There are many options when it comes to storing your firewood over the winter. From a pile left in the middle of the woods to a designated structure, each has their pros and cons and we will go over them here.
Regardless of how much work you want to put into your wood storage strategy there are a few key things that you will want to think about in all situations.
- Split it first
- keep it off the ground
- lots of airflow
- keep it dry
- keep it accessible
- don’t make it ugly
Split It First
Splitting your firewood before storing it has a lot of benefits. Split wood will stack better and allow you to get the most out of your space.
Splitting first will help dry out your wood if it has any moisture left in it.
You will thank yourself for splitting first when it comes time that you want to have a fire and you don’t have to spend 15 minutes splitting wood before you can get started on the fire.
Keep It Off The Ground
If you have access to old pallets or even just a couple 2×4’s, laying them down before you start stacking will keep your pile straighter and neater.
Getting the bottom logs off from the ground will help to keep them from getting to wet to burn as well as delay rotting.
Lots Of Airflow
Having sufficient airflow is a necessity if you are storing green wood and looking to have it dry out as fast as possible. Even it the wood is already dry it is a good idea to allow for good airflow. This will ensure if it happens to get wet it can easily dry out.
Keep It Dry
Covering your pile with something that can keep the rain and snow off your wood will keep your dry wood dry and allow wet wood to dry out.
You can lay a piece of plywood over the pile, cover it with a tarp (we don’t recommend this option) or get creative.
Keep It Accessible
We have found there are two option that work best for storage of our wood piles.
- The main pile – We have a small wood shed near our main fire pit, this is out main stock pile. It is close to the fire and convenient. As this pile shrinks we restock it with our back up stacks.
- The Trail Stacks – These stack of wood are pre-split and neatly stacked piles that are within a couple feet of the trails that cover our property. Being neatly stacked and close to the trail it is easy to pull a side by side or ATV up to the pile and load it up.
Finally Don't Make It Ugly
Maybe it is just personal preference but in my opinion nothing looks worse that a ripped up and tattered blue tarp covering a stack of wood in the middle of the woods.
This is why we recommend completely avoiding tarps, even brown and grey tarps, although they aren’t as bright as a blue or silver tarp, eventually they will begin to rip and look unmaintained.
A neatly stacked pile, leaning up against a standing tree, covered by a cut to size piece of plywood will blend in much better.
As I mentioned above if you wanted to get really creative and wanted to go for an all natural look, you could skin the bark off from a dead tree and make your own covering for the stack.