Got my wood storage situation set up.

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Kevin in Ohio

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I've been storing wood at my Dad's place which is about 7 miles away. We have 40 acres of woods there but I have some woods here as well. Just wanted to have something close and nice here to store firewood. I had a a barn that was totalled in a windstorm and decided to fix it up with some wood storage in mind. Never had a concrete floor in it so I did that as well. Stronger and nicer than it ever was now. Being kicking ideas around in my head and this is what I came up with.

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Recently rebuilt/fixed my old barn up from being totaled by a windstorm. Took about 2 years to redo and poured a 6 inch thick concrete floor in it with 1/2" rebar. I want to have some wood storage in there so I decided to use some shelving I had. This is the type of shelving that you see in the big box stores.

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I want to have it so firewood does not touch the wood posts and beams. That way I won't have to rick the ends, I can just stack against the metal. It'll keep the bugs at bay and will help save the barn too. Grinding all the welds out to have single posts and will anchor them to the floor.

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These were right at 20 ft tall so I cut them in half. 10ft high is more than enough for height. Here is everything cut to length and cleaned up.

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Top halves need bottom plