# stacking to prevent falling over



## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

I will be building lumber racks soon and stacking wood, they will be similar to the one pictured.
12' long and 7-8' tall.  How should I stack to prevent the wood from falling out of it?  Should I sub divide it so I have 2x 6' wide sections?  I was planning to stack to at least 6' high, if not 7'.

They will be lined up along the side of my house so there won't be much force from wind blowing it over, just the settling causing the stack to shift.


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## Stax (Feb 23, 2012)

Brian...nice rack!  Kinda sounds weird telling a dude that.  I would recommend subdivisions for two reasons...

1.  If you're scrounging...you never know the size of the scrounge.  If you c/s/s asap and then scrounge again, well then you're gonna have to offload.  I should have done that when I built mine.  Guess I have just been lazy lately.  
2.  Great for separating species regarding drying time.  

Below are mine, very similar.  Mine measure 16'x1'x6, holding approximately a cord.  I soon want to create subdivisions and add tin roofing.


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## Stax (Feb 23, 2012)

As for stacking...bark down and practice.  There's no other way to do it.


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## RORY12553 (Feb 23, 2012)

Had my Sunday afternoon work fall over the other day and trust me it is no fun. Haven't been doing this long but I should have just restacked the top it seemed a little shaky.


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## Woody Stover (Feb 23, 2012)

brian89gp said:
			
		

> How should I stack to prevent the wood from falling out of it?


I'm pretty sure you could stack it any old way, and in the rack it's not going to fall out as long as the base is stable and the rack can't sink into the ground and tilt. SIL has similar racks and has never had a problem.


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## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

Woody Stover said:
			
		

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That is good to know.  My entire yard is concrete, so the racks will be on sturdy ground

Would 7' be too tall?  The rack itself is 8'.

I will divide the racks in half so that if they do fall out I only loose one section.


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## basod (Feb 23, 2012)

Even with your entire yard being concrete, I still don't think its a good idea to stack wood next to the house.
Termites can move through the finest of cracks and take up residence in your walls.


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## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

Masonry house.  30" thick stacked stone foundation and 18" thick brick wall on top of that.


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## basod (Feb 23, 2012)

Damn,  I didn't think Fort Knox was in Kansas!
Sounds like an old house to be that thick and all masonry.


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## Woody Stover (Feb 23, 2012)

brian89gp said:
			
		

> My entire yard is concrete, so the racks will be on sturdy ground
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> Would 7' be too tall?  The rack itself is 8'.
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> I will divide the racks in half so that if they do fall out I only loose one section.


How deep will the racks be (how long do you cut your wood to fit in your stove?) If the racks are on concrete, I really don't think you'll have to worry about them tilting or any wood falling out. As far as the height, I don't think 7' would be too tall.
Even if you're not worried about termites or other insect pests, it would be better to have the racks a little further from the house where the wind can blow through the stacks better.


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## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

Two story Victorian, built in 1890.  The thickness from what I have gathered is to support its own weight.....It is very quiet inside despite being in an urban setting.

Average 18" length, racks will be two deep.  I was going to leave 6-12 " between the back rack and the house, it won't catch a huge amount of wind but it should be enough.  I was going to use 32" pieces occasionally to tie the two stacks together for stability


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## KB007 (Feb 23, 2012)

Couple of things:
1) use stainless screws - definitely NOT deck screws - they rust and break way too fast (only stack i had fall over was from the end falling from broken deck screws
2) just check 'em every once in a while - I walk around (usually with one of the doggies) and give them a little tapping with a split when I see stuff startring to lurch a little.

With a nice rack like that what about putting in a couple of diagonal 2x4's to keep them from falling over??  or even a couple of side rails at 4' and 6'?  I've often thought about that, but I've given up staking more than about 5 ft high cuz I use pallets, never got ot building actual racks


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## Ralphie Boy (Feb 23, 2012)

Is that pressure treated wood? (for the rack, not the firewood!)


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## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

The ones I am building are pressure treated, the image is just something I found on the internet and am copying the design.


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## Ralphie Boy (Feb 23, 2012)

I think I shall copy it as well! How deep is it?


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## brian89gp (Feb 23, 2012)

http://endofordinary.blogspot.com/2009/05/firewood-racks.html


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## Ralphie Boy (Feb 25, 2012)

Got it! Thanks!


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## bogydave (Feb 25, 2012)

Very nice,;
off the ground, single rows, good air circulation, perfect for fire wood !! 

