E-Z way to load the house w/ wood

[EastwoodGang4]

Here's how I do it. Not as good as an outside cellar opening, but it saves hundreds of trips up and down the steps! The trapdoor is hidden in the closet, and the "door" part of it just lifts out and pops back in. The wood room is an old well/pump room that is no longer in use for this. If I just toss into this room, can fit maybe 4 large wheelbarrow loads, if I stack it 6 easily. Then load the racks fitted with wheels and push it over to the woodburner. Nice way to let the wood melt off snow/dry off before it gets burned.

 

[Wood Scrounge]

I love how your wood racks are on casters, that’s brilliant!

 

[Billy_Bob]

I always say... Work smarter, not harder!

And much less work to install that trap door than to lug the wood downstairs from now until eternity...

 

[Ductape]

That trap door is ingenious !!

 

[Baldman]

Brilliant!

 

[beerman6]

Good Ideer

 

[Techstuf]

I'd bet that someone that efficient, could design a heck of a stove as well....



Blessings in Yeshua

 

[EastwoodGang4]

trap door

Funny thing is....when i cut that hole in the closet, the wife went nuts! I didn't discuss any of it with her, i just did it as i promised her she'd never notice it. and it's fine....if i ever go to sell the house, i can patch it up with some leftover laminate flooring, and no one will ever know it's there. The whole drive behind this was not laziness, but more safety.....carrying a big ol armload of wood down the steps with snow all over you boots, wet steps, topheavy load...recipie for disaster, just one lil slip and i'm out of commision.

 

[Laird]

 

[Curlycherry1]

May I suggest an improvement? Take a hunk of plywood that is big enough to fit over the trap door opening and protect the floor around the opening. Cut a hole for the trap door opening in the center of the plywood. When you put wood down the hole put the plywood around the hole to protect the flooring from pieces of wood that escape or do not go down the hole properly.

I used to deliver wood to someone that had a similar setup to your's and their floor got beat to garbage around the opening from the guy not being careful about dropping the wood down the hole. I made him a rim protector out of plywood and his wife always baked me a big batch of cookies when I delivered their wood after I made the protector.

 

[wdchuck]

May I suggest an improvement? Take a hunk of plywood that is big enough to fit over the trap door opening and protect the floor around the opening. Cut a hole for the trap door opening in the center of the plywood. When you put wood down the hole put the plywood around the hole to protect the flooring from pieces of wood that escape or do not go down the hole properly.

I used to deliver wood to someone that had a similar setup to your's and their floor got beat to garbage around the opening from the guy not being careful about dropping the wood down the hole. I made him a rim protector out of plywood and his wife always baked me a big batch of cookies when I delivered their wood after I made the protector.

Good idea, and....

paint the bottom of the plywood the same color as the closet wall to make it less noticeable, and lean it against the wall or hinge it to the baseboard trim so it is handy.

 

[HuskyMike]

Great idea, good thinking!!

 

[EastwoodGang4]

May I suggest an improvement? Take a hunk of plywood that is big enough to fit over the trap door opening and protect the floor around the opening. Cut a hole for the trap door opening in the center of the plywood. When you put wood down the hole put the plywood around the hole to protect the flooring from pieces of wood that escape or do not go down the hole properly.

.

Excellent idea! Thank you! This will be a big help especially when my 5 year old son helps me chuck the small ones down....he misses alot! :rockn:

 

[Beefie]

I made one of those throw holes to. Except mine is slightly bigger:hmm3grin2orange:

You can see in the pics how the plywood is beat up in front of the new hole. The old hole was only between the floor joists. The new one goes in between four floor joists. Now the only time you miss is when you are really careless.

Beefie

 

[Ductape]

Beefie, i'm pretty certain you could hide a body in there too. :help:

 

[EastwoodGang4]

nice

I made one of those throw holes to. Except mine is slightly bigger:hmm3grin2orange:

You can see in the pics how the plywood is beat up in front of the new hole. The old hole was only between the floor joists. The new one goes in between four floor joists. Now the only time you miss is when you are really careless.

Beefie

sweet setup man.... it got to be fun to put wood in your hole!!!!!! :monkey: LOL

 

[Steve NW WI]

You guys SUCK! Now I'm scheming a construction project. Most of the space below my stairs is unused, and a trapdoor right inside the door would make a lot of sense, could probably throw a face cord down there pretty quick, and stack it at my leisure. As a metal guy, I see some steel plate on the bottom of the trapdoor to bounce the wood off while tossing it in from the back of the truck!

Great thinking guys!

 

[EastwoodGang4]

inspiration

You guys SUCK! Now I'm scheming a construction project. Most of the space below my stairs is unused, and a trapdoor right inside the door would make a lot of sense, could probably throw a face cord down there pretty quick, and stack it at my leisure. As a metal guy, I see some steel plate on the bottom of the trapdoor to bounce the wood off while tossing it in from the back of the truck!

Great thinking guys!

Steve, you are the inspiration for this post!! I read your post the other day about wearing out the steps and such... it inspired me to share the idea that I use. We don't suck.... we just ummmm let's see the right words here.....have an addiction for firewood that leads us to cool things, and THIS SITE IS THE REASON WE ALL POST HERE TO SHARE IDEAS!!!!!!!!

ROCK ON!!!!:rockn:

 

[Curlycherry1]

Ok so why are you neatnicks piling the wood in the basement? It should go from tossed pile into the burner!

My dad had a corner of his basement dedicated to wood and he could back a truck into his garage and open a little door to the basement and toss the wood right off the truck right into the woodbin. Then he could burn it as his leisure. He could get about 5 face cords down there which was enough to last him over a month.

His furnace was wood with fuel oil backup. He had a big sand box with tubing running through it so when his house got up to temp the water would circulate through the sand warming it up. When the house started to cool off and the wood furnace was not going it would suck heat out of the sand. He was able to keep the house above 70 degrees for over 48 hours if he ran the wood burner solid and hot for about 12 hours. If the sand was cool and the wood burner was out then the boiler would use fuel oil to heat the house.

His only problem was that he built the house in the early 1980s and he used copper tubing. The sand he got was a little acidic and so it ate holes in the copper tubing. Today one would use PEX plastic and would not have that problem. The sand vault was a friend of his idea and he built one back in the 1950s and it is still working as intended to this day as far as I know.

 

[Steve NW WI]

CC, you nailed me on that one. Piled wood looks tacky, stacked is much more high class, matches the upscale decor in the basement. Notice the fancy-schmancy Old Style sign up above the stack in the back wall, forgot to light it up for the pic: