Cover Your Wood Along the East Coast!

[Catskill]

 

[Stevebass4]

Covered it yesterday afternoon.

yup me too - used rubber roofing

also used rainx to coat both cars

 

[skinnykid]

we are getting it now, they say maybe 5 inches of rain and flooding. then that storm that is hitting the Carolina's could come at us also.

 

[donatello]

My cousin installs/repairs above ground swimming pools. I'll ask him for a couple old liners. That is what he uses for covering his wood stacks. They are very durable and are FREE .

 

[Girl]

Mines been covered since 9/12, except for one pile (for now) that's not too exposed.

 

[cmonSTART]

Yup. Covered mine for the season last night after work. It's been raining all day here.

 

[Firenutz]

I actually covered one of my piles with two of those green corrugated fiberglass roof panels, the kind you see on a green house. They were about $15/piece at Lowe's and the nice thing about them is if you put them on a slant on your wood pile the rain runs right off them... no pooling of water like on the tarps.

As for keeping them from blowing away. I just drilled some holes in the corners and tied them down. I also plan on stiffening them by adding some pieces of 2x4 wood to the undersides. That way they won't be so flimsy.

Plus I've noticed when its sunny out they act like a green house and it really gets quite warm under them, so I figure this is drying out the wood nicely. And they don't look too bad either.

The panesl are similar to the roof of this wood rack... I attached a picture, not sure it will show up. Sorry if it doesn't.

Good idea. I have some of that stuff laying under my deck from the old owners. That'll give me something to do tomorrow.

 

[pulldownclaw]

Covered some of my early season pine and a little bit of hardwood 2 nights ago, as we here in VA have been catching this storm that came off the NC coast. It almost seems like a tropical storm, not sure if they classified it as that or not, but lots of wind driven rain. Looks like it might hang around through the weekend.....

 

[mrurbplanner]

Covered and tied mine down tonight after work in the calm before the storm.

One inch of rain forecast for tomorrow with Kyle or what ever is left of it forecast to track northwest of here on Monday afternoon.

 

[RedRanger]

If you lived out here on the west (wet) coast? The question would be a moot point :lol:

 

[Jclout]

Mine mostley has been covered on the top and under the deck and the piles kind of close together but they are on skids. Does the wood take on water when out in the rain? Is the way that I have stored it ok?

 

[fossil]

Mine mostley has been covered on the top and under the deck and the piles kind of close together but they are on skids. Does the wood take on water when out in the rain? Is the way that I have stored it ok?

It'll just get wet on the outside, which makes it sort of an annoyance to handle and introduces some extra moisture to boil off if you put it directly into the fire. The wood's not going to "unseason". Rick

 

[RedRanger]

Mine mostley has been covered on the top and under the deck and the piles kind of close together but they are on skids. Does the wood take on water when out in the rain? Is the way that I have stored it ok?

It'll just get wet on the outside, which makes it sort of an annoyance to handle and introduces some extra moisture to boil off if you put it directly into the fire. The wood's not going to "unseason". Rick

UNSEASON-now that is a word that is not often seen on this forum. :lol:

Fossil is quite correct, just the outside will get a little damp. Providing you have got the inners to a sweet moisture content. Hopefully, 20% or slightly less.

 

[bonesneeze]

I covered mine up before the rain hit. I built a couple of holz hausens sp? and I only covered the one I completed. The nice thing is that I covered with a small, maybe 8 x 10, $10.00 10 mil tarp, the brown/silver one. The blues are cheaper but from what I saw they are 5 mil. I take a couple of ball bungees and tie some gallon milk jugs filled with water at four places around the bottom to keep it from blowing off.

 

[abj1969]

have my two 5' high 12' long racks covered already. still have to bring the rest of the split stuff up by the house and cover it.

 

[Burn-1]

I covered all of mine yesterday. I nearly died when I saw plastic sheeting at Lowes, $15 for 10x25 4 mil!

If anyone still needs to cover wood and lives in the Northeast I would recommend going to Aubuchon's

They have the same thing on sale for $8.97 this week, black or clear. FWIW.

