I like to bring in firewood by plastic toteful until steady burning is required, and after a freeze or two kills most of the hangers ons. Our woodstove does a large amount of the heating, with the combination furnace doing the coldest of season duty. Both appliances are in the basement of our two and a half story home. Our basement windows qualify as emergency egress so the bulkhead serves as winter firewood storage. No stairs inside it. All the firewood is 16" long so I stack it in from side to side, first row in is only to the top of the basement door. Next rows are at least as tall as the bulkhead wall with extra effort at times to the bottom of the metal bulkhead doors. Weather dependent, but I like to have it filled around the first weekend in November. Five rows deep serves plenty good. I try to keep it refilled so it never gets less than half full until March. I fill the woodboxes in the basement from that supply. All of the crotchwood is stacked under the inside stairs for those long-lasting burns in the Newmac combination furnace. Sent from my SM-A526U1 using Tapatalk
I try to load mine in by the first week of September, just so I don't have to scramble. My indoor bin fits a little under a cord. I spray household insect killer around the whole perimeter of the bin and about every foot or so as I fill it up. Never had a problem with anything creepy crawly coming in. I also like to keep a day or 2 worth of a stack by the stove so the Mrs. doesn't have to get any from the woodbin if I get tied up at work. That almost a cord worth should last about 4 to 6 weeks depending on temps. I usually top it off every 2 or 3 weeks. I usually like to have my son toss the wood in, while I stack inside, so much easier than trying to sort out a pile after a full cart has been thrown in. I put a fan in the hatch where the wood gets tossed in from, just to pull any must wood smell and any excess moisture out. That is the only window in the basement, so the dry air gets pulled from upstairs. I also run a large dehumidifier in the basement from end of fire season to beginning.
I have a woodshed that holds 2.5 cord, but there's no wood in it because I keep the quad there. I usually stack a cord of wood on pallets on our patio and top cover it, then just take it from there. Refilling it as winter goes on. But Im thinking of trying a different approach this year as it takes time restacking a cord. So maybe I'll have a larger cart that I will fill, and park it. Taking it back to the stscks to reload as needed. I have a woodbox inside that will hold 2-4 days worth, depending on temps, that I pull from.
I burn more than many heating shop & home. This shed holds 6.5 cord of mixed hardwoods for shoulder season. Ie any temps at freezing or above. In & next to the boiler shelter will be 4 1.5 cord rows of Oak & Beech for cold weather. Outside is another 4 rows of asstd wood. Stack to the right is all BL.
Dang, that boiler eats wood. No wonder you have to hoard so much! Nice set up AC and well thought out. That stack of BL got my attention!
Yea, it's actually not the boiler so much as the shop itself. When you open 10X12' doors 20 to 30 times per day & run stone cold cars in at sub freezing temps the heat load is incredible. My buddy has the same boiler heating about the same sq. footage and burns about 7 cord per year.
I stacked wood under my deck right outside the basement door in April. Hopefully a year’s worth or close to it. I’ll start hauling about a week’s worth of wood into the basement in about a month. I usually don’t start burning until middle of October.
Yea fear not, I've got plenty of high btu wood around. I just don't burn it unless it's really cold or I'm gonna be gone for a day or two. Builds up coals pretty quick when the demand is mediocre.
RGrant When we started having our young grandkids here in the winter, I sat down in front of the insert with a good fire going and taught them about "hot". I opened the door so they could see the fire, I had them watch me put wood in and I took their little hands and held them up to the open door so they could experience what "hot" meant. They never were in any danger of getting harmed while sitting on my lap and they never came close to the stove when it was being used. One year old kids can learn if one takes the time to teach them.
Starting the wood move this weekend This will hold 4+ cord; another cord next to house and day or 2 worth inside.. if we get deep cold or snow I want to be warm inside not fighting drifts to get too wood.. fill racks on nice weather days. My processing/storage area is 1500 feet from winter storage area
Had one come home from school for the weekend so I took advantage of it. All shoulder wood, spruce and some poplar. I expect once this pile gets near 1/2 I’ll start mixing in the hardwoods.
My wood is CSS in various locations around our property. I suppy wood to 3 houses (my parents, my aunt and uncle's place and my own) on the property. Usually, once per week I put my 4x7 trailer on the quad and fill it twice and make my rounds to fill everyone up all winter. I have a small rack I built in the garage I fill and burn weeky - it's one row approximately 4'x3'. I use this for my living room stove and my garage stove. This year, since I have a new basement stove that will be thirsty, I plan to fill my basement stairwell as well. I have a perfect spot that is under roof down there that will not block the access/egress and allows for easy inside access. From there, I have these wax coated meat boxes I use to haul into the stove. There are lots of neat bags and carriers these days but these boxes are great for me: they're free, they carry a solid armfull of wood, they contain the mess, they're very sturdy and last many seasons, and they serve as a good spot to "rest" the wood inside before loading stove. If bugs do start waking up, the box is somewhat of a level of defense to contain them.
As much as I would love to have a big inside pile, the bugs will wake up unless you've kiln dried the wood. Flys, ants, spiders, moths, and more.... seen them all. Best keep them sleeping outside - then put them to the fire before they know what happened to them!
Same. All outdoors, then near the house and under cover as things cool down, then a days worth inside. Works well for us at the moment. Sca
