I assumed I'd be posting this thread at some point, as it was just a matter of time. I noticed the back side of the mighty holz hausen was looking a little "off" a few weeks ago. The interior wood was starting to settle and was causing the walls to bulge a bit. "She's gonna fall," I told a friend while we were playing a round of bocce. And today was the day! I was mowing the lawn when I noticed it and I just had to laugh. I can't even be the least bit disappointed, because I learned a lot from my first 'hausen. I'm definitely going to restack it, and now I know how vitally important the horizontal rings are. (see the small 'hausen in the back of the pic) So now I get to build an even better, more secure 'hausen and I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe I'll put a window in it? A design of some sort with a darker species of wood? Who knows. It's definitely going to be another work of art.
Hahaha! It happens.....all you gotta do is build 17 more and then you'll have enough practice under your belt! All kidding aside sorry for your loss.....but the next one will be better!
I didnt think one of those could fall over! Did you yell "TIMBER"? Dont feel bad. I lose stacks on occasion!
Not enough angle in the outside ring of splits. The outer ring has to be stacked so that it has a pretty distinct pitch down toward the inside, if not, the splits inside slowly drive the outside walls outward until there is a 'blowout'. The key is to put the occasional split sideways all the way to the outer edge of the hausen to maintain that pitch all the way up. That is why there are usually splits visible that ring the outside of a hausen, they are there to maintain that angle. My wife builds a nice holz hauzen but allows the outer ring to become flat or sometimes even pitched toward the outside. They always blow out. But she does not mind stacking them again so..... the wood gets a lot of miles on it before it gets to the stove. Brian
Nice job nonetheless. Since you are creating a new habitat for little critters in your stacks, sometimes the medium sized critters will look for a meal in your stacks. That being said, some shift occurs and may cause the fall of your stacks. Burn on!!!
Nah, they are smarter than that and can recognize a bad build right off. One night we were sitting in the living room watching TV when a subtle but very deep 'thud' was heard. No idea where it came from. After a fashion, I found a holz hausen that blew- out, this one was particularly large and shook the ground a bit. And one time, in banned camp, we had two adjacent hausens blow out..... into each other so they only blew- out about 10% or so. Planned strategic failure.... she is a genius!
That's a pretty holz hausen right there! I think maybe you could have used a tad more angle....but I love the roof! And people think *I'm* anal!!! Yeah right! All joking aside great job rebuilding it!
I should do an Oakhausen!!! Think I could make one that holds 4 cords? What diameter and height would it need to be?
The originals in Germany tend to be much larger and were apparently often the size needed for one winter. Really there is no limit on how big they can be but we typically build them to hold two cord and our very first one was four cord if memory serves. Volume goes up fast as diameter increases, much faster than most people would think; the difference between an eight foot diameter hausen and one that is ten feet in diameter is close to double in volume, again if memory serves. Note though that as they grow in size, they may need to be built more sturdily to take the pressure from the inside without blowing out. Depending on how high you want to stack one, it could look like this: a hausen 10 ft. in diameter X 7.5 ft in height will hold around 4 cord. That is assuming the outer ring is stacked and all the rest of the inside is just tossed in loose. Using the 'rules of thumb' that a stacked cord of firewood is 128 cubic foot, and a loose pile cord of firewood is 180 cubic feet, I used 150 cubic foot as an average. To figure out the volume of a holz hausen, multiply the height of the finished hausen by 3.14 and multiply this by the radius, or 1/2 of the diameter of the hausen squared. So in this example, square the radius (5 ft) X (5 ft) = 25, then multiply this by 3.14, 25 X 3.14 = 78.5 sq. feet, then multiply that by the height, 78.5 X 7.5 = 589 cubic feet. Divide this final number (589) by what you think is how many cubic feet in a cord- I used the number 150 because part of it is stacked and part of it is loose. Of course this is all 'rule of thumb' and not exact but then again, firewood is not exact either so making a pile of it cannot be exact. By the way, I notice you are in MA (I am in RI) so you may want to check with your local regulations and find out if the holz hausen tax increases with the height of the hausen..... Brian
