# The Wood Shed-How Close to the House?



## southbalto (Jan 26, 2010)

I've always stored the bulk of my firewood about 60' behind the house against a side fence.

I'd like to build a shed and have a spot picked out about 10' away from the rear corner of the house.  My only concern is the prospect that I might be inviting pests into the house (ants/termites/ect.....).  What is the consensus on here as to a "safe" distance?


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## FLINT (Jan 26, 2010)

hmmm, my wood shed is probably at least 100' from the house, but thats just because that was easiest/best place for it.  

I stack a weeks worth of wood on our front porch, so if there are any pests that want to infest my home I guess they could, haha.  I don't tend to worry about that kind of thing - probably foolish.


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## ISeeDeadBTUs (Jan 26, 2010)

How many BTUs in a wood tick??


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## dvellone (Jan 26, 2010)

I think that it depends on your region and the pests that thrive in that climate. If you're in a climate where termites thrive then you'd probably not want your shed too close. I live in a fairly cold zone with a short summer season. My woodshed is 4' from my wood-framed, pine-sided house and I have no problem whatsoever with insects. Carpenter ants are our worst problem here but they're mostly attracted to rotted and wet wood. I'll find mouse nests occasionally in the rows but have never had one in the house which is sealed well against their entry.


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## LLigetfa (Jan 26, 2010)

For me, the walking distance is about 100 feet versus the distance the crow flies but I wouldn't want it any closer.  Unless you want to get your wood from the covered porch wearing bunny slippers, if you're booting up anyway, what's another hundred feet?

Put it where it looks good and gets lots of sun/wind.


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## pyper (Jan 26, 2010)

Mine's about 80 feet away, but the structure was there when we bought the house.

I think next year I'll work on moving a weeks worth of wood at a time to the porch. I like to go out in my slippers to get wood to start the fire in the morning (though there are no bunnies on them. Honest)

I wouldn't put one 10 feet away because it would potentially attract termites.

When I was a kid my grandparents (up north) had a wood furnace and they had a woodshed that was attached to the house. It was actually the main entrance. And frequently had water on the floor. I remember the stepping stones here and there. My uncle converted it to a bar when they put in the oil furnace (He got a job and no one was available to log trees anymore -- that, and the furnace developed a crack in the firebox.

Anyway, I guess it depends on where you live.


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## ansehnlich1 (Jan 27, 2010)

My stacks are about 30 feet from the house and I have no problems.


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## Lumber-Jack (Jan 27, 2010)

Here is how far away my wood shed is from my wood stove.
Only "pest" we have in the wood shed, so far, is squirrels, and to tell you the truth we enjoy having them around. We even have a container of nuts out there to feed them.
I'm afraid to wear bunny slippers out there, the squirrels might attack them defending their territory.  :ahhh:


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## fossil (Jan 27, 2010)

My shed's about 30 feet from the house.  Rick


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## wood spliter (Jan 27, 2010)

My stack is 10 feet from the house and I put a weeks supply on my covered porch.


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## gzecc (Jan 27, 2010)

30-50 feet.  Too many insects and rodents/animals are atracted to a wood pile/shed.  Now a person can be very festidious about maintaining the cleanliness of a shed, but most are not.  There are exceptions.  Sheds get inhabited by something occasionally, either in it or under it.


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## gyrfalcon (Jan 27, 2010)

dvellone said:
			
		

> I think that it depends on your region and the pests that thrive in that climate. If you're in a climate where termites thrive then you'd probably not want your shed too close. I live in a fairly cold zone with a short summer season. My woodshed is 4' from my wood-framed, pine-sided house and I have no problem whatsoever with insects. Carpenter ants are our worst problem here but they're mostly attracted to rotted and wet wood. I'll find mouse nests occasionally in the rows but have never had one in the house which is sealed well against their entry.



Agreed.  My very old house in VT has an attached enclosed woodshed at the back of the house, and I have zero bug or pest problems, aside from an opossum that gets in once in a while and wanders over the wood stacks and leaves a few piles of poop here or there.

But we don't have a termite problem this far north, mice have many, many ways of getting into this old of a house anyway (to the cats' delight), and the odd carpenter ant has nothing to work with and mostly just gets tossed into the fire.


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## savageactor7 (Jan 27, 2010)

imo I'd go by geography. Up here there's no poisonous snakes or termites so a lean-to off the back of the house is pretty convenient and safe.


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## firefighterjake (Jan 27, 2010)

As others have mentioned, deciding where to put your shed probably depends a lot on what you have for potential pests. My woodshed is 15-feet or so from the corner of the house . . . about a 25 foot walk out to the shed . . . but I don't wear bunny slippers . . . I have a pair of old firefighter boots I wear when going to the shed . . . although I also keep a week-2 weeks worth of wood on my covered porch and I often walk out there wearing nothing more than my boxer shorts and a T-shirt . . . sometimes less. 

Up here termites are not a problem . . . heck, another bug I have yet to see in my life is a cockroach. We do have carpenter ants, but all wood that is put in my shed is done well after the carpenter ants have left and so far, so good . . . I haven't seen any ants . . . or other bugs . . . or animals for that matter. I thought I saw a mouse nest the other day . . . but it may have just been some debris . . . in any case, four cats = few mice.

I placed the woodshed where it was since it was partly built on the cement piers of an old and very large swingset . . . plus it also screened out the neighbor. If I was to build it again, I would put it in the same place at the same distance . . . it's worked out well.


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