Giving up on pallets for storage...building a open face storage Hut

I stack on pallets, but do three pallets in a row, with two rows the length of the pallets and the ends cribbed. The pallets sit on three treated landscape timbers, (I buy the crooked ones when they're for sale cheap)
I place a pallet vertically between the rows at the ends, to keep the stacks from falling, and top cover with a sheet of steel roofing weighted down with more splits.
The uglies go between the stacks.
I stack the wood so it is a few inches above the center pallets, when the roofing touches the pallets the wood is dry enough to burn.
My son moves the wood to our unheated sun porch and fills the ring shaped rack, which is about one days burning. If the sun is out most of the snow melts off here.
If the wood is still wet, we bake it on a hearth grate sitting on top of the stove.
Last year I only had green wood, we made it just fine by baking the next load of wood on top of the stove. 4 hours at 200* meant that the wood lit instantly when thrown into the stove and the house smelled great, like baking maple.

 

I built a "convertible" shed a hundred bucks at a time, total cost was 6 to 8 hundred clams over 3 years.. the bunker tarps roll up and down, I have installed a metal roof since these pics,,

 

Love it. Let me know when you are coming over to build one like it on my property.

 

My 'primary' wood shed is the one in my avatar picture to the left. It is 8' deep by 16' wide and holds about 6 cords when stacked full to the rafters. The bottom is lined with hardwood pallets. I just finished filling it last weekend and it is ready for the winter. I try not to touch it until we get some decent snowfall or at least freezing weather, as 6 cords does not hold me all winter and I usually run out in late March. Until early December, I burn junk wood - old pallets, chunks and uglies, knotty stuff that doesn't fit in the stacks well, pine, punky stuff etc. If it will burn it goes in. Someday when I get a gasifier boiler, I will have to stop that practice, and I know that it should all be seasoned and dry anyway.

My other shed (need to take and post photos) is 16' x 16' and consists of six black locust posts, each about 6" diameter, set 5' in the ground and 10' tall. I built a roof structure on the poles with rough-sawn lumber and metal roofing. It has no sides, so it's basically a big wood-and-metal cover for the wood stacks. I built it last year but the only thing it's stored so far is my tractor and a pallet full of apple logs. It should hold 12 cords stacked 6' tall. I am just beginning to fill it now for 2017-2018. I have found that a year's worth of covered drying in my smaller shed, even with species like white oak and locust, is enough to get the wood nice and dry to burn. I don't use a moisture meter, I use a 'clink test' - if the wood goes 'clink' and not 'clunk' it's dry. Weight, visual appearance (end checks, etc.) all are good indicators of drying as well. As long as I keep the wood split into relatively small pieces, off the ground on pallets, under a roof, they will be dry enough to burn within a year. Oak may be an exception but I don't have a lot of it nor do I have a lot of experience drying it.

I made the mistake of leaving a bunch of ash and silver maple on the ground last year, in a big pile of cut rounds. Figured that they would start to dry until I could split them. I am here to tell you that unless your rounds are kept completely dry and off the ground, they will not dry well, in fact they will retain moisture, grow fungus and mold, and rot quickly. Now I am dealing with several cords of formerly decent rounds that are rotting, and I hope I can at least slow down, if not stop, the process of decay by getting the wood split and under cover for next season.

 

I can send you the plans I drew up for it but there was a lot of 'field fitting' during construction. After the poles were set it took me 4 days to finish by myself. One of the side benefits is it made the wifey happy as it was better looking than what I had out there before. Now I hear complaints about all the maple rounds I'm stacking in the lower yard. Oh well.

 

Look at you and that dimensional lumber as farwood.

Show off!


I put at least a couple cords up by my house too, on the patio. Mine are never quite that square though.

 

This has been an interesting thread to read. I'm going into my 4th year of burning, and have just stuck with stacking on pallets. I tarp year round because I'm concerned that moisture would be retained in the wood too long uncovered since we have a full shade back yard. The condition of my tarps has always been a problem... I suppose there's not really a great solution if sticking with the tarps. I'm interested in potentially using metal as a cover though... may need to begin thinking about ways to source that, preferably for free.

It was very interesting reading about storage shed solutions and seeing the pictures. There's some really nice solutions out there! It would be nice to move in that direction some day... we'll see!

 

Here's my 'primary' shed, 95% full for the season:


And here's the 'secondary' shed, which will be full later this year with 2017-2018 wood and maybe even a little 2018-2019 wood.

 

Metal can sometimes be sourced for free from the lumber yard..the top sheets for shipping/strapping, I just scored 4each, 12 footers @ no charge.

 

wow thats awesome lol

 

heres my friends

 

It just keeps going.....

 

Dang - this is shed porn. I working on a shed project now - hopefully have some stuff to share next week.

 

I have straight been collecting wood from any and everywhere...Craigslist, stopping when I see stuff ...I been going for days