Like you mentioned:
Wood stacked in single rows over 4' high, the CG makes them unstable.
I would worry about kids wanting to climb on them & being top heavy & only a 12" width base,  tipping over. 
 I'd find a way to attach the top (rope, cable, brace)  to a wall so they cant' tip forward. 
In my area, earth quakes could topple them if not secured near the top.
In an open area: 3 of them spaced a foot or so apart, & braced to each other would make a bigger foot print (5' to 6') & be more sable & still allow good air circulation.

Great post. Good idea.


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## Gark (Feb 25, 2012)

Those stacking racks look really cool and I think you could pile up 7' high in ' em if you keep the sides vertical.  The splits shrink in diameter as they dry and not uniformly. This requires occasional straightening the ends so they remain vertical (not leaning) by thunking them back into plumb. Here, this is done about every 3 - 4 weeks in warm weather which requires a cold beverage.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 25, 2012)

Stax said:
			
		

> As for stacking...bark down and practice.  There's no other way to do it.



And I have to ask, why bark down? Most of us stack bark up.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 25, 2012)

brian89gp said:
			
		

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Brian, in the rack I doubt that would be too tall. We stack without a rack and stack approximately 4 1/2' high. In 50+ years of this, I've had exactly one partial fall with the wood. We just lay down poles we cut in the woods to stack the wood on. Nothing for a rack and not even posts on the ends. Just stack the wood good and it will hold.....usually. But in the racks there should be no problem....except for stacking that high. It is a bit of a reach to go  7-8' high.


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## 19FarmHand78 (Feb 26, 2012)

Brian, I gotta put my Fire Chief helmet on here... You might want to check with both your insurance agency and the local fire department about staking wood next to your house. Stone and brick are fire proof, windows are not. I have made guys move there stacks away from the house after doing inspections for insurance companies... would be bad enough to loose your wood supply to a fire, but then to ad house damage would really suck.

Just my 2 cents,
19FarmHand78 aka Nathan


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## ohlongarm (Feb 26, 2012)

I've alaways stacked wood up sheds water well and seems to work.whatever makes ya happy.


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## brian89gp (Feb 26, 2012)

I will check with the insurance company just to be sure.  When I asked them about installing fireplaces the response was literally "it will cost $100 extra per year, let us know when they are in".  No inspections, nothing.  Out of curiosity, what will cause a woodpile to catch on fire?  Even with all my years growing up in the country it is not something I have heard of before.

I could pretty easily tie together the two racks to each other and/or attach them to the wall.  I have the first one built and am working on leveling it today, I made mine 12' long and 7' high.  Pretty stout rack.

My only correction to the plan is the 2x4 cut to 11.5" length should really be 12".  You can't stack pieces in the corners where the 45* braces are so I am sticking my really uglies in there from the ends.


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

brian89gp said:
			
		

> Out of curiosity, what will cause a woodpile to catch on fire?


Is that a rhetorical question?  A spark or a flame could start it on fire.  A spark could come from the chimney, a grass or brush fire, a kid with matches, a disgruntled neighbour, etc..

I worry about my wood stacks catching fire.  I always watch which way the wind is blowing when I burn down my brush piles.  I built my woodshed far enough away from the house so that the house stood a chance if it caught fire.  I don't store gasoline near my woodshed.  My outdoor stacks are far away from the house.


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

The wood in my shed is so tinder dry that I worry about any spark setting it off.  My woodshed is divided into two sections and I keep a lightbulb in the section I am taking wood from.  I even worry about rodents chewing the wire for the light, so I flip the switch in the house to cut the power to the shed.  I know there are rodents cuz I see their tracks in the snow and find their nests in the stacks.

The other night I was out there after dark to bring in some splits but they were all too big for what I needed so I had to resplit some.  I keep a chopping block in the dark side of the shed for resplitting and was surprised to see sparks fly when I whacked the wood with my little 2-1/2 pound axe.


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

Apologies for participating in the digression... back on topic... how to keep stacks from falling over.

1. Stack on a firm base.  If the base is prone to move, widen it using pallets or some such material.  I stack my wet wood in two rows on pallets and limit their height to 4 feet.  Before the pallets and before I had a woodshed, I was building a base of criss-crossed poles and stacking in three rows.  I used 5 foot long poles on the crib ends to tie the three rows together.

2. Restack wood after it is dry.  Wet wood shrinks a lot and as it shrinks, it can topple a pile.  If stacking in other than single spaced rows it can shrink more on the exposed face, causing it to curl and lean.  After drying on pallets for a few years, I restack 9-1/2 feet high in my woodshed with no spacing.  Again, I used 5 foot long poles on the crib ends to keep the ends from blowing out.  You can see them in this pic at about the 4 foot level.

