The best place to store firewood
Cutting firewood for upcoming season would surely consume a lot of your time and efforts. You may have spent many days in gathering and splitting your season firewood and now when it is time to think about storage of this big pile of wood, it is important to ensure proper storage while keeping in to account all the factors that may affect your firewood. After all you would not want your hard invested firewood pile to go in waste.
A correct place for storage will keep this investment protected at all times for you to use when it is time for winter. Wood is a material that can easily get damaged with calls of nature like snow, rainfall, excess of humidity etc. So make sure you pay close attention to all these and other factors in order to drive your firewood in correct storage place.
Storage for Firewood:
If you fail to store your firewood in a proper place, it can become home to a number of bugs, pests and can even get wet and decay over time. In order to ensure that you are storing your firewood properly, there are certain factors that you need to keep in your consideration. One of the most important factors is freshness of the wood that you need to store.
Fresh Wood: Make sure that you do not bring any fresh wood indoors. Wood must be completely dried in order to store inside.
Safety Aspects: Before thinking about any storage, we strongly recommend you to pay attention to all the regulations and aspects related to safety. This is one of the premium considerations when planning wood storage.
Storage Indoors: In order to ensure convenience of use, you must bring firewood inside the room where you have fireplace only one day before burning it. This would not only give you convenience of use. Placing it days before it is to be burned would affect its burning quality as humidity of that room will condense on surface of stacked wood and thus it would then be hard to burn. Make sure that you do not store it close to the fireplace as any accidental burning can lead to dangerous incident.
Best Place for Storage:
You may not want your firewood to be stored in an area that is far off but would like something close to your house for convenience of use. When planning storage, think about future. You would not find it convenient to carry firewood each day to your house from somewhere outside. Logs are usually large and heavy and thus doing it each day could be hard labor. So a more practical solution would be to place firewood in a location close to your fireplace. Just make sure that the place or structure you are choosing for storage has ventilation as wood would need air to dry. Proper ventilation would be needed for it to age and remain in good condition during storage. Use a log splitter to cut large logs of wood in to small and manageable pieces.
Outdoor Rack:
One fine idea is to have an outdoor storage rack for firewood. You can buy such storage rack from market or can even make it yourself at home. Such racks make it easier to manage pile of firewood for season. Racks or brackets can be made according to your own preference. You can get a customized adjustable rack too that would make things easier and quicker.
Storing Green Wood:
Different types of woods may need varied ways of storage. Seasoned Green wood is one that needs accessibility to wind and sunlight. These elements are required in order to dry this wood effectively. It is best to dry them under a roof without any structure. Also during storage, you must make sure that the wood is stacked in a way that air can easily circulate. Keep it protected from rainfall.
Firewood Stacking for Storage:
Irrespective of the place of storage, firewood needs to be stacked properly.
- Wood must be stacked on level ground with rows upright. This way firewood will remain sturdy.
- Have stacks no more than a height of 4 feet otherwise they may wobble, become unsteady and may fall over.
- Wood must be stacked at a distance of few inches from wall in order to ensure proper ventilation through them. You should allow some space between stacks for proper air circulation between firewood.
- Place stacks close together so that children may not try climbing over them. There may be pets in the house that may get injured while trying to climb around them so keep that in mind.
- Putting firewood directly on ground may cause moisture so avoid that. Place them over something such as a wooden pallet, drainable rock etc.
Firewood Cover:
A tarp cover over firewood would keep it protected but it would be best to cover them from top and leave sides exposed for air ventilation.
Protection from Pests during Storage:
Taking proper care for storage is the only way to control pests from moving in to your firewood pile and then to your house. Here are some tips for prevention
- Firewood should always be stored outdoors and you should not store them at places like garage, basement etc.
- Firewood pile should be kept at least 20 feet away from your home.
- Stock them in a manner that you should burn old ones first in order to avoid population of pests.
- Do not spray any pesticides on firewood as when you will burn that log, toxic vapors may get release in breathing air inside you house.
- Avoid buying any stock of wood that is cheap or that is not local as it may carry hostile pests that may not be common to your region.
- Keep your fireplace clean too.
Conclusion:
Firewood is used to keep insides warm during harsh winter. Keeping firewood stacked for your fireplace would save your utility bills. However it is important to reserve this source properly for season and that could only be done with proper storage. A well-ventilated dried and properly stored wood is likely to burn better and would give you reduced smoke. Follow the tips that we have shared for proper storage and make sure to guide kids in the house about staying away from firewood storage as playing around them could be dangerous. Keep a close eye on pets and other creatures that may hide in your stack of firewood to keep your wood and house protected.
