Tree sizes for firewood.

[wolc123]

I stack my firewood in an old 60 x 100 ft barn that my great grandad built in 1883 (year is cut out of the siding boards up under the peak). It has always had a good roof and was never painted so the air flows thru the big gaps in the vertical siding boards and the firewood drys good. I have a covered porch at a door located right next to my 1st floor woodstove. It holds about a cord which lasts me about a week in real cold weather. My family loves to gather around that air-tight stove with a glass panel in the door and watch the fire glow on a cold winter night, so I would never want the stove in the basement even though it would make heat-distribution a little easier. On the weekends I stock that porch from the supply in the barn out a back (1/2 cord also fits nicely on the 3-point carryall). It is really nice not to have to shovel snow off the wood (we get tons of that) or mess with tarps.

 

[Cami]

A cord a week? Would it be too cheeky to suggest you're doing it wrong?

 

[DennisArrow]

A cord of firewood is 4' X 4' X 8'. Kinda like a gallon is a gallon, a measurement. I get a big kick out of ol boys that advise that they cut, split, and stacked so many cords of wood in just a short bit of time. "Yeah, I got out in dem woods today, fired up the steel, cut doz trees down there by the crick and split them with that there mall. Took my lawn tractor 2 loads in the trailer to carry it all. Made a real nice stack. Must be at least 2 cords this mornin"

Thank goodness I already have my wood put up and drying. A stack 6' X 6' X 42'.......You figure the cords in that; but it's enough for MY winter with full time burning in my Harman top loader...............To go through a cord a week would take blasting red hot for 24 hours per day........I use storm downed and drought killed oak and hickory. On the average down at the stump perhaps 30 to 36" by perhaps 150' tall. 5 or 6 of those per season easily puts in all the wood I can use and give away to friends who help cut. Several are down in really hard places to get to; but getting a block and tackle on them just hasnt been done yet........Anyway, God truly blesses me...................Dennis

 

[wesmann]

Thirty years ago I went to a one hour demonstration on timber stand improvement. I' been picking the dead, diseased and deformed trees on my lot no matter what size since then. I used a Deere MT for years and it helped but I've now I've got a 4wd Yanmar and a splitter. I've disguised my wood shed as a porch and it's already full and I'm ahead a year. Split and stored outside in a pile how long will it take the wood to get too dry?

Advice to all - and it's pretty obvious - build your shed as close to the stove as possible.

 

[wolc123]

Sorry, made a little mistake there, my actual wood consumption is 1/2 face cord per week when it is real cold out. I usually go thru 10-12 face cord per winter. Where I am, everyone refers to a face cord as a cord.

 

[dave1949]

Thirty years ago I went to a one hour demonstration on timber stand improvement. I' been picking the dead, diseased and deformed trees on my lot no matter what size since then. I used a Deere MT for years and it helped but I've now I've got a 4wd Yanmar and a splitter. I've disguised my wood shed as a porch and it's already full and I'm ahead a year. Split and stored outside in a pile how long will it take the wood to get too dry?

Advice to all - and it's pretty obvious - build your shed as close to the stove as possible.

Wood in a pile outside - depends on your climate and wood species - no?

I don't think it would ever get too dry here in Maine when piled up outside. It will eventually rot if not used. I can't picture firewood getting too dry here where we have reasonable humidity. I have firewood stored in a lightly heated garage that is three years old. It is still in good shape just like a scrap of kiln dried lumber is usable for many years when stored inside. It's only going to get so dry. Well dried firewood burns a bit faster, it also produces more heat pound for pound.

The timing of the processing needs to be reasonable. For hardwoods like ash, maple and oak, if I cut them to stove length and put them on an uncovered pile for a year, they still need a little sunshine and air after splitting to be ready to burn. How long, depends on the weather, but a month at least.

I have read articles by people who ought to know, that once firewood goes below freezing, the cellular action that allows the wood to lose moisture content stops - until it gets warm again. If that's true, very little seasoning is happening to wood stored outside - whether it is undercover or not - during much of the winter.

Something like birch goes much quicker. It works better to split it right away and get it seasoned and used before it turns to nothing. I don't even mess with poplar for firewood. If I didn't have a choice, that would be another story.

Conifers are probably a whole different strategy. I once used white pine for stacking firewood on, to keep it off the ground. I could hear the pine borer larvae turning it into sawdust from 20 feet away. Those things are ugly and they chew 24/7.
Dave.

