New wood shed, and how do you rotate stored firewood?

[s219]

After Christmas, I got to looking at all my firewood stacks and decided to build a wood shed to try and consolidate and neaten things up in the future. I did a lot of research on the internet looking at designs and what other folks had done, and ended up going with a pole barn structure. All the designs I saw that integrated a raised floor into the structure had issues with sagging, and trying to support the weight of the firewood on the footings of the poles was really not practical anyhow (the weight of the wood far exceeded snow loads we normally design footings for). So I ended up doing a pallet-style floor that sits inside the pole barn structure but floats independent of it. It's supported by a base of compacted crushed gravel. I doubt it will settle, but if it does it won't impact the pole barn.

I made the structure 6' x 16' with 12" overhang all around (so roof is 8' x 18'). The roof has a 3:12 pitch and uses 5V metal. I can put three stacks of wood in the 6' depth with about 5-6" air space between the stacks. All together, this will hold about 2.5-3 cords of wood. If the shed works out well, I will build another one next year and another the year after, eventually replacing my separate stacks with three sheds.

Here's the basic pole barn structure:



Then gravel base added, as well as side slats:



Finally, with pallet-style floor (floats independent of the poles):



One thing I fussed over was how to divide the wood storage up so that I could work into a stack front to back and free up space for reloading. I season my wood for two years. Typically, we begin burning firewood in November, when I transfer seasoned wood to our front porch 1/3 cord at a time. Then I start reloading the newly-empty stacks with green wood (for use two years later) in January and February. So in the November-January timeframe, I want to start freeing up stacks for reloading.

What I ended up doing is making several "book end" style dividers that I can put in the wood shed and use to divide up a stack into 4' wide sections. With a divider on each stack, I can clear out a 4' section, front to back, and make it available for reloading. Not sure this is the best solution, but time will tell. Since the dividers are not fixed in place, I can move them out of the way when working front to back and only set them in place as needed to reload.





Finally got the first side filled up today, that's about 1.3-1.5 cords.



Already, I am wishing I made this a three-bay shed, which might have helped me manage inventory and reloading better on a two year seasoning schedule. With three bays, I could have a bay for this year (burn now), next year (burn in 1 year), and green wood (burn in 2 years) and not have to fiddle with freeing up space to reload wood. That would leave one of the bays empty over the summer, but I'm sure I could find a use for that.

Anyhow, that brings me to my question -- those of you with wood sheds, how do you manage seasoned wood and green wood and rotate your supply? I am so used to working with single 1/3 cord stacks out in the open that I am left scratching my head at the best way to rotate supply in a shed where you're stacking several rows deep.

 

[HillStreet]

That’s a nice looking wood shed. Build another, that’s the only way to get it stored so it will season.

 

[oosik]

My wood shed was a two bay affair. Wood that was harvested last year/wood that was harvested this year. Six full chords on each side. A person tends to forget all the "handling" wood burning takes. There is nothing better than a nice fire in the wood stove on a cold evening/night.

Harvest, cut, split, six chord this spring and stack on one side. Burn it the fall of next year. The second bay had wood harvested eighteen months ago. Burn the second bay this fall.

That gives 18 months( two summers ) to dry. All my wood was Ponderosa pine.

If I had hardwood - be looking for a three bay setup.

It's so hot & dry in the summer - walk by the wood shed and hear the wood "cracking" in late summer.

 

[TnAndy]

After building a proto-type and finding it too small, I went to my present version "4 cord" shed. I made mine portable to the extent I can drag them (empty) from the shop to various locations around the farm when I'm clearing or thinning out that area.

shed is 80x144" inside, running about 78" high in the back to 90" in the front. Stacking tight and into the rafters (why waste space), it holds right at 4 cords. We use about 4-6 per year, and four of these sheds means the wood I'm using this year is at least 12-18mo seasoned, but more likely 2yrs. I stack mine tight, and doesn't seem to be a problem with drying.

Oak 2x6 floor joists on 24" centers, two 14' 6x6 treated runners with 6x6 oak posts, 5/4 1x8 oak flooring with 1" gaps to allow air in from the bottom. Roof pitch is whatever it worked out, I'd guess around 3-4/12. Hosed them down out in the drive with couple coats of barn red latex using air sprayer.

Been using them now for quite a few years, weight of the wood doesn't sag the floor, or any other problems I can see.

In the fall, we transfer the contents of one shed to the basement so it's easy access for the winter. Have one wood stove in the basement I'll run when the weather dips into low teens or below.

