We have dried firewood in our shed for 30 years with six 24' rows on pallets and with 4"+ row gaps and 3-4 year drying time rotation with good results. But... Storing medium density firewood for up to 4 years seemed inefficient. So... Last year, 2023, we made a 2-2 1/2 cord single row on 3" high treated wood rails which was almost finished in late August. The stack is 5' high above the rails, points North/South, and is top covered. Most of the row is hackberry above with slippery elm footing tiers since hackberry rots quicker than slippery elm. The row was finished in November with less than a 1/2 cord of bark free EAB white ash on a white oak footing tier, again to avoid rot. The row was in full shade which was the most open space and so open to the wind. Starting moisture was "green" for the hackberry, slippery elm, and white oak. The EAB white ash all tested at 25% on fresh splits. The results one+ year later: The white ash averages 18% moisture on fresh splits ranging from 15% to 22% (2 large sticks low in the stack) and is burning great. The white oak average is 30% (no surprise) but the ash suffered no rot. The white oak will get moved to the shed this winter when space is available. The hackberry average is 20% moisture (fresh splits) and so is "finishing" in a basement stack near the furnace. The BIG surprise: The slippery elm average is 16% moisture (fresh split) despite being the lowest tiers near the ground and being the wettest original wood in the stack, by a lot. Obviously, the slippery elm is burning great. An odd outcome since hackberry is a cousin to elm, has a similar dry density, has less moisture green, and was higher in the stack. No moisture was found between sticks, i.e. the top covering worked. Unfortunately, the non-ash stack is 2/3 hackberry and only 1/3 slippery elm. I almost left the slippery elm thinking the high green moisture made slippery elm a poor choice for the 1 year test, little did I know... My guess to explain this conundrum: hackberry wood fiber has a higher affinity/bond to moisture than slippery elm. I did read reports that hackberry dulled chainsaws quicker than other wood even though it is a medium density. Red oak would be the other conundrum since it is my slowest drying wood despite having unplugged wood capillaries. I am considering putting black walnut in the outside row this winter to test one year drying behavior. No slippery elm is available this fall, darn!
I have considered erecting some woodsheds but honestly I get great results just doing two rows with top cover only. I used to be a piler with tarps but found it far inefficient. My bullpen stacks get about 7 hours of sunshine during summer and are positioned so the wind from the west blows between the stacks. Tarps can be a pain, to be sure. I made a giant 'square' a couple years ago of stacks (8-10 rows wide up on skids) and was not impressed with the drying I saw. If I were to do a woodshed, I would emulate what I saw was popular on Vancouver Island...6' high x 4ft deep x 40' long, usually placed at rear boundaries of backyards. No walls, roof and floor only. I remember seeing Madrone wood stacked in them also.
That exposure to the wind makes a huge difference. Wood stored in most sheds gets little to no wind which only slows drying time down.
The open face shed (its more or less a huge elevated pallet with a roof) I built gets good afternoon sun. the same side gets a good Westerly breeze. So much so the 6' tall stacks actually list badly and finally toppled a couple weeks ago much to my disdain. Luckily i'm currently using that wood for bundles. Rather than restack I tossed it back undercover. Ill use some 2x4's and prop the bottom row to counteract the uneven drying.
I did put a 1/4 cord of hackberry in my shed at the same time as the outside row was built and so far the outside row and the inside hackberry have the same moisture content, 20%. Inside the shed had a lower humidity and the outside row had more wind. We had over a week of high wind and low outside humidity recently and so it looks like the outside row is getting drier than the inside wood over the last few weeks.
