My usual method of stacking/storing firewood is to line up a bunch of pallets between some trees in my backyard and then stack the wood on the pallets. Once the wood is stacked, I like to cover just the top of the stack with a tarp, mainly to keep the leaves and rain off of the wood. However, I don't like having the tarp hang down on the sides of the stacks because I want the air to flow through there.
The problem is that most tarps are either square (10x10 or 12x12, etc.) or not too much of a rectangle (12x20 or 15x30, etc).
What I want for my firewood stacks is a tarp that is 6x30 or something like that, maybe what they'd call it here in Massachusetts is a "wicked rectangle."
Anyway, here's what I tried today and it seems to work pretty well. I got one of my 15x30 foot tarps, laid it out in my driveway, folded it in half, and then fired up the propane torch. I walked along the seam where the tarp was folded and melted the tarp into two sections, each roughly 7 1/2 x 30. Now, I realize that I'll lose the grommet holes on one side of the tarp, but I really don't use those anyway, I just throw a few pieces of wood on the top of the tarp to hold it in place.
So, for the price of a single tarp that isn't really suited to the job, I now have two tarps that are the shape I want them to be and since the torch melted the plastic strands together, the "cut" ends appear to be less likely to fray.
The problem is that most tarps are either square (10x10 or 12x12, etc.) or not too much of a rectangle (12x20 or 15x30, etc).
What I want for my firewood stacks is a tarp that is 6x30 or something like that, maybe what they'd call it here in Massachusetts is a "wicked rectangle."
Anyway, here's what I tried today and it seems to work pretty well. I got one of my 15x30 foot tarps, laid it out in my driveway, folded it in half, and then fired up the propane torch. I walked along the seam where the tarp was folded and melted the tarp into two sections, each roughly 7 1/2 x 30. Now, I realize that I'll lose the grommet holes on one side of the tarp, but I really don't use those anyway, I just throw a few pieces of wood on the top of the tarp to hold it in place.
So, for the price of a single tarp that isn't really suited to the job, I now have two tarps that are the shape I want them to be and since the torch melted the plastic strands together, the "cut" ends appear to be less likely to fray.