Holz Hausen-Dry Wood In Three Months?

[mulroystar]

i have built two Holzhausens in the last couple of months. They measure about 5 feet in diameter by 6 feet tall. I had a few collapses but have refined building technique to avoid repeat. My advice would be to keep the sides as vertical as possible until about 5 feet and then start forming domed top and also make sure that the outside logs are slanted slightly towards the centre of the pile. This seems to allow the pile to stay stable as it shrinks. When i work out how to post a photograph i will share my sculptures with you. Who cares how long they take to dry - - they look so good i may not want to burn them. Tom.

 

[drewm]

Ok, I am in British Columbia where it rains. Do I need to tarp this pile?

 

[forgeblast]

Dont tarp until the winter, that way the moisture can escape. I could normally burn wood that I cut and split in june-july by december/january.

 

[oldpilgrim]

I use a modified version of the 'old country' style.

I put pallets on the ground in a 10 square and throw firewood on the pallets as I split it. I split within tossing distance of the pallets. When I get a 50-100 on the pallets, I arrange them in a circle. I split and throw more loosely in the center of the circle. When the pile in the center starts over flowing the circle, I move them from the center to the outside circle, building the circle up as I go around the pallets. Then more in the middle, relocate them to the sides, etc.

It's so easy this way as I only handle the wood once when I toss it from the splitter, and then it's just a short move from the center of the pile to the outside wall. Also it makes little difference whether the wood is cut 16, 18, 20 inches or whatever as the outside is the only part that needs to be even, the wood can stick into the center as much as it wants. It's not like stacking wood into 3 rows of 16 inches each where it must be cut in really consistent lengths.

Weird short lengths, twisted pieces, etc, that don't stack well in the outside wall are left in the center, just loose. Some people stand things on end in the center but I found that it's real tough to reach in and do that, so I just leave stuff in there loose an any position they fall.

When I get up to about 4-5 feet of outside wall, I throw wood into a cone shape pile in the center and build up the cone that I then 'shingle' with pieces that I've split into flat, rectangular pieces.

As they weather, the piles seem to spread out near the top and turn into a cupcake shaped pile.

I put up 5 piles 2013 spring and burned 2 starting six months later, this past winter 2013-14. They were both nice and dry. I did cover them with tarps, all except one pile which I knew I wouldn't use this year. I left that just as an experiment to see how it would weather compared to the other covered piles. It appears to have turned out fine.

As far as I'm concerned this is the only way to stack wood. Very little handling and VERY quick drying. Today, I split and stacked the start of another 'cupcake'.

 

[forgeblast]

When I was burning wood it was the only way I would stack it. It sheds the snow and dries very fast. Lets you store a lot in one place too!

 

[Garandman]

Holz = wood and Haus = house auf Deutsch.

Hausen = houses.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like a much faster and easier way then how I do it. I'm handling at the splitter, then I load it into the Mule, haul it to the log pile and then stack it in a nice neat row. I burn a little over a chord a year, and try to have two chords stacked just in case.

Eddie

 

[lockhaven]

I do not use a tarp until I begin using the wood, if the top is sloped with bark side up and layered like wood shingles the rain and snow are kept from soaking the wood. Once I start on a pile I will put a tarp over it. They do not have to be round either I made several in an oval shape 8 feet wide by 12 feet long 8 feet high and it worked the same as round. I do stack the inside standing on end, it makes it better when breaking into it.

 

[KiotiJason]

I typically just split and chuck the green wood into a long pile and leave it there to dry. Once dried I relocate it into the wood shed. This is a messy and the double handling is a bit of a pain. I've thought of increasing the wood shed to include a processing area but starting to think its a lot of shed I would need. Right now I stack for winter in the shed and then work from one end. Once I start working through the stack I start replacing wood to the stack from outside. Theory is that by the time I get through all of the dry stuff I'm back to the other end and the woods good to go. This works well but I'm not a fan of my set up. Firstly the double handling, second the wood pile looks messy and thirdly I have noticed a lot of waste from the outside pile with the wood at the bottom of the pile rotting or ants and dirt. I really like this system the OP uses. it's neat effective and looks great. I'm going yo give this a go, I might use the pallet base, that would sort the waste issue out. Still use my wood shed to harvest from but the pressures not there to continually replace e wood. Also the OP's method will hold a tarp well where as it's really impossible to effectively tarp my outside stacks.

 

[KiotiJason]

Sounds like a much faster and easier way then how I do it. I'm handling at the splitter, then I load it into the Mule, haul it to the log pile and then stack it in a nice neat row. I burn a little over a chord a year, and try to have two chords stacked just in case.

Eddie

Hey Eddie, how much is in a cord? Over here we measure in the cubic meter or buy it by the tonne.