About Wood Storage

Wood Storage is Key

 How you store your wood can affect drying time and the amount time you spend handling it. Maximizing your storage will help create efficiencies that pay off in the long run.

The Goals of Firewood Storage are:

• To touch the firewood as few times as possible
• Have firewood easily accessible
• To allow the firewood to dry and stay dry

Priorities for Wood Storage:

• You should be able to easily reach your firewood
• Wood should be in close proximity to your house
• Create space for indoor storage of a weeks worth of firewood near the heater
• Wood must be off the ground
  
• Wood must be covered to prevent rain or snow from accumulating on it
  
• Wood must be stacked to allow air flow around the wood
  
• You should be able to store at least two seasons worth of wood
• The oldest and driest wood should be accessible

Photo by Rebecca Siegel (July 21st, 2013)

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This may sound like a hefty list of requirements but a good outdoor firewood shed ensures that you don’t have to think about many of them.

In order to meet our firewood goals let’s go over some of the things you can do to make firewood storage easy and efficient.

Location
Locate a place near your home where you have enough space to store a minimum of 2 years worth of firewood. Be sure this place that you do not mind looking at and is not going to be in the way of your cars or blocking areas of your house. Firewood can attract pests so be sure to place your firewood storage in an area that will not harm your house.

The fewer times you need to touch your firewood the better do be sure that you have an easy access point to bring your firewood into the house. Some people choose to build an attached storage shed that is accessed from inside. Wood storage can be elaborate but does not need to be.

If possible it is helpful to have an area near your heater in your home to store about 1 weeks worth of firewood. This also give the wood an little extra drying time before burning and makes it convenient to build your fires without having to go outside to get wood.


Firewood Stacking
It is imperative that the wood is stored off the ground in order to keep it free from insects and to provide a barrier from the moisture in the ground while allowing air flow to move under the wood pile.

Moisture in the wood keeps your fire from burning efficiently. A slow fire contributes to the creation of creosote and, if you have a bake oven, prevents it from getting to the optimal cooking temperature.

Covering the your wood pile with a roof with an overhang is idea but it must at least be covered with a tarp to it protected from the weather.  If using a tarp be sure to cover the top only so that air will be able to flow through the wood pile and moisture in not trapped under the tarp.

Air flow in your shed or anywhere you store your wood also helps the wood dry. The sides should be open but you want to keep your wood pile from getting wet on the sides if possible that is one reason that having a roof with an overhang will allow wood to get airflow while helping to keep the sides of your wood pile dry.

If the wood is dry and there is no ground contact, bugs are also less of a problem. No one wants to bring pests in their home with their firewood so keeping it dry will help alleviate this so it never is a problem.

Your wood storage solution should have plenty of room, both to prevent you from hitting your head when you access your wood. When stacking your wood, organize it in a way that you can access the older, driest wood first, working your way through that before you have to touch the newer, less dry wood. Again we want to touch firewood as few times as possible.

A little forethought around wood storage will pay off for years to come. If you think of these things when you are first designing your wood storage, you will find that heating with wood becomes simple and efficient.