# Cover your stacks - plywood



## Ashful (Aug 29, 2014)

So, we all know we need to cover our stacks, at least here in the Atlantic states.  We also know tarps tend to tear or sag and collect water, often despite our best efforts to make them shed.

Plywood is a cheap, easily obtainable, and almost infinitely reusable solution.  It might look a little less offensive in the back yard, versus roofing scraps , too.

Attachment method:  nails vs screws.  Screws can be more easily removed when there's not snow and ice covering them , but nails probably when there is.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 29, 2014)

For the stuff outside of the wood shed anymore I just cover it with black sheet plastic. The hammer tacker makes short work of holding it down and staples don't take up much space in the ash bed.

But that rubber roofing is hard to beat if you don't have a shed.


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## Ashful (Aug 29, 2014)

I was buying those 24" wide rolls of heavy black plastic made for planting beds, and attached with the hammer tacker, too.  Trouble is, my stacks are 40" wide x 100 feet long.  Two swaths of 24" always leaked where I overlapped them.

I'd like to find a 48" wide roll of the same, but have never seen it.


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## BrotherBart (Aug 29, 2014)

Anymore I just cut it in one stack wide strips. Since the stuff is going into the shed in April and the solar gable fan will be blowing into the shed all Summer and Fall.

Rolls of twenty foot wide is available at Home Depot. A box cutter goes through it like hot butter.


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## Beer Belly (Aug 30, 2014)

I quickly framed out wood shed using scraps from when the previous owner built the deck on the house.....found in the woods out back 6) 4x4x8's.....a couple of 2x10's, then my buddies sister was building a new deck.....grabbed what scraps I could, and then a Tractor Trailer must of lost his heavy duty tarp....found it on the side of the road, man that thing is huge.....cut it to cover the shed, and some stacks....so far I've spent less that $10 on the shed....I know, pictures


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## Todd 2 (Aug 31, 2014)

4 x 8 sheets of plywood have worked great for myself, I use the pontoon decking we tear off at work when we redeck one. It helps getting it for free but it works so well that I would buy it now if I had to. I use 2 ropes at each end over the top and tie to something jammed into the stack down lower, no screws or nails to mess with under the snow that way. No water lays on top and no hidden frozen splits in the middle of your stack from leaks or seams when you stack wide.
 I think a carport will do well also ( I keep looking at them )  one of the heavier made ones that will not collapse under snow weight like Brother Bart told a story about


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## Charlie2 (Aug 31, 2014)

Covering your stacks seem like a no brainer, but it's a bit more complicated in practice. (Sort of like in theory everything is great but in practice it ain't, or something like that) 
   I can see if you have enough over hang to keep a driving rain from reaching the stack, it would be good, but most rains/fronts are proceeded and accompanied by winds. Around here, it's common to see the rain falling at a 45 degree angle, more sometimes , less sometimes, but 75% of the time it's 45 degrees or more. We are taught here to stack our stacks so that the winds and sun can work best for drying, ie- sideways to the prevailing winds. So,-----if you as Bart is showing, put a narrow strip of plastic on top of a stack, how in the world is that going to keep the stack dryer? The only pieces of wood that won't receive a good drenching would be the pieces directly beneath the plastic and after the rain those few dry pieces will trapped under plastic like a cigar in a humidor.   
   Bart, please take no offense, I'll not live long enough to know a fraction of what you know.  I'm just trying to figure this stuff and I ain't spitting in a dry creek bed.


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## Lumber-Jack (Aug 31, 2014)

I don't think the rain hitting the sides is a big issue as most of it will run right off, and what does get wet will easily dry off when it stops raining.  What I see as a problem is the wood in the middle of the background stack. If it's wet when it gets covered it will never dry, and likely rot under there, and if it is dry when it got covered it will probably start sucking up moisture from the ground. 
Because the foreground stack is only two rows wide it should dry quicker and be less prone to sucking up moisture from the ground.


