My Approach to covering wood piles (picture heavy)

[Caw]

Yeah I'm stream of consciousness posting lol. To me the easiest thing to do is as you said, consider it temporary. I can keep my current design but 2 stacks deep. Ill run 3 or 4 2x4s the 32" through the stacks as support from tipping. I can then just attach roof supports to those 2x4s and boom we have a roof. If I can find sheet metal. Perfect. If not ill just get some PT plywood and replace as needed. When its time to use the stack we just disassemble and reassemble as needed.

Ez breezy. Glad we had this talk! LOL.

I also have a pallet area I move my wood to then into the basement as the 3rd step. Its all a work in progress....not bad for year 1 tho. Gonna draw this up tonight.

 

[mcdougy]

Any lumber yard will sell you roof metal.....29gauge high tensile will be a 38" wide sheet (36" coverage) and you can order them as long as you want to handle. Therefore you could run 1 sheet the length of your stack, if the stack is approx 34"I wouldn't be concerned that the ribs aren't running peak to eave, the water will get away. Or you could order them 40" long and run them the designed way. Here roof metal like that runs about a 1$ square foot. Find a local roofing company or barn builder in your area, they may have alot of extra sheets kicking around as most stacks come with a cover sheet on top of the pile.....thats where/how I have accumulated my stuff

 

[MoDoug]

So what you're saying is leave little/no airspace between the stacks and then cut some 32" pieces of whatever and add them in the stacks in a few places towards the middle/top for stability, right? That makes sense. The weight pushing down will stabilize the stack.

My double stacks are right about 4 feet wide, I cut my logs about 19-20 inches, and have about 10 inches of space between the two stacks. I'm trying for a little air flow between them. I think I said it confusingly earlier.

 

[Caw]

I cut 16" logs. So, 16 x 2 + 10 = 42" inches. If I wanted eaves I'd need 4 feet also. Buying 4 ft metal roofing and just using it sideways as mentioned above makes sense.

 

[andym]

Where does everyone get all this sheet metal I always see?

I can't speak for others, but I get mine from an uncle who builds polesheds. He often has some leftover pieces. Quite often the metal comes shipped with a sacrificial cover sheet as well. You could put an add on Craigslist or somewhere asking for used roofing metal.
If you need to buy something, treated plywood would be a little easier to work with though. I would skip the shingles though, simply because of added weight.

 

[Caw]

I think if I can find some free metal I'd go that route but otherwise yeah, PT plywood is easier. Agree on skipping shingles...easier to just replace any rotten wood eventually + weight. Also plywood comes standard 48" so no ripping necessary and I can just throw some roofing tape over the seams.

 

[SpaceBus]

You could even throw a tarp over the plywood to give it a little more life.

 

[Caw]

Whelp boys, looks like I gotta get to the lumber yard and get building. Next shipment of logs will be here later this week!

Just went and measured in the snow because why not and it beats the screaming kids inside! Stacks are 16' at base, 19' at the top and 6' tall, 5' being wood. So each is holding about 17.5 x 5 x 1.25 (16" logs) = 109 cu ft or approx 85% of a cord. I could go taller but I'm 6'2 and don't really want the wood being over my head for stability. Given that the roof will need to cover 19' ill need about 2.5 sheets if 8x4 PT plywood per stack and ill only need to make 1 cut on each roof so I can just rough it with the circular saw. Grab a bunch of 8' pt 2x4s and 2 cuts on each. 4' roof support posts then 42" beams/pieces to put in the stack to link them. Pretty simple.

What thickness ply do you think? 1/2 should be more than adequate. 8x4x1/2 PT is like $40. Whole roof setup will cost about $175-$200. I'll have to but all the lumber retail, im fresh out of scraps.

 

[mcdougy]

Plywood is more expensive per sq ft than metal....metal is lighter and will lat longer than plywood.....if investing ,i think metal is a better choice. Plywood will work great as well if desired.price out some metal , you may be surprised, I think galvanized might come in at about .70 cents a sqdt

 

[MoDoug]

Grab a bunch of 8' pt 2x4s and 2 cuts on each. 4' roof support posts then 42" beams/pieces to put in the stack to link them.

Are you going to use pt 2x4’s to link the stacks together? If yes, you could just use 2 or 3 branches, or small trees instead. cut to length of course.

 

[SpaceBus]

I wouldn't be using PT on stuff that isn't touching the ground. Furthermore I would just use exterior rated plywood and not fuss with PT.

 

[Caw]

Yeah thats a good point about just going exterior grade. It would certainly be cheaper too.

Not gonna put PT to link the stacks. I didnt describe that well. I have plenty of large branches I can cut for that purpose.

 

[unimog1300]

Why is the Show us yours wood shed thread closed???

I was going to post my wood shed that I just built, but the last post is from 2014 and it's locked, yet still a sticky. What's going on? In case anyone is wondering, here is what I was going to post there: I built a 12'x8' wood shed today. When packed completely full, it will hold over five...

www.hearth.com

This is what I went with for storage. The hog panels work well and it's self supporting. Three rows of 16" splits inside. So far working well.

 

[Caw]

Made some progress on the new stacks today. Built a second stack behind one, used branches to connect them. Took the chance to measure MC and was pleasantly surprised with the progress of the red oak (20-24% after just 9 months) and the maple/ash in there is done.

