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Covering the wood pile

Started by mattNH, November 12, 2012, 04:45:45 PM

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mattNH

I have neighbors who always cover and some that never cover their wood piles.  Both sides of the argument are passionate and think the other is stupid.  I sit in the middle and smile.

I attached a picture of my wood pile uncovered from last weekend.  The seasoned is now covered and the unseasoned is exposed. 

So what do you do, cover or not?   

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levans

I leave mine uncovered through the summer and before the winter rains and snow start I cover it with black plastic or old metal roofing, this has always worked for Me.

clww

I've never covered any wood piles.
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NWP

I always tell people to leave them uncovered. Once you are using it and if it is going to rain/snow, just cover enough to keep the wood dry from the precip. so it's ready to go.
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sprucebunny

I use the splitter to make 'shingles' out of some of the 12"+ diameter straight grained logs. They are about an inch thick. Lay them on top of the pile with a little pitch until it's time to move the pile to the porch. The wood is on 4x4 pallets.
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stumper

I will provide some insights from Pete Lammert, now retired forester from the Maine Forest Service.  Pete is an awesome wealth of knowledge about the utilization of wood in any form and I know he heated some with wood.   The state lost a lot with his retirement. 

On the subject of covering or not.  Cover it, but the cover should be above the pile not on the pile.  The cover should keep the rain and snow off but allow the sun to heat it and the wind to blow through.  This can be done by suspending a tarp above the pile, or inj my case a wood shed with no wall coverings.

I think everyone aggrees that the wood whould be off the ground.  Pallet work as does a shed.

The other pearl of his wisdom I alway remember regarded piling.  The wood should be piled such that a mouse could run through it, but the cat chasing it could not.

Professor Richard Hill of the University of Maine has done a ton of work on heating with wood, and likely we all have some of his work in our boilers, was supportive of the "Rick" method, but I do not remember what he said about covering.

brendonv

My woods on pallets, stacked along the outside, fed with a conveyor into a pile in the middle.  I'll cover the top before we get snow.  You have to let the air hit the sides. 

My buddy had his wood totally covered for a year.  Boy was that wood still soaking wet the day he took the tarp off.
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Al_Smith

Mine is on pallets also .Probabley around 16-18 cord of which I'll only use 4 or 5 all winter .It's all tarped .

If I get any wet when I move it it just gets restacked and it isn't very much .What stuff I might cut over the winter just gets stacked and not tarped .That amount just depends on the weather because I've froze my butt off all my life and have reached a point in life I don't have to any more .

Now some might like to act like they are polar bears ,not I .

thecfarm

I had a wood shed at my other house. None here. I use to cover my wood to keep the snow off it. Now with my OWB is not that big of a deal. But if I was bringing wood inside of a house to burn,I myself would not want snow and ice on it.
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doctorb

I play both ends of this discussion.  I have a wood shed which surrounds my OWB on 3 sides, so the issue of covering wood there is moot.  I also stack a smaller volume of wood outside on consecutive pallets.  I leave it uncovered.  When the weather is dry during the heating season, I'll take seasoned wood from the outside pile.  When wet or snowy, the fuel comes from inside the shed.  As soon as any area within the shed (I have 5 different places to stack wood there from 2.5 - 4.5 cords each) is emptied, I replenish it.  I do all this to minimize the moving of wood.  i pefer to keep the shed as full as possible.  I obviously benefit from living in an area that does not get snow cover all winter, and that does not freeze for weeks at a time.  I would imagine that uncovered wet wood that then freezes would be a pain.
My father once said, "This is my son who wanted to grow up and become a doctor.  So far, he's only become a doctor."

Al_Smith

Well yeah Doc you about have to beat on it with a hammer to get the ice off .

We get that freeze and thaw also in these parts .Every so often though it gets cold and stays cold .

Oh I know people who  just mound it up in a big heap evidently to make a home for the possums and ground hogs and occassional skunk perhaps .I prefer to stack it myself although it takes an effort of sorts .At least the largest varmit I might get is a chipmonk  but all they do is provide sport for the owls and hawks and occassional stray cat .

yellowrosefarm

The first year we lived out here I didn't have a firewood shed. So I covered the pile before it snowed with a blue tarp. While I was at work, the wind got up and blew the tarp off, allowing 16" of snow to cover and soak it good. I struggled the rest of the winter trying to get that wood to burn and listening to the sizzle of the water evaporating. The next summer I built a shed and that served well for the next 20 years. Then I got the OWB and needed more storage so I got the live floor wagon you can see in my other post.  The rest of the big pile gets covered with a huge tarp I got free off of C-List. It's something like 60x80 and black on one side which I keep facing up. It's also full of mouse chewed holes so it lets air circulate. The only way I would go tarpless is if I had the time and patience to make one of those stacks where every piece is standing on end. I've seen a lot of those down in SW VA and imagine the weather sheds off like a split shake roof.

