Fireplace advice, Part 2

[EddieWalker]

After much thought, and trying to find a better place, I decided to build a leanto on the side of my house to store firewood. Bugs have me terrified, but it's the only location that really works for me.

I have some used pipe laying in my scrap pile from jobs that I've done that I thought would make goob supports for stacking the wood, and to hold up the roof. I set them in concrete and then poured a pad next to my foundation. Before I poured the concrete, I sealed up the bottom edge of my exterior, Hardi sided, house. It's thick and ugly, but I belive bug proof if anything gets through the concrete.

On a side note, hate the siding on my house. My long term goal is to replace it with James Hardi Lap Siding.

Because I'm redoing my entire house in stages, I've decided to try Zip System. The panels don't require house wrap, and are designed to be out in the elements for extended periods. I've never used them before. The ones I bought were 4ft wide and 9ft long. My wall is 8ft 7in tall.

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

After much thought, and trying to find a better place, I decided to build a leanto on the side of my house to store firewood. Bugs have me terrified, but it's the only location that really works for me.

I have some used pipe laying in my scrap pile from jobs that I've done that I thought would make goob supports for stacking the wood, and to hold up the roof. I set them in concrete and then poured a pad next to my foundation. Before I poured the concrete, I sealed up the bottom edge of my exterior, Hardi sided, house. It's thick and ugly, but I belive bug proof if anything gets through the concrete.

On a side note, hate the siding on my house. My long term goal is to replace it with James Hardi Lap Siding.

Because I'm redoing my entire house in stages, I've decided to try Zip System. The panels don't require house wrap, and are designed to be out in the elements for extended periods. I've never used them before. The ones I bought were 4ft wide and 9ft long. My wall is 8ft 7in tall.

Eddie

Eddie, your stove looks very cozy. Nothing like a wood stove for comfort.

I think as long as you split your wood and let it dry well outside in the hot Texas sun before bringing it into your woodshed, the bugs shouldn't be too much of a problem. I am guessing you made the lean to snake proof too?
Dave.

 

[dmccarty]

After much thought, and trying to find a better place, I decided to build a leanto on the side of my house to store firewood. Bugs have me terrified, but it's the only location that really works for me.

I have not seen termites in my firewood. Big huge honking black beetles, yes. Huge ugly wide grubs that turn into big huge hoking beetles, yes. I think the grubs are ugly enough to keep Andrew Zimmerman from eating them. Or nut.

But the beetles seldom are in the wood that is brought into the house....

The hibernating moths are another story. This year for some reason we have a bunch of moths that are sleeping on the wood. They wake up in front of the warm cozy fireplace when the wood is brought into the house in buckets. They then take flight...

Termites I have not seen in the firewood.

Later,
Dan

 

[MossRoad]

I see carpenter ants all the time in my firewood. To combat it, I first spray the area with insecticide, then stack my wood. Every few layers, I spray it again. Any piece I find with ants while stacking gets tossed "over there" away from the good wood pile and sprayed.

Eddie,
Just keep the wood several inches away from your siding so you can spray some insecticide between it and the side of your house a few times a year. You should be O.K.

 

[EddieWalker]

If I leave a peice of wood on the dirt for any length of time, it will end up with termites in it. They are everywhere around here. That is my biggest fear. Some of my pines have carpenter ants in them, but I've never seen them in the oaks, so that might be alright. I don't know what else is in the wood, or what might try to get into my house, but I'm working hard on making it impossible for them.

Snakes are my biggest fear. It's something that I've thought about and will always be nervous about. There is nothing to stop them from hiding in the stacked wood. My thought is to drop mothballs in there from time to time and hope that helps. I also put mouse poison out all the time and will put some in with the wood. I know that in time, mice will make nests in the wood. I have two cats and a pig. I don't know if the pig will eat snakes or not. I've heard that they do, so I'm hopfull that Oscar will earn his keep. The cats have killed mice and squirrels, so I'm hoping that if I keep the food supply down, the snakes wont have any reason to hang out here.

Eddie

 

[dave1949]

If I leave a peice of wood on the dirt for any length of time, it will end up with termites in it. They are everywhere around here. That is my biggest fear. Some of my pines have carpenter ants in them, but I've never seen them in the oaks, so that might be alright. I don't know what else is in the wood, or what might try to get into my house, but I'm working hard on making it impossible for them.

Snakes are my biggest fear. It's something that I've thought about and will always be nervous about. There is nothing to stop them from hiding in the stacked wood. My thought is to drop mothballs in there from time to time and hope that helps. I also put mouse poison out all the time and will put some in with the wood. I know that in time, mice will make nests in the wood. I have two cats and a pig. I don't know if the pig will eat snakes or not. I've heard that they do, so I'm hopfull that Oscar will earn his keep. The cats have killed mice and squirrels, so I'm hoping that if I keep the food supply down, the snakes wont have any reason to hang out here.

Eddie

I don't envy you guys who live in termite prone areas. I guess they can be found here, but it's rare. I've fought carpenter ants, which are very common here. I have seen them in red oak and just about every sort of tree we have here, but it seems they really favor spruce and pine. I bet if I cut 10 spruce trees on my lot, 5 would have a colony of carpenter ants in them. Keeps the Pileated woodpeckers busy.

It can't hurt to reduce the 'snake food'.
Dave.

 

[CurlyDave]

I see carpenter ants all the time in my firewood. To combat it, I first spray the area with insecticide, then stack my wood. Every few layers, I spray it again. Any piece I find with ants while stacking gets tossed "over there" away from the good wood pile and sprayed.

Eddie,
Just keep the wood several inches away from your siding so you can spray some insecticide between it and the side of your house a few times a year. You should be O.K.

I was thinking along those same lines also.

Make an enclosure that is as air-tight as you can, which will still have some leaks, and let loose with an overabundance of bug spray in there maybe once a month.

Wrapping some heavy plastic sheeting around the wood before you spray is also a good idea.

* * * * *

I know we had a jobsite outhouse that developed a real bug infestation one summer. A good long shot of bug spray in there every few days cured many evils.

 

[MossRoad]

If I leave a peice of wood on the dirt for any length of time, it will end up with termites in it. They are everywhere around here. That is my biggest fear. Some of my pines have carpenter ants in them, but I've never seen them in the oaks, so that might be alright. I don't know what else is in the wood, or what might try to get into my house, but I'm working hard on making it impossible for them.

Snakes are my biggest fear. It's something that I've thought about and will always be nervous about. There is nothing to stop them from hiding in the stacked wood. My thought is to drop mothballs in there from time to time and hope that helps. I also put mouse poison out all the time and will put some in with the wood. I know that in time, mice will make nests in the wood. I have two cats and a pig. I don't know if the pig will eat snakes or not. I've heard that they do, so I'm hopfull that Oscar will earn his keep. The cats have killed mice and squirrels, so I'm hoping that if I keep the food supply down, the snakes wont have any reason to hang out here.

Eddie

Ah, yes. I recall your disdain for snakes. :laughing:

I was at a bonfire last year with some friends. The home owner picked up an armful of wood and tossed it on the fire. A snake came out of the fire all charred up and squirming. I felt sorry for it so I stomped on its head and put it out of its misery. I guess I would fear them more if there were any venomous ones around here, like you may have.

While we may tease you about your snake-o-phobia, it is a legitimate concern in areas with venomous snakes.

I use a garden claw to pull my wood off the top of my wood pile. It has a 5' wood handle with steel fingers. Like this one, but with a long handle. That would let you sort through the pile and stay out of surprise range! :laughing:

 

[dmccarty]

If I leave a peice of wood on the dirt for any length of time, it will end up with termites in it. They are everywhere around here. That is my biggest fear. Some of my pines have carpenter ants in them, but I've never seen them in the oaks, so that might be alright. I don't know what else is in the wood, or what might try to get into my house, but I'm working hard on making it impossible for them.
...

