Looking for help with wood storage I can load from the outside and get from the inside. (pass thru)

[bigwhitman]

Kenny Chaos has the right recommendations (insects &
insulation) - I’d add “Home security” to the list.

What you want to make is something like a milk-man door,
where you can load wood from the outside, through a hatchway
and into your house. Milkman doors were once standard design
features in my neighborhood and our local historic commission
does not allow them to be covered, despite the fact that
nearly every house that has one has been burglarized at some
time or another by little sized burgulars slipping through
the milkman’s door.

Something like a night deposit drawer at a local bank might work
well. It could be made wide and deep enough to drop in 5-6 pieces
of wood and unable to be opened to the outside more than 5-6 inches;
or just enough to slip a single piece of split wood.

 

[Tony H]

Having a house built in the early 40's we have / had a coal room in the basement and a cast iron door at the back corner of the house that dropped right into the coal room. This setup would work great for fire wood just throw it in the door and in our case the room is about 4' from the furnace. Ours is useless now since we put an addition on the house the door is inside and our boiler is in an shed outside anyway. My neighbor also has one with his loading door in the garage and he uses it all the time. The door is easy to secure with a pin into the foundation from the inside that holds the door closed .
All that being said no reason you could not adapt this to an existing house either into the basement or crawl space or right into a room simply install a small "door" flush with the outside wall of the house and inside have a chest with the back cut out up against the door and feed the wood into the box thru the door. The door can be insulated and the inside of the box can be as well. For security all you would need is a continuous hinge and a hasp or pin to secure the top if the box.
In fact it's beyond me why people wouldn't secure the milkman door in a similar fashion to keep out the little burglars.

 

[hareball]

Your Dad had the right idea, he had a son to carry the wood! You can always adopt one! They are good for cleaning up the dog crap too.

 

[Dune]

If I ever build a new house it is going to have a giant masonry heater like a russian stove or something, and each side will have a shelf built in that will hold a face cord. Talk about dry wood.

 

[devinsdad]

Our house has a hatchway that holds two good sized wheelbarrow loads. It was built by the previous owner. The inside is lined with rigid insulation and sheet metal to eliminate damage. I load this e-w in the door. On the inside is a cabinet door that is too small and I constsntly smash my knuckles but the splits are all lined up n-s oriented. It isn't the prettiest thing but it keeps the wood out of the way . I pile any larger splits or rounds inside beside the stove. The pics are a bit stretched with ms paint but hope this helps. on a side note this was bought as one of those needs to be remodeled remodels last November. Sometimes you just gotta ask yourself what were they thinking? more so with the siding design than the woodbox :-/

 

[devinsdad]

a little better

 

[devinsdad]

and an inside view