Tarps - cover your wood

We should make a sticky on firewood covering, seems like every season the forum has a "what do you use type thread." So feel free to post pictures of your coverings.
Here is a tarp I scored from a trucker friend. I definitely want a few more.
just 1 allows me to almost double my normal "spot" which is usually a 8x20ish area.
This first picture, I have the side folded up, it would drop to the ground if I allowed it.
I could and maybe will extend the next stack from 8 to 12 feet in the future for this tarp.
I have more wood to stack into that pile sometime this season. So it should fill out nicely.

This is why it was tossed out, the ends leak but work great for this.

This is a pretty heavy tarp, I don't think I even need to weigh it down much if any.

 

I'm wondering of those middle rows will dry out though, not getting any wind or sun.

 

I hear what you are saying, so I'm not sure if I will widen it more or not. But the stack is on a double stack of pallets so there should be circulation thru the bottom and still out the sides. At least that is the idea. I'm not too concerned with this stack though, it is ready now and I most likely won't even get into till next winter some time depending on the weather..

 

I covered my stacks completely one year with tarps. It kept the snow off the wood, but the condensation inside of the stacks would drip off the inside of the tarps and soaked the wood. I still use tarps, but now I leave the sides open. Keeps everything nice and dry.

 

yep I believe I made that mistake once before. Even had wood froze to the tarp. Leaving the sides open, the back opened a bit like I show has worked well enough for me.
Doubling the pallets helped a lot as well since my yard turns into a swamp at times. you can see where some have already sunk down.
a normal tarp actually won't hang that low on the sides or the back. I just tossed that on there for now. I'll shorten the sides and back up a bit more, the front will be full of wood soon enough and won't look like that.

 

I've used tarps but the stuff sure doesn't work if it's your thin-as-painters plastic load covering tarps. Being so light, I've done the whole weigh it down deal but it still doesn't help in a good wind where the thing acts like a sail and whatever was on it is gone as well. The tarps here look a lot like those road signs you can find for cheap, way more stout than the tarps for dump runs. Hope your stack grows and then you can spread the tarp out just a little more.

 

It will I just need to transfer more wood from my work dumping ground to home and fill it out.
Than I can position it better than it sits now.
I usually use the silver/black tarps 12x20 which last about a year and they sail away if not weighed down.
Or like to rip with a good ice/snow load on them.

I also like those ezup canopies/tarps a friend gave me one of those and it has lasted for years. If it wasn't for the rodents chewing thru it, it would still be a great covering.
Now I just use it to cover the black/silver tarps, it helps make them last longer than a year.
I'm doing a test today, we are supposed to get rain and winds, I left it as the pictures showed.
Curious to see how well it stays in place.

 

I built a wood shed. But I quickly realized that it needed to be open on both ends so I could start in the middle, and stack toward one end. Then start in the middle and stack toward the other end. Otherwise, I've not got anywhere to put green wood.

 

In about a week I’ll be posting my new method of covering wood. A little experimental. I’ve done it once for lumber but in a more sheltered area. Now I’ll see if it can handle the wind of an open field. Stay tuned for high jinks and laughs.

 

My friend stacks his wood between trees. He had me cut 3' wide roofing metal to fit with notched for the trees on each end. It never blows off that way as long as there is a little weight in the center.

 

Same here, I only cover the tops. I’ve also left stacks completely uncovered some years and the wood seasoned without issue as the stacks were exposed to lots of sun and wind. Really depends on the climate.

Ideally, I season single width stacks uncovered over the summer in rows in between trees and then load it all into a shed before the big snows. Lots of touches but very dry wood as a result.

 

I covered my stacks one year this exact same way. Multiple rows deep and completely covered. It was a total disaster. I literally had to break every single split loose from the next when it was time to move it to the wood shed as the level of mold and fungus that grew was on a biblical scale. Of course, this means that no drying happened. Now I'm on a no tarp, 3 year plan. One year in open single deep stacks, one year in the shed, and the final duration in the basement.

 

I have used tarps to top cover. Between the hurricanes, hurricane-like weather, northeasters and sometimes even nasty thunderstorms, I'd constantly be putting them back on or repairng shredded tarps. I gave up on them. Plus they can be ugly, especially when they start getting torn up. Nice solution if you don't have all the weather hassles.

 

Only had that problem when I first started learning the layout of my yard and how to maximize drying the wood. I've been stacking this way for over a decade and haven't had that issue since.
That spot was where I did have some issues but it was more the fact it is literally in a middle of a pond during the wet season. It was the reason why I stopped using stringer pallets and moved to block pallets and doubled the pallets to stack on. Even than the issue was localized to mainly the bottom rows, not entire stack or sections.

I see no problems extending a length of a stack, I can see issues widening it out more.
My stacks are all 8ish feet wide, thats a normal cord... If you're getting mold in a middle of a normal cord, you need to stack more "loose" big enough for a mouse, too small for a cat.
Adding another 4 foot width could cause some issues in the middle possibly.

Where my piles are, some only get sun in the morning, some a little more into the afternoon but none of them get sun all day.
That tarp is not staying like that... I had 2 options to show off the tarp, on the ground or on a stack.
I chose to toss it on the stack and take some pictures, It was not to show how to cover the stack "proper"

 

No tarps here. They're just too much hassle. Everything is stacked in IBC totes with the plastic bladder cut in half for a roof. They will last longer than I will. I also stack 2 high sometimes. No covering needed for the totes that sit on the ground.