Wood Shed Advice

[Longknife]

Thought I'd post a little update:

While I wanted to do a cement floor in the shed this summer, I quickly realized I probably wouldn't have time (other priority projects) and I didn't want to handle my splits anymore than I had to, so they went right from the splitter into the shed this spring.

Having the doors open up on the back seems to give it great airflow and I'm pretty confident I'll be able to season no issues with most of the wood I deal with. My cheapo moisture meter is showing most of the wood to be sub-10% MC at this point.

I painted one door so they somewhat match, but I'll have to get a few coats on the other. I'll probably end up putting battens on the siding as the gaps don't seem to add much for airflow and I did have wasps trying to coming through them to set up shop. I also think I'll come up with some kind of removable supports so I don't have to stack my ends, even though I don't mind doing it, but it would save on time. Squirrels are getting in, but I don't think there's much I can do about that.

I've got close to 5 cord in there at the moment and I'll probably move more in soon, depending if I build the back extension before winter (to store the splitter, trailers, equipment, etc. to make room). I usually burn a bunch right off my outdoor piles (my softer and/or more marginal wood) during shoulder season though and I've never burnt much more than 6 cord.

 

[Ashful]

Nice shed, Longknife.

Now I need to solicit some advice. Wetlands-adjacency restrictions prevent me from building any permanent structure on my present woodlot, and I don't really see another part of the property where I'd rather move it to, so my solution is to have non-permanent structures. I'm telling myself this likely works better than any large shed, for my 30 cords of wood, since I can just continue stacking in the double-wide aisles I've been using:



I stack directly off the splitter, and then load it into my wagon right from the stack, to haul it up to the house when I use it:



But to get into some sort of structure that didn't always need to be rebuilt (I go thru a LOT of pallets), and get a roof better than a plastic tarp on the wood, I dreamed up this little rig:



My thinking was to build about 30 of these, and arrange them in three rows of ten each, but now I'm doubting this plan. Problems I see are:

1. Aligning several of these into contiguous rows is going to be a major PITA. I had planned to place them on concrete piers or pavers, and one would share a pier with the adjacent unit, but still... getting them reasonably leveled and aligned is going to be a Herculean task.

2. Every time i pull up old pallets, I find the piers have completely sunk into the ground under the thousands of pounds of weight I'm placing on them. This is why, instead of just four piers in the four corners, I had planned to put five continuous piers under those five short timbers that run front to back on each unit. I'm not sure how well this will mitigate sinking.

3. I find that my pallets, even the treated ones, are totally trashed and rotten after just a few years. This is likely related to the sinking piers, the pallets are always ending up in the ground.

Thoughts? Maybe a gravel bed is a partial cure, but since the ground is not level, I will need to be very elevated in a few areas. There will be some issues with keeping an elevated bed in place.



Thoughts? The ergonimics of this system could work very well for me, and it may be the best way of escaping my zoning issue, so I'd really like to find a way to make this work.

Here's the first unit, temporarily in place, shown at the far-right end of the back row:

 

[kennyp2339]

@Ashful I'd build a hand full of those things and keep them close to the house and use them as your "current years supply" and let the other stuff season out in the stacks, rotating the piles as you fill them up, but I know your pretty particular of your wood and how you bring batches to the house in that big wagon, I'm just thinking of keeping the year on deck out of the moisture and close to the house for less fall / winter work.

 

[Ashful]

@Ashful I'd build a hand full of those things and keep them close to the house and use them as your "current years supply" and let the other stuff season out in the stacks, rotating the piles as you fill them up, but I know your pretty particular of your wood and how you bring batches to the house in that big wagon, I'm just thinking of keeping the year on deck out of the moisture and close to the house for less fall / winter work.

Oh believe me, I'm considering all options. These darn things are gonna cost me $9k, if I build 30 of them, so anything is worth consideration.

But the thing pushing me toward just building enough to hold all 30 cords is my lack of free time. Staging wood, and moving stacks, is very time consuming on this scale. Time I just don't have, at this point in my life.