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qNw1H5D1WJE/SbpOjAKd1ZI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/UzcHOM2lIzE/s640/100_0296.JPG


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## Ralphie Boy (Feb 26, 2012)

Backwoods Savage said:
			
		

> Stax said:
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I'm new so I could be all wrong here, but, from what I've read in this forum and other online sources, stack splits bark down because the bark acts like a "cap" slowing the moisture removal process from the wood. Always cover the top of the stack, tarps, sheet metal and so on. If you can't cover the top of your stack, turn the splits bark side up on the top rows to prevent as much rain as possible from soaking into the wood. Again the idea is the bark acts as a "cap" greatly slowing the moisture moving process.

Wow, I hope I don't start a "fire" with this statement. it's just what I've read. I love to here what everyone else thinks.


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

Bark up or down won't keep the stacks from falling over.  Search the forum on the topic of bark if you want to know what everyone else thinks.


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## bigoakhunter (Feb 26, 2012)

These are my set ups that are similiar to the ones posted in this thread. I slant them slightly and they have a metal pole barn tin roof. As long as they have enough bottom runners and you stack them full, they do not have any issues with wood falling out. Mine hold two rows, back to back . Keeps water and snow off the wood and allow wind and sunshine in! I have built several more and some neighbors have copied the idea around here.


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

As an experiment one year, I decided to stack half of my fresh split Birch inside my roundtop.  I built a 12'  x 8' base of poles and stacked 5 rows tight together about 10 feet tall.  The two end rows dried much faster and shrunk much more than the ones in the middle and so developed a bad lean.  I kept pounding them back, trying to keep them plumb, but it was futile and they eventually toppled.  The 10 foot tall stacks shrunk by about a foot.

I may repeat the experiment but just heap them instead of stack and use pallets for the base and to line the walls instead of cribbing.


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## Bigg_Redd (Feb 26, 2012)

brian89gp said:
			
		

> I will be building lumber racks soon and stacking wood, they will be similar to the one pictured.
> 12' long and 7-8' tall.  *How should I stack to prevent the wood from falling out of it?* Should I sub divide it so I have 2x 6' wide sections?  I was planning to stack to at least 6' high, if not 7'.
> 
> They will be lined up along the side of my house so there won't be much force from wind blowing it over, just the settling causing the stack to shift.



1) Plumb

2) Level


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## LLigetfa (Feb 26, 2012)

Bigg_Redd said:
			
		

> 1) Plumb
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> 2) Level


#1, really important.  #2, not so much.


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## Backwoods Savage (Feb 26, 2012)

Ralph said:
			
		

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I stack bark up. Not only that, but most of the time also stack 3 rows together and have stacked more than that and have never had a problem. Just to give an example, we stack approximately 4 1/2 feet high. We stack the wood in March or April. By October those stacks are down to or under 4' high. Methinks that says there has been some major evaporation of moisture. We do top cover before the snow flies. 

One more thing about stacking bark down is that moisture can get between the bark and the wood. If so, it sits there and takes a long, long time to dry. I do not want that to happen to our wood. Well, one more thing. I've tried to stack bark down and it just stacks easier bark up. But each to his own.


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## bogydave (Feb 26, 2012)

Some good ideas, pictures  & info on this thread.
Nice racks, mini wood sheds, wood sheds, stacking techniques, & locations for insurance & fire prevention info.
Covered allot of bases.

All Good topics 

I may use a few this year


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## brian89gp (Feb 26, 2012)

LLigetfa said:
			
		

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No, not rhetorical, just poorly worded.  The thought of a wood pile catching on fire from anything other then a freak accident or a deliberate attempt to light it is foreign to me.  I have never seen nor heard of a a wood pile catching fire even growing up in an area that a majority of people heat by wood and routinely burn brush piles and fields.  Perhaps its a differences in wood between where you are and here, most wood here would not light with a spark or match unless it was popcorn fart dry.


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## brian89gp (Feb 26, 2012)

Got the first one built and stacked, 6.5' tall.  It is surprisingly sturdy but I will probably anchor it to the house for those freak acts of nature.

For the record, I used 12' long lumber for the length and 7' tall 2x4's for the height.  Leaving out the space for the triangular braces on the bottom gives me 106 cubic feet, so just shy of a cord per rack.


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## DanCorcoran (Feb 26, 2012)

Fire in the woodpile: my cabin is a woodpile.


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## Realstone (Feb 26, 2012)

:coolgrin: 





			
				LLigetfa said:
			
		

> https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-qNw1H5D1WJE/SbpOjAKd1ZI/AAAAAAAAAJ0/UzcHOM2lIzE/s640/100_0296.JPG



That is the sexiest thing I have ever seen   :coolgrin:


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