Stacking/Storing Firewood

[JohnMosesBrowning]

I've got a cabin and 100 acres. I cut and split blown down Poplar to burn. I know it's not good firewood, but it's what I've got and I've got a lot of it.

How do you store your firewood for seasoning? I have a hell of a time keep mold, fungus, and moisture free. Sometimes we go through a lot and other seasons I don't get up as much as I'd like and so wood will sit for a year or two and it gets punky. I hate slitting wood just for it to rot in a pile.

Let's hear all the ideas, thoughts, and help you can muster. Many thanks!

 

[Ryan]

I have been working on people’s homes for most of my life, and the one thing I can tell you is that you should definitely keep it away from the house. I often see people store it right up against the house, and that’s bad news. It traps moisture (always bad) against the home and sometimes termites come off of that wood and enter the wood of your home. I’ve replaced a lot of siding that prematurely rotted because of wood being stored up against it.

As far as your concerns, I’m not an expert on wood, but I know it helps if it is stored in a manner that allows air to flow through and if you can keep it in the sun it dries quicker when it gets wet. Those two factors (air and sun) will help prevent mold and fungus. I think the airflow is part of why you often see it stacked in single rows. If it is just in a pile, air and sun will have a harder time getting to the pieces in the middle and bottom of the pile.

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

Popple, not Poplar.

 

[Briar Lee]

My best friend’s father Freddie was damned particular how he stacked his firewood.

Freddie would only allow year old seasoned split ash firewood cut a foot and half long, to be burned. Freddie would stack his wood up in a big circular pile like a tee pee and at the top he’d cover the stack with a large wash tub.

When he needed wood he’d take off the wash tub and rearrange the pile some and replace it so Freddie always had the very best split and seasoned ash, powder dry, to burn in his King heater.

 

[captainsousie]

OP, not knowing where you live, it's important to keep the wood separate from the house and in a place that gets good airflow. If you live where the humidity is high, you may need a way to dry it out. Either way, curing time is key to a good burning firewood.

 

[Jbrewer2002]

Unfortunately I think with poplar your going to struggle keeping it good for over a year once dry. Poplar tends to rot fast. Most hardwoods don’t brake down as fast.

 

[Scottmi]

don't cover with a tarp unless you want turbo rot.

 

[AppalachianPipe92]

Poplar is a tough one. I use it for outdoor fires, hardwoods for the stove and indoor burning.
I stack my Poplar between two trees. I put 2 pallets stacked under the pile, some stacks are 2 pallets high, 2 wide. I then ran 2x lumber from tree to tree and used roofing tin to create a roof over the stack. There are other good methods to keep wood off the ground. I'm getting away from pallets - they look bad and have to be replaced, even the oak pallets I use.
I burn it quick enough that I rarely come across rot or fungi (I have some Poplar stacks in the woods I leave because oyster mushrooms grow really well on them and that's good eatin.) But I'll only split and stack what I will burn the next year, always staying one year ahead on wood. I leave the rest in log form and stack those in my woods.

Again, Poplar is a tough one. A structure is probably your best bet. Up off the ground and covered from rain, but not smothered by a tarp. This works for my region at least (North GA mountains). I can't speak to snowy, wet northern regions.

 

[warren]

No poplar only birch and spruce. I've built a rack with a peaked roof and a two by six frame to keep splits off the ground. I stack loosely so air circulates. My intention is to keep the splits dry. I have a rack in the garage for my immediate use, replaced from the outside stacks as needed. This allows more drying. Hope this helps.

My current health has precluded me from any serious wood gathering so, getting to end of my stock I'm now burning wood that was split and has sat on the racks for five years or so.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Old saying, "he who cuts his own firewood gets warm twice".

When I lived on the farm and we used wood burners I'd often cut down willow trees that grew in abundance on the wetter parts of the property.

Willow is naturally a very wet wood and needs a good 3-4 years seasoning afore it will burn and then it burns very well indeed.

First I'd cut & split the logs and stack them outside for at least 2 years (uncovered), then I'd barrow them to one of the woodsheds for a further year or two.

Just so long as you leave plenty of space for air to circulate the woodpile, your wood should season without any difficulty.

If you don't know already, burning unseasoned wood (and some seasoned conifers) will clog up your chimney with tar and resin which risks a chimney fire.

Jay.

 

[proteus]

New England stack. I have about 6 maybe 8 cords stacked freestanding. At the end of the stack turn the staves perpendicular to make a shelf slightly angled in. Takes a bit of sorting and searching for the right nice shape for a flat lay. You go about 4 feet up and 8 feet wide to make a face cord. Leave space between the face cords about 6 to 8 inches. You should be able to see through the space to the other side.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

Racks in the garage - last I ordered local the wood was not as represented and maybe this season it will be ready (been drying out three years now so we’ll see). Now I order from some folks up in MN that deliver me dried wood in the varieties I want that burns clean and reliable. Used to chop the firewood for our house in high school - we stored away from the house (termites a real concern) and down by my dog’s run (rarely used - he lived in the house) because that was also convenient to where I chopped the wood. Anyone that wanted it stored closer to the house was welcome to split as much as they wanted, haha. Never covered it, stacked sort of Jenga like. My Dad was good about bringing it in and kept a hearth’s worth in an antique copper boiler that was his mom’s.

