Working with my contractor friend doing an "upside down" roof under a deck above a walk out basement. They shipped scrap short panels with delivery and one extra 16' panel that im taking for stack top covers. Ill get 16' pallet too! May get turned into kindling though! Ive used tarps, plastic, plywood, OSB, doors, but never metal. Any tips/pointers other than the basics of slope, overhang, weighted down?
It will fly-weight it accordingly, I like to use tires-4” overhang is fine, anything else is gravy and 3” screws amply into top splits makes it really sturdy-just have a caulk gun handy for the next stack it occupies to plug unnecessary leak points-not a big deal-I’ve used quite a few coverings myself-the creme de le creme is rubber roofing...IMO, I have five 10’ sections cut to 24” wide to cover 16” single rows splits
hey ash, howve you been? Staying cool? Get any more wood from that log deck? Great to see you on again!
Been fine-I’m always around, liking posts, just not always posting...unlimited supply continues, plus we had a tornado last week that ensures all I can handle-it touched down 7 miles from my home-Hope you and all are well-Setting up another rail rack and will post pics soon
Glad you are safe and well. Scary stuff. Getting any wood from it yet? One hit around here May of last year. Most damage was from trees landing on houses. Lots of wood of course. I have a small score from it in the works for this month.
Thus far, I’ve just tried to stay out of peoples way, I know where a couple of the dump sites are but actually with my buddy’s logging job 7 mi away, I can cherry pick wherever...Its so dang hot here now that I dont want to approach folks without power and ask to cut the wood, even if I’m doing so for free...I’ll start looking for elderly folks that just got the minimum done to get access to their property and get power restored...then I’ll roll up and offer to haul it away for free...
Cover sheets, nice. My entire woodshed is built with them. I had 20+ft panels on a few stacks... kept things dry but were annoying to deal with at that length. Grabbing splits from one end made things uneven. As mentioned above, weigh them down and watch anything at head height- they’re sharp lol.
For top covering I don't think you can beat these! Even much better than rubber roofing. I've used rubber but was not impressed at all and it is hard to handle too. Heavy! You might want to consider cutting those sheets in two to make it easier to handle. I have one or two long sheets but the 10 footers are much better. I have some 6 footers that are nice too but I prefer the 10 footers. Sometimes the corners need to be bent over if they are too sharp. You can screw down the covering along with or in place of weighing them down. I usually just throw some big uglies on top and call it good.
id love to build one or ten, but my wood stacks and processing areas are on my landlords property fishingpol I ended up with two 16' (originally thought there was one, but turned out to be two...whoohoo!), two 7', a 4'...all 3' wide and a 2'x16' sheet. The 3' width is actually 38".
Thanks, it was designed to keep the wood for long time without rot loss. so far it's worked. I only use the wood for smoking and fire pit but I was "blessed" with a large storm damage 3 years ago. So I devised a way to keep most of it from rotting. I have 13 of these structures in the picture. I guess about 4 cords.
I think you have better luck with those roofing panels than some people because of being in the woods...limits the wind. I can't keep roofing panels in place...have to reinstall them at least 3-4 times a year. Tried holding them down with HD 8" cement blocks, get tossed off. Tried screwing them down, screws just get ripped out...currently trying a combo of rubber roof with metal roof panels over it, blocks on top...so far so good...it seems like the rubber roofing flips up over the edge of the metal when the wind blows and helps keep the metal from flipping off...we will see how it goes long term.
I use thin metal roofing to top cover. I weigh down with short pieces and uglies. In the even I hear about any tropical storm or or hurricane threat, I’d remove the metal roofing and put in garage. Not sure if your metal roofing has sharp metal corner but, if so, I’d bend the corners down to avoid injury. I’ve definitely found that a good reliable top covering very much speeds up drying time.
Any pics? Can you rope it all the way around? Hang blocks off the rope? Im in a wooded area as well, luckily.
Ill probaby take the tin snips and round the corners. I have small hand seamers for metal and may try to hem the long edges. Last Fall i removed some old galvanized corrugated metal from an old barn. This was some THICK guage stuff and heavy. I ended up scrapping it at the junkyard. Other than a bit of rust and some holes it was in good condition. Looks like those stacks could use some birch BTW!
Seriously could use some birch! I have a small bit left randomly from years past in the stacks. On our hikes with the dogs, I’ve been picking little branches off the smaller black birch trees and scraping off the bark for that nice wintergreen smell. I’m hopeless .
It seems like there is always debate about top covering. Seems to me there is some consensus that word should only be top covered in fall/winter/spring or a few months before burning. Unfortunately my stacks are in a mostly shaded area and I’m always wishing I could get more sun on them. I’m aware that air movement/wind seems to be a bigger factor in drying than sun exposure. But not much more I can do about wind short of setting up fans ( believe me I’ve been tempted) . So what does everyone think? Should I be covering all my stacks this summer?
IMO yes. If they get full sun then i would say leave uncovered during warm weather. Most of my stacks are shaded full time other than when trees are bare. In the shade wood takes a lot longer to dry inside the stacks uncovered IME. I get some air movement from wind but not a lot. Obviously, id like full sun, but this is what i have to work with. As much as i hate to admit it, most of them are currently uncovered. Probably my least favorite firewood task! Couple years ago, came close to trying a fan!
