Firewood stacking strategy

[smfcpacfp]

Ok the first picture is this year's firewood for some last minute drying before going in the house. I stacked it with the front end loader (about 6 cords). I store oall of the wood I will use for the year in a corner of my basement. It has been drying for a month, so it isn't very dry. I won't use it until January.

After I got the above wood cut and split, I started to think about what to do with the 19 cords that I will use for the 2 - 3 years after this year. Where I had stacked firewood previously wasn't going to work anymore so I thought I would check the Internet to see if there was a creative way to stack wood that didn't involve buying posts, and some sort of way to keep the wood off of the ground, and I came upon something referred to as a "holz hausen" German for wood house. As a matter of fact someone on this forum constructed one and wrote about it, and posted a few pictures.

Traditionally the holz hausen is a cylinder, 10' in diameter and 10' feet tall and should hold about 6 full cords of wood. You can see how it is laid out from the pictures below.

You have a circle of wood around the perimeter and your goal is to keep the outer wall pointing to the center and sloped downward, so if it were to collapse, it would fall inward. In the center, you stack wood vertically to aid in drying and of course stop any collapsing.

Traditionally you put a stick 10' high in the center standing straight up and put a marker at 8'. When you can see the marker the wood is dry enough to burn (I guess 20% shrinkage). Theoretically this should take 3 months. I didn't bother with the stick since it will be drying for about a year.

I wonder if my neighbors are wondering, "What is he doing?"

 

[smfcpacfp]

Here is the problem. There are a lot of internet postings about building a Holz-Hausen, but how do you get it 10' high??

I think the tractor might be able to reach high enough, if you are on a ladder, but it looks like a lot of work. Of course, I am retired so I guess I have the time. Any one have any idea how one can do this easily?

 

[WayneB]

Steve I certainly give you credit for the work and effort in stacking wood! We go through about 8 full cords a year around here and I have enough wood cut, split and piled for the next two years.

Working on three years out right now and will have a couple grapple loads delivered in November or December for nexts springs exercise. As for piling I just do they old straight long stacking about four or five feet high.

Keep the pictures coming on your stacking method, I might be able to get the wife to buying in on trying it!

 

[Nasty135]

Morning, That is definately a "little" more time consuming... But you have the time and it looks neat I like neat!

My only concern is the verticals in the middle ... Are they in ground contact? From my own experience the vertically stacked wood that I did years ago uncovered wicked up moisture BIG TIME both from the ground and from rain/snow and what didn't rot was very heavy So it was a fight to get in under the splitter , but the tree was very large in diameter over 30" plus in some spots... So other than kewl looking, hopefully it will be funcitional for your purpose.
But also as I remember my stack was in place for over a year or more before splitting and stacking correctly..On cold days although above freezing going out to split the vertically stacked rounds would be frozen together requiring popping them loose with a crowbar or something.. So if your time frame is going to be short maybe you will be fine ??

 

[djradz]

I will be very curious to hear how this works for drying, even if you don't go to 10 feet. In fact, I can't see any good reason to go any higher than you can reach by hand. Anything beyond that just seems to be more work than necessary.

My experiance in 25 years of wood heating is that anything more than a double row (at least one end of every log exposed to air, and with still some air able to move through the pile), that the wood just doesn't dry well. Up there in the UP I can see it could be even worse as there is less time to dry. Possibly the lower humidity will help some. An alternative to the poles, etc. on the end of a pile is the column/box/log-cabin approach, where the end of every length of pile (stacked traditionally) is a set of logs just criss-crossed all the way up. I've done it with 2 logs per row and 3, as long as the third/middle log is slightly smaller in diameter so it doesn't stick up and make the next course rock.

Good luck. We'll be anxious to hear how it all works.

 

[ctpres]

After a couple years of "wood house" building I can say it is a great idea. Ten ft hi is not important unless you are depending on the pole in the middle to tell you that the wood is dry enough to use. I'm on the old side and don't do more than I can do by myself. This years stack is under 8'. I quit using the wood roof and now buy a cheep plastic tarp every year. Rain coming tarp on, sunny tarp off. Wood roof first thing to be burned anyhow. "Wood house" looks good, takes up very little space and is a great conversation piece for visitors. My biggest problem is need to rebuild pile every year. Old unburned wood is on bottom and needs to be on top for next winter. You will like it.

