Too Soon To Cover?

[Wood Duck]

If I had a way to cover my wood, i'd be doing it tonight! Rain is forecast for the next week.

 

[Dix]

Everything except for the new load of sopping wet hard wood mix is top covered. ( have another load coming in with in the next few days, wooo hoo me !! ) I can drop down over the sides if need be.


Decided that after Irene, and having it all uncovered, then having another sopping rain, then 2 weeks of air & sun, that it was time to top cover.


Up to 8 1/2 cords with the upcoming delivery.




With God as my witness, I will never be woodless any more !

 

[steeltowninwv]

ive moved some in already...wont have it all moved until mid october..theres still some good drying weather on the horizon...im not as fortunate as most to have 2 and 3 year seasoned wood.....what i do have is about one cord of hickory and oak seasoned for a year and a half....and then about 3 cords of dead standing oak that was cut earlier this year....im pretty sure its ready to go...my friend is gonna bring his moisture meter next week....and then i have about a half cord of cherry..maple cut earlier this year that should be good to go..............for next year i have a cord of locust....and i have about a half cord of sycamore...soon as im able to buy a truck im gonna get ahead of the game better...most of u guys wood piles make me drool..maybe one day ill make some people on here drool

 

[soupy1957]

I would not typically be covering the wood fully unless there was a long stretch of rain coming (as is the case this week, apparently). I'll most likely lift the tarps again when a good stretch of sunny days comes afterward.

There is wood in the garage (about a half cord is all I can squeeze in there) as was true in previous years, but because of the rotation of the wood, the stack in the garage is greener than the pile I'm going to use this year, so .................

Not to mention the 24 hours worth of wood that I keep in a wood ring in the living room by the stove.

It IS "way too early" as someone said, under normal conditions, to "cover fully." Just re-thought that idea, based on the rain that's coming.
Not "Irene" certainly (and the wood was only "top covered" for that event). I guess I figured when Irene came, that there would be plenty of days/weeks left, for the wood to dry out. And there was.

-Soupy1957

 

[snowleopard]

I considered building a woodshed or two, but I held off, and I'm glad I did. I started thinking about ways to utilize what I had, and realized that the covered back porch that runs the length of the house six feet deep, and the space underneath the 10x14 deck next to the downstairs door, and 8' overhang next to the garage should hold about two years of wood and still leave room for passage, and the plans for the woodshed went away.

That's my goal now, is to get the wood I'm going to burn this winter under cover. That will be such a luxury compared to last winter, when I was pulling the wood in by the sledload from piles in the woods.

Got a delivery tonight of wood that was supposed to be cut to length and split. It arrived in 6-8' lengths, and the seller explained that he had been out in the woods cutting, when some fool Easterner had shot off a rifle about 50 feet from where he was cutting. "Almost sliced my leg off, it scared me so much." Idiot decided he was going to bag a trophy grizzly, and shot a bear that had been grazing nearby, not bothering a soul. Wounded it, and the bear took off running, and the rube ran up to the seller and said, "What do I do?" Seller refrained from taking the man's rifle away and shooting him with it, and said, "Go after it. You wounded it. Now you hunt it down and kill it." He then threw the wood he'd cut into his trailer and got out of there.

He's bringing me fire-killed spruce and aspen for $120 a cord, and I'd like to get three more cords of that, at least. I'll probably throw a sheet of roofing over the 1-1/2 cord of birch I've got stacked 30' off the downstairs door, button up the 2 cords of birch by the garage, and get another couple of cords of birch stacked under the deck, and leave the rest of the birch to weather. I had planned on covering the wood that will overwinter for seasoning, but I question the necessity of that. Any thoughts on that? What's gained by covering wood that won't be burned for another 2-3 years?

 

[firefighterjake]

If you've top covered the wood already I wouldn't worry about anything else . . . water shouldn't be a real issue . . . heck, I never bothered covering all of my wood when I stacked outside . . . and never had any issues with the rain, snow, ice, etc.

 

[Battenkiller]

Why on earth would you "drop" the tarps fully? At least is sounds like you will be encasing the entire wood pile. That certainly is not necessary and if you do it that can trap moisture for sure. Better to just top cover. Rain or snow hitting the sides of the wood pile does absolutely no harm.

Wood is like a bundle made up of hundreds of thousands of ultra-fine drinking straws running the length of the piece. Water is drawn through these "straw"s through capillary action, and can soak quite deeply into the end grain of a piece of lumber or a split. In fact, the drier the wood, the faster this will occur. Last fall when we had 9" of rain in a single day, my basement flooded unexpectedly, leaving a lot of my good hardwood planks standing on end in the water. After only a few hours with the ends submerged, this kiln-dried hardwood was up over 40% MC (maxed out my meter) 2" up the planks (where I had cut them off to prevent further swelling and damage). On a 16" split, 2" from each end would soak 1/4 of the split's volume to over 40% MC. Long periods of heavy rain might cause even further soaking.

Once the wood is fully seasoned, the ends are the only areas you really need to worry about. Rain will soak the ends of your wood about 10-15 times as fast as it will from the top. That's why it makes sense to drop the tarp down to the ground. Before it is fully seasoned, however, I agree that all you will do is to trap the moisture inside, so top covering only is best at that point.

 

[mecreature]

We had a stretch of rain last week. Lasted for several days and was steady. The wood was all wet...

Now it is Thursday of this week and we had several days of sun. the wood is fine. nice and dry again.

so much for worrying about that. I do have about 2 cord covered and ready to burn since about 2 weeks now.

 

[Backwoods Savage]

Why on earth would you "drop" the tarps fully? At least is sounds like you will be encasing the entire wood pile. That certainly is not necessary and if you do it that can trap moisture for sure. Better to just top cover. Rain or snow hitting the sides of the wood pile does absolutely no harm.

