I am going to put down some pallets in a grassy area to make my woodpile. Do people normally kill the grass or put down a blocking layer underneath the pallets? Does the grass growing into the pile cause more problems with bugs/rot/moisture/etc ... ?
You'll find that people do a lot of different things to prep the area under their pallets. If you put them directly on the ground I wouldn't worry too much about killing the grass in advance as it will die out anyway. You will want to weed wack up against it to keep the area around the sides of the pallets open. If you get your pallets up on blocks or metal stringers, (who is it who has the railroad rails?), the pallets will last a very long time. On the ground they will rot and pretty much last for only one cycle of wood, they wont be reusable. If you don't have an easy supply of them you might want to do something to keep them dry and make them last.
The grass will die on its own. It won't grow into the wood pile. Not too many weeds grow up around the pallets either. My biggest issue is raking down leaves away from the pallets - that speeds up the rotting process a lot.
Thanks Paul bunion and red oak . I 'll double stack the pallets or try to get some cinder blocks. I never thought of leaves causing a problem. Sounds like I should be able to keep the pile clean with just a weed wacker and a blower.
You'll be good. The vast majority of the gain is made by getting your wood up off the ground. The law of diminishing returns quickly kicks in once you start prepping a foundation for the pallets. If you get a line on something to jack your pallets up further by all means do it but the pallets alone are enough.
Probably just as important is getting some sun or air on the stacks. I had mine stacked under the overhang on the back of the garage. It got very little sun and no wind. Things didn't seem to dry as fast back there. I've since moved the stacks to a better place where it gets both sun and air. And a top cover of rubber roofing...
It will definitely get a lot of wind and a little sun. Just covering the top is sufficient? Do you leave an overhand of a couple of feet to keep the lower part of the stack dry? I am not a firewood hoarder. I don't heat with it, just use it for ambiance in the fireplace and actually have not had a woodpile for about 10 years. In the past I just put the bad wood on the ground and built the stack up from there but I never covered it until it was snow season. I would usually bring a large amount of it into the garage in November before the snow. This year I am cutting 5 or 6 oaks, a couple are 22" and 27", about 8 red maples, 2 or 3 birches and a couple of big tooth aspen from my 3 acre lot that I have not done any cutting on for the past 10 or 12 years. I may get some 8 to 12" oaks from the back acreage that are in poor shape. I need to get this stuff stacked correctly so it will season over the next couple of years without rotting like my last woodpile did.
For stacking right on the ground, I would not recommend it on anything other than really light yellow sand. We do it occasionally and have for years but we still do stack most of it on some saplings we cut in the woods. Those can be from 3" on up to whatever size you want. Just so the wood is off the ground. We've never done anything about grass and/or weeds. We simply forget about them and never give them any thought. All is well. But if we lived in a populated area and stacked wood in the yard, then we'd take more pains with the wood stacks and how they look although most don't think our wood pile look all that bad. For covering, we usually don't cover the first summer but top cover in the fall or early winter before snow piles up. Covering on the sides or ends simply is a waste as it is not needed. If rain and/or snow hits the sides of the stacks, don't worry about a thing. The wood is not a sponge. It usually takes 24 hours or less for the sides to dry even after a hard driving rain. Here is a sample of some of our wood stacks.
I use old landscape timbers to put my pallets on. Luckily I have a good source for them, a local golf course. I tried using old scrap 1x4s but that didn't get the pallets far enough away from the grass.
Ok, that is a serious amount of wood. I wouldn't burn that in a lifetime in my current house. Here is what I am currently working on:
I wanted to use old landscape timbers but they're kinda expensive here. Haven't found a free source in southern NH.
You might want to check when stores sell off their seasonal nursery stock for used timbers. We have a fleet/farm type store that uses them for display purposes. By the time they sell off the last trees/bushes they are pretty worn so they sell cheap or just dump them. Just an idea.
Again, we just cut some saplings in the woods or sometimes just use some of the limbs from the trees we cut. Lay those down and stack right on top. No cost that way and they will last for many years.
schlot I looked around a couple months ago. Used beatup RR ties that were used in landscaping start at $20 each Our town dump has a used pallet area so pallets are free.
Just another idea for ya, vertical 2x4s are just stuck in the blocks , landscape timbers ,4 dollars a piece or less on sale just set on top of blocks , you can make em as long as you want, mine is now 16 ft. There is a little investment in the treated wood but will last a very very long time, blocks about a buck apiece
vacuum and dust your stacks every week and if it rains, OMG, get out there with the most absorbant rags you can find and wipe up every drop splits inspection every 0600 hours or within 30 minutes of Reveille.
