Wood Out In Rain

[CleanOp]

Hello. I live in northern Oregon. Just had an oak tree in the back yard cut down in July. Have split much of the wood and have it seasoning in a shed, but I don't have enough space to hold all of it. Can the un-split wood remain in the rain until next summer without rotting?

Thanks,

CleanOp

 

[moondoggie]

Hello. I live in northern Oregon. Just had an oak tree in the back yard cut down in July. Have split much of the wood and have it seasoning in a shed, but I don't have enough space to hold all of it. Can the un-split wood remain in the rain until next summer without rotting?

Thanks,

CleanOp

Yes it will be fine.

 

[muddstopper]

I have always left wood in piles outside my shed. This year is the first year I have been rolling the piles with the FEL. Rolling the piles I think heps with the drying. I dont know that I have every left anything piled outside for more than a year. I usually CS during the winter, spring and summer ,leave in a pile and stack in the shed around oct-nov. Jury is still out on whether leaving in a pile and rolling with the tractor will help drying, I'll know more once I start stacking it in the shed.

 

[farmer steve]

Hello. I live in northern Oregon. Just had an oak tree in the back yard cut down in July. Have split much of the wood and have it seasoning in a shed, but I don't have enough space to hold all of it. Can the un-split wood remain in the rain until next summer without rotting?

Thanks,

CleanOp

welcome to AS CleanOp. i would just try and keep it off the ground if possible. you didn't say if it was green or dead. even split it will not rot in a year.i know you guys get a lot of rain out there so your mileage may vary.

 

[billyjoejr]

I live just up the road from you in wet western Washington. I find leaving wood out in weather seasons it faster. Comparing a round put under shelter vs one left out in the weather, the weathered one changes color and develops cracks quicker and starts burning quicker. Depending on species, when stacked on the ground you will get rot from ground contact or growths of mold and fungus. Cottonwood it the worst and is not worth the effort. Oak is the best for leaving in the weather and staying in good shape.
I cut logs into rounds and stack the rounds on pallets over the winter, then in late summer after they have dried good I split them and stack the split wood in my wood shed. Before I got the pallets I used 2x4s and some long lengths of pipe to stack the rounds on. I think the most important thing is giving the wood room to breathe, so I stack in rows rather than a huge pile. When I did stack in piles I had a lot more mold, fungus and rotten insect ridden wood at the bottom of the pile.
Another benefit to letting the rounds season is they split a lot easier. At least Doug Fir which is most common up here.

 

[Streblerm]

I would stack it off the ground it should be fine. I stack my wood in 8x8x6 stacks on pallets or whatever I can find. I leave them uncovered under some mature trees and they seem to dry just fine. I only cover the wood I'm going to burn in a season just to keep the snow off. this works for me but it might not in your climate. Really there's only one sure way to find out.

Like others have said. The wood seems to dry faster outdoors than in a wood shed. And I would agree that in a year oak should not rot no matter where you store it.

 

[greenskeeper]

split it and forget it (wherever you decide to store it)

 

[treesmith]

Keep it off the ground and get wind/air movement through it, you can keep the rain off or not, as long as water can drain and it's not sitting in a puddle

 

[dwasifar]

Can the un-split wood remain in the rain until next summer without rotting?

Yep, but you might as well go ahead and split it now. Put that year to better seasoning use.

Here is some oak I split two years ago that's been outside uncovered since then:

As you can see, it makes a fine fire.

 

[MountainHigh]

my 2 cents - it depends on how much rain you get and how wet the ground stays under the wood.

My area gets LOTS of rain, so unless I get wood off the ground and covered on the top, the wood directly on the ground gets punky in 8 months.

I ALWAYS store wood off the ground here.

 

[NGaMountains]

Why not just put it on some of these? I'm in my first year of burning firewood, but I've got wood stacked now on 6 of them, and they are strong, cheap and when you are done with one you can move it wherever you want to and put it back up again, no tools required. If you are on a solid surface (mine is a large asphalt pad), just put the landscape timbers on cinder blocks - $26 buys the materials to build one 4' high and 16' long at Home Depot. If you are on a soft surface like dirt, put a cap block under each cinder block which keeps the cinder blocks from sinking into the ground; costs another $7 per rack. A great, cheap, flexible solution that works.

 

[wood4heat]

I am in SW Washington so my climate should match yours pretty closely. I leave my excess firewood stacked uncovered off the ground all winter. By spring it's ready to split even with all the rain we get. I also keep it out in the open, I had some stacked on pallets in the trees and it did grow mildew and fungus but was still usable. The stuff I had out in the open was perfect.

As others have said keeping it off of the ground is key. I stack mine on pressure treated 4X6's. I put a retaining wall block on its side between the 4X6's at each end to keep the rounds from rolling. Works good foe me.