I do see termites and ants in wood that is on the ground. But once I have split the wood and stacked it OFF the ground on wood pallets, I have not seen any bugs IN the wood. And I have not found ants either.

Just got curious and read up on termites. It is possible I have seen signs of them in the wood pile. I do see wood dust from time to time but photos of termite dust I see on the Internet do not match what I see in the wood pile. I will pay more attention next time I see the dust.

I do see roaches usually on the piece of wood right on top of the wood pallet. If they are on the wood I just knock two pieces of wood together and off they go. My assumption is that this is the warmest place in the wood pile.

I have also seen black snakes in my wood piles. But my wood piles are well away from the house. The snakes are after the mice that build nests in the wood piles. I have only seen Mr. No Legs a few times though.

Later,
Dan

 

[westcliffe01]

Eddie, do you plan to extend the roofline to cover the stacked wood ?

If you don't, the wood will be dumped on big time every time it rains. If you overlap the front of the stacked wood by 1 ft you should be fine, unless you happen to get strong wind from that side. If the wall was to be south facing, it can be amazing how much faster the wood dries. I have burnt oak 8 months after splitting it, which is about 1/3 of the recommended seasoning time, but I think the south facing position was key, as well as keeping the splits small in cross section.

Termites should be no risk in firewood, except for where they may go when leaving the wood as it dries.

 

[charlz]

An option might be to not let the wood sit there too long. I am not sure your bug and snake activity stops completely in the winter months the way it does further north but if you fill the wood bin late in fall and keep it empty in the summer it would go a long ways towards preventing 'things' from playing house in your wood bin Any idea how long a full bin would last you?

 

[EddieWalker]

I was hoping to have the finished pics up by now, but it's just too darn cold to paint outside.

I have the area on the wall where the wood will be stacked covered in 3x5 1/2 inch James Hardie backer board that is used in wet areas to tile. It's plenty strong and I don't think there is any bug that will be able to dig it's way through it. At ever seam, I put a thick bead of 35 year silicone caulking. I was a bit wasteful, but wanted enough that it oozed out from the edges. I used screws to attach it to the house. Then I spread caulking out over the seams and covered up every screw head. Now it's ready for a very thick layer of exterior paint.

On the rest of the wall, I installed James Hardi Lap Siding. This was a very standard installation and went real fast.

I'm going to do a gel stain finish to make it look like real wood. I've done this a few times adn love the results. Unfortunately, it has faded on me. I spoke to a guy at James Hardi about this and was told that they are working on testing different prodects and instructions on how to get this result. They wont give out a recomendation until they can gaurantee it. He told me that the problem is that moisture gets under the gel stain and it fades because of that mosture. He said that they are having good results when they paint it first and then apply the stain over the paint. So this is what I'm going to try. Everyone I've spoken to about this feels it should solve the problem.

Eddie

 

[EddieWalker]

I've spent a few days now sitting inside all day. I'm drinking a huge amount of water. I think that the fire is drying out my air to the point that it's making me dehydrated. Does this even make sense? I've thought about putting water in something on the stove to add moisture to the air. Are their any negatives to doin this? Will this help with my dehydration? or is that just something that's not related to the wood stove?

What are those things called to put the water in? I looked for tea pots on ebay, but all I found was tea pots.

Another part of the problem is getting carried away with the heat. It was 25 degrees outside and I was really comfortable with it at 78 inside my house. As the temps outsde droped, I added more wood and got a little ahead of myself. It was 16 outside and I had it up to 80 inside, which was too warm. I had to crack the window for over an hour to get it down to 76,which is when I felt it was feeling kind of cool in here. Keeping the temperature just right is a little tricky, but not that big of a deal.


