Question about storing wood to season.

[Ozark Woodburner]

Hey all, I am changing the way I season and store wood after reading on here. I usually cut wood in spring for the following winter and just throw it in a big pile. I am going to start stacking it in rows OFF the ground to season for two years before burning. My question is I will have a lot of wood to stack very soon, can I use black plastic or some other moisture barier in place of pallets or 2x4's? I have alot of the plastic and moisture barrier material left over from a roofing project.

Wood is 90% oak/10% hickory.

Thanks.

 

[Battenkiller]

Water will just pool up on the plastic and keep the bottom layer soaked. Find some "sacrificial" wood to put on the bottom, whatever junk wood you don't care about.

 

[gzecc]

Plastic tends to sink and pool water. If you have a high area where the water will flow away, it should work. Look for pallets in your area. They are always free!

 

[devinsdad]

If you mean laying plastic down on the ground I wouldn't do it. It would hold rain snow runoff . Pallets are your friend promote good airflow and free for me. Just brought myself home another load of pallets tonight for the upcoming stacking.

 

[Tony H]

Save the plastic to cover the top of the stacks and use pallets, old landscape timbers , used 2x4 2x6 , or similar to keep the wood up off the ground and allow some airflow under the wood to prevent mold and promote drying.
Check around and you can usually find pallets for free

 

[quads]

I stack all my wood on splits. Under my stacks is a bottom layer of splits, so that the wood above the bottom isn't touching the ground. As far as oak, it won't hurt the splits that are touching the ground. When I go to burn it, and if the bottom row of splits seem a little wet or heavy yet, I just toss those on the top of next year's stack and I'm good to go.

 

[LLigetfa]

This is my first time using pallets. Before, I always laid down long Aspen poles and stacked on them or put down a first course of Poplar rounds from standing or laying dead wood.

 

[Bootlegger]

+1 pallets.

Though I found a weird orange-yellow stringy fungus growing on the bottom pieces of wood and facing down into the pallets.

 

[gzecc]

Bootleg, Was the fungus kind of fuzzy?

 

[Bootlegger]

Bootleg, Was the fungus kind of fuzzy?

Yep. Fuzzy, string-like, and orange. Never seen it before but my bottom pieces are too wet to burn. Not a problem really, just tossed them on top of next year's stacks.

 

[firefighterjake]

Scrap the plastic . . . as mentioned it will retain water and not let it drain away.

+1 or 2 or whatever . . . 1) Pallets are usually free, 2) Pallets provide a nice, stable foundation for your stacks, 3) Pallets will give great air-flow to your wood . . . even the wood on the bottom and 4) When your pallets start to look a bit rough or are broken up you can either break them up for a nice bonfire in the summer or break/cut them up and use the pallet pieces for some great kindling.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

If you want something low cost, just go out in the woods and cut some saplings. 4" or so poles cut to 8' lengths work very well and also cuts costs. I lay 2 poles and just stack the wood on the poles.

 

[Bspring]

I was amazed at how easy it was to get palets. While out running errands one day I wrote down the names of several businesses that had them stacked out back and called them the next day. The first one that I called gave me all that I wanted.

 

[Bigg_Redd]

Hey all, I am changing the way I season and store wood after reading on here. I usually cut wood in spring for the following winter and just throw it in a big pile. I am going to start stacking it in rows OFF the ground to season for two years before burning. My question is I will have a lot of wood to stack very soon, can I use black plastic or some other moisture barier in place of pallets or 2x4's? I have alot of the plastic and moisture barrier material left over from a roofing project.

Wood is 90% oak/10% hickory.

Thanks.

I always use a vapor barrier when storing wood on the ground. It help keep termites and other bugs out and it keeps the wood a lot cleaner. Poke some holes in it to minimize pooling.

 

[rdust]

As others have said, stack off the ground without plastic. Below are a couple pictures of stacking on pallets and 2x4's.

 

[bogydave]

I started using a black fabric that lets water through but stops weeds &
helps keep moisture under the pallets/wood down. Used up here under the road beds. Tough stuff.
If angled, water runs off but if it puddles it will slowly seep through.
Geo-fabric I think its called. I use it in the garden for weed control too.

 

[ansehnlich1]

I'm all about pallets, they are the best I've found thus far.

I'll use 2x4's too, but they tend to sink into the ground over time....

 

[tiber]

As others have said, stack off the ground without plastic. Below are a couple pictures of stacking on pallets and 2x4's.

AWESOME. My wife wants to know how much wood is in the first photo.

She's starting to read the forums so no cussing or conduct unbecoming of a gentleman.

 

[LLigetfa]

AWESOME. My wife wants to know how much wood is in the first photo.

My guess is 4 cord on pallets and 5 cord on 2x4s.

 

[Ozark Woodburner]

Ok, I see the problem with plastic. I will try to get some pallets and use them IF I can. It is sometimes hard to get many usable pallets here. Everyplace seems to reuse them if they are in good shape. But I'll try.

Thanks.

 

[woodsmaster]

I use the small limbs that around 2" Or less, leave long if straigt & place a few on the bottom perpindicular to your splits and bamo free fire wood lift that you didnt have to haul to or from. Don't go to small as they will sink
some.

 

[rdust]

AWESOME. My wife wants to know how much wood is in the first photo.

She's starting to read the forums so no cussing or conduct unbecoming of a gentleman.

2 cords on the pallets and each of the single rows is a cord each. I have 6 pallets down that are 40x48, they're laid out long ways. I have 2 rows on the pallets with about an 8" gap between them. I have access to all the pallets I want at work so it's pretty convenient stack that way.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Ok, I see the problem with plastic. I will try to get some pallets and use them IF I can. It is sometimes hard to get many usable pallets here. Everyplace seems to reuse them if they are in good shape. But I'll try.

Thanks.

If pallets are difficult to come by, no problem. Just go out into the woods and cut a few small trees:

 

[LLigetfa]

If pallets are difficult to come by, no problem. Just go out into the woods and cut a few small trees:

Before I built my shed, my stacks looked a lot like those, three rows on long poles. Only difference is I laid down a second course of 5 footers perpendicular to the long ones. It tied the base together so that it had less propensity to topple from the frost moving the poles. Unlike BWS, I have nothing but clay and the frost really does a number on my stacks.

 

[Gomez]

[/quote]Before I built my shed, my stacks looked a lot like those, three rows on long poles. Only difference is I laid down a second course of 5 footers perpendicular to the long ones. It tied the base together so that it had less propensity to topple from the frost moving the poles. Unlike BWS, I have nothing but clay and the frost really does a number on my stacks.[/quote]



I was going to ask how this setup works once the frost gets to it. I had about 5 cords on landscape timbers with 16" block to keep the timbers off the ground. I dug down a few inches and leveled the block. It looked pretty in the fall. By January, things got a bit squirrely and woke up one moring to an organized pile of dominoed firewood.

doh