Wood is like a bundle made up of hundreds of thousands of ultra-fine drinking straws running the length of the piece. Water is drawn through these "straw"s through capillary action, and can soak quite deeply into the end grain of a piece of lumber or a split. In fact, the drier the wood, the faster this will occur. Last fall when we had 9" of rain in a single day, my basement flooded unexpectedly, leaving a lot of my good hardwood planks standing on end in the water. After only a few hours with the ends submerged, this kiln-dried hardwood was up over 40% MC (maxed out my meter) 2" up the planks (where I had cut them off to prevent further swelling and damage). On a 16" split, 2" from each end would soak 1/4 of the split's volume to over 40% MC. Long periods of heavy rain might cause even further soaking.

Once the wood is fully seasoned, the ends are the only areas you really need to worry about. Rain will soak the ends of your wood about 10-15 times as fast as it will from the top. That's why it makes sense to drop the tarp down to the ground. Before it is fully seasoned, however, I agree that all you will do is to trap the moisture inside, so top covering only is best at that point.

Sorry but that wood in your basement is a whole different story from the wood in the stack that is outdoors. Just a few hours of wind once the storm is past will dry that wood right to where it was before the rain. We've seen this so many times over the years that we just laugh every time we see someone cover the sides of their woodpile.

Also, when one is talking about handling fire wood the same as they would lumber, it just is not the same. We're not comparing apples to apples doing that. In addition, I can stack wood directly on the ground here and still be able to burn that bottom layer of wood after it thaws out in the spring of the year.

 

[golfandwoodnut]

You can cover the tops, but I really would not worry about it. Even scientific Battenkiller stated the water only can come in on the end grains. You would have to have some serious sideways rain for that. It has been very wet here and I just moved some wood yesterday to my deck and it was dry as a bone. I only worry about it when the ice comes. I do not like trying to get ice off the splits, snow doesn't really even bother me.

 

[schortie]

Why all the quotation marks Soup? Are you trying to imply that you're not really speaking about "last year" or how "wet" the season is. Perhaps you mean something other than "top cover"? Sorry if I "offend", it's the English teacher in me.
'

 

[ansehnlich1]

My stacks, beautiful as they are, always remain covered, each and every day. Just the top mind you, nothing on the sides, never, ever. Top covered wood makes for good burnin'.

 

[Fi-Q]

I top cover just before Irene (Well it was just a usuall storm for us, with a LOT of rain). And still is top covered.

 

[Stevebass4]

next years stack is top covered with rubber roof - i like to think the black cover bakes the wood - no rhyme or reason this year's stuff will be top covered around end of October

i do find that the stacks are cleaner when top covered but again who knows maybe it's my imagination

 

[Slow1]

I like having mine covered before the leaves fall simply because I have my pile under trees and in a large block. This way they don't work into the stacks and become mulch piles that gather water and become reinforced ice (ala reinforced concrete) sections.

At any rate, my pile for this winter is now covered. I managed to get it done a couple weeks ago - before this latest run of rain. Given the weather pattern we're in I wonder if we'll have a break in the rain before burning time... then again I suppose if it is still raining maybe it won't be cold enough and we'll not need much wood this winter? Ha! More like we'll end up with 10' of snow on top of everything. Today was around 80* and rain.... it just seems wrong for end of September.

 

[Beardog]

Im sick of the rain and my wood stacks seem to be as well as they are growing mushrooms at this point. A week of dry weather and the mushrooms are less prevalent, but they are thriving right now. All stacks are uncovered, but after the next dry spell I will be covering them.

 

[Battenkiller]

Sorry but that wood in your basement is a whole different story from the wood in the stack that is outdoors. Just a few hours of wind once the storm is past will dry that wood right to where it was before the rain. We've seen this so many times over the years that we just laugh every time we see someone cover the sides of their woodpile.

Also, when one is talking about handling fire wood the same as they would lumber, it just is not the same. We're not comparing apples to apples doing that. In addition, I can stack wood directly on the ground here and still be able to burn that bottom layer of wood after it thaws out in the spring of the year.

Sorry, but after things got dried out down there, it took several days for the ends of some of the boards (utility planks I didn't cut the ends off of) to dry out, and that was flipped end-for-end (wet end up), with a fan on them 24 hrs/day and a 50-pint dehumidifier going 24 hrs/day. Relative humidity was a lot lower in the basement than it was outside. In fact, in rained several times during the following week, so my firewood got its end wet several times, while the wood inside was in a much drier environment.

I covered this pretty well here on Hearth last year when this happened, complete with photos of the meter readings, etc. I don't see what could possibly be different about firewood vs. lumber. Wood is wood. Explain it to me, I'm dying to know what you base this on. The ends of dimensional lumber don't give a crap how they are cut, they will absorb water via capillary action no matter how it is cut/split. Does it stay in there for two years again? Absolutely not. The ends of green wood dry 10-15 times faster than the sides, same holds true for waterlogged wood. Several days in ideal conditions and it will be near where it was before the rain soaked it. But a few hours and it's back to normal? No way! Get a moisture meter and prove it to me. I'll even send you one for free. ;-)

 

[mhrischuk]

More rain on the way..

 

[Blue Vomit]

More rain on the way..

I have rain envy.

 

[Battenkiller]

More rain on the way..

I have rain envy.

:lol:

I was thinking, "Gosh... That's why weathermen get all the chicks"

 

[BrotherBart]

A family friendly forum folks. A family friendly forum.

 

[jatoxico]

More rain on the way..

I have rain envy.

:lol:

I was thinking, "Gosh... That's why weathermen get all the chicks"

Good one BK