 

[snydley]

I just leave it un covered all the time because it seems the blue or brown tarps available locally are just junk. They wear out and just become mesh filters in no time at all. They just leak water anyhow. Is there something better out there that doesnt wear out in a matter of months? I thought about metal roof panels over the top of the stacks but Im afraid of the kids running into the edges and getting cut. What are you all covering the piles with?

I haven't yet covered mine. I may be wrong,(probably), but I think the cycles of rain, then dry, rain, then dry help to season the wood. I have a couple friends that have burned wood for years. They live right down the street from me. I figure once I see their wood covered I'll cover mine. I've got my piles located out in the open in my side yard where they get sun and wind all day long. They're also on pallets. That's the important thing I think, keeping them out of the water and mud so they don't rot.
I have some tar paper left over from a roofing job I did, I'm gonna cover the piles with that when the time comes and put bricks on top of it to hold it down. This will be my first full winter of burning wood only, and this winter is gonna be the test and will show me what works and what doesn't.
Snyde

 

[branchburner]

If you're cheap like me, and just want to cover the top, there's all kinds of free junk you can use. (Try craigslist if you're junkless.) I had, lying around waiting to go to the dump or burn pile, some sheets of roofing tin and old wooden doors. The nice thing, in addition to being free, is these found objects are long and narrow and I just toss 'em on the pile (with a rock or log on the tin to anchor it). With a slight angle the water runs right off. Easy to flip off the pile when the sun shines and put back on for the next rainy spell, too.
The trick is to keep your woodpile from looking like it belongs at the dump - my junk is all in nice, weathered earth tones. The wife will let me know if it gets out of line, trust me. As for plastic, I'm done with that. Holes, pockets of water, wind tearing it off... and it ain't free!

 

[iceman]

Mine mostley has been covered on the top and under the deck and the piles kind of close together but they are on skids. Does the wood take on water when out in the rain? Is the way that I have stored it ok?

It'll just get wet on the outside, which makes it sort of an annoyance to handle and introduces some extra moisture to boil off if you put it directly into the fire. The wood's not going to "unseason". Rick

UNSEASON-now that is a word that is not often seen on this forum. :lol:

Fossil is quite correct, just the outside will get a little damp. Providing you have got the inners to a sweet moisture content. Hopefully, 20% or slightly less.

i agree with you 2 however, i believe many of us are trying to get to seasoned before the cold comes...
i am afraid that my wood didn't season as much as it should've this summer so i might be 20-30% if i am close i don't want to lose some of the few dry days to get the water off the i am trying use what i have left after all this rain this past summer to hopefully get to the right spot....
i believe that due to the amount of new burners on here combined with all the rain is why we see so much anxiety/ worrying about wood... many newcomers as well as old timers didn't get the summer we were used to...

 

[elmoleaf]

If you're cheap like me, and just want to cover the top, there's all kinds of free junk you can use.

I'm right there with you on that one. Once I have a stack of green wood in the yard to season, I cover the top only using some old sheet vinyl flooring that's cut to the width of the stack. A couple of old boards and rocks hold it down. I also cover stacks using old popped vinyl pool rafts.

Seasoned wood is stored in a wood shed close to my back door, so no tarps etc. needed there.

 

[snydley]

[quote author="branchburner" date="1222542681"]If you're cheap like me, and just want to cover the top, there's all kinds of free junk you can use. (Try craigslist if you're junkless.)

Cheap? Let's keep my women out of this. :cheese: As for me, I prefer the term "thrifty", if it's all the same to you. ;-)
I scrounged 9 chords of free wood, 3 dozen pallets this year, the only thing I'm "out" is the gas and oil to run my sa, oh yeah, there's the 22T Huskee splitter and the Stihl MS360 AND MS170 saws I bought, but that's an investment, thanks to the "New Math" I was taught 40 years ago, I don't count that money. :roll: I'm still more ahead of the game than I would be if I bought oil this year.
Snyde

 

[Girl]

FYI-
For those looking for something more sturdy than a tarp to be reused for awhile.
I saw pool covers at Ocean State Job Lot I was at a Rhode Island location.