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## Charlie2 (Aug 31, 2014)

Jack,  I was really only addressing the single stack issue.  If a 45 degree blown rain hits a single stack, it'll pretty much wet the stack, which you say will dry right out, wouldn't it dry right out without the top covering just as quickly?


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## Lumber-Jack (Aug 31, 2014)

Charlie2 said:


> Jack,  I was really only addressing the single stack issue.  If a 45 degree blown rain hits a single stack, it'll pretty much wet the stack, which you say will dry right out, wouldn't it dry right out without the top covering just as quickly?


If you don't have a top cover may only get most of the one side wet from the 45 deg rain (I'm assuming it's coming 45 deg from the side and not the end of the stack), but it will also hit the top as well, so you will get more water on the wood. And yes a lot of people don't bother to cover at all and it seems to work out for them because the stacks dry right out, providing they single, or at the very most double row stack. A lot depends on the type of weather you get in your area. However, snow was the bigger issue for me before I had a woodshed, not rain. When it would snow it would sit right on top of the wood and slowly melt and run down into the stacks. then often freeze again leaving the wood in a big messy block of snow and ice. A simple top cover takes care of that problem.
The issue I was pointing out with BB's wood was the one huge cover he is using. If I did that around here the wood in the middle would never dry, and if it would get very humid in the middle area under that tarp, likely causing the wood in the middle to absorb moisture again. Perhaps he also has a moisture membrane under that wood pile preventing the moisture from coming up out of the ground, I don't know?


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## Ashful (Aug 31, 2014)

Well, I have a new twist on my old solution.  I pulled out the old roll of black plastic, and found it's actually 3 feet wide.  Since I stack double-wide on pallets, I just turned a few splits on top of each row to run lengthwise with the stacks, and they're setting near the center of my double-wide rows, to act as a ridge.  Two swaths of 3' plastic overlapping in the middle on these ridge splits and stapled over each edge of the stack, should run off nicely.  It also enables me to remove one row in the double wide, while leaving the other row covered.  Good enough for me.


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## Charlie2 (Sep 1, 2014)

Ah yes Jack, I keep forgetting some people have to contend with snow. It's a state holiday if we get snow.


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## Butcher (Sep 1, 2014)

Kinda hard out here to keep anything on a wood pile so I don't bother.


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## Woody Stover (Sep 1, 2014)

Butcher said:


> Kinda hard out here to keep anything on a wood pile


Including water. Probably dry 15 minutes after it stops raining, with that wind.


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## Ashful (Sep 1, 2014)

Woody Stover said:


> Including water. Probably dry 15 minutes after it stops raining, with that wind.


Yeah... but it's hard running a woodstove on cornstalks!  Where's the trees?


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## Butcher (Sep 1, 2014)

Joful said:


> Yeah... but it's hard running a woodstove on cornstalks!  Where's the trees?


 Plenty of trees but with farm ground going for the price it does around here (over 12K per acre) you wont find many trees on crop land.


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## Fred Wright (Sep 1, 2014)

Tried the plywood cover route some years ago when we tore down an old shed. It's a great wood stack cover but seemed to be more of a hassle than plastic sheeting. As the stacks were used the plywood kept falling off.

I prefer the plastic sheeting. We got a roll of it back when for a moisture barrier under the house. There's still a lot left over. I cut a length off the roll wide enough to cover 6 feet and unfold it to 20' length. Yup, it holds rainwater and that's an annoyance. But it's flexible and stays put as the stacks go down.


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## BCC_Burner (Sep 2, 2014)

Lumber-Jack said:


> If you don't have a top cover may only get most of the one side wet from the 45 deg rain (I'm assuming it's coming 45 deg from the side and not the end of the stack), but it will also hit the top as well, so you will get more water on the wood. And yes a lot of people don't bother to cover at all and it seems to work out for them because the stacks dry right out, providing they single, or at the very most double row stack. A lot depends on the type of weather you get in your area. However, snow was the bigger issue for me before I had a woodshed, not rain. When it would snow it would sit right on top of the wood and slowly melt and run down into the stacks. then often freeze again leaving the wood in a big messy block of snow and ice. A simple top cover takes care of that problem.
> The issue I was pointing out with BB's wood was the one huge cover he is using. If I did that around here the wood in the middle would never dry, and if it would get very humid in the middle area under that tarp, likely causing the wood in the middle to absorb moisture again. Perhaps he also has a moisture membrane under that wood pile preventing the moisture from coming up out of the ground, I don't know?




