firewood seasoning naturally

[Collins B]

Hello all,

I’m pretty sure this has been discussed, but what’s the best way to naturally season firewood? Do you leave it in piles off the conveyor? Do you stack it on pallets? Talking about commercial amounts like 50-100 cords.

 

[Mad Professor]

Not commercial amounts, but I stack double rows about as high as my chin. Off the ground, either pallets or junk limbs for support.

On top I use doubled/tripled over lumber covers I can get for free. On top of piles I have ~4' lengths of cut branches under and over (fatter/heavier ones) the cover so it keeps the rain off, and wind from blowing off the cover. Dries out well/fast with great air circulation.

 

[DavidInTexas]

I see many different methods for seasoning I live in east Texas on about 15 acres of land I was thinking of putting up a car port type roof to keep the rain off the wood, but this also keeps the sun off the wood . I know...get a retractable roof LOL. I was thinking of using those IBC totes people talk about, I see them on marketplace for $20 each for the metal with sides. Makes it easy to move the wood up to the house in the fall. I do have 13' metal awning around the house to store the wood in the fall, but I do not want to keep it there Also instead of the IBCZ totes, I have a few hundred feed of old 3" pipe to keep it off the ground if not using the totes.

Is it better to keep in sun or covered up with something like a metal carport roof?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I prefer to store/dry my firewood in these half cord boxes; the splits dry much faster because of the way they are designed.

Usually, I stack the wood in them right off the end of my splitter then moving the full boxes out in the sun and breeze for drying. A couple weeks before I'm going to use a box, THAT box gets covered with a cheapo tarp to keep any rain or snow off it.

It works perfectly and I end up with nice dry splits.

SR

 

[StihlsawuserMS361]

All look good. An old forester once told me, if possible, stack the rows running north to south, allowing the wood to get both a.m. and p.m. sun

 

[HavinFun]

How did you build the boxes? I stacked about 1/2 cord on a heavy shipping pallet, but it came apart when I tried to move it. Looks like a good idea, might try to build some of those boxes. I’m assuming scrap wood was used for them?

 

[Sawyer Rob]

How did you build the boxes?

I build them out of scrap or low grade lumber right off the mill,

I ALWAYS use (3) 4' PT 4x4's under the boxes that touch the ground, and I use deck screws to put the boxes together, as that makes the boxes MUCH stronger and also if needed, the screws allow the boxes to be easily taken apart for any repairs.

Over the more than 15 years since I started making them, they have held up very well, like this old one,

Sometimes I just use whatever wood is lying around the mill,

They are fast to make and work VERY good for drying splits, and to be able to easily move the splits to the house to be burned.

SR