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

Well now dagnabit, we say Popple, but it IS Poplar. They're Aspen trees of some sort that going back to my great grandfather I've only ever known as Popple. Point being, it's a soft wood that burns quick but as I said, we don't have much hardwood on the property, it's mostly conifers, red and white pines in the dryer areas and hemlock and cedar in the wet parts with some tamarack mixed in. Maples and oaks are few and far between.

I'm in Michigan and the property (and woodpiles) is in the northern lower peninsula. I appreciate all the help and ideas. I think my problem is two fold, too close to the ground and splitting too much at a time.

I've always thought there were two debates about firewood; covered vs. uncovered and then bark up vs. bark down.

Any additional thoughts or ideas are always welcome! And thank you again.

 

[Gimlet]

Most of my firewood is gathered in autumn and winter from wind-blow. I stack it outside corded with a tin sheets or a tarp over the top to keep the rain off but leave the end grain exposed to the air. I try and build the stack on pallets so air can get underneath.
Log it and split it in summer and stack it in the shed - which is slatted for-flow. Never had any rot and by winter it's always perfectly seasoned.

 

[mawnansmiff]

Well now dagnabit, we say Popple, but it IS Poplar. They're Aspen trees of some sort that going back to my great grandfather I've only ever known as Popple.

The word 'popple' meaning poplar tree goes back to 1229 according to the OED.

Here are some early examples...

1426: [for a] planke of popill 40 shillings...

1550: The oliue, the popil & the osier tree...

1617: The cypresse, pople and oake trees do grow in many places...

The English language, don't you just love it.

Jay.

 

[pantsBoots]

As stated, poplar is prone to rot, unless it is old enough to have developed appreciable heartwood. As soon as the wood starts checking (radial splitting observed from the cut end), start burning it.

Around here, people usually put the wood up on stickers to keep it off the ground, then roofing tin laid on top. Either trees or T-posts on either end of the stack to bookend it, and make sure it can get good amounts of sun. And, yes, keep it away from your house.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Crap, this thread is reminding me to pack a cord of wood into my truck to take up the the NC cabin with me. In AL I have absolutely no need of firewood, but it is much cheaper down here. Plenty of trees.
I would cut it myself, but... I am not as passionate about doing that as some of you guys are.

 

[fireground_piper]

I've been burning for about 10 years, 2-3 cords per year. I get my firewood roughly 1 year in advance of use to allow for proper seasoning and usually I have some left over so I do have some in the 2-3 year lifespan.

I stack it pretty normally.....all in 1 direction as opposed to criss crossing, etc. because it takes less space to just stack it. The rules I strictly follow that work for me (and I'm in a fairly damp environment in northern NJ):

-Stacked on a pallet bed to keep all of it off the ground a few inches to allow for air flow, drainage from rain and drawing from the ground.

-I use 18" long wood and my I cap my row depth to 3 rows deep so there's only 1 row with wood on front/back of the center row so there's not much moisture getting trapped in the center.

-I stack around 6 foot in height just for safety and to manage covering easier.

-The rows can go as long as they want as long as they follow the above.

-I cover in tarp in the winter with sides down to protect against snow buildup through the winter. In late spring, I'll pull the sides up and only leave it tarped on the very top of the pile to protect from direct rain moisture but allow for moisture to escape on all other sides. If you can create your rows under sun even better but I have some that's under tree cover quite a bit. Keeping the surrounding area exposed has worked fine for me though seasoning usually takes a littler longer without direct sun.

All that being said, I'm mostly stacking oak/cherry/maple/ash/walnut but I've yet to have wood rot if it wasn't a sick tree to begin with.

 

[alan73]

I have a never ending supply of red pine and jack pine . My house was built in middle of tree plantation in WI … I have at least 10 years of cut wood , I don’t care if it gets mold or loses 70% of it’s weight , burns great outdoors. I have it at the back of my property line , as I don’t want mice , when I stacked next to house big mouse problem.

I can buy hardwood cords from 100-150 a cord depending on how split the wood is . Better burning wood yes, cheaper no. My wife wants a Solo fire pit , need small hardwood for that only .

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

I found another forum, I don't remember where now, which claimed that the burning of pine causes chimney fires is a myth/old wives tale. We have a LOT of red pine on our property but have only used it as campfire wood. "Popple" in the cabin, and pine in the firepit. This has been a hard and fast rule for generations. Are we goofy? Do any of you burn pine indoors in a wood stove?

Our stove is an antique cast iron front loader. SUPER inefficient, but nice that it takes longer logs so bucking them goes quicker. Some of those really nice soapstone stoves with the catalytic converters need pretty little pieces.