How anal retentive are you about fireside wood storage?

[LLigetfa]

IMHO you can never have enough fireside. I'm relegated to what I can fit in (and on) one 26 inch wide VC cast iron wood box. I do have a small half round holder for kin'lin which, when it's not too full, I would put some larger starter pieces in.

It's a PITA to try to stage your burning needs in one small box (1/32nd of a cord is pushing it). I find myself making daily trips to the woodshed to adjust my "staging" and sometimes will have to make an extra trip or two just to get the right sizes. This morning I had to go out to the woodshed in my jammies to get some started pieces cuz it was so mild last night the wife used up all my small stuff.

I figure you need at least six different sized groupings. More if you mix North/South with East/West. I built my hearth with a 52 inch alcove on each side, fully intentioned to use ALL of it for storage (up to the window sills). I figured that would be about right. Unfortunately practicality lost out to the wife and aestetics.

 

[smokinj]

I have my set up in the garage and can back a 17 cu ft dump trailer right next to the furance (sweeeet)

 

[LLigetfa]

a 17 cu ft dump trailer...

Well... that beats my 4 cu ft (1/32nd of a cord) fireside.

(ja, I goofed on my calc and edited my OP)

 

[smokinj]

a 17 cu ft dump trailer...

Well... that beats my 4 cu ft (1/32nd of a cord) fireside.

(ja, I goofed on my calc and edited my OP)

I can over fill it to 22-23 cu

 

[meathead]

Did you stack the 52" alcoves on either side of the hearth full o' wood and the wife decided it wasn't pretty enough, or did she just guess it wouldn't be pretty enough and put the kybosh on it before you even filled them with wood? Maybe if you stacked them nice and neat while she was out she'd come home and decide it doesn't look half bad? Personally, I've always liked the look of a neat stack of wood next to the stove or fire...but if my stove were somehwere other than the basment my wife would probably have a thing or two to say about it as well.

Any way you could build benches or mock cabinets or something into the alcoves with one piece fronts that swing all the way open so you could fill them with wood and when you close the door it's just a nice built in cabinet in an alcove and no one has to be the wiser that it is full of firewood?

 

[Cearbhaill]

I keep two days worth next to the hearth- a mix of sizes. I keep about four days worth on the other side of the room, mixed sizes. Through one door is the garage where I keep about two weeks worth in mixed sizes. Through a different door is a large covered carport where I keep one months worth of mized sizes.
It is the husbands job to see that wood is properly rotated through all these stopping points
Even if/when he does forget there is always something close by and I never need to go outside to get it.
This after last years "first year fugazi" of wood storage where every midnight had me going outside in search of just the right piece.

No matter how you handle it burning wood is always going to entail a certain amount of schlepping wood and making a mess. We will continue to refine our system though, always in hopes of making it better, easier, and just more efficient. The one saving grace in my situation is that my insert/mess is in a basement family room, and things that would never fly in my "real" living room are fine down here.

 

[LLigetfa]

Well, I couldn't just pile the wood on the floor and lean it up against the drywall. I was going to make or buy wood racks for both sides that fit in the space but she decided on just the one VC box. One idea was to get a pair of those big 4 foot hoops and not fill them all the way up since the window sill is 30 inches from the floor. I would have even let her dangle some sort of bling or tchotchke at the top of the hoop.

 

[meathead]

With a 30" windowsill, a couple of built in benches that open from the top or front seem like they would work pretty well. If they open from the front you could even throw cushions and pillows on them and not disturb anything when you opened them to load or grab wood. Nice place to sit and read the paper in natural light in the morning and aesthetically pleasing wood storage to boot.

If you went about 2' high for the bench seats, say 22" interior storage height, you could snag almost 8 sqft in each bench (23ish cuft per bench if you make them 3ft deep). Plus, with the exception of the inevitable multiplying throw pillows, you're looking at a tchotchke free environment.

 

[sublime68charger]

I guess I'm a little over board but I keep around 4 cords of wood stacked up next to my wood boiler. Boiler is in room on left side of pic.
the storage bin is 7' wide by 8' tall by 9' deep so around 504cu Ft which works out to 3.9375 cords.

I dont know if that make me anal or not but I know I have alot of wood right next to my boiler.

(broken image removed)

 

[smokinj]

Thats a good looking indoor stack there!

 

[Gooserider]

I have a decent deal - the GF likes the heat, and if she wants me to bring it in, I stash the heat in waiting the way I like...

I have a five gallon bucket that has kindling size (1-2" diameter) sticks - it doesn't get filled very often at all, since we pretty much stay lit all the time.

I also have an ash bucket filled with "splitter trash" - all the small bark and wood chips that come off the wood while splitting, same deal though we use that a little bit more.

I have two plastic garbage cans full of "chunk wood" - splits under about 14", knots, and anything else that isn't stackable and is more than about fist size. This time of year I try to burn as much of this stuff as I can to get rid of it, and save the good splits for really cold weather.

I have a log-sling in a stand that very seldom gets much wood in it, as I fill it only when I'm wanting to empty out my log cart to get another load. Those splits are then the first wood to go in the stove on the next few burns.

Finally I have my HF wood cart with the big bicycle wheels, that holds about 150-200 lbs of splits, maybe about 1/4 of a face cord or so, and about as much as I can drag up the steps into the house at a time - If I only burn that wood, it would last me about two and a half to three days...

Gooserider

 

[SlyFerret]

I keep about a weeks worth stacked on my front porch.

When the weather starts getting really cold, I'll probably fill my yard trailer (that i use with my mower) and park that in the garage to make sure I have a little extra just in case.

-SF

 

[RedRanger]

I keep a 10 day supply under my vinyl covered deck. single row 10ft long and 3 ft high.. And it`s only 20 ft from the insert to the stack outside the basement door.

Alongside that I keep a kindling row (western red cedar mill ends) in a row that is 2ft high and 3 ft long.