I would handle the build of these in production line form, I'm already working out the jigs and processes to get them built pretty darn fast in batches of three at a time.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

@Ashful if you dont mined me asking how much can your tractor lift.

 

[Jazzberry]

@Ashful if you dont mined me asking how much can your tractor lift.

I would make it with much more roof overhang and that center brace would be an x brace from top plate to bottom plate and screwed together at the x. If you don't want the thickness of double 2x4s dado them at the cross. Also being that small of a shed a flat sloped roof with rolled roofing would be much easier than building a shingled pitched roof.

 

[Ashful]

@Ashful if you dont mined me asking how much can your tractor lift.

Sure, it’s not that personal! Will have to look it up, but it’s lighter than I’d need to lift much wood, if that’s what you’re thinking.

 

[Jazzberry]

Sure, it’s not that personal! Will have to look it up, but it’s lighter than I’d need to lift much wood, if that’s what you’re thinking.

Build them on 4x6 skids and you could drag them around.

 

[walhondingnashua]

Build them on 4x6 skids and you could drag them around.

I agree. Make less of them, but much bigger (maybe 8'x12') with a 7 or 8' roof. It would be like the Amish made sheds that they deliver from a flatbed truck. Just run a piece of pipe through the skids on both ends and you can drag them. Less sinking and its not "permanent."

 

[Sawset]

Define permanent structure.
I would be leaning toward the 4 x 12 or 8x12 by 7 or 8' high on skids also. 3cord each at 4x12, only need 3 or so for a year. Metal roof goes on quick. Link them all in a row, and they still may not be considered permanent.

 

[Chas0218]

This is where the small running gear usually used for hay wagons would be perfect. Just get the ground somewhat level then they are easy to move. This might be a little pricey but would be able to be loaded pretty good.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_486971_486971

 

[Ashful]

I like the bigger but fewer concept, let me give that some thought. Maybe quadruple rows instead of double. Dry time will be longer, esp with my all-oak diet.

I do use a mini hay wagon for moving the wood already, but I think it would be a poor choice for storing wood for drying. That’s a lot of tires and running gear to maintain, per cord of wood stored, and a lot of weight sitting on four patches of dirt for three years of weathering. They’re also not cheap!

 

[Longknife]

Hmmm...

That's a tough one with a lot of variables to consider. I would be reluctant to invest $9k into structures that in the end, the only benefit is some time/labour savings (and maybe better weather protection) and could potentially have a short lifespan like the pallets.

On the other hand, if we're taking about a $9k budget, you can get a little creative.

I've used hay wagons in the past, and although it was different conditions, $9k could maybe solve some of the problems you've cited with that route.

I used hay wagons for a number of years to do most of my seasoning. If I was careful about how I stacked it (i.e. greenest/hardest on the outside rows) there wasn't much I couldn't season over a single summer where the wagons were parked on top of hill with a near constant breeze and sun from dawn till dusk.

As the tires aged, or were swapped out for lower load rated automotive tires over the years, I started to jack the wagons up off the tires and set them down on large utility pole rounds. I never had an issue with sinking/settling, however the wagons were either on well drained sandy soil, or on gravel. If I was ambitious and/or had a nice set of tires I wanted to preserve, I'd pull them off and put them in the barn out of the sun.

Maye you could take part of that $9k and put down gravel like you mentioned to park wagons on?

Running gear is next to no maintenance, especially in this context.

Older, farm/hay wagons of the type I'm talking about come fairly cheap (used), although they are becoming less common as few farmers use anything this small, or hay wagons in general anymore (depending on your area). I'm sure I could go out and find more than a few half-decent 8 ton hay wagons locally for WELL less that $1k ea.

I tried various covering solutions over the years from nothing in the summer (tarp in the fall), tarp all season, sheets of tin, and when I finished with it last year, lengths of side walls from an above ground pool. These rolled up fairly compactly and if you shaped your stack right, they kept the water out perfectly. My father-in-law uses hay wagons and actually built permanent roofs for his.

