Firewood stacking strategy

scott_vt · Nov 6, 2008

WayneB said:
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!

Good Afternoon Steve,
Im with Wayne on this one, my hats off to you for all that work !!!

I can honestly say I have thought about doing the same thing, but by the time I got out to the wood pile I chickened out!

Heck I even cheated on the straight pile stacks, I filled my old dog kennel up with cordwood !

At least the piles dont fall down easily that way !

Keep us updated on this method !

Hookblock · Nov 6, 2008

Now I know what its called and why you would stack it that way, a place I drive by, they have there wood stacked like that. How are you going to know unless you try it, I think it looks great. I have always wanted to try a round corn crib 10' dia x 20' tall it would give me a reason to buy an old elevator and crib

arrow · Nov 6, 2008

In 35 years I have (crap, I guess its loser to 40, I've just been sayin 35 years for the last 5 years) never attempted to stack wood this way. It appears its advantages are compactness of structure. How quickly the wood drys has much to do when it was cut. In winter with no juices or all leafed out , dropped and allow leaves to drain tree I find are the two best times to cut for faster drying. It appears you have alot of red oak. That danged stuff takes two years to dry out . If you build this thing to 5' and it shrunk to 4' wouldn't it be 20% without the immense pain in the neck of stacking it 10' high and then unstacking it. The largest mistake I see is putting any wood in the center at all. It is killing convective air flow blocking up that space. Well , we all learn by doing so have fun

WBWI · Nov 7, 2008

I recently finished my 7-1/2' dia x ~7' tall stack. My wood has been on the ground as logs for 18-20 months but I just cut and split it. I like the compactness of this stacking technique. If the wood is dry in 3 months like some websites claim, great. If not it will be ready next year. I commend you on your efforts!

arrow · Nov 7, 2008

Steve

On a different note, I marvel at the clarity of all your photos and was wondering what you use as a digital camera. (please don't tell me its a $1500 D-80 or something like that)

stinkieb · Nov 10, 2008

I'm gonna try it!!

Used mining conveyor belt is pretty plentiful around here, with all the coal docks and stuff. I think I'll modify it a bit from traditional by putting a few strips of belt down first to keep the wood in the center from wicking up moisture from the ground. I'll probably even work the ground into a bit of a crown first so anything that goes down through will drain outwardly from the center on top of the rubber belt. OR, you could put down a couple inches of limestone aggregate to drain it out.

tomgee4me · Aug 21, 2009

I've been reading about the holz hausen and built my first one. My first attempt (10' diameter) totally collapsed into a big heap when I got to 8' tall because I got impatient. I randomly tossed about a half of a cord into the middle with the idea that I would climb in later to restack it correctly. I didn't realize that the little impacts of each piece landing were slowly causing my side walls to expand outward. When I jumped off my truck to look at it, the walls were tilting out badly. As I was realizing what happened, it fell with a mighty roar. I got discouraged but decided to rebuild it. I stopped the outside wall at around 6 feet tall and started tapering in the top pieces. My estimation is it has 4 cords. The wood was already seasoning for about 6 months so I didn't do it to dry the wood quickly. It took 2 people about 8 hours over the course of a few days. I plan on building a 10' tall one soon.

Tig · Feb 2, 2013

It took me over an hour to find this thread. I'd like to know how the holz hausens worked. Did the wood dry quicker than it normally would? Do they really shrink 20%, or is this partially due to settling?