Building a wood store - new stove, suggestions ?

[skeast]

Hi all

So I am mid way through having my stove put in , totally love it already, cant wait for it to be set up to use....

Thinking of building some sort of store for the wood, most of which will be purchased [sadly], just want to keep it tidy.

Thinking of siting it under my massive porch, so more about tidy than dry. There is potential room under my back window, about 3-4' high and up to 6-8' wide. Thinking of putting a ply or similar roof on it to put pots and stuff on, more growing space and nice under window.

How big does it need to be for a cubic meter bag of logs or reclaimed/left over timber ?

Any other features/tips ? wood up off the floor I assume.

Assuming a chopping block and axe, as well as companion set and CO2 detector are on shopping list.

Thanks

Sarah

[GeorgeSalt]

At the risk of sounding patronising, a cubic meter bag of wood will need almost a cubic meter of storage room - not quite a full cubic meter because you'll be able to stack it neater than it was thrown into a bag. If it's 3' high and about 6'6" long, then it will come forward about 18" - all conversions very -ish.

But remember to leave at least 4" behind the wood - the wood must not touch the house wall.

[skeast]

No worries George, I figured it would be a cubic/math thing, was more looking for how much wood one stores at a time. Stove is for occasional use, secondary heat source.

To show my ignorance; why shouldnt wood touch house ? It is all under cover of porch. Is it for air flow ?

[GeorgeSalt]

This is our first year with our new woodburner, it's much bigger than the one we had at the last house a few years ago. We're also using it as secondary heat but run it in preference to turning the heating up (every evening, most of the day at weekends, most of the day if either of us is working from home). A rough guess is that we'll have got through over 8 cubic meters over the Autumn-Winter-Spring period. We have about 5-6 cubic metres of covered wood store (a big sheet of plywood salvaged from an old shed, felted and mounted on 4" fence posts) and I want to at least double that over the summer - we scavange a lot of green wood and need to be able to season it (we can't walk past someone chopping down a cherry tree in their garden without asking for the wood, we do volunteer coppicing for a WT group and get to take what we cut).

You don't want the stacked wood to trap damp against the housewall. So allow air to circulate behind it.

[doofaloofa]

I built me a dee-lux solar wood drying shed

Clear plastic roof, slatted windward side

The wood is stacked on palets, with palets as sides and palets as dividers every 4' for good air flow

There are two bays that can hold approx 4cu m each so I can store two years of fire wood



Just showing off

[Thurston Garden]

A wood store can be made quite easily using old pallets. Having just build a straw hoose, I had two wooden pallet crates that the slates were delivered in. The house foundations are telegraph poles on their ends as piles and I had a lot of off cuts so made mine like this:

I used the pole off cuts to create 'legs' (the store is on a slight slope so different lengths were used to create a level platform. I then fixed an 8' by 4' pallet (one that plasterboard was delivered on) to form a base. I then laid the two pallet crates on their sides on the base creating two bays for logs. I had some slavaged corrugated tin which I made the roof from. This overhangs the front by about 2' and is higher at the front than at the back so the water runs off. The sloping roof crates a natural space between the top of the pallet crates and the underside of the roof where I store my kindling. I clad the back and sides with roofing board off cuts purely for looks but this really helps to keep the worst of the weather off the logs.



It probably took about an afternoon to make but I did have loads of scarp wood left from the house build. The right hand bay is all straight grained wood cut on my chop saw to 9" and periodically I take a daft turn and chop it into kindling and fill the kindling shelf. Something I need to do now!

A good sharp axe is a great investment. I bought a Grunsfors Brucks Wildlife Hatchet and love it now I have gotten over the cost!

I also store logs under the house. Now it's my turn to show off

[boboff]

Argos are selling 6x4 metal sheds for £99.99 at the minute, that would seem ideal?

[skeast]

On a significantly more modest note, and £85 cheaper than Boboff's suggestion, I managed to scrounge 6 [matched] pallets from local farmer, and now have a fabby wood store, that already is doubling up as a junque store and great extra surface for seedlings and plants in pots that dont want to go fully outside, but are happy under the porch.

Now I really will have to rebuild my compost heap later soon, as storing 4 pallets is a bit of a headache. Or burn them....

[doofaloofa]

LOL @ junque

Tray goshe

[123sologne]

Well done Skeast for the wood store, you should put some pictures.
Hubby just finished building a wood store with palettes too. You can see it on the web-site of our house (see link below). Any left over bits of palettes are used in the stove mixed with some oak.
On another note... I just love your house Thurston Garden!

[Thurston Garden]

On another note... I just love your house Thurston Garden!