Will deeply packed woodsheds have issues?

Many people have outside stacks with much more wood in them than their shed can hold. The idea is to season the wood in the open air, sun and wind. Then when the wood is seasoned move it into the shed. Mine only contains dry seasoned wood ready to burn. I move it every sept/oct or thereabouts. I enjoy the process and exercise. I may change my mind as I get older. But everyone has a different setup and situation. I think shed size and how much you burn every year is a factor as well. A shed that holds one years worth vs a larger shed that may hold 3,4 or more years worth of wood would bring different approaches. The drying yard as I call mine, is open and has no tree overhang. I think if you live under a lot of tree canopies top covering is more important. And then how far are the distances from drying location to shed to house? Those distances can certainly determine a lot for you. My location where I split, stack and store in my shed are all very close. Geographic location and humidity are also other factors to consider. There is much less humidity here in AZ than the east coast so I am not so concerned about top covering. Also, how much wood you can reasonably and consistently process every year is something else to look at when building your shed. If your shed only holds two cords but you process 4 or 5 cords a year you will want your shed to only contain dry seasoned wood so it will be protected from snow and rain all winter when you need it dry and ready to burn on demand. The rest can sit outside drying for the next season. If you have a barn and can store 30 cords in it and only burn 4 or 5 cords a year then yeah, you can put fresh cut wood in it directly after splitting. But just figure out what will work best for you in your situation and set up.

 

I'm definitely in the "why touch the wood more than necessary" camp. It's enough work without moving it an extra time. Working an hour away fulltime doesn't leave me a ton of free time.

I may even make the building big enough so I can stack two IBC cages high. That would solve my tipping concern, and two 330's would actually be around 9 feet high. Less handling of the wood as well. Only downside is I'd need a bunch more cages. I only have 20 right now.

 

That is definitely a plan to plan for. Wise call. Do it.

 

Just remember you will still have to move the same amount every year to replenish what was in your shed that you burned the previous season.

 

I have a 3 bay wood shed. Each bay holds a full year of wood for heating. And then some. I usually burn about 4.25 or so cords a year, and each bay holds 5 full cords.

Wood is off the ground, and open on all sides, just a roof. 2 bays have plywood floors, and the middle has decking 5/4 boards with gaps. I was thinking the gaps should help with drying, but I don't see any difference between the decking floor and the solid plywood floor for drying.

 

This is my small wood shed. I am filling it for several winters from now. I will fill the area between the sood that's there and the pallets in that corral looking area to about 5.5-6ft average mounded height. Taller in the back and center for obvious reasons. That piles stack i am literally in the process of moving is post oak that I cut and split after Thanksgiving that was blown over in a storm several months ago. It has been sitting in that pile since the end of November for no other reason cause I was either too busy or lazy when I had the chance to put it into this shed.

 

I don't like wood out in the open as in yard. I have done it for several instances and unless I cover the top tightly and down the sides (at this point you have defeated it being out in the open to dry) I end up with an unacceptable to me at least loss to rot. Here in upstate SC we still have higher humidities, although not near as high as when I lived on the coast, and we get enough rain where the wood stays wet. Even if top covered it runs down the ends and rots them in two to three years. Sure if I had perfect pieces of tin that overhung the ends by 6" or more it might be different. But I have used plastic, rubber, tin scraps and while the stack as a whole stayed dry, there were spots that leaked and got a spot in the center wet or it ran down some of the ends in several places all the time and that's where the rot and fungus obviously always was.

 

I have a 30'x40' metal shed with two overhead doors at one end and one small window at the the other, both on the narrow dimension. I have six rows across the narrow dimension near the window and two vehicles parked in the other half. Each row contains 26 ' of wood with 1' of air on one side and two foot walking space at the other. Wood ends are supported by braced pallets, two diagonal 2x4's, and are 6' tall. All firewood sticks are 19-20" long and I read awhile ago stable tall firewood piles require a minimum length of 18". All the wood sits on reinforced pallets with an extra 2x4 at every mid-span (use small nails or drill holes since my slats are brittle oak). There is a minimum of 4" of air between all rows because the pallets are 48" wide. The wood stacks are straight but are stabilized at the top 1' by offsetting sticks to touch the off set sticks in adjacent rows, not every stick but enough. I consume two rows or less per winter and so have three or more years drying time since all rows are filled every spring. I maintain a dry wood zone at one end to provide access to the interior rows (i.e. burn the dry wood end of row 1 to get to row 2, or row 1+2 to get to 3, or 6 to get to 5, or 5+6 to get to 4. Obviously, all the wood is moved by hand, i.e. no tractor, since I want maximum drying time and inventory. I have wood stacked in assorted spots ready to refill 4, 5, and 6 come spring since I am burning row 4 now. Row 4 is testing 15-18% moisture on fresh splits. We leave the overhead doors and window open as much as possible to dry the wood.