 

[c5rulz]

Why not just put it on some of these? I'm in my first year of burning firewood, but I've got wood stacked now on 6 of them, and they are strong, cheap and when you are done with one you can move it wherever you want to and put it back up again, no tools required. If you are on a solid surface (mine is a large asphalt pad), just put the landscape timbers on cinder blocks - $26 buys the materials to build one 4' high and 16' long at Home Depot. If you are on a soft surface like dirt, put a cap block under each cinder block which keeps the cinder blocks from sinking into the ground; costs another $7 per rack. A great, cheap, flexible solution that works.

Sorry, but that is EXACTLY HOW NOT TO DRY WOOD! Bark is on a tree for a reason and that is to keep moisture in. Small limb wood like dries very slowly because the amount of surface area is very small.

Wood cut from large rounds will dry the fastest due to more side grain surface area and smaller proportion of bark to split surface. This would dry faster if it was two stacks wide, but it dries good the way it is. Exposure to lots of wind and southern sun all day long.

 

[muddstopper]

Sorry, but that is EXACTLY HOW NOT TO DRY WOOD!

Really, You really think thats not a good way to store unsplit wood. I agree, split wood will dry faster than wood not split, but for storing rounds until time to split, Nothing wrong with the way its stacked in the pic. In fact, lots of folks (myself included) dont even take the time to do stack their unsplit rounds.

 

[NGaMountains]

Sorry, but that is EXACTLY HOW NOT TO DRY WOOD! Bark is on a tree for a reason and that is to keep moisture in. Small limb wood like dries very slowly because the amount of surface area is very small.

Wood cut from large rounds will dry the fastest due to more side grain surface area and smaller proportion of bark to split surface. This would dry faster if it was two stacks wide, but it dries good the way it is. Exposure to lots of wind and southern sun all day long.

Gosh, where to start...

First, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SCREAM TO MAKE YOUR POINT.

Now that we've got that out of the way, while your point about surface area is correct, the OP wasn't asking about the virtues of split vs. unsplit wood for drying, he was asking about getting it off the ground vs. leaving it lie in moisture. I think we can all agree that split wood is preferable for drying.

In terms of getting it off the ground, anything is better than nothing, and if pallets is all that's available they beat the bottom of the stack lying in mud. Given a choice, I'll take the setup in the photo I included (not mine; stock from internet) vs. a bunch of 3" at best wooden pallets that may rot and collapse before the wood directly above them gets used. And to the point of airflow to the wood, I'd much prefer a row of the setups I showed with space in between each for air and sun, than that above, as there's a lot of wood there getting next to zero sun and likely not a whole lot more airflow.

 

[Dirtboy]

Just get it up off the ground, cover the top with a sheet of plastic if your rain is excessive.

 

[c5rulz]

Gosh, where to start...

First, YOU DON'T HAVE TO SCREAM TO MAKE YOUR POINT.

Now that we've got that out of the way, while your point about surface area is correct, the OP wasn't asking about the virtues of split vs. unsplit wood for drying, he was asking about getting it off the ground vs. leaving it lie in moisture. I think we can all agree that split wood is preferable for drying.

In terms of getting it off the ground, anything is better than nothing, and if pallets is all that's available they beat the bottom of the stack lying in mud. Given a choice, I'll take the setup in the photo I included (not mine; stock from internet) vs. a bunch of 3" at best wooden pallets that may rot and collapse before the wood directly above them gets used. And to the point of airflow to the wood, I'd much prefer a row of the setups I showed with space in between each for air and sun, than that above, as there's a lot of wood there getting next to zero sun and likely not a whole lot more airflow.

Perhaps I misunderstood you intent, if so I stand corrected. I was under the impression the wood posted in the pic was good to go until burning and the reason for the comment on unsplit wood. That small arm wood with tight bark doesn't dry worth a hoot if not split.

I too keep rounds off the ground until splitting, then they are put directly on the splitter, split and restacked so it is only handled once.

 

[NGaMountains]

Perhaps I misunderstood you intent, if so I stand corrected. I was under the impression the wood posted in the pic was good to go until burning and the reason for the comment on unsplit wood. That small arm wood with tight bark doesn't dry worth a hoot if not split.

Fair enough. Those are some mighty impressive wood stacks you have there. That reminds me why I moved to Georgia!

 

[c5rulz]

Fair enough. Those are some mighty impressive wood stacks you have there. That reminds me why I moved to Georgia!

That was the small stack that year. Here is all of it:

 

[reddogrunner]

I season limb wood (unsplit) much like the guy posted above. It dries. Just takes a little longer. It burns better than splits once dried, IMO. The trick is to NOT stack it like you have in your pics. You have to leave about 2 feet in between stacks to get air movement. The internet is full of great advice and information. Just learn to take the pieces that will work for you.