Newbie Wood Shed Help

[tfdchief]

The masonry heater is gorgeous. I can't believe it isn't rated more than 7kw. Anyway, like you said, it doesn't really matter when it heats your house.

 

[jebatty]

Lots of thought in your design. 2nd on isles wide enough for a cart, about 4 ft. I also believe that any stacks more than about 4 ft wide with good air circulation between stacks (4' open path) may not dry well. Air has to move through all sides of the stacks IMO. Good luck on your shed.

 

[weatherguy]

Thanks for posting the pics, its beautiful, I like all the extras, seats, wood storage, some day Ill have one too. Maybe when the time comes I can pick your brain.

 

[PapaDave]

I'm also a newbie, and my shed designs were almost as good as yours:
View attachment 70058
As you can see, it's taller than me and pretty wide.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

WINNER!
That must have taken some time and effort.

 

[PapaDave]

Welcome to the Hearth, bdmccall.
3' walkway is barely big enough for me to walk through, let alone a cart full of wood.
When you pull or push the cart in, how will you get to the other side to unload in only 3'? Jags mentioned this.
Wider walkway would be helpful. The partition inside the south door could be a bit shorter or eliminated, and that space used for storage of the cart
or other things (wood).
If there are trees on the west side, well.......we know what to do with trees. They end up in the stove.
Our shed is oriented the same as yours, and about 12-13' from the stove room. It has a completely open front. VERY easy access for loading and unloading from either the 5x10' trailer or the 17 cu. ft. trailer, pulled by the tractor.
The masonry heater is AWESOME, and looks like it would fill my entire living room. Nice job on the design.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Hi All, I've been lurking for some time and reading posts. There are a number of really great wood shed photos posted on the site and I've learned a lot. We are designing a wood shed for our property, and I was hoping to get some feedback from the experts here (we put in a Masonry Heater this past fall, so we're just getting into heating with wood and don't have much experience with firewood).

Here's our first draft:

The shed exterior would be framed with 2x4 on 16" centers and sided with recycled corn crib siding (edges cut at a slant to let in air). The interior walls would be 2x4 open frame with studs on 8" centers. The roof would have a traditional peak in the center, and would be metal.

Our hope is that this would hold about 6 cords of wood at a 4' height but could be stretched if the wood was stacked higher.

The predominant wind direction is from the West, and I know that ideally we should rotate the shed 90 degrees, but it's not possible with the location we have chosen. Our idea is to store only seasoned firewood in the shed and have additional racks outside for drying.

Does this seem reasonable from a storage perspective? Also, does 3' seem reasonable for a "hallway" for ease of getting around with a log cart?

Thank you SO much for your input!

Welcome to the forum bdmccall.

Love that heater!

As for the 3' aisle, like others have stated, I'd definitely make it larger but would not stop at 4'. The reason is....the future. Unfortunately we don't know what may or may not happen in the future but many of us have had some rude awakenings. For example, I never thought I'd be hauling wood with an atv but now I find it really works great. But thinking about the cart you want to use for moving the wood, it is good, but.... What if something happens (besides age) and perhaps you could no longer handle that cart load of wood? Maybe you might want to consider even using your lawn mower and a small trailer for moving the wood? In that case, your beautiful shed would cause you to wonder why you built it the way you are planning.

As for the 2-doors you have planned, I like having 2 doors. I also like how you've considered pests and attempting to block them. I also like how you plan on drying your wood outside before moving it into the shed.

fwiw, we also dry our wood outdoors:



Then we move it into the barn before winter sets in. (Most of our wood has been drying outdoors for 3 years or more.) Moving the wood with the help of the atv and trailer really lessens the work load and also speeds it up. At present, we too move the wood from the barn to the porch using a cart but when we physically can't, we use the atv and trailer.


Wood stacked in barn waiting for winter.


3 rows deep stacked 6' to 7' high.

 

[tfdchief]

I just never get tired of looking at those stacks and wood in the wood shed.

 

[Billybonfire]

Hey weatherguy ... I could go on for DAYS about how much I love our masonry heater (thanks for the opening!) -- even after only using it for about 3 months. We had it custom designed and built by a guy out of Ohio who wrote a really nice book on Masonry Heaters called Masonry Heaters: Designing, Building and Living with a Piece of the Sun (Ken Matesz).

It's two sided, with heated benches (seats and backs) on both sides, two areas for firewood storage on the firebox side, and two sets of shelves on the kitchen side for books or whatever (and a small viewing window into the firebox). The "large element" (tall white area with the flue) also heats up and radiates heat out. Everything that is not white is Soapstone. The benches are about 2" thick, and the caps are about 1" thick.

View attachment 70055 View attachment 70056

It is rated for 7kw (I'm not really sure what that means), but it is supposed to heat our entire house (2500 sq ft ranch) with 2 burns of 59 pounds of wood per day. At full burn the benches are actually too hot to sit on without a pillow or blanket. It did a very good job of heating our house this past winter (but that was unseasonably warm).

Doing it as part of new construction is the way to go. We did a retrofit (full basement beneath .. and sadly our geothermal right below, so we couldn't do the traditional support structure of block walls .. new footers and I-beams and the whole bit).

However, now that the 4 months of construction are over, it was totally worth it.

*Brag off*

Thanks!

WOW thats beautiful, never seen anything like it.

Billy.

 

[captjack]

be careful towing with the grizzly 700 always use low - the one way bearing in the clutch goes out when you pull more than you should(you will loose engine braking) - I have 3800 miles on an 07. It has been the best atv i have ever had - I am not easy on it at all. I can change the bearing in my sleep haha I use my tractor now for pulling overloaded trailers of wood.

 

[glennm]

I have a similar shed that is 16 x 8. I have the front and back wide open with a divining wall in the middle. It works great. You can take wood from the front or rear and since it has a wall in the middle that gives you 4 sections to choose from.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

be careful towing with the grizzly 700 always use low - the one way bearing in the clutch goes out when you pull more than you should(you will loose engine braking) - I have 3800 miles on an 07. It has been the best atv i have ever had - I am not easy on it at all. I can change the bearing in my sleep haha I use my tractor now for pulling overloaded trailers of wood.

Not really sure what an overload is on this thing. Lots of power for sure. However, if in doubt, I'll use low range and many times pulling a trailer of wood, I'll use low range just because the trails get rough and I hate reloading wood.

 

[jeepmedic]

I'm also a newbie, and my shed designs were almost as good as yours:
View attachment 70058
As you can see, it's taller than me and pretty wide.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Nice work !! Your shed is going to be awesome.

 

[Gasifier]

bdm,

Take your time. This is one idea on how you want the inside of your wood shed to look. A nice fireplace in there to warm and dry your wood. A nice place to lay down and take a rest when you need to. A comfort area to have a cold beer between face cords being completed. And possible even a wash room off to the side.

 

[fossil]

This was my shed a few years back before my wife made me fill it up with wood.

 

[Gasifier]

This was my shed a few years back before my wife made me fill it up with wood.

View attachment 70567

Now that is what I'm talkin bout. A quiet radio playin in the background. Oh, wait. Turn that up for this song though.

To view this content we will need your consent to set third party cookies.
For more detailed information, see our cookies page.

Accept third party cookies