Are cribbed ends okay for wood stacks?

So.... fell a tree onto an existing wood stack, which makes it east to trim up and cut to length. Got it!!

 

Last summer when I got all my blocking and cribbed entire stacks it was the first time I cribbed ends as well. I can attest if you just take a little extra time on those ends it's very stable. My ground heaves a lot in the winter and then settles and them puppies didn't move one bit. Wish I would have made square splits with my rounds for the ends of all my other stacks so I didn't spend so much money on T-posts over the years. Oh well. From now on its cribbed ends to save money. Leaned inward a smidge and your good to go. I just wish I could find a source of old tin for the tops. Way to expensive to buy enough for 40+cord. I use 6 mil plastic stapled down about a foot on each side but it doesn't give me a good drip edge and I get paranoid about the ends always getting soaked. Some spots toward the bottom it drips back in the stack and some pieces get pretty saturated and stay wet for quite a while after it rains. I'm worried after 4 years that wood will rot. I pulled a few pieces and some of them feel water logged and have a little fuzz on them and are pretty black/grey.

 

Well, that's another fine mess you made their walt

 

I've always thought they were pretty strong; and now I can say they've taken a direct hit from a 2' diameter maple and they didn't even budge.

 

With no top covering and in an open location, my cribs always end up a little drier than the rest of the stack. But I almost always use wedge shaped pieces in them, so they see plenty of good air movement. If you have all squares, that will probably not be the case. I find that if you have two flat sides touching those pieces will stay much wetter longer.

I don't know how much you burn per year but I gotta think with 40+ cord on hand you probably don't have very much to worry about in the firewood department, like ever. If one or a few stacks aren't drying as they should, re stack them and go with the next drier stack.

 

Try finding some lumber that might be like 6-10 inches wider than your stack if you're worried about the rain. Put them on top of the stack, wedged in and then staple plastic to the lumber. While it might not be the greatest dripline, its easier than tin. Ive been the same about tin too i want the look but way expensive. Plus some of my tarps are wide as the stacks so when it rains, water pools up and then tarp gets trapped between them with 50 gallons of rain water

 

I just can't hit my stride with cribbing haha

 

Stacked a load of oak yesterday and built cribbed ends. They seem pretty solid but time will tell ! I purposely split a lot of it square so I could do this

 

My first stacks were on pallets and the back end is hidden by the woods, so I used pallets to hold the end of the stacks up and havent really finished the other ends. They are fairly wobbly, but havent budged in budged in the first 7 months.

The last stack I just did, I cribbed one end, and terminated the row at a tree. I laid down many 4' sections of 4X4 and 4X6 that I found at a local Verizon facility a few weeks back. They had them out by the metal dumpster cut into 4's sections and tossed next to the old cut up telephone poles. Some are hard, some are pine, but with the combination of them and the cribbing, my stacks are rock solid now!

 

I'll second the strength of the cribs I saw it first hand and heard the crash! She hit with some force! P.S I use them myself

 

You'll have zero issues, judging by the stack, the height, and the concrete.

I always like to make rectangular or square splits as much as possible for cribbing purposes. Cribbing goes extra day off you have a lot more squared pieces to choose from.

 

What's a statement without some photo verification, just went out and snapped a couple pics..... yes wife thinks I'm

 

There's an old barn up the road held up on six foot of cribbing at each corner.. every time I drive by I think "Savage coulda done better.."

 

If she thinks you're crazy now just ask her to smell your wood!

 

I think they are....

 

Tried it! Sometimes I try to take her out to the stacks to wait for the "Great Cord Hoarder" just like Linus from Charlie Brown