I`m sure this has been beaten to death but I`ve not been able to come across a thread discussing it. Here is my question – Do you find it best to stack your freshly cut and split firewood inside a shed that allows good airflow or stacked outside with a top cover in direct sunlight? I`m contemplating building a “wood shed” but want to make sure that it is the best way to do it. I`m trying to handle the wood the least amount of times possible and prefer not to have to move wood from one pile and then into the shed and then into the house, etc. I understand that I`ll have random split piles in places on the farm but am trying to find the optimal process that takes the least amount of stacking. Thoughts…
Do both... top cover the outside stuff. Keep the stuff in the shed til it’s ready. Move it from the stacks or shed to the house... if you have enough shed space to spare, put it all in there... separate by species so you have the flexibility to leave it longer just in case it takes 4 or more years for the big oak overnighters to get down to the right moisture content...
Air circulation (like wind, not just air gaps) makes a big difference. My barn is well vented, but wood stored in there seasons much slower than when stacked outside.
wow, I would think it would be the other way around. I was planning on building a 12x8 in the spring. Not sure now.
I dry mine outside in stacks and then move it to the shed around late october. Then thru the winter I refill the stacks that i moved to the shed. Usually I can let the stacks dry for about 2 years or so. My shed sits mostly empty thru the summer. Maybe some leftovers in there from previous winter or bobcat, tractor etc.
I don't have a shed but if I did I'd also continue to stack my single rows top covered then move everything I'd plan to burn for that winter into the shed by late fall, then scrounge throughout winter to refill the stacks. I have enough single row racks currently to be 2 years ahead, as long as I keep them filled. With a shed I could probably make it 3 years ahead.
I’m guessing his shed gets much hotter than the outside area so even the heat works with wood along with wind. Just two things working in tandem. Ask him if he has metal roofing?
Always better to let the wood dry outside. Yes, it is a little more work to move it again into the shed but it does pay good dividends. Our wood typically stays outdoors 3 years or so then we move just enough into the barn to last the winter. We could do without that but moving it into the barn means we don't have to fight the ice and snow. In addition, we can then just move some wood with a cart rather than getting out the tractor or atv to move wood from the stacks in back.
Just build a bigger shed, I built mine with slatted sides for air flow and clear roof and large enough for two years of firewood split and stacked. The third/fourth/part of fifth year is still in rounds out in the wind and sun. It is still too wet to burn after first splitting the rounds, but significantly lighter than when I first brought home. As soon as spring comes and the one bay is empty it is splitting and stacking time. Burning oak and sugar maple with no moisture issues (highest I saw this year was 17%) and I don't use kindling because the splits take off on the coals. Cant say every environment will have the same drying efficiency though. Was in the same boat with reduced handling of the firewood. With this method I can unload when I bring it home in long rows up on poles and open to wind and sun for 2 years before splitting and stacking in shed for 2 summers then bring in garage and then into house. I envy everyone who has a wood 'closet' between their intermediate stack and wood burner and hope to put one in someday.
I got the idea of stacking some wood in the barn in 2016. I have plenty of air movement where it is at in the barn, but not getting the advantage of the sun. I have used from the barn and outside covered stacks, CSS the same time as the barn stacks, this year. The outside covered stacks burn a lot better. The inside stored are drier, as in rain soaked, but don't appear to be seasoned as well as the outside stored. I will have to agree, one year or more outside stored and then move to a more covered location.
I store mine in my (wallless) barn. Once it is stacked, it can stay there indefinitely until it's burn time. It may take longer to dry, I don't care. I don't see any problem being on a 5 year plan if that's what it takes and I have the space. The fewer times I move it, the better as far as I'm concerned. The barn is old and someday I'll have to do something else. I think it will be a greenhouse roof off my attached carport. Stack it once and leave it until it is burn time. Someday.
A lot of us would benefit from a tobacco type drying shed and some of us would fill it far too densely to realize a maximum payoff from the benefits of both under cover and ventilation. Even a tobacco shed had a limit to how much volume it could efficiently season. I think the simplest and largest firewood seasoning shed I've ever seen was on the Hartley farm in Rochester which was a simple pole barn with 8x12 removable sectional walls that hung on hook on the outer perimeter. The walls came off in Spring and got hung back up in Fall to keep the snow out and also some of the wind so they could split wood.
I do similar but use mine as a carport for my motorcycle prior to an early Fall fill early October. Doesnt hurt to do a wood rotation, but I also minimize how many times I handle the same piece of wood. During cutting, I will run take a load directly to the shed next to the OWB. it will burn well enough.
I'm with you, don't like handling the wood more than I have to. The question of storing it in a shed or not comes down to the type of shed and the exposure of the wood to the air and/or sun and the ability to access older dryer wood without having newer greener wood stacked in front and blocking the access to the older wood. The best solution, assuming you definitely want a woodshed, is to build your woodshed long and narrow and no more than two rows deep. Something like this, but longer if you need to store more wood and have the room.
I don't have a traditional firewood shed. I want to move wood as little as possible. I have portable firewood roofs made of hot tub pallets 8'x 8' or 4'x8' when cut on half. There's a hot tub store not too far from me and I pick up some of their 8'x8' skids I experimented putting 2 sheets of plywood on then covering with metal roofing or pool cover tarp rescued from trash Both work very well I move these with my tractor to cover stacks. No walls but I add 4x4 supports as I start removing wood.
The 4'x8' roofs when cut on half are movable without the tractor. When the heating season is over I move the roofs out of the way, replace stacks of wood and then move the roofs back. My stacks are always covered and I don't have to move wood to a shed My stacks are my sheds