I was also able to get a good deal on metal roofing at Lowe's so I decided to go that route. Got 2 x 16' and 2 x 8' sections that are 26". I plan to attach the 2x4s to the logs, screw in 2x6s on the side of those for the roof rafters on a slight pitch. I'll then overlap the metal roofing to fit. The span is approx 20 feet x 4 feet so with overlaps it will fit nicely. The corrugated will run horizontally but whatever.

Two questions:

1. Do I need any double sided tape between the overlapping metal? I figure if its a couple corrigationa over a wood stack probably not but figured I'd ask. I plan to just eyeball an adequate pitch. Metal gives me some nice flexibility there.

2. Do I need any roof support perpendicular to the rafters? I'm doing 5 x rafters over 20 feet so I think that should be adequate to handle the snow load without any perpendicular beams (running the length of the stack) since the corrugation is running the long way. I need to make 3 more roofs after this one so I'm trying to be minimalistic with the lumber.

Also wtf lumber got expensive. Here are some pics of the progress today. I'll add the roof tomorrow or Friday depending on free time:

 

[mcdougy]

Made some progress on the new stacks today. Built a second stack behind one, used branches to connect them. Took the chance to measure MC and was pleasantly surprised with the progress of the red oak (20-24% after just 9 months) and the maple/ash in there is done.

I was also able to get a good deal on metal roofing at Lowe's so I decided to go that route. Got 2 x 16' and 2 x 8' sections that are 26". I plan to attach the 2x4s to the logs, screw in 2x6s on the side of those for the roof rafters on a slight pitch. I'll then overlap the metal roofing to fit. The span is approx 20 feet x 4 feet so with overlaps it will fit nicely. The corrugated will run horizontally but whatever.

Two questions:

1. Do I need any double sided tape between the overlapping metal? I figure if its a couple corrigationa over a wood stack probably not but figured I'd ask. I plan to just eyeball an adequate pitch. Metal gives me some nice flexibility there.

2. Do I need any roof support perpendicular to the rafters? I'm doing 5 x rafters over 20 feet so I think that should be adequate to handle the snow load without any perpendicular beams (running the length of the stack) since the corrugation is running the long way. I need to make 3 more roofs after this one so I'm trying to be minimalistic with the lumber.

Also wtf lumber got expensive. Here are some pics of the progress today. I'll add the roof

Tape won't do much imo.....your plan is to leave the sheets full length....or cut them to short pieces? Your rafters are 2x6 that will run the length of your stack? I

 

[Caw]

Tape won't do much imo.....your plan is to leave the sheets full length....or cut them to short pieces? Your rafters are 2x6 that will run the length of your stack? I

Im going to leave them full length, yes. The corrugation will run the long way across the stack and ill just overlap the pieces to fit. It will be like 4' of overlap in the middle/the long way and then 4" the short way...maybe 1-2 corrugations...as I want it to be 48" and they are 26" pieces. rafters will be running perpendicular to the stack (the same way as the wood splits) every 4'.

I figure with the rafters being every 4' and being perpendicular to the corrugation i should have a lot of strength there and not need added support.

 

[mcdougy]

Im going to leave them full length, yes. The corrugation will run the long way across the stack and ill just overlap the pieces to fit. It will be like 4' of overlap in the middle/the long way and then 4" the short way...maybe 1-2 corrugations...as I want it to be 48" and they are 26" pieces. rafters will be running perpendicular to the stack (the same way as the wood splits) every 4'.

I figure with the rafters being every 4' and being perpendicular to the corrugation i should have a lot of strength there and not need added support.

Typically metal is supported every 24" in a real world application.....since we are talking wood stacks, you can try 48" ....you will worry about wet or deep snow caving the metal.

 

[Caw]

I figured yeah its just on a wood stack let's see how it goes but also the rafters are usually running parallel to the corrugation making it much weaker. Rafters every 2 feet would be a lot of lumber. If it does fail lesson learned and I'll add more support.

I suppose I could grab some cheap 1x4s and run them across the rafters and the metal can sit on those. That would add a bunch of weight though.

 

[mcdougy]

I figured yeah its just on a wood stack let's see how it goes but also the rafters are usually running parallel to the corrugation making it much weaker. Rafters every 2 feet would be a lot of lumber. If it does fail lesson learned and I'll add more support.

No.... always strapping running perpendicular to the ribs. How long is your stack? What is your material on hand? Maybe we could come up with a plan that will make it worry free?

 

[Caw]

No.... always strapping running perpendicular to the ribs. How long is your stack? What is your material on hand? Maybe we could come up with a plan that will make it worry free?

Ok that makes sense on strapping. Metal roofing is new to me.

Im largely out of lumber on hand. The stacks are about 20' end to end at the tops so its not a trivial amount. 2x4s, 2x6s, screws, and the metal for the roof is already about $250 versus just tarps. Im ok with that as it'll last basically forever. The problem is I need to do this 3 more times. I might just have to do 1 or 2 a year to spread out the cost.

Edit - it looks like 1x3x8 strapping is $5 a board. I'd likely need hmm 8 per roof. 3 rows of 20'. That's unfortunate but maybe necessary it sounds like.

So, 48" spaced rafters that will be 48" long each coincidentally. Then three rows of 1x3 strapping the length of the roof.

 

[mcdougy]

How many 2x6's and their length do you have? How long are your metal sheets and how many do you have?

 

[Caw]

How many 2x6's and their length do you have? How long are your metal sheets and how many do you have?

I have three 2x6x8 as I intended to make 5 x 48" rafters. The metal is two 26"x16' and two 26" x 8'.

It wouldn't be the end of the world going back and grabbing some 1x3s tomorrow. Id rather do it right.