 

If you divided your area up with pallet dividers it would alleviate some of that confusing stop start in green and seasoned wood and the constant consolidation of stacks at the end of a season. I first just had a large stack and had these issues as well as since I stacked in multiple directions, which I know you don't, but as I used a stackni would have collapses which I knew I would but didn't plan well for. So I couldn't burn certain rows be use of the collapse . I divided my large shed up into three or so areas and stack them and use one per season. The wood that is not used at the end of a season either stays in the back or I will move it to next year's area if it will fit.

 

What are you some kind of crazy firewood hoarder?

 

We're firmly in that camp. Waaay more wood than any shed here could hold. And when we do build one, it will hold a year, maybe more.
So, we will be shuttling wood around our postage stamp. I do enjoy the exercise as well. Moving 25 cord around this year, and splitting all of that by hand, put me in better physical shape for my age, than I've been in for years.

If i was stacking green wood in a shed, I'd leave plenty of open space, since I'm cutting off vital sunlight from the drying process. So rows as tall as I could manage, pallets under and between rows, open sides for air flow, and yeah, big enough to hold 3 or 4 years supply.

 

I built an 18x8 leanto that I stack mine in. I only burn 1.5-2 cords per year, so that shed will hold 4 years worth. I used 1x6 for siding, leaving a 1" gap between the boards, so there is plenty of air flow, and divided it into 2 sections. Each section holds about 2 years worth, so I only buy wood every other year. With that, I end up flip flopping between 3 or 4 years of seasoning, depending on if I'm using the front 1/2 or back 1/2 of each side. Typically burning sugar maple, ash, cherry, hickory with the occasional misc other we see in upstate NY. W/3 years on the clock, I've not run into anything yet that hasn't been fully seasoned just going straight into the shed with no previous time outside. It's really been a great upgrade from dealing with pallets / top covering stacks.

 

I store wood between outside storage and inside the wood shed. Wood shed has openings on 3 sides and 2 doors. I load the wood from back to front and then empty it the same way so the newest used is the longest stacked. All of my outside wood is on pallets and the tops are covered. On the other side of the wood shed I have all of my rounds on pallets and covered also. I usually cut my logs and then leave the rounds for a few months before splitting and storing so even the wood in the shed dries well. I have started sorting so the wood requiring the longest time seasoning is used when it is dry. Still getting a lot of Ash and that wood is ready to burn immediately.

 

Nice set up and really like the looks of the trailer. Looks much better than my little trailer.

 

Access to the interior rows is easier than the numbers would suggest. Dry ends for access to the interior rows are simply left, i.e. the entire exterior row is not consumed. Also, there are four corners for access (two ends for each exterior row) but burning two rows per year only requires two of those four ways in. We are burning 4/5 this winter with access from the south end of row 6) while we came into rows 4/5 from the north end of row 6 last time. Next year we will burning rows 1 and 2 while leaving a dry end to reach row 3 the following year. I suppose there is a corner or two... with 10 year old wood which only get cleaned out when we get one of those winters to remember...

 

campinspecter has a woodshed 10 ft X 24 ft with an average height of 7 ft. He has divided it up into four bins - two 5 ft X 12 ft bins on either end as you can only access it from the ends. We burn two bins each winter. We have firewood stacked outside until a bin is available to refill. Being on the coast, he made sure it is open on each end facing the prominent winds for summer and winter. The hemlock he harvests really needs two years to dry and it seems to dry well in our situation.

 

I have pallet racks in the polebarn.. love them.

Just under 16' of space, and easily stack at 7' with no worries. I've only run single rows this year, but plan on 2 rows deep to get on the 3 yr plan.



Plenty of pics in the late portion of our polebarn build thread.

Barn going up.