Covering stacked firewood

If your stack falls over and it sounds like a strike at the bowling alley...its ready to burn.
Knock 2 splits together and they should ring like a wooden baseball bat, or bowling pin when they are goodndry...

 

Have you referenced this in the resources section of the forum?
Firewood BTU & Drying Chart
I respectfully disagree with some of the times given, but it gives a general idea for most species.

 

I’ve never had a mouse problem. With all the snakes, owls & falcons we have I’m not sure the mice stand a chance.

 

Most of the time its an abandoned nest. I find more snake skins than mice nests. At my former house my cat would keep me company and wait for mice to come out of the stacks/piles as i was working.

 

Top cover. I've moved from tarps to 6 mil plastic. The plastic seems to have pretty good longevity so far... a couple stacks are heading into their second winter with the plastic covering without any noticeable wear / degradation to the plastic.

 

I’ve switched from tarps to metal roofing. Perfect size and used scraps from where I roofed my house.


Mike in Okla

 

We have covered in past years with tarps and it always ended poorly. We live on a hill in Iowa and the wind tends to rip them apart. With a lack of tree cover and plenty of wind, I personally don't have a reason to cover my wood.

 

Which woods do you disagree with most? And, do they dry faster or slower in your opinion?

There are a ton of variables at play. Sun/shade, Covered/Not, Dead Standing/pulled out of a creek, thin shorty splits/big ugly chunks.
I think I need to give my chimney a cleaning.. I’ve been waiting on all this oak and locust and burning some 6-10 mo red maple. My stacking area is not so sunny though. I also had some big red evergreen chunks that I burned last Spring that did a lot of smouldering. I think I over estimated how dry they would be because they were cross sections, but they were pretty good sized.

 

That’s exactly what I have been looking into.
Bet it looks a lot cleaner than tarps as well

 

Seems maple, black birch and black locust dry sooner, but thats just me. I just checked the chart out again and i think its more of the btu rating than seasoning time i disagree with. I guess im stuck in the old one year to dry mentality. Most woods are after a year. Cant say i check with a MM either. I can usually tell just by the weight of a split when i pick it up.

 

Drying times seem to vary a lot between different areas and methods.

Like most here, I am very particular about how I process and store my firewood.

I am burning silver maple right now that was cut from a storm downed tree in early September, that was immediately split and stacked inside my garage. MM on fresh splits is reading 16-18%.

Popplar and black ash harvested by me, split, stacked and top covered in April is well seasoned and ready to burn by October.

Sugar maple and paper birch is ready to go in 12 months.

I don’t have much experience with oak, but from what I do know, it likely requires at least 24 months.


I just stacked and top covered this birch last week. It will be ready to go for next winter. It woud really bother me to leave it like this through winter/spring 2022, and if I did, it would probably not be ready burn to my standards by the end of 2022.


When weather is favorable, I may take off my top cover for a good long spell during the spring or summer time. I use metal roofing on this pile of poplar and ash that was cut this past April, and is now burning great.

 

I tried the metal roofing for top covering back in the 90's. After one season of close calls of "fileting my forehead" with the edges, I got rid of all of it!

Rubber roofing here. I've had the stuff since 2000 and it show absolutely no wear whatsoever!!!

As far as covering the sides goes, the answer is nope......... (slowly and cautiously opens can of worms) there is that one person who experimented with what he called a solar kiln. Wrapped the entire pallet of firewood with clear plastic and let the sun "bake" the wood with the results shown dripping down the inside of the plastic in the form of condensation. He was very pleased with the results. I did try it on a sloppy wrapped pile and found same results, but went back to conventional and piling covering methods.


Solar Kiln Firewood Drying


Here are the results of that "experiment".

Solar Kiln Firewood Drying

 

We too began using 6mil plastic. Comes in 10x25. I cut it the long way once a 4' and 6' strip. The 4' strip goes on the ground under the pallet, and the 6' goes on top. The top one doesn't overhang by a foot each side, because my stacks tend to run a little wide, and the tops are not always flat.
6 mil holding up better than 3 mil....but i also fold the 3 mill in half for 2 layers. And I am using paracord to tie down the plastic, rather than logs on top. Much tidier.

Sca

 

Ive come close a few times and have bent corners back 180* to lessen the edge but still am not crazy about the stuff. Ive only been using it for a couple years.

 

Mike,

You are serious about firewood!

 

I also use 6 mil plastic and I am happy with it.

As far as which wood seasons the fastest for me is Black Birch and Beech(American), which seasons in one year(sometimes sooner). Especially Beech.

 

My goal is “my heater never kicked on”. Made it last year without using any other heat source.


Mike in Okla

 

That’s what I shoot for, but it will run when we are away for the Holidays, or if it drops into the teens overnight.