Wood storage

[KennyG]

I probably going the shed. I'd like to have one bay for for green and one for seasoned. They are going to log next to my property so should be able to get alot of wood.

I thought about dividing mine but I just fill it and take wood out of it from West to East, keeping at least a narrow opening between the oldest and newest. Seems like the minimum work way to do it.

 

[Zerk]

Ya I divide it in half, for sorting. With the logging that is coming, I aam hoping to get alot of green wood. Not sure when I am goign to get around to making the shed bigger, it is a one of these days things. Filling it up should be my goal first. But I may add a couple posts and add some capacity at some point.

 

[SpringHollow]

I hate bending under tarps to get wood - kills my back. So I use two homemade hoop buildings made using chainlink fence top rail. This is an old picture with dried wood. For green wood, I stack it with a vertical pallet between rows to help with air flow. In the center, it gets stacked 6 - 7' high. The smaller building holds about 30 or so face cord. Come winter, I used to pull up tarp sides hung from pipe to fully enclose the sides. I have not done that for the past few years and everything is fine. These buildings have worked well for me for a number of years now. The 24' wide one has additional trussing to support the snow loads we get.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

Id like to see some more pictures of that shed if you have them. How'd you bend the fence rail and connect the joints?

 

[SpringHollow]

Hi Moss,

Here is where I bought my benders: The Original DY-Series High Tunnel Hoop Bender

The small 12' x 28 building is about 8' + tall with the way I constructed it. Here's a picture with the wood I am burning now on the left and the green wood I am stacking now on the right.



The bigger building is about 22' wide and 24' long and about 12-13' tall. Because it is wider and flatter, it collapsed after a few years because we got almost 3' of heavy snow that I did not know was coming. I had center posts I could install in case of a situation like that arose. So I rebuilt it reusing all of the connectors, the "foundation" and about half of the pipe. This time, I added additional permanent bracing.



I built both using dog kennel/chain link fence connectors, Tees and unions and end rail connectors. There are much cheaper ways to do this - some use galvanized strap, some flatten the ends of braces and screw them on, etc. My way is not cheap. The large one cost $600 to build. But I can reuse/rebuild/alter by using the existing parts and it is reasonably strong. Most making these buildings use them for greenhouses and remove the tarp in the winter so they do not have to worry about snow load. These two buildings have survived 60 mph sustained winds with 80 mph gusts. I have been glad I built them. It was reasonable building by myself. It would have been very easy with another pair of hands. Then I could have sat and watched them build it.

If you decide to build one, I will take more pictures and describe it better.

Ken

 

[SpringHollow]

BTW, I wrap the connectors with either the really thin flexible foam insulation or bubble wrap held on with duct tape initially and the last time with electrical ties which was nicer and faster. Wrapping keeps the connectors from wearing holes in the tarp.

Ken

 

[motownbrowne]

I'm not positive, but I bet a company like BFG Supply or Farmtek could sell you a single piece of poly designed to cover a hoop house (since that's pretty much what you have) pretty cheap. For example, a piece to cover my 30x96 hoop house is about $450, and the plastic has to be a little over 45' wide.

 

[TnAndy]

Nolts Supply in Maryland has greenhouse plastic much cheaper than FarmTek. Website isn't near as nice as Farmtek, but the prices are much better.

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[motownbrowne]

Good to know. I'm in the market for new poly for my 14x88 this year.

 

[SpringHollow]

The tarps I used are free or cheap because I can afford to have a few leaks. They are used billboard displays. Perfect for the small building but the big one cost me $50 - 100 in glue to glue two together.

Ken

 

[turnkey4099]

:laughing::laughing::laughing:

I have heard of ricks, face cords and cords but this is the first I have heard of Federal cords. Are Federal cords approved by the EPA? :laughing::laughing::laughing:

We called a half cord a rick but I think some people on TBN say a rick is a 1/3 of a cord? A face cord I guess is a 1/3 of a full cord and a full cord seems to be a Federal Cord. Then there is the pick up truck cord. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

Learned something new today. :thumbsup:

Later,
Dan

Dictionary definition of a rick is any pile one item wide by however long you want to build it. 3pcs could be arick or on out to iniinity.

There is no legal definition of a rick of wood. When posting to forums such as this one shouild stick with measures known to all, ie.e, cords or fractions thereof.

Harry K

 

[TnAndy]

Dictionary definition of a rick is any pile one item wide by however long you want to build it. 3pcs could be arick or on out to iniinity.