Based on a few people on the other forum using the cube method for their wood storage, it seems that the middle row dries out just fine if you have 2-3 years to let it sit.  

My wood racks have frames, so I attach clear sections of plastic roofing to them for the summer months, then pull those and cover with 12 mil tarps for the winter.  I size those so that they extend down 2-3 feet.  This keeps a lot of the wind-driven snow and rain out, but still allows for some airflow.


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## Lumber-Jack (Sep 2, 2014)

BCC_Burner said:


> Based on a few people on the other forum using the cube method for their wood storage,* it seems that the middle row dries out just fine if you have 2-3 years to let it sit.  *
> .


I wouldn't count on that if you have the cube completely covered with a big sheet of plastic. Not only will it be hard for the moisture already in the wood to escape, but the moisture from the ground will be drawn up and trapped under the plastic and re-saturate the wood. You'd be better off not covering it at all, at least then the moisture could escape out the top when it's not raining.


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## S Roche (Oct 13, 2014)

We have a couple of siding companies in the area so I can get the pieces of house wrap (Tyvek) which isn't the most durable but is better than blue tarps or black plastic. Not the best  but the price is right.


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 13, 2014)

S Roche said:


> We have a couple of siding companies in the area so I can get the pieces of house wrap (Tyvek) which isn't the most durable but is better than blue tarps or black plastic. Not the best  but the price is right.


What is even better is Lumber Wrap material. It can often be obtained free from lumber yards where they generally throw it in the garbage after they sell the lifts of lumber that it was used to cover. This material is strong, UV treated, free, and specifically designed to protect wood from the elements for long periods of time. What's not to like?
http://www.interwrap.com/protective-packaging/weatherpro-lumber-wrap.html


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## Enzo's Dad (Oct 13, 2014)

I am going to put another 2 cords on pallets.....this will be perfect to cover it....about double the cost of plywood but will last forever.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_12747-1115-...RL=?Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar|1&facetInfo=


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## Ashful (Oct 13, 2014)

If that stuff could be purchased with the corrugations running the short length, it would be ideal for those of us stacking in long rows.  As it is, it will just dump all rain off the ends into the middle of my long row stacks.


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## Enzo's Dad (Oct 13, 2014)

I was thinking of a salt box roof water would all run to one side.


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 13, 2014)

Call me crazy! but if I'm gona spend money on roofing material to cover my firewood, I'd want to put it on a roof of a woodshed.  
But that's just me.


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## Enzo's Dad (Oct 13, 2014)

It was just a thought...and plywood is not cheap.   And I did build a shed


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## Ashful (Oct 13, 2014)

Lumber-Jack said:


> Call me crazy! but if I'm gona spend money on roofing material to cover my firewood, I'd want to put it on a roof of a woodshed.
> But that's just me.


Baby steps.  Free time is in shorter supply than money.


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 14, 2014)

Enzo's Dad said:


> It was just a thought...and *plywood is not cheap*.   And I did build a shed


That's for sure. 
I can't agree with your original post Joful._"*Plywood is a cheap*, easily obtainable, and almost *infinitely reusable solution*."_
I just bought some 5/8" construction grade plywood for a project, and with tax it was nearly $40 a sheet. At that price I made sure I didn't leave it out in the rain to start de-laminating or soaking up water and warping. 
See if you can grab some free lumber wrap next time you are at the lumber yard, try covering your wood with some of that. You can cut it to the exact size you want and use screws and small pieces of plywood scraps to pin the wrap down and keep it tight so water doesn't pool on the top.


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## Ashful (Oct 14, 2014)

Yeah, at $40 a sheet, I'd be thinking twice about it, too.  I can still find 7/16" ply (underlayment or sheathing) around here for $12/sheet.  It's not going to last 20 years, but for this application, it doesn't need to.