 

[dave1949]

Sorry, made a little mistake there, my actual wood consumption is 1/2 face cord per week when it is real cold out. I usually go thru 10-12 face cord per winter. Where I am, everyone refers to a face cord as a cord.

Thank goodness - my back was sore thinking about that :laughing:
Dave.

 

[Pilot]

I cut whatever dies or needs to be cut for thinning. That means 6" on up to about 30" or more and like Highbeam, I'm up here in the Pacific northwest, except I think the growing sites are a little better in his area.

I have a about a 36 incher that looks like it's going out and at about 40 years old that's a pretty good diameter for our area.

I'll have to drop the tree across my driveway, then buck it into pieces I can push around with my tractor to open up the driveway.

The first 15-20 logs will be split with the splitter in the vertical orientation. Once we get to where I can pick up the unsplit logs, I'll take them to the woodshed where I can work on them at my convenience. A lot of the limbs will be large enough to be worth burning and they burn best if I split them, too.

 

[Highbeam]

Sorry, made a little mistake there, my actual wood consumption is 1/2 face cord per week when it is real cold out. I usually go thru 10-12 face cord per winter. Where I am, everyone refers to a face cord as a cord.

Sometimes I burn banana cords when nobody is looking! Hah! JK.

There's no such thing as a face cord really. A CORD is an actual unit of measure and is required by law to be used in most states including mine when buying/selling firewood. A gallon is how you buy milk, not 35 mouthfulls.

Another trick that I've found helpful with the big logs is to "noodle" a huge round in half. Lay the round bark side to the ground and set your saw on the top so that you are cutting the huge round in half. Your saw running parallel to the core of the tree. The wood chips will sling out like noodles and you will be through the log in no time with a huge pile of noodles to play with. There are times that without this method I would not have been able to load the round into the pickup.

 

[Marveltone]

Maybe if it is a walk-out basement with plenty of ventilation. A basement wouldn't be my first choice for firewood storage. I'd be worried about hosting insects and mice inside the house. If the wood was fully cured when you put it in the basement, then it's not so bad.

Most of my firewood is cut late winter/early spring from dead standing tamarack. (We need to make sure the swamp is frozen enough to It then cures outside for the summer before being brought to the house. It should be fine.

You could consider a bulkhead-type basement entry designed to allow you to dump ready to burn wood from your FEL bucket into a wood bin in the basement. When you can eliminate handling the wood a stick at a time where possible, wood is more fun.

We're planning on installing a Bilco door to give plenty of room for wood to pass through. Unfortunately, the tractor will be up at the farm, where it's needed most. Our wood hauling duties in town are accomplished with the help of a hand pulled wood cart which actually works quite nicely.

I always said the next house I build, the wood shed slab will get poured same time as the house foundation. Never happened The tarps and such do get old. Finally, I realized that the wood will cure just fine (here) dumped in a pile from the FEL bucket in the open with no tarps. Rain and snow on the outside is not the same as moisture content on the inside. I wait for a spell of good drying weather in late summer/fall and bring enough inside the garage for the season.

I would still like to have a small wood shed
Dave.

We're also planning on a lean-to/woodshed on one side of the garage. One can never have too much storage!

 

[dave1949]

Most of my firewood is cut late winter/early spring from dead standing tamarack. (We need to make sure the swamp is frozen enough to It then cures outside for the summer before being brought to the house. It should be fine.

We're planning on installing a Bilco door to give plenty of room for wood to pass through. Unfortunately, the tractor will be up at the farm, where it's needed most. Our wood hauling duties in town are accomplished with the help of a hand pulled wood cart which actually works quite nicely.

We're also planning on a lean-to/woodshed on one side of the garage. One can never have too much storage!

Sounds like you have it covered

The one implement I have that would store well in a wood shed is my bush hog. No hoses, wires, etc. to worry about. When I think about a wood shed, I usually think it should be big enough to store the bush hog in too. Bush hogs are real space eaters, mine is 6' wide and about 11' long. I hate the idea of leaving equipment outside, even under a tarp.

I have thought about a wood shed with an 8' wide section that has a 'second' floor that is about 4' above the slab. The bush hog would easily fit underneath and the second floor is low enough to store things on - like a low loft kind of thing if you can picture that.

Then, I think it would be silly to not have a little greenhouse along the south side since the north wall is already there ...:laughing:

Someday ...
Dave.