So, I'm a bit of a beginner when it comes to firewood hoarding. I've got some 6ft x 4ft pallets and I'm trying to criss-cross the corners and then stack in between. However, I'm finding that the corners are being pushed out and falling over. Is there a better way to stack wood on pallets? I didn't level the ground before stacking, so that could be an issue. But if I mostly level the ground, is this stacking technique ideal or is something else better on pallets? First photo is one showing the right front corner ready to fall. Second photo is a collapse that already happened (while I was stacking). Back right and front right corner tipped over...I started to rebuild the front right one.
Cribbing the corners takes practice - set aside your best splits - rectangles and triangle splits which are as straight and flat as possible. The two outer splits should be as close as possible to each other in height, and taller than the splits you place in between (to prevent wobbling). These cribbed corners must be done well or they will eventually lean and fall. Until you have more practice, you could use t-posts against the end to keep the splits from shifting - but, of course, t-posts make cribbing unnecessary! I crib, in part, to avoid buying extra materials to keep my stacks stable. Here is an old pic from a couple years ago showing how I crib my corners on my pallets. These stacks sit for at least 4-5 years - haven't had one fall over yet. Good luck! Cheers!
top picture right side third up from bottom.. leans out... try to get them to lean into the stack until your better.. as you get more experience doing it you will make better splits.. easier with splitter.... like everything takes practice... if you don't want to stack over ... you can always get some pallet wrap to save it... yes I believe in cheating!
Problem with wrap is it might trap moisture, unless you're going for that kiln look. Like NH_Wood said (and man, how nice are those stacks?), the cribbed ends need to be done well, or you'll have failure. I find it easier to set posts (which last several years) than crib the ends. Wait a minute....where's Backwoods Savage ? He's been doing cribbed ends for a minute or two.
NH_Wood - man, you have some nice looking stacks right there. All I can offer to the thread is level, level, and then level some more, before stacking.
BetterCallMaul please forgive me if I am wrong but I think perhaps you posted this as a joke? Of course one could not expect that stacking job to hold up. As for cribbed ends, it really does not take much practice at all. In fact, sometimes I really don't stack all that neat but the ends seem to hold up for as long as we need but usually we don't have stacks much over 5-7 years. Still, they seem solid when we take them apart. I do typically use square or rectangular pieces for the ends but not always. In fact I'm doing some stacking now that a couple very nice ladies did some splitting for us a couple weeks ago but they did not split any in rectangle or square shapes. So, I make do with what they gave me and so far, so good. Here are some pictures of ends from previous wood stacks of ours. You can see that for stacking, I do not use pallets but instead just cut some saplings in the woods (see some old ones waiting to be stacked on again), lay them down (just 2 per stack) and stack on them. Very inexpensive and a whole lot better than using pallets plus they do not leave an eyesore like pallets do nor will you take any chance of stepping on them and have them break. One more thing is that we do nothing (cheating) to strengthen our ends. They have to stay all by themselves...and they do. In over 60 years of stacking we've had exactly one end fall over. Dang that made me mad... The stacks below stood for 4 years. All burned up now. This picture below is what I thought was sloppy stacking. Yet, that stack on the right is still standing. The one on the left has been burned. There are several others on this forum who stack a lot neater than we do. I tend to stack a bit loosely as it helps the drying process but I do try to not stack so loosely that the stacks will fall over.
No, no joke. I'm a father of two kids under 4...wife and I both work demanding full-time jobs and the weekends are packed with family/kid activities. I'm lucky if I get 2 hours a week to split and stack. If I do get those 2 hours, it's during the kid's nap time on the weekend and I have to split/stack as fast as humanly possible. Most of the time, I just have time to split...and then I just dump the splits near the piles...hoping I can find time to stack later.
Then I do ask for your forgiveness. I just wondered about those stacks. Hopefully you will improve and you should find that it really is not difficult to do. I actually look forward to the cribbing of the ends and don't think it takes much longer to do the cribbing that it does to do the regular stacking. You will notice that we usually stack more than one row together. Typically 3 rows. I also tend to lean them a little to the inside (but not as much as bogydave does). This makes the stacks just a bit stronger. Also, many have wondered if stacking more than one or 2 rows together would impede the drying process. We have never found that it does at all. The rows all seem to dry at the same time. I'm not really sure how many rows we've stacked tight together at one time but would guess as many as 20 rows. No, it was no problem. Another thing we do is to not stack too high. Height is the greatest obstacle to making stacks strong. We typically stack to about 4 1/2' which will usually shrink down to 4' or less over time. We have stacked higher but almost always they just are not as strong of a stack.
Backwoods has a deer blind made of stacked wood. It's complete with windows and a door the deer can't see in. The man knows his stacking.
BetterCallMaul, FatBoy85.... you may already be doing this but here goes- "Practice makes perfect" doesn't have to mean from one stack to the next... if I'm cribbing with sub par shaped wood from the splitter, I will test each cribbed level for wobble (I will flip splits over and around, or switch them out completely if need be) beyond just "sighting" it for plumb and level. My wife, on the other hand, will not test like I do and she gets a little ornery when I calmly start unstacking her attempt to right where the trouble began and explain to her what to look for. It's starting to stick, I think
That's why I went to squares and pallets to hold mine up.... I got tired of playing 52 card pickup.... Good Luck.... there's several around that are professionals....... but I'm not one of them....
If possible, I would suggest you arrange your stacks in longer rows (multiple pallets). Good cribbing takes time, longer rows means less cribbing. I also find it helpful to tie the crib back into the stack by setting some of the middle pieces in the crib back so they extend into the main stack to stabilize the crib. Otherwise, the crib is just a 16-18 in square column that can be easy to push over. Also, good cribbing begins at the splitting stage. Trying to produce as many rectangular pieces as possible while splitting provides more good cribbing material. Haphazard splitting produces haphazard cribs. I got tired of fighting the problem and started using pallets as a bookends on my stacks, which are 6-8 pallets long. At first, I used diagonal braces to support the bookend, but that complicated stacking. Now I just use 2 tee posts to support that pallet. This also makes it easier to replace pallets as needed. My stacks usually end up being 2/3 softwood, 1/3 oak. I crib the oak where it meets the softwood to prevent it from collapsing, as I use the softwood first. Burning pine, hoarding oak.
I often think of a woman who told me she had a big family get together to stack wood. The people with stacking experience stacked while the inexperienced people hauled and pushed wheelbarrows. I knew what she meant as soon as she said it. For those of us who have stacked all our lives, it is second nature. When I fill the trailer to move wood across the yard, I sometimes catch myself placing pieces carefully, even though it's not necessary. Just habit I suppose. Meanwhile, my coworkers are from a subtropical region, and their stacks fall 2-3 times each year. They keep rebuilding them without thinking about where each piece fits best. Then they use ropes and posts and all sorts of methods to try to hold up the stack. Bottom line: practice makes perfect.
This is faster , bookends Second pic stack not finished but you get the picture I have done cribbed ends and they never fell over but I don't care for it, takes to long