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## Diabel (Oct 14, 2014)

I use plywood. These sheets are about 6yrs old.


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## Cluttermagnet (Oct 15, 2014)

Jack- I think you are right about the lumber wrap. I'd been hearing about this for some years. Just recently got some free from a local yard. The guy was real nice and I think I could probably get more if I need it. I used mostly the cheap blue tarps the past seven years. They are 'OK' but do have problems including gathering pools of water in low spots, poor UV resistance and rapid wearout. I'm impressed with the quality of the wrap I just got. Looks like it ought to last a few years, and the price was right.

I'm going to follow BrotherBart's advice and use at least cardboard or else plywood scraps to try to get things level under those tarps. He's right about wind rubbing tarps across high/sharp spots and shredding them. I've had only a couple of mine do that. Mostly I think it's UV damage, however, that leads to the tarps shredding. So maybe these lumber wraps will stand up better to UV...

BTW do they resist sunlight less if you place them with the black underliner on top? White is a bit more of an eyesore, especially with some of the graphics printed on some of them. I placed a few of them black side up...


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 15, 2014)

Cluttermagnet said:


> BTW *do they resist sunlight less if you place them with the black underliner on top?* White is a bit more of an eyesore, especially with some of the graphics printed on some of them. I placed a few of them black side up...


That's a good question. They certainly are designed with specific layers and no doubt the best UV protection would be built into the exposed (printed) layer, so I would have to assume that by flipping them over they might become less UV resistant, how much less I can't say. Perhaps you'll be able to tell us in a couple years.
I use a lot of this lumber wrap material on my stucco contracting job. I use it as a typical tarp for covering material, and like a drop sheet for protecting sidewalks, paving stones, roofs, flowerbed, etc.., and I also use it as a liner in the back of my truck bed for hauling sand or other materials, it makes it easy to pull the tarp wrap to get the last bit of material cleanly out of the back of the truck. I generally just throw it away after I'm done with it, but in some cases I've seen it last for 5 years or more. Lots of people use it in place of landscaping fabric under rocks or bark chips to prevent weeds from growing through.
It's very versatile, and the thing is once you find a source, meaning you figure out how to acquire it before they throw it away, you have an endless free supply.


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## BurnIt13 (Oct 15, 2014)

Wait....we are supposed to cover our stacks???


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 15, 2014)

BurnIt13 said:


> Wait....we are supposed to cover our stacks???


Nah, what we are suppose to do is stack our wood in our woodsheds, covering our stacks is just a half measure.


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## maple1 (Oct 15, 2014)

I will be using some used steel roofing this winter, I think. Should last a lot longer than plywood, and at 32" is just about the right width for a double stack. And is free. A lot of this covering stuff comes down to what you have kicking around or can get you hands on for not much.

But no matter what I would use, I don't think I would get into any of this fastening it down procedure. Just put another layer of wood on top & it won't go anywhere. I haven't done much top covering at all anyway, but any time I did, it was with tarp material, and the only way I could get much satisfaction out of that was forgetting about trying to fasten or tie it down, & just put some wood on top. But tarps seem to have a pretty short lifespan.


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## Razo (Oct 15, 2014)

Is there any reason why I hear of people using just about every material EXCEPT roof felt for their stacks? I was thinking that may be the route to go, I mean its cheap, its water resistant, its heavier than plastic, and it can be stapled right down to the stacks.

Yes I know its coated in bitumen (asphalt/tar) and you wouldn't want that on wood going into a stove but not much would transfer from the paper to the wood.

I'm just curious why I've never seen anyone using this, is there a glaring reason not too that I'm seeing?
http://www.google.com/shopping/prod...rior+Roofing+Roofing+Underlayments&gws_rd=ssl


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## maple1 (Oct 15, 2014)

It rips pretty easy.


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## Razo (Oct 15, 2014)

True, I would think that the thin garden plastic would rip fairly easily as well but by nature the plastic will have some give/stretch to it. Even with it stapled, I just envision the flimsy plastic ripping in the wind and flapping around, even if its only the 2" off the ends where the staples end.


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## Ashful (Oct 15, 2014)

6 mil black plastic is surprisingly tough.  I'm re-using some of the same pieces since 2011, and I think I'll get a few more years out of them.   I staple them to the stacks with a hammer tacker, so they have some holes around the edges from tearing them off.


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## Gboutdoors (Oct 15, 2014)

Ok I have been in the lumber business for thirty years now can get all the plywood I want for free but just can't see how it would be better than my lumber tarps? The last pallet I even stacked the middle row two splits higher so the rain would run off and it's working great.

They have not degraded at all over this summer and I have them black side out as I figure this would heat the wood stack up much more than the white side out( heat,wind = dry wood?).

I also have 5 cords covered with some left over rubber roofing again free but have some roof truss on top to hold it in place. This seems to be ok but I just like the way the lumber tarps fit and staple tight to the stack. I am sure if you go to your local family owned yard they would be glade to save them for you.

Ps if anyone in the Fairhaven area would like some 20' pallets and some nice lumber covers to fit them give me a pm and I will set you up as I have more at my yard than I could ever use.


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 15, 2014)

Just think about what they use to cover and transport kiln dried construction lumber when they haul it down the highway over long distances. Certainly whatever they cover it with they'd want to make sure it was durable, water proof and would not rip or blow off in the wind at those highway speed.   Do they use felt paper? Do they use plastic? Do they cover their lumber with plywood, or roofing material? Or maybe they use those cheap blue or orange tarps you buy at Wal-Mart?

Here's a clue.


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## johnpma (Oct 16, 2014)

^^^^^^^^^yeah but! yeah but! yeah but!

Thank you for keeping it simple, and effective


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## maple1 (Oct 22, 2014)

Charlie2 said:


> I can see if you have enough over hang to keep a driving rain from reaching the stack, it would be good, but most rains/fronts are proceeded and accompanied by winds. Around here, it's common to see the rain falling at a 45 degree angle, more sometimes , less sometimes, but 75% of the time it's 45 degrees or more. We are taught here to stack our stacks so that the winds and sun can work best for drying, ie- sideways to the prevailing winds. So,-----if you as Bart is showing, put a narrow strip of plastic on top of a stack, how in the world is that going to keep the stack dryer? The only pieces of wood that won't receive a good drenching would be the pieces directly beneath the plastic and after the rain those few dry pieces will trapped under plastic like a cigar in a humidor.


 
You would likely have better luck turning your stacks 90°, so the prevailing winds blow across the ends of the wood & not into them. I have two long double rows 90° to each other, the row that the wind is blowing into the end of always seems to be drier inside than the row that the wind is hitting side-on. Plus when you top cover, then not much rain will get blown into the side of the pile, it will just hit the small end of it. Seems the drying wind will suck the wet out of the ends of the wood, whereas hitting the side it has to push it through it.


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## Charlie2 (Oct 22, 2014)

I see your point as to the wind, but do you give up the sun's heat combined with the wind? I have red oak in the field, single stacked, large splits cross ways to the wind and sun, I'll split one before long and we can compare. The wood was cut at the end of last year. But in the end , it might boil down to location, gets pretty hot and dry down here in Georgia during the summer.


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## maple1 (Oct 22, 2014)

I get better sun I think. With prevailing south winds, one side gets early sun and one gets late sun. The other stack gets sun on only one side. But it doesn't get that hot here, I think we get most of our drying action from the wind.


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## Paulywalnut (Oct 24, 2014)

This will be my first year to use black plastic exclusively.  The clear stuff just doesn't hold up against the sun.
I have my work cut out for me. 28 stacks. Half have been uncovered 2 years, some never, but I want to really try and keep them covered this year.


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## Paulywalnut (Oct 24, 2014)

Joful said:


> If that stuff could be purchased with the corrugations running the short length, it would be ideal for those of us stacking in long rows.  As it is, it will just dump all rain off the ends into the middle of my long row stacks.


I agree. I have two sixty foot rows and keeping the middle dry is a challenge.


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## smokedragon (Oct 25, 2014)

I use rubber roofing that I got for free.  Beats any tarp you can buy.  Got a 5' wide roll, perfect for covering stacks.


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## Lumber-Jack (Oct 25, 2014)

smokedragon said:


> I use rubber roofing that I got for free.  Beats any tarp you can buy.  Got a 5' wide roll, perfect for covering stacks.


Yep rubber roofing is great stuff if you can get it, it's just that it's usually a lot harder to come by for free then lumber wrap. Either one beats buying tarps or plastic especially when the free stuff works better.
Below is where I get most of my free lumber wrap. It's a structured beam manufacturing plant. They neatly fold and put all there used lumber wrap in this bin just outside their property for the public access.
They also put a lot of wood and beam ends on the other side of the driveway, I didn't take a picture of them though. They had huge pile of massive laminated beam platform there when I went there, that must have weighed a ton or more. I was kind of curious what their purpose or how they expected people to pick them up and pack them away.


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## smokedragon (Oct 27, 2014)

Lumber-Jack said:


> Below is where I get most of my free lumber wrap.


nice

Yeah, I would take that if I didn't have rubber roofing.  Of course, tarps, black plastic, plywood, etc are all good if the price is right.


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## Zack R (Sep 11, 2019)

Any updates on plywood to cover wood stacks? I haven't built my wood shed yet and its almost time to cover the stacks for the winter. I've been using tarps but they can be a hassle.


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## Diabel (Sep 11, 2019)

I still use plywood (yr 7 I believe), but nothing beats metal sheeting!


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## Dabster13 (Sep 13, 2019)

Zack R said:


> Any updates on plywood to cover wood stacks? I haven't built my wood shed yet and its almost time to cover the stacks for the winter. I've been using tarps but they can be a hassle.



I picked up a piece of cracked plywood from a construction site 5 years ago and it's still covering my woodshed just fine. Holds up well


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## fire_man (Sep 15, 2019)

Tarps or 6 MIL plastic sheets directly on the stacks never worked for me. Critters chew holes, plastic degrades, and the stacks get soaked. 
Plywood covered with tarps/plastic works great for me and might be the next best thing to a woodshed.


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## Ashful (Sep 16, 2019)

fire_man said:


> Tarps or 6 MIL plastic sheets directly on the stacks never worked for me. Critters chew holes, plastic degrades, and the stacks get soaked.
> Plywood covered with tarps/plastic works great for me and might be the next best thing to a woodshed.


It worked for me for enough years that I could start building my shed, but I only have it on there September - April, then it gets tossed into the recycling bin.  I did once try to stretch it two years, but UV damage makes it too brittle over a summer.


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## baseroom (Sep 17, 2019)

One thing I learned.....don't use the clear stuff!  Six months and it basically disintegrated.  It wasnt the thin stuff either.


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## Ashful (Sep 17, 2019)

baseroom said:


> One thing I learned.....don't use the clear stuff! Six months and it basically disintegrated. It wasnt the thin stuff either.



Im sure it varies by brand and environment, but the black stuff goes even quicker, in my yard. I’ve had clear last two seasons, on a few occasions, the black I’ve bought seems to be shot after six months.


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## Vikestand (Sep 17, 2019)

Rubber conveyor belting is the best.


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## brenndatomu (Sep 17, 2019)

Vikestand said:


> Rubber conveyor belting is the best.


I have some...too heavy, takes 3 men and a monkey to move it.


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## Vikestand (Sep 18, 2019)

brenndatomu said:


> I have some...too heavy, takes 3 men and a monkey to move it.


I usually get the 30" wide variety. I have my wood on two rows of four pallets. Three 30" belts cover the stack and leave the sides to be open.  I'll even screw them down if need be.


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## Sodbuster (Sep 25, 2019)

I use tar paper, and it holds up really well, and is cheap, also looks a lot better than a blue tarp. I use plastic tags marked with a sharpie and screwed to a row to identify when it was CSS.


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