Access Door for firewood storage

[YotaBota]

I would like to put a door into the exterior wall near my fireplace to hand firewood thru, so I don't have to walk up the stairs, and thru the house, just to get the firewood to the fireplace. Actually, where I want to put the door, there is a cabinet base that is large enough to store the wood for burning. Have any of you New Englanders (or anyone else) ever done this, and how large are your doors and storage box inside? I was thinking of fabricating a locking steel insulated door, but what size? Any pictures would be helpful. Thanks for the help.

John

 

[MikeD74T]

Once stayed in an on the slopes chalet in Vt. that had a firewood delivery service. Beside the fireplace was a large cabinet/bookshelves arrangement. Construction was rustic/barnboard. The first cabinet was a 3' wide woodbox with double doors. The doors had hardware to put a round bar & lock across them (on the inside) to prevent entry from the outside. Outside were similar wood doors onto a deck. Those were insulated with rigid foam & locked with a hasp/padlock. The delivery service owned that lock for access to fill the woodbox & to prevent the wood from wandering away. Setup seemed to work well and was not drafty so it must have been somewhat gasketed. Both doors were a bit wider than the woodbox so the edges didn't get banged up by moving firewood.

In another house I worked on there was an elevator that used an electric winch to bring a box of wood up from the basement into a similar cabinet. MikeD74T

 

[Scotty370]

I have not done this, but understand exactly what your talking about! I had real thoughts of doing the same thing, but moved to 'pellet stove/fuel. The thought of saving "Heat-Dollars" and burning logs, home-cut or bought, is offset by the mess of tracking 'crap/snow and ash" though Momma's living quarters! I'm sure an outside door into the wood storage box, would eliminate lots of the negetives. ~Scotty

 

[groundcover]

I was thinking the thing to do was get rid of wife's chair,install a small garage door and set a pallet of wood in that spot next to the woodstove , somehow that idea didn't fly,go figure !

 

[Mousefield]

My neighbor put one in when they added onto their house. I will try and go over tomorrow and take a couple of pics from inside and out. They really like it as they are not dropping bits of stuff thru the house when bringing in the wood. We have cut a lot of the wood together and sometimes he borrows my wood splitter so I'm sure they won't mind if I get some pics tomorrow.

 

[dex3361]

When I was building our fireplace and laying the brick up my wife asked why we couldn't do that and I replied i never thought of it . It was a great Idea. the opening is about 16"x 16"and I made a steel box with doors on both side and I put pin latches for locks(I just put hitch pins on both sides). I have a large hearth and just open the door and stack about a weeks worth of wood on the hearth. I would highly recommend some version of a door close to the stove I would do it again. I just love my wife.

 

[Tig]

Glad you asked the question John. We are planning to put a wood door in during our renovation andI have been thinking this over for some time.
Here is what I figure suits my needs;
I am thinking of a insulated steel door flush on the outside with a dead bolt to match out current house key. Door will be 32" wide 20" tall. I'll probably find a used prehung entry door and cut it and the frame down to size.
Inside will be an insulated wood box/bench seat. It will open from the top so that the mess does not spill out.
I'd like the wood box to hold a couple days worth of wood.
Something like 42W 22H 22D

 

[Mousefield]

Here are a couple of pictures of my neighbor's firewood door. They had this done when they added this addition a few years ago. Sure happy with it as it keeps the house much cleaner. I think the size would need to fit your house so didn't measure the door.

 

[PILOON]

Rather than cutting down a door to fit, make one from scratch.
1 1/2" 0r 2" blue styrofoam sandwitched between 2 sheets of plywood (maybe 5/8') with the outer having a flange (ie; cut about 2" oversized).
Cheap and easy, decorate to suit.

 

[srs]

I would like to put a door into the exterior wall near my fireplace to hand firewood thru, so I don't have to walk up the stairs, and thru the house, just to get the firewood to the fireplace.

John

Just wondering if anyone has problems with ants, bugs, termites, etc. "sleeping" in the wood until it is moved into a relatively warm place so that all of a sudden you have hundreds of ants scurrying into the living area. Ask me how I know? I'll tell ya. In my other house I had a stone fireplace and a storage bin built next to the FP, (not an access door like here). You store wood right next to the fireplace. So I figure I'll load it up with some cut wood and before long I have hundreds of ants crawling over the hearth, carpet, etc. What a mess. Vac everything up and realize that the ants were just nesting in the frozen wood then came awake when the wood was brought inside and it warmed up. Kinda interesting to see!

 

[SARG]

Just wondering if anyone has problems with ants, bugs, termites, etc. "sleeping" in the wood until it is moved into a relatively warm place so that all of a sudden you have hundreds of ants scurrying into the living area. Ask me how I know? I'll tell ya. In my other house I had a stone fireplace and a storage bin built next to the FP, (not an access door like here). You store wood right next to the fireplace. So I figure I'll load it up with some cut wood and before long I have hundreds of ants crawling over the hearth, carpet, etc. What a mess. Vac everything up and realize that the ants were just nesting in the frozen wood then came awake when the wood was brought inside and it warmed up. Kinda interesting to see!

The described situation was exactly why our Vermont Castings was sold.

 

[GLyford]

That's why my woodshed is halfway across the yard, not up against the house. Went to split a nice perfect cylindrical chunk of birch into kindling one time, inside was just chock full of ants. I'm used to only seeing them in pieces where there are knots or splits...

For bringing wood in, I put a plank on the back deck stairs and just roll the whole wheelbarrow in, that way I can unload it without opening and closing the door a bunch of times, and have much less bark to clean up.

 

[Tig]

Bugs are the reason I would make the insulated and sealed wood door access an insulated and sealed wood box. Keeps the wood a bit cooler and keeps critters contained.

 

[YotaBota]

Thanks guys for all the input and pictures. In my old house, we had wood storage on both sides of the fireplace, so I would just open the basement window and i had a large sheet metal chute that I would slide the wood down, and whoever was at the bottom would stack it into the wood storage box. With the stortage filled it lasted us about a week. Never had any problems with bugs in the 10 years we used the fireplace.

 

[dex3361]

We made the fit on the door tight, so the only bugs are the riders that come in with the wood. Usually the are few when it is cold.

 

[Obed]

For the house we are currently building At Home In The Woods , the wife designed it so we could roll a wheelbarrow all the way to the fireplace. Won't know how well it works until we are in the house.

Obed