Very bad idea and design for wood coverage. Wood stacks should never be totally covered - top only. As for design. Looks 'neat and pretty' when first applied, now try to get some wood out from under it and picture what it will look like when the pile is 1/2 gone. I predict that anyone who does buy one will trash it before the first season is over.

That looks like something you would see on some yuppies deck.

Harry K

Looks like a nice home for ... rats and mice! I NEVER cover my wood ... your just asking for problems!

That is like a sore tooth. I just had to revisit it to see if it is as rediculous as I recalled...it is.

Harry K

Anyone else notice how well manicured the lawn is under the wood pile..LOL

If they work that well at keeping the bark, saw dust and wood chips cleaned up. I'll take one or three.

Hey turnkey,

I started reading your first post, and before I started the second paragraph, I thought to myself, it looked like a yuppie thing. Then I read your second paragraph and just about fell off my chair. LOL. I bet the yuppies who use those, have them just for looks. Nothing worse ya know, than a visible pile of wood in the garage or on the deck by the pool.

I sure agree with tommy about the critter condo. Once a red squirrel or chipmunk finds that place, they'll have it all ripped apart and stuffed in between the voids in the pile. If they don't use that cover for bedding, they'll use anything else to stuff in there, which means when any wood gets pulled off the pile, all that nest trash, acorns, pinecones, bird seed, or whatever, will fall on the ground. I can just about imagine some guy's wife pulling some wood out of there with a squirrel getting ready to run up her arm. Keep the camera ready for the Funny Home Video show for that scene.

I keep my wood on racks across from my home, and the only cover on those is a cheap chinese tarp. That's only to shed rain, and to keep the snow off the top. Otherwise it's wide open so it dries with wind blowing through the piles.

I use a small tractor with a loader, to pick up these racks and bring them across the drive. They are out of the way during the summer, and during the heating season, I spend about 5 minutes to bring 3 or 4 racks to the house so I don't have to walk too far to get wood. The system I use, saves me handling the wood at least two times over just stacking the wood on the ground.

GG

{{gwi:320154}}

Goosberry That looks like some serious firewood. How many winters are in the picture?

I stack my wood on pallets and crib the ends. I cover the tops with 2'x8' corrugated roofing sheets that some @$$ dumped illegally on my father's property 25 yrs ago. It was rusty when I rescued it, But it works fine for fire wood..

Hi giventake,

I made up about 30 of those racks out of some scrap electrical conduit and treated 2 X 4's. They each hold about a half face cord, and all those are about a winter's worth for me way up in Northern MI. Mostly oak and maple on there.

Andy,

I suppose you're glad now, that ya got those sheets. There are a few of those covering my wood too.

GG

Gooseberry: Piker. My stock is around full 25-30 cord not counting the 6 cord stored inside that I will use this winter. 6-8 of that is black locust I am saving for when I can't cut any more - I am getting up there in years.

Somehow I can just picture inside the house. White deep pile rug, fireplace with whitewhashed brick inside, shiny black log rack holding 3 logs probably cleaned of all bark/chips and maybe even varnished. I saw a post from a commercial firewood dealer last spring. Admitted that he does have customers that require the logs to be in the round and sanded. Didn't say how much they bought.

Harry K

Those are some nice woodracks Gooseberry Guy. Great idea...I think I'll make some when I get some time. Right now I use pallets but instead of cribbing the ends like Andyma. I pound a couple of T-posts into the ground at each end. Same principle as your wood rack design.

You sure that's real grass in the original post? Could be astroturf. I think I see some seams.

I got tired of the hassle of 'chimney' stacking my rick ends. Set railroad ties about 8-12 ft apart and connected them at the 5 1/2 ft level with cross beams some, 4x4 some larger. Then to hold the rick ends prop a scrap 2x against the crossbeam and dig the bottom into the dirt. Quick and simple. Learned the hard way though that 2x has to lean in at the top or the force of the ricks settling will push the RR ties out of vertical.

I now have 3 'bins' with the 'rick end holder thingies' ranging from 12' to over 20' done this way and wish I had more. Had to use unsplit chunks to build out the bins to hold what I cut this year.

I should learn how to post pictures.

Harry K

Slowolf,

Thanks, The racks are designed to be picked up and moved with a loader, so they aren't stationary and just made to contain the woodpile off the ground.