wheelinguy

we stack all of our wood on pallets, it hasn't been covered in the past.  This always leads to having to scrape of the snow and break the blocks apart.  This year we put some tubes in the ground with the intent of building a shed to cover the pile.  Never got to the shed building, but all the free sheets of roofing tin we got are laying on the stacks.  With the little bit of weather that we have had so far this year I am already glad to have the wood covered. :) so long story short I would go with covered but not enclosed.

Local4Fitter

I stack all my wood on pallets and cover just the top with free lumber covers (black side out) that I got from the local lumber yard. Next year I will build an open sided wood shed around the boiler.
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muddstopper

My freshly split just stays in the piles until it is dry. The dry stuff I stack under a Carolina type carport, just the roof and open on all sides. I try to keep close to two years worth stacked under the carport and it just depends on how much I can find that gets left in piles around the carport.

shelbycharger400

only one of my 7 + piles has a tarp on it.
Im burning stuff that isnt tarped right now. althou it did snow a bit, it isnt bad. I hate digging out firewood in deep snow.

The blue tarps basically only keep the snow off. they do very small amount as to keep water off, they leak like a sive on anything that pools in an area.

Autocar

I have a woodshed that holds probably three cords then I have about four cords just across the drive way from the garage. And I cover the top with black plastic. Like Al says you can have a inch of ice or wet snow froze to your wood and it becomes a pain in a hurry. If I hear on the weather we are suppose to get snow I try to cover the side that the snow is coming from. And normally if we get a northeast wind and they call for snow you better cover your woodpile  ;D
Bill

r.man

Besides having a foot or three of snow, crust etc on the top of your pile, if a tarp is not between that and your wood the water will have run into the pile and built up ice on the pieces as well as freezing them together. Break the wood apart and then chisel off the worst of the ice with an ax and then have it half kill your coals. In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it.
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muddstopper

Rman, I think this sentence about sums up the whole debate.

"In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it."

If you plan on using your wood soon, why would you want it to be wet, froze, covered in snow, just before you put it in your stove. Nothing wrong in letting wood you dont intend to use right away, to be left in piles in the weather, it will season faster that way. Once seasoned and ready for use, stack it in the dry.

Logging logginglogging

Quote from: r.man on November 25, 2012, 05:16:25 PM
Besides having a foot or three of snow, crust etc on the top of your pile, if a tarp is not between that and your wood the water will have run into the pile and built up ice on the pieces as well as freezing them together. Break the wood apart and then chisel off the worst of the ice with an ax and then have it half kill your coals. In my climate any wood being used in the present winter needs to be under a roof or a tarp, no debate about it.

Same here you must have a wood shed to have good dry efficient wood.

Al_Smith

Unless we get drowned with a winter rain usually the snow will only go down to maybe the first layer of wood in a stack if the tarp leaks .If it's wet like a sponge just toss it aside and get the dry .It'll dry out again then you can burn it some time .

Last winter I had a pretty good pile of bass wood which is about a poor of firewood as there is .I had been giving it away for camp fire wood .Been rained and snowed on all year .

Towards the end of the heating season it had been dry for a while and I burned a little of it when the temps were not as cold as mid winter .It did just fine believe it or not .

proteus

I have always stacked my wood on pallets and cover only the top with roofing paper. It gets a little messy cleaning things up in the spring, but get a lot of air flow which is critical for the drying process. I tried a tarp one year and it collected too much water. The water of course would freeze and make it difficult to get to the wood. I should have cut drain holes but didn't weant to ruin a good tarp ;D . I like to handle the wood as few times a possible so i stack it green cover it and use  it when it is ready.
Greg

Local4Fitter

Just came in from loading the boiler. The side of my 2400 has a sticker that says " wood should be split, covered, and allowed to season for at least 6 months. Makes sense to me.
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Al_Smith

Well yeah that's probabley the way it should be stoked .However I've seen the larger models  fired from 40 pound chunks loaded in by the help of a skidloader .About half green but with a forced draft blower they will burn anything that will fit through the door .Chicken bones ,disposable diapers ,the neighbors cat ,you name it .

DDDfarmer

I thought I saw a putty cat...... :D
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