 

[Nwood]

Tried a holz hausen in NH this year. Cut in February, split/stacked in March/April. Outer ring dried ok (not great) Inner stuff is still so wet it barely burns and its moldy. Won't be doing that again.
Built a wood shed and i'll be using that from now on.

 

[smfcpacfp]

Tried a holz hausen in NH this year. Cut in February, split/stacked in March/April. Outer ring dried ok (not great) Inner stuff is still so wet it barely burns and its moldy. Won't be doing that again.
Built a wood shed and i'll be using that from now on.

I am curious as to your dimensions and where it was located. I located mine where it will get direct sun on sunny days, also we get a fair amount of wind and I plan to do what ctpres did (cover it on rainy days, uncover it on other days). Since we get 15 to 30 feet of snow, I plan to cover the top for the winter. It is just an experiment, so we will see how it goes. I am going to build a pole building next year, so perhaps I will build a wood shed too.

 

[tommu56]

I saw some thing similar that had 4 posts in center
and a round roof on them It looked like a short silo with wood stacked.

I think the center was open to provide draft through wood and there was a vent in the center of rof to let the air out.

tommu

 

[Sackett2]

I find it ironic that here in Oregon, dad just stacks it, but if it remains in a pile for a few years, so be it. It seems to take many years for it to become unusable. Today I found a pile of split rotting wood under a blackberry pile at my in laws, I'm thinking 10-12 years old. now that was bad wood.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I noticed you stacked your wood with the split sides up. Does the method your trying call for that? I was always taught that you wanted the bark up to help shed rain, etc.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I noticed you stacked your wood with the split sides up. Does the method your trying call for that? I was always taught that you wanted the bark up to help shed rain, etc.

It is something that we always do in the basement, out of habit, but you are probably correct. I stacked it some both ways. Anyway it is as high now as the FEL on my tractor can take it. My neighbor has a big old JD tractor that I am trying to convince to come and help me finish up to get it to 10' since his FEL can reach 10 feet.

 

[MotorSeven]

How about stacking it on metal caged pallets once(on site) then moving them around with the forks. I can even drop a pallet inside the shop where the stove is located......works for me Now i just need to find more of these chemical pallets.

 

[tommu56]

smfcpacfp

I am trying to convince to come and help me finish up to get it to 10' since his FEL can reach 10 feet.


why do you have to go 10 ft?

any higher than i can reach with out a ladder is high enough for me.

tommu

 

[smfcpacfp]

How about stacking it on metal caged pallets once(on site) then moving them around with the forks. I can even drop a pallet inside the shop where the stove is located......works for me Now i just need to find more of these chemical pallets.

I am not going to tear down my holz hausen just yet and I have about 8 cords in my basement, but I have about 11 full cords to do next year, so please drop off enough of those nice bins sometime between now and next May and I will put them to good use. I would guess I would need about 40 of them.

 

[smfcpacfp]

smfcpacfp

I am trying to convince to come and help me finish up to get it to 10' since his FEL can reach 10 feet.


why do you have to go 10 ft?

any higher than i can reach with out a ladder is high enough for me.

tommu

Tradition says they are to be 10 by 10, so just once I want to follow that tradtion. I sometimes like a challange.

 

[Volfandt]

Very interesting looks like it'll be very useful.
When the time comes to disassemble for burning, have you put thought to how you're going to get to those 1st splits that are 10' off the ground down?
Whatever the method you've decided to use, it could very well be the method you could use to build it 10' high. Just a thought, carry on

 

[Matt_Jr]

You stack it 10 feet 'cause when it drops to 8 feet that shows 20% shrinkage. Its a good even number too. Besides, hard work builds character.

 

[JDeerekid]

So where are the other 2. You said that they hold approx 6 cord and you have 19 cord to stack. Looks like fun to try it at least once. How much are you estimating yours is holding? Just be careful when diassembling it. looks like it could be dangerous if not careful.

 

[theonlybull]

personally, i like just plane stacking it, don't need any fancey ends, it just tapers down to the ground. we haul all our wood tree length, cut and split right there, and it gets piled as it comes off the splitter. all done by may, dryed all summer, and put in in aug/sept.

handle it the least you can, and get it in while it's dry.

btw, we had 23 cord cut n split this year