The whole procedure for firewood handling makes use of my loader. I get a 10 pulp cord semi load dropped off when I need wood. Then I use forks on the loader to move a few logs over to a saw buck at the far end of the work area. They get cut on the saw buck with the chain saw, which lets me work standing up instead of leaning over logs on the pile. As the pile grows, I keep moving the sawbuck back away from that, so I'm not fighting the pile. When everything is cut to length, I switch the loader forks to the bucket, and start tossing wood from the splitter into it. That gets dumped in a pile that begins where I want to start setting my racks. I'll keep splitting and piling until I get to where I figure the end of my racks will stop. I start stacking wood from the pile on the first rack, and when that gets filled, I just set another rack and continue until everything's done. It takes about 15-20 minutes for one guy to stack one rack. It saves a lot of time with that loader, and it's just a little 18 horse compact 4WD.

GG

Gooseberry: Great method. Beats my method which involves moving the wood many times. The racks are a great way to go. It is amazing how much time you save when you have something to hold the rick ends. Just put the wood against it, no sorting for a piece that will fit, etc. Chimney stacking the ends is a pain in the #*A.

Harry K

I have six brand new 8' log rack covers for sale. Each is $39 plus shipping to your location. I ordered these for a family member but they ended up moving to another house and have no need for them.

Swimman,
That cover would make a nice environment for mushroom growing, if that's what you are after.
Don't cheese our forum with your sales ads. This forum is for ideas and chat.
Spend a buck and Put your yuppie sale on ebay or whatever.

Gooseberry Guy- Sounds like you have the woodchucking down pat! I guess living in those Michigan winters can make you pretty scientific about it. I remember my younger days living in the Adirondacks in NY. Mighty cold there...we were pretty serious about our firewood. We used to have truckloads of logs delivered that we would buck up and split. Now I live in California and it hardly goes below 30 degrees in the winter...and then only at night. In the daytime it warms up to 50-60 degrees. I only use maybe a cord of wood for the whole winter. What I burn I cut on my 5 acres... Almost all Liveoak or Blueoak.

Did you use pressure treated wood for your racks? I assume you did. How long are they? Eight feet so it can hold a face cord?

Hi slowolf.

I don't think I can cut any more time off the handling unless I build a stove next to the wood pile and make it big enough to feed in log length wood into it, and have heat lines running from there to the house.

The racks use a 10 foot treated 2 x 4, cut in half, which allows about a 4 foot wide space for the wood, which holds about a half face cord. That's all my machine can handle. Also if it was wide enough to hold a full cord, it would require something much beefier than that 2 x 4, and likely stronger upright members so you wouldn't gain much. Plus, if they were all that much larger and heavier, you'd be struggling moving the empty racks around. You'd also have to be more careful moving them around because the wood stacked on them would be much more unstable. I've accidentally hit the ground with the skids while moving a full rack, and it's not fun having to restack a load when it tips enough to dump it. I wouldn't want to have a full cord get dumped on the ground. Some guy from somewhere around Kentucky found out about these and was going to make them to hold a full cord. I don't know how he made out, but he did say he had the equipment to handle the weight.

GG

If swimman is an honest Joe, I feel sorry for the slam he got in this thread.

I feel obligated to point out a use for those covers. Stack your wood with t-posts as the usual method, and run wire across the tops to hold up the cover. Leave the wood uncovered while it seasons.

Then when winter comes and you don't want snow and ice on your wood, cover it with those fancy covers.

Lots of the critters will have already made their winter plans. You will get some, but it won't necessarily be that bad.

You could instead use tarps the same way. But the problem with tarps is keeping them secured and keeping the wood adequately covered from the blowing snow and ice. The makers of these types of covers are addressing that problem.

Not saying these covers are great or that anyone needs them, but I am just pointing out their potential use.

Myself, I built a wood shed.

"If swimman is an honest Joe, I feel sorry for the slam he got in this thread."

Re-read his post Jeffry. It's 100.00% sales advertisement. No reader benificial information at all, just him trying to make money off a commercial product without having to pay an advertiser like ebay. It's not even anything he invented. I for one say he got what he deserved.

Same here. It was spam. As for the utility of the covers - not even close. To call them stupid is giving them more credit than they deserve. The first thing is that they don't hold enough wood to be worth the nuisance of fighting the cover to get some out from under it. Only someone who only burns a fire for atmosphere would consider using one.

Harry K

I burn 3 full cord a year for heat. At an older house, I burned 6 full cord.

I'd consider using those covers if they were cheap enough.

Doesn't anyone here try to keep the snow and ice off their wood? Hasn't anyone here seen the difficulty of securing a tarp without the snow blowing under, and having to get more wood, and secure again, and more wood, and secure again? Then you give up on the tarp, and then it snows, and you brush it off no problem, but then it freezing rains and snows, and the pieces you bring in each have 1" of ice on them, and gee that's fun to throw into your woodstove.

