An idea to help with seasoning of wood in big piles (not stacked)

[Laroo]

Ya know in Idaho with potatoes, air circulation is very important during storage. They are stored in below ground cellars piled quite high (20'-25') and 100' in length we would put 24"culvert with 1" holes all around the circumfrence, with a air mover on one end. I often thought that the same setup would work quite well with large piles of wood, even without the air movers, using only open air and wind. Jus a thought?

 

[qweesdraw]

Your air tunnel should help, not sure how much, but it will help.

Back when corn was stored in wire cribs on the cob, it was common to run rings of metal wire through them for better air circulation, I have a couple here with my unused (but might be firewood storage soon) corn crib. The only drawback was it gave rats and other vermin a highway into the corn. Shouldn't be an issue with firewood.

Plenty of mice and rats in my wood pile if i don't stack!
I wouldn't stack but the concern of hantavirus for myself and my customers ( legal problems), plus it's a PITA to brush off turds in the winter if they get froze on.
No room for them to nest in stacked wood.

 

[haveawoody]

TreePointer,

LOL
Unlike a tootsie pop it looks like it only takes one lick to get to the center of a woodchuck.

 

[rmount]

Plenty of mice and rats in my wood pile if i don't stack!
I wouldn't stack but the concern of hantavirus for myself and my customers ( legal problems), plus it's a PITA to brush off turds in the winter if they get froze on.
No room for them to nest in stacked wood.

You must stack a lot tighter than I do, I always seem to have a couple of mouse nests per cord in my stacks

 

[TreePointer]

You must stack a lot tighter than I do, I always seem to have a couple of mouse nests per cord in my stacks

Same here.

 

[Steve NW WI]

I think we need some pics of queesdraw's stacks.

I've even heard one definition of "well stacked" in reference to cord measurement, "spaces large enough for a mouse to get through, but not large enough for a cat to follow".

 

[woodman6666]

I remember shoveling corn out of cribs when I was a kid and I think the old timers called these rat tunnels.

 

[qweesdraw]

You must stack a lot tighter than I do, I always seem to have a couple of mouse nests per cord in my stacks

Guess i don't stack as tight as you,but when stacked in single rows my labs and the local coyotes kind of get their snacks.(rare to see any nests)

 

[zogger]

How about smaller piles? That way any air flow can get deeper into the pile. Piling on a base of pallets is a must so at least some air comes up through the bottom.

Rocks/gravel on the ground, then railroad ties, then pallets on top of that. Maybe even plastic on the ground first. Just thinking outloud what might be the best easiest and cheapest.

 

[sam-tip]

We used tunnels for drying ear corn in corn cribs. Had special heavy wire racks to make the tunnels. Wish I had a corn crib for storing wood. Dry and plenty of wind.

Sent from my SCH-I800 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Jaberwky]

Good idea

Like others have said - get it up off the ground, too. Around here (Red River Valley between ND and MN), sugar beets are king. The local piling stations are huge flat areas with perforated culverts and blowers. The beets get piled 30' high by hundreds of feet long over the culverts, which keep air circulating until they are brought to the processing plants. Same idea should work great for wood I would think.