Thank you,
Eddie

 

[westcliffe01]

Cold air outside = low humidity to start with. Heat it from 16-80 and the humidity will be so low it can't be read with a gauge.

My recommendation (which I use) is to get a stainless steel soup pot of the largest diameter that can fit on your stove top. I have one about 10" in diameter and about 6" high. It holds about 1.5 gal comfortably. I refill it about 3 times a day. I have not had much luck with cast iron "steamers" or trivets or even camping style kettles made for putting onto coals.

I have the impression you want a large surface of liquid exposed from which the vapor can rise. In a teapot or other kettle, I get the impression that the top part of the vessel is sufficiently cool that a lot of the vapor is re-condensed inside so not much emerges to humidify your home.

The stainless pot is also easy to clean with lime away to look as good as new in the off season. Another reason I think the stainless works well is they have thick bottoms that stay flat to make for good heat transfer from the stove top. Aluminum distorts and tends to just touch in a few places.

 

[Inspector507]

At ever seam, I put a thick bead of 35 year silicone caulking. I was a bit wasteful, but wanted enough that it oozed out from the edges. I used screws to attach it to the house. Then I spread caulking out over the seams and covered up every screw head. Now it's ready for a very thick layer of exterior paint.



Eddie

You're going to paint over silicone?

 

[EddieWalker]

Silcone Caulking is a buck more a tube over regular caulking and the best of both worlds. You can paint it, it's very durable and it has some flexibitlity to it when it dries.

Eddie

 

[IH3444]

Getting an inexpensive humidifier will make you home much more comfortible Eddie. And also place a pot of water, or two on top of the wood stove. It will, both steam, and evaporate slowly. The additional moisture in the air will allow you to be comfotable in temps in the low to mid 70's.

 

[MossRoad]

I've spent a few days now sitting inside all day. I'm drinking a huge amount of water. I think that the fire is drying out my air to the point that it's making me dehydrated. Does this even make sense? I've thought about putting water in something on the stove to add moisture to the air. Are their any negatives to doin this? Will this help with my dehydration? or is that just something that's not related to the wood stove?

What are those things called to put the water in? I looked for tea pots on ebay, but all I found was tea pots.

Another part of the problem is getting carried away with the heat. It was 25 degrees outside and I was really comfortable with it at 78 inside my house. As the temps outsde droped, I added more wood and got a little ahead of myself. It was 16 outside and I had it up to 80 inside, which was too warm. I had to crack the window for over an hour to get it down to 76,which is when I felt it was feeling kind of cool in here. Keeping the temperature just right is a little tricky, but not that big of a deal.


Thank you,
Eddie

One thing new wood burning folks will find...

Most likely you will at some point find yourself sitting around your house in your underwear eating ice cream in the middle of winter! :laughing:

Yes, controlling the humidity inside the house with a wood stove can be a challenge. They just plain dry the air so quick. Some folks put heavy cast iron tea kettles on the stove and get humidity that way. Some folks use a dedicated humidifier in the house. Those work pretty well. Cracking the bathroom door open while taking a shower puts a lot of humidity back in the house.

Another thing you may want to look into is some sort of wood conditioner if you have wooden cabinets and furniture. The low humidity may dry them out. A humidifier will help with this as well.

 

[EddieWalker]

I got a pot out of my drawer and added water to it. I have it at 78 degrees in here and I'm still thirsty all the time. I added it to the stove this morning, so I'm wondering if it will just take a little bit of time to work?

Thanks,
Eddie

 

[dmccarty]

There are potpourri pots which are little ceramic, ah, pots. You put dried spices and herbs in the pot fill with water and heat with a candle.

Or just put it on the top of the stove.

The problem is that the pots are small and do not hold a lot of water so they dry out quickly.

We have not felt that the stove had dried out the air in the house. But we have put a cook pot on the stove full of water and thrown in some cinnamon, cloves, etc.

Later,
Dan