If you stack cords in front of other stacks, how much room do you leave? At the end of my 7.5 cord long stack is an area that is nice and level. Im limited to how far I can extend out. The end of the BACK row is 1.5 cord of various oak (just stacked) and rest will be mix of faster drying hardwood. Front row probably be half black locust and other various hardwood. Not looking to burn ANY of this for 3-4+ years. I can go out 4' from back stack and start. Is that enough room? Stacks face for most part SE, sitting on hill if that matters.
I leave about 2 1/2 - 3 feet between stacks. It's enough room to walk between the stacks and seems to let enough air circulation to dry as fast as a single stack. Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk
I space my stacks so I can easily get the mower between them with two passes, one each way so I can keep the area somewhat neat. For me, I leave about 8' between double stacks (72" mower).
Stack them tight. It won't take as much space and the stacks will be stronger too. I stack from 3 to 10 rows tight together. Some will worry the wood won't dry. In 60+ years I have never had that problem. Today I'm finishing moving some oak (moving it to barn) that has been stacked since 2017 (cut in 2016 and split 2017). That stuff is super dry. It was stacked 6 rows together 4.5' high and 10' long.
I get two rows of 16" splits on a 40x48 pallet. I used to leave the extra space in the middle empty but lately I've been throwing uglies, shorties or anything else in there. NBFD. The wind/breeze/air gets thru. It's not like it is sealed up tight like a house wall.
I stack no more than 3 wide, stacked tight. I prefer 2 wide, but I have a spot where there's 3. I leave enough space between double/triple stacks, to get my snowblower and garden cart between them. My splits seem to have no problem drying out.
I think 4' would be plenty of space depending on how high they are, specially if you are not going to burn it for a couple years. I leave about that much space, single rank, e-w orientation about 4' high, and all ranks get sun for max drying.
I I have triple tiered stacks on 4' wide pallets (16" long splits) without issue. Im sure this does slow drying time down. I recently unstacked four cords of year old hickory, red & white oak splits as i tightly packed them in a rectangular "cube" stack. Wood was covered but mostly shaded. Interior wood got moldy with fungi on some. Ive restacked the red oak double row (finished it tonight as a matter of fact) on a 36" pallet double row with space in between. Some air space is better than none. I was in a pinch for wood storage a year ago (i always am anyhow) and didnt think it through carefully. Ill make an "aisle" maybe 3' wide and stack white oak and hickory parallel.
when i usuall start stackin near another stack i usually try and leave just about enough that a mouse can get by so id say prob 6 to 12 inches
When I was young, most of the old guys would stack 3 or 4 rows deep. I don't think there was any specific reason but "it fit". I've been spacing my rows about 6 inches apart. The rows run north and south. In full sun and wind. I don't have a moisture meter but they all look and feel like they are drying well. Now that it's starting to cool off I plan on splitting and stacking all my scrounged wood from this summer. I don't plan on burning it this winter. We will see how dry it is next winter.
You have the time. I sometimes stack 6 rows tight against each other. Pallets leveled on stringers under it, so I have up to 8" of air under the stack. The top is covered with bigger sized plywood scraps and tarped. The wood is stacked to give the top a little slope so my poor man roof drains. I have no issues with moisture after 3-4 years. Over half is red oak. Provided you can top cover your wood and keep it dry you should have no issues either.
Here's part of my tight woodyard. In the middle are 6 racks. 2 long by 3 wide. There's a shorter rack with fresh cut ash. Flanking them, are 3 racks long, by 2 racks wide. I liked how they fit that way. Excluding the ash, there's 6cord in those 18, 8-foot racks. The pathways are 1.5 the width of my snowblower. My wood cart rolls in the paths just fine. Here's how close the wood racks are to each other. Given that I am on, and maintaining the 3yr plan, I've not ever had an issue with the wood being too wet to burn.
Great feedback in here. I almost posted something similar recently about stacking. Lately I've been rearranging a few piles since I moved some wood in for the season. My OCD kicked in and I felt the need to consolidate things that I scrounged this year. It didn't sit right with me having 3 separate areas for Ash and Black Birch. Having read through most of this, I think I can tighten up my stacks a little. The biggest thing I need to work on right now is having decent top cover this winter for future seasons' wood. Admittedly, I've been too lax about this in the past.
Is that what you do regardless of species? I read an article somewhere recently that said splits going through cycles of wet/dry actually dry better than wood that was kept out of the rain.
Regardless. I have some ash that I cut and split last month. It is stacked, but not covered. I'll cover it next fall. It's not based on any science. Just what I feel is right and it works for me.
