Any better way to cover wood racks?

[wetwood4life]

I'm new to wood burning, going into our 3rd year with the stove. We have a small property and cannot build a wood shed for a variety of reasons.

First year we stacked on pallets & covered with a tarp. That was fine, but hard to organize the wood through the burning season (like rejecting wet or large pieces).

Second year we built the popular 2x4 + cinder block racks & covered with a tarp. These worked great, but I'm having a hard time keeping the wood dry. The tarps have a bunch of holes in them after just one season. I know they're about a foot too short - but when it rains both ends and both faces end up getting soaked.

Does anyone have a good solution that works for these types of racks? I want to keep the wood rack dry, and keep the wood accessible like not needing to crawl around under the tarp as the wood burns down. Thanks in advance, I'm not too good with these types of problems/solutions.

 

[begreen]

The rack of wood should only be top-covered so that air can freely blow through it. The right side rack is good, the left side is too covered.

 

[peakbagger]

A few pictures. I use long lag screws to screw the uprights into the firewood. Note the air space on top.

The red roof is scrap roofing, Steel roofing is shipped with scrap pieces of roofing to protect the actual product, the local lumberyard sets it aside as they would need to pay to get rid of it. The stack with pallets on top has some very old galvanized roofing underneath. There are pallets on top of the pile before I laid down the galvanizing to allow top stack airflow. The stuff on top is to keep it from blowing off.
The pile covered in black plastic was a solar kiln experiment. It has 5 hoops made out of bent conduit. Note that most folks use clear plastic as they have found its more effective, black plastic works and its what I had around. The white roof is a foamed plastic signboard similar to Azec. I also use a PVC corrugated product from Home Depot (not pictured). The solar kiln frame is now top covered with the PVC product I get lots of snow some years and the with just a slight slope in the roof, I will have blocks of snow form on the roofs and then start sliding slowly towards the back of the piles on sunny days. This does not happen with the stack with pallets on top. I think the sliding roof method gives me a couple of extra months of better drying.

 

[StoveInNH]

The rack of wood should only be top-covered so that air can freely blow through it. The right side rack is good, the left side is too covered.

I think it's a bit of an illusion. The left rack has a front stack that's much shorter than the rear so the cover is draped down.

To the OP, if top tarping worked for you previously why not just get new tarps a bit longer without holes?

Some folks cover with sheets of plywood, too.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I mostly use tin roofing to top cover the wood. I use ugly or odd pieces of wood to cover the tin roofing so less chance of it blowing away.

 

[begreen]

I don't use tarps anymore. After a year of sun exposure, they get thin and develop leaks. Several years ago I had several stacks of maple get soggy in places, due to a leaky tarp. Instead, I've used an old pond liner, which is much tougher and lasts well. And for locust and doug fir stacks, I have made a cover from overlapped slabs of their thick bark, like roofing tiles.

 

[StoveInNH]

I don't use tarps anymore. After a year of sun exposure, they get thin and develop leaks. Several years ago I had several stacks of maple get soggy in places, due to a leaky tarp. Instead, I've used an old pond liner, which is much tougher and lasts well. And for locust and doug fir stacks, I have made a cover from overlapped slabs of their thick bark, like roofing tiles.

I use a backyard hockey rink liner. I assume that's close to a pond liner.

 

[ericm979]

Besides leaks you can get condensation under the tarp. It runs down the inside and drips on the wood from low points or places where it touches wood. I hate tarps.

You could turn your racks into mini sheds by attaching 2x3 purlins across the ears that stick up and then place roofing on that. If you do it slightly higher in front then the water will run off the back. Corregated metal roofing is sturdy enough to stick out unsupported a ways, so you could have front and rear overhangs. Just watch the sharp edge when loading and unloading.

 

[jackpine savage63]

I use dumpster dived tarps from local lumber yards that will let you dig thru their dumpsters..

They are free, 10 times more durable than store bought tarps... I usually give the yard guy a few bucks for a donut... sometimes get 5 tarps on one dive...

Thank you Canadian lumber mills for your durable tarps. Many have black colored backs so get hot in the sun when you reverse them and get the top ~~1/3 of pile very hot in sun... seems to aid the drying process, not saying as good as a solar kiln tho...

The black one in the picture is 2 years old and same condition, still like new.

I have 2 wood sheds, but when they are full i tarp all other wood.

I know its still a tarp, but at least they are durable and free.

Also, you can get the tarps "out" from the pile a foot or so using something like the orange beam (example, a board or anything would work) which would keep rain and snow much further away from the wood if you prefer, you would put like 3-4 of them across that 16 foot pile... i did that last winter on a pile and it kept most snow a foot away, much easier access... just a thought if you can't build a shed...

 

[Montanalocal]

Has anyone used this method of waterproofing fabric? It describes mixing pure silicon caulking with Naphtha to make a liquid waterproofing that can be applied to sheets, and presumably other fabrics to make them waterproof. I plan to try is sometime for my wood covering, and wanted to know what others thought of it.

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[Max W]

I got some pieces of discarded membrane roofing when the building where I had been working was reroofed. The roofers didn’t hesitate to give it away. Made good wood rack cover.

 

[wetwood4life]

Thanks everyone for sharing coverage ideas!

My 2 racks used to be identical, the left is just burned down to a single rack in the back plus a few odds in front (used to be 3 deep). I'm liking the idea of kicking out the front/back edges to keep the water further away.

Two years of sun hasn't been so bad on the tarps, the holes are all from wood edges rubbing when the wind hits it.

I probably will just buy new & bigger tarps. Seems wasteful to buy new tarps every year or two, but not the end of the world.

I like the idea of those tin covers, but can't imagine them staying put during a storm. Clever idea fixing them to the wood pile itself! How does that work as you're burning it down throughout the winter? I'd think it sort of collapses onto itself?

Thanks again for the ideas!

 

[peakbagger]

With respect to my method of attaching the roof to the wood, I have an attached bulkhead to the house that i use to feed my wood boiler in my basement. I can store about 1/3 to 1/2 a cord in there dependent if I stack it or just dump it in there. I can pick out about 1/4 of a cord picking between the supports for partial refill of the bulkhead. Next refill, I just remove the supports and then just set the roofing back on top of the pile when I and done and throw a couple of pallets on top. I use 3 to 4 cords a year and most stacks are usually a generous cord size so the intent is to get cover over the actively drying stacks.

 

[wetwood4life]

You know, that's a good point. I haven't figured out a good way to bring & store wood in the house, so I end up going out every 3-4 reloads. If I were moving 1/3 to 1/2 cord at a time I wouldn't mind fussing with the covering.

 

[jackpine savage63]

I built this woodbox next to the stove in my basement.. ~~ about 30" x 72"

Holds about 5-10 days of worth of wood. I wheelbarrow or sled the wood to the window ( waist high) and throw it in. Most wood debris stays in the box, so basement stays a bit cleaner, also when the wood runs low, you can pick dry kindling scraps from the bottom of the box for your next few fires before you fill it again.

Everybody's house is different, I put this window there just for that purpose when i fixed the basement wall (walkout basement) many years ago.

 

[StoveInNH]

Everybody's house is different, I put this window there just for that purpose when i fixed the basement wall (walkout basement) many years ago.

View attachment 314119

Solid planning right there! Well done.

 

[clr8ter]

How about this? not permanent, and moveable with 4 people. Could be further tapped if you like.

 

[Sawset]

I tried tarps. They rip and tear, and form water ponds that concentrate water, then soak whatever is underneath. I also tried sheet steel roofing. Heavy and hard to manage, and leaked through a nail hole and soaked whatever was underneath. The remainder of 10years now I've left everything uncovered, until August where we usually get a midsummer drought, then bring inside the years supply under a lean to and in the garage, just before the fall rains set in.