In your case, I'd maybe narrow the deck somewhat? Add built-in stack supports/roof?

Anyway, that's just the first solution that came to mind (as I'm familiar with it), but I'm sure there's other inventive ways that this egg could be cracked.

I've personally always wanted to maybe try out the IBC tote method since it seems like I could really cut down on the amount of times I handle each piece of wood. Straight from my splitter into the IBC, never to be touched again until it's going into my house after carrying the IBC into my garage with the tractor. That however will have to wait until I buy a new compact tractor as I doubt my current one has the loader capacity to carry a full IBC of hardwood, nor are pallet forks readily available for the non-quick attach loader (without modification). Like you, my wood comes into the house by the small trailer full (although I used an even smaller trailer), and the idea of just firing up the tractor once a week to carry another IBC into the garage is appealing compared to the almost twice-weekly trip with a trailer (which I usually pull by hand since it's hardly worth firing up a diesel for in -30degree weather.

 

[TradEddie]

Ashful, to get a little more storage per portable shed, you could try something like what I built, based on plans from another site.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads...an-or-similar-plan.174786/page-2#post-2355886

If I were building it again, I'd move the posts all the way to the corners, and instead of side to side floorboards, I'd have all 2x4's or 2x6's running front to rear, with not much gap. Maybe a central 2x6 joist too. As I noted in the thread above, as originally built per plans online, the 2x4's sagged considerably, and now I've added several more and now it looks much more secure.

Mine sits on six concrete pavers, 14x14? It can be moved by two people, although its not the weight but the balancing that is the problem. It can even be dragged by one person if you don't care about the ground getting plowed up. I forget the cost now, but it was less than the online estimate because I didn't use roofing compound on plywood, I'd guess now it was about $200. Moving the posts to the corners would let each one hold a cord.

Alternatively, try a few Holtzhausen, certainly no permit issues. They have amazing capacity, are interesting and challenging to build and look really good when done right. (There's a reason I won't post a pic of mine!).

TE

 

[Jazzberry]

It can even be dragged by one person if you don't care about the ground getting plowed up.

Man you guys must have some serious kahunas in SE PA

 

[Ashful]

Man you guys must have some serious kahunas in SE PA

I suspect he meant empty!

 

[Chas0218]

I like the bigger but fewer concept, let me give that some thought. Maybe quadruple rows instead of double. Dry time will be longer, esp with my all-oak diet.

I do use a mini hay wagon for moving the wood already, but I think it would be a poor choice for storing wood for drying. That’s a lot of tires and running gear to maintain, per cord of wood stored, and a lot of weight sitting on four patches of dirt for three years of weathering. They’re also not cheap!

View attachment 247132

I was thinking just for wood that will be used that season. You're right about lots of them for 3 years or more seasoned. How much do you fit on 1 load pictured?

 

[Ashful]

How much do you fit on 1 load pictured?

Almost exactly 1 cord. It’s 4’ x 8’ footprint, and mounded to about 4.5’ in the middle, tapering to 3.5’ at the ends. This lasts me about 3 weeks, on my normal burning schedule, and I use about 9-10 per year.

 

[Longknife]

Well, with half a foot of snow or snow on the way earlier today, I figured I'd get the last of my piles into the shed. I like picking away at them in the fall until the snow hits, plus I need the space in the wood shed. With about 5 1/2 cord in the shed, and nearly one burnt, I should be good for the winter. I have 3-4 cord that could also be burnt this winter in needed still in protected piles, but this was the last of the stuff I "plan to burn".

One thing I'm not a fan of with this shed is the stack height. The ceiling on the high end is 9+ feet which is a pain, even with a stool or small ladder. I wanted the 7' doors though and I'll be damned if the space will go to waste.

 

[Longknife]

I also need to plan my out my stack rotation/fill plan as I buried a bunch of butternut and Manitoba maple shoulder season wood, which obviously, I'd rather be burning now that the large ash/elm/maple splits I pile in front of it.