Before you make up your mind for sure you might want to do a little reading: Primer on Woodburning by Backwoods Savage Here we usually split and stack in April, leave uncovered until late fall or early winter then top cover. However, in your area it might be even better to top cover immediately after stacking because of the amount of rainfall you get. Most definitely a hard cover is best, rubber roofing also works great. But no matter what, only top cover. Here are a few pictures from our place.
I've bent the four corners over so no kid could walk by or into it and get it right in the eye. Or even myself !
mine are covered by above ground pool material.. heavy vinyl.. pretty water proof.. free delivered ... kept it out of land fill lasted couple years so far with no visible deterioration
I use steel roofing, and weight it down with some more splits. Rain isn't as much of an issue to me. I want to keep the leaves and snow out
Great advice guys, didn't get the chance to hit the Depot this weekend so I'll have to hit it up this week. I really like the corrugated look. After reading all the posts I agree that I should cover the top. Hoping the Depot or Lowes has some in stock
We've always used green cotton duck canvas held down with old window sash weights. Last for many many years, breath, don't sweat, blow off or look bad.
As you drive around in the country many times you will see old farm buildings, big and small, that are ready to fall or be torn down but have steel roofing on them. This is where we got all of ours. Some even came from an old building in one of the local cemeteries that I volunteered to tear down, just so I could get the roofing.
Thank you Dennis, I think I'm definitly going to go with the metal over the plastic corrugated. Just had a friend of mine mention that the plastic will eventually crack so better to go metal. Solid advice guys.
He is right about the plastic but if handled easily and kept fairly flat they can last a long time. Still, metal is better.
I had some corrugated fiberglass translucent roof panels that got ugly and moldy from micro cracks but the panels themselves held up physically. Tore that porch off and threw the panels out but wished I had kept them . Got some corrugated opaque plastic panels that have stood up well that I use to cover stacks but haven't come up with a good way to make them withstand the wind here beyond piling lots of heavy pallets and stuff on top of them to keep them in place. Tried some clear stiff plastic that was recycled from a greenhouse ( they replace them at end of life intervals ) that cracked and broke. Won't try that again. Hey, they were free. Some blew away. I mean far. Never seen again. Maybe this year I'll build a shed. Just like the one I didn't build last year and the year before that.
Went roaming around the Depot today to see what I can find to cover my stacks. Came across 2' X 12' corrugated plastic roofing panels, they were about $23.00 each. One of my racks is 16' long so I would need a 12 footer and an 8 footer, for both panels I was looking at close to $35.00. Then I still need (3) more 8 footers for my other 3 racks. So I came across 1/2" X 4' X 8' ridged insulation boards for about $15.00 each board. I ripped that in half to fit my 16' rack and found some ice shied rubber membrane in my garage that my neighbor had given me last year. To cover my (3) 8' long racks. I'll keep my eyes open for some corrugated metal material in the future but for now I think these covers should hold up for a while.
I brace my ends like this, then screw the 12 foot steel to the top of the vertical ends. It won't fly away, and I can get a good idea of the seasoning in the stack by how much the stack has dropped below the vertical pallets top
