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Firewood shed Posted by Henry in MI on November 18th, 2003 06:55 AM In reply to Firewood Shed by Scott Simon on November 17th, 2003 08:34 AM [Go to top of thread]
Scott, leaving your firewood in an enclosed building is not a good idea. When the tree comes down, it is 60% or more moisture. As it dries, it may be able to get down to 12% under the right conditions. These are just good ventilation and a covering to keep active rain or snow off.
The speed that wood dries depends on a lot of factors but the more actual wood surface, not bark, and ventilation are important. Most yards selling firewood just throw the lengths of cut trees in a pile for a year and split just before selling the wood. That pile doesn't allow great ventilation and the bark slows drying. A better lot will split and stack so air gets to the ends and the split inside for much better drying.
If you take that portion of the log that's 60% moisture and put it in your shed, 48% of the weight of the wood will come out into your shed. Unless your shed has great ventilation, you will have BIG water and condensation problems inside the shed. A better answer is to just build one, or several, racks that hold split sections of logs. These should have a roof to keep active rain or snow off but otherwise be open. A portion a tarp on the sides might be considered.
One other consideration is insects. Bugs that like to eat wood do so because of the moisture that the wood has. They need the water to live. If you always have only dry wood, you will have a lot less problems with bugs. Today, you may say that you will only buy dry wood to put in your shed. That's OK is you also purchase a $200 meter to insure that is what you have bought. (Cheaper meters tend to be inaccurate.) Considering that you--or the next people to live in this house--may not always go through the dryness check, it's better to leave your wood racks some distance from the wood in your house, including wood decks and porches.
This may not be what you were looking for, but it is better than a bigger problem down the road.
Henry in MI Was this post helpful? Yes: or No:
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