From the basement stack, the wood gets loaded on a dumb waiter car I built that holds 3-5 days worth of wood for the primary stove in the living room on the first floor. Electric winch raises the car, sliding door in the fireplace front accesses the wood for the living room stove.

 

[s219]

Andy, I think your skid-style floor is the way to go -- it's similar to what I did since the ground provides the direct support over a large surface area and you're not relying on posts or piers to carry the weight of the firewood. After seeing your pictures I said to myself, that guy must have a sawmill, and sure enough I see a Woodmizer listed in your profile. I want one of those someday.

One other complication to storing/using/rotating firewood storage for me is that I burn a wide range of wood species. Basically I am using whatever trees fall down, are unhealthy, or need thinning. Or whatever I get when cleaning up storm damage for friends/neighbors. Due to the heavy wet snow we had in early December, I got a lot of Loblolly pine in this newest batch, which burns fine with 2 years drying time, but is low on BTUs. Also get a fair amount of poplar, which is also low on BTUs. The rest tends to be a mix of white and red oak, beech, gum, and maple. I try to have no more than 30-40% of pine/poplar but it will vary from year to year, so a volume measurement like a "cord" won't be equal year to year. And of course weather varies too every winter, and there can be a 30-50% variation in the amount of wood we burn due to that.

I think the solution is to store/season more wood than is needed in a typical winter, which means more sheds and/or bigger sheds. As I use up my old stacks, I'll take over that ground space for more sheds.

 

[TnAndy]

Yep.....Woodmizer owner since 1991. Problem with cheap lumber is it just encourages you to find ways to use it. Seriously, if you have timber on your place, or access to it, a small bandmill is one of the best tools you'll ever buy.

We're fortunate to have 70ac of mostly hardwoods (pine beetle killed off most of our pines in the late 90's, and I built rental houses out of the lumber....another story), so I have a lot of dead/dying stuff to select from, as well as stuff that just needs to come down to thin our woods.

I don't burn any poplar.....if it's large enough, I saw it for lumber, otherwise I burn it in with brush, or simply ignore it. Not really a big fan of red maple either for firewood. We have a lot of chestnut oak that never amounts to much for saw timber, but makes pretty good firewood, so lot of mine is that.

 

[Diggin It]

Anyhow, that brings me to my question -- those of you with wood sheds, how do you manage seasoned wood and green wood and rotate your supply? I am so used to working with single 1/3 cord stacks out in the open that I am left scratching my head at the best way to rotate supply in a shed where you're stacking several rows deep.

If I read through all the right (OK scanned it), I saw something about pallets. Why not make those individual stacks so you can move them intact. Use rope or strapping if necessary. Some have mentioned using the plastic pallets and cages from IBC totes. You may even be able to stack them if you make shelf rails strong enough.

 

[KennyG]

My approach to rotation is to stack the other direction. I have a similar shed. I just fill it from left to right and take wood out from left to right. Mine holds about 6 cords and each "row" will be about the same age. Yes, I did have a stack fall over once but I'm getting more careful in my stacking.

 

[s219]

If I read through all the right (OK scanned it), I saw something about pallets. Why not make those individual stacks so you can move them intact. Use rope or strapping if necessary. Some have mentioned using the plastic pallets and cages from IBC totes. You may even be able to stack them if you make shelf rails strong enough.

This current design has everything stacked too tight to be able to remove pallets of wood, but the thought had crossed my mind. And why not just build a bigger pole barn and keep using spaced-out individual stacks underneath it, whether on pallet or not? Lots of options, and when doing an open pole-style building, you have fixed time/material costs for the poles (only need 6 poles whether 6x16 or 20x16) and things don't get costlier until you get to roof material. So yeah, maybe the solution was a larger pole barn with room to maneuver separate pallets underneath. If I had laid out my original stacks in a better pattern (instead of redneck-random) I probably could have just built a roof over them!

 

[s219]

My approach to rotation is to stack the other direction. I have a similar shed. I just fill it from left to right and take wood out from left to right. Mine holds about 6 cords and each "row" will be about the same age. Yes, I did have a stack fall over once but I'm getting more careful in my stacking.

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Interesting idea, and I could try that on the second bay which I am about to start filling. Do you have any tricks for the criss-cross crib-stacking on the ends? I never seemed to have much luck with those staying put. Seems like once the wood started seasoning and shrank, they'd get all wobbly and let go.