both are loaded with 3 rows of 16" long splits. I think both of those have wood in them that's 2 years old. I'm fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of dead standing and wind fallen oak and maple. Most everything is pretty much ready to burn in a year or two. I also have a 19' rack in the garage. The wood is dry and the cats hunt down any 4 legged creatures. I've never had a problem with 6 or 8 legged ones either.