There is no legal definition of a rick of wood. When posting to forums such as this one shouild stick with measures known to all, ie.e, cords or fractions thereof.

Harry K

Equally dumb are "face cords"....that also seems to mean about anything one wants. I asked a guy once using that term if I cut the wood 3" long, and manage to get it to stack in a 4' high by 8' long row, does that qualify as a 'face' cord ?

Then, of course, there is the most dumb of all...a 'pickup load', which is how 90% of it is sold around here...long bed, short bed, wide bed, narrow bed, stacked in it, thrown in it, etc ? Unbelievable that people will put up with that kind of foolishness.

 

[Zerk]

Equally dumb are "face cords"....that also seems to mean about anything one wants. I asked a guy once using that term if I cut the wood 3" long, and manage to get it to stack in a 4' high by 8' long row, does that qualify as a 'face' cord ?

Then, of course, there is the most dumb of all...a 'pickup load', which is how 90% of it is sold around here...long bed, short bed, wide bed, narrow bed, stacked in it, thrown in it, etc ? Unbelievable that people will put up with that kind of foolishness.

Face cord is a 1/3 of cord, and has a definition. To ask if you could cut firewood with a chainsaw 3" long is dumb question. He must have thought you were an idiot for asking. But volume is volume.

There was a time when a man only had a full size bed.

To me this is just a whiney foolish post.

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks SpringHollow! That bender looks pretty useful.

 

[murphy1244]

I never heard the term face cord till TBN.

 

[PILOON]

Around here most of us use old roofing tin sheets.
Generally it is 36-39" wide and we bend the sides about 45 degrees to shed water away from the stack and place 2-3 rocks or sometimes a log or 2 to weigh down the 'roof'.
That way very little water gets to the wood and the logs are well air dried.
Sun shineing down on the tin assures nice heat to further dry the wood.

Very little old tin roofing ever makes it to the re cycle depot!

 

[motownbrowne]

Face cord is a 1/3 of cord, and has a definition. To ask if you could cut firewood with a chainsaw 3" long is dumb question. He must have thought you were an idiot for asking. But volume is volume.

There was a time when a man only had a full size bed.

To me this is just a whiney foolish post.

Jeez, whiney and foolish...?

No need to get personal. And, as I understand it, your wrong anyway. A face cord is usually 1/3 of a cord, but there isn't a legal definition of a face cord. I did look it up and found that yes, it's usually 1/3, but a better definition is that it's a stack 4'x8'x whatever the length of your splits is. If your firewood is cut to 12", a face cord is 1/4 of a full cord. If your wood is cut to 24" it's half a cord.

It would probably be a better term if it was actually defined and regulated to be 1/3 of a cord. Until then, though it's a term that'll continue to cause some confusion.

 

[Zerk]

I've never heard any confusion before.

 

[PILOON]

Then to add to the confusing terms, many sell 'semi sec' (half dry) eg should be dry by the time U use it. LOL
Then is 'mixed' (usually translates that less than 50% is hard wood)
Some actually state 'ambiance wood' meaning it is all soft wood (but nice crackling sounds). Probably the more honest representation.
They neglect to warn you about the creosote accumulations.

I have purchased maple that was so 'green' that maple syrup would boil out as it burned. (Nice aroma!)

Never measure that 'cord' as generally you'll find it 10-20% short, rarely will it be 16" X 4' X 8' !
Have had vendors say 'it shrunk as it dried', yeah LOL.
Then some will cut 'mixed', like 14" 15" but rarely 16" to make that 'true face cord' that they claim.

Our lumber yards are probably the best source for small buys as they have nice dry, all hard wood, pallet stacked and wrapped plus they deliver with a boom truck so handling is at minimum.

On the other hand with all the new environmental laws nobody will be able to afford to burn wood shortly.

 

[GLyford]

Different state laws and weights-and-measures departments regulate the sale of firewood in different ways (or not at all). In MA, only cords or fractional cords are allowed as measure, but you will still see other units (pickup loads, bundles, wheelbarrow loads, pallets, etc.) in ads. Other states as I understand it do allow (and define) such things as ricks and face cords. So where you are matters.

There is also one more wrinkle...I have heard it said that the cord is measured at the 4' "cordwood" length, before cutting to stove length, and after cutting it may or may not stack out to full measure and still be legal, but I am not sure how true that is. I do know that any time my wife buys wood, that last 1/10th of a cord or so looks a lot like bark...