I simply built a 2 sided shed, with north and west walls. And the west wall has removable panels for air in spring/summer/fall. But once in a while the storm comes from east, and then I get snow on my wood. Hate that. Most of the time, the shed protects pretty good. But if I didn't have the shed, I'd consider those fancy covers. I'd pay maybe $10 each and try them out.

Picture your neat cover full of blown snow ice. Picture trying to open the zipper. Picture the cover in the trash can.

Harry K

Been burning for 8 years, but my wood pile is still a mess. We can't keep-up or build a shed. Do you really only cover the top of the pile in the winter too? We cover with a tarp and in the winter it is covered with ice and snow and a bother as the pile goes down. I like the ideas here. Post picures please! When the tarps touch the wood they get rips and holes.

Hey, cap,

Woodsheds are a lot of work unless they are within a few feet of the stove. The cheap, reinforced blue plastic tarps work fine. They last me for 4 or more years, and I just lay them on top and hold them down with a couple of splits. They are only 4X6 or 5X7, not very big, so they are easy to put on and take off. It's much easier to deal with a small tarp, especially when snow covers the top of the stack. I don't get holes in mine until they get really old and thin from weather exposure, or when the snowblower winds the thing in the auger after forgetting to pick it up before a big storm, when I finish with a stack and it gets laid on the ground.

GG

Here are pics of my woodshed. 8x12, holds 3 full cords. 2 walls cover the NW where the wind comes from. Don't get much snow in there at all. It is mostly open for air and sun for drying. Back wall partially comes off in summer for even more air.

{{gwi:320155}}

{{gwi:320156}}

Well, I can only dream about a wood shed like that. Too fancy for our abilities. However the small tarps over the top that gooseberry mentioned I can do. We've been using large tarps. They're expensive and awkward. The problem is convincing my husband that we will have a net gain on drying the wood when the rain is hitting the sides. Any ideas for roofing that woould have an overhang?

Jeff: That could be mine except for size. Mine is 4x12 with an eyebrow break on the roof in front. In addition to the 4x12 it also takes one full rick under the eyebrow. I start the season with 4 ricks 7'x12'x16" on the back porch and then feed from the shed when that runs out (about time to start moving some in now).

Cap: Putting up sheds like that is not rocket science, just simple basic construction. Your library probably has DIY books available. As to rain beating on the sides, Only the rick on the outside of the pile will be getting a bit damp and then only on the exposed end. A simple tarp over the top is all that is really needed, if it draps a bit down the sides it helps. There are those who maintain that even uncovered piles won't get very wet as wood absorbs moisture from the ends, not the sides. I have my next years supply in piles exposed to the weather now and could pull the top few layers off and be into dry, burnable wood right now (I've done it).

Harry K

I need to build a woodshed like jeffrey did. I have roughly 15 cords in a big pile in the back yard, and I'm almost done splitting it. I really need a hydraulic splitter, my shoulders and arms are screaming!

Ah, but your health is worth it. I have an hydro but do most of my splitting by hand just for the exercise. Did about 10 cord last year but then had to revert to the hydo for several more cords as the work area got beat to powder dust and too dirty to continue manually. Of course I am retired and have nothing much else to do so...

Harry K

I made 3 of these last year, all from PT 4x4 and 2x4, with corrugated roofing. cheap and fast.

link shows more pics and info on how built.

{{gwi:320158}}

Here is a link that might be useful: firewood rack pics & info

Thank you Johndeere, Your design is simple and not permanent. We store wood next to a hill that could erode and can't build anything permanent there.

I built a wood shed just off my drive way in the woods this past fall. Prior to this I had just stacked wood up between a couple of trees and never even covered it...

The wood shed that I built really is just a platform with a roof over it. It holds about a cord and a half comfortably. If I remember, I'll take some pictures of it and post then over the weekend.

I built it all out of pressure treated lumber. Mainly 2X6 for the base and the uprights and then 2x4s for the rafters. I topped it with 5/8 plywood and shingled it with 25 year shingles. It sits on four concrete footers that are 2' in the ground.

It was a lot of work, but it definitely pays off with the dry wood.

Hey Tabber, thanks for the pics. It looks real nice. Each picture I see, I notice parts of it that would suit my needs. thanks so much. Burning is a lot of work and it needs to be streamlined.

Three rounds on the ground next to the fence, four foot apart, 2 eight foot landscape ties across, 2 t-posts on each end, build the stack, lay a half sheet (the long way) of old plywood across the top of the stack, the plywood goes down as the pile goes down. Works for me.....use the yuppie covers to cover the bbq, bicycles, etc.

Wow, I haven't been back on here since the original post. Thanks for all of your positive thoughts!! And thanks to those who bought the covers. I'm sure they came in handy this past winter.