covering wood stacks yes or no?

[stejus]

I got caught with my covers down! :ahhh: It rained all day Sunday, so I covered them Sat night. I removed covers on Monday because forecast looked good for a couple of days. Last night weatherman says chance of shower here and there. Well around 9:00PM Monday evening, it poured for a good hour.

Oh well, lets hope for some strong wind and sun today to dry those piles out!

 

[billb3]

Good to know that when I move to Nebraska I won't have to take an extra 5 minutes to put a roof on the top.


If the OP wanted to duplicate other's reasoning for top covering all he needs to do is set up a lawn sprinkler on his stack and leave it running 24 / 7 all year and see what happens.



In Atlanta you probably need to chain it all to the ground so it doesn't float away.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

I looked at the woodpile from last spring. We got 1" of rain the night before last and it rained (light) all day yesterday. It is still very damp with no drying yet. I found that the top 2 layers of wood were damp. Below that all is dry except for the edges.

For those who worry if water does settle into the middle of the stack, the wind will take care of that. That is the reason for stacking cross-wind.

 

[gzecc]

This is a test. If you cover the tops always you definetly have OWD (Obsessive Wood Dissorder). If you cover them occasionally you have a mild case. If you only cover to keep dry before bringing into the house, your only interested in keeping your fuel dry, there is no dissorder present! This assumes > 9mos of normal stacked seasoning.

 

[SolarAndWood]

This is a test. If you cover the tops always you definetly have OWD (Obsessive Wood Dissorder). If you cover them occasionally you have a mild case. If you only cover to keep dry before bringing into the house, your only interested in keeping your fuel dry, there is no dissorder present! This assumes > 9mos of normal stacked seasoning.

Tough test...all good until the heap not complying with "normal stacked seasoning".

 

[fahmahbob]

I got caught with my covers down! :ahhh: It rained all day Sunday, so I covered them Sat night. I removed covers on Monday because forecast looked good for a couple of days. Last night weatherman says chance of shower here and there. Well around 9:00PM Monday evening, it poured for a good hour.

Oh well, lets hope for some strong wind and sun today to dry those piles out!

Looks like you got your wish, sunny and windy out there!
I typically wait until about November to cover my wood, just to keep the snow and ice out of the pile. I bring about 1/3 of a cord in at a time during the winter and stack it by my basement stove. Moisture is never a problem.

 

[Tony H]

When covering mine in fall I only cover the stuff for this season mainly to keep snow and ice off of it. I had a big cover blow off last year and then we got 10" of snow what a PITA trying to get the snow and ice off before throwing it the boiler. When I got too much wet stuff the boiler didn't seem to heat as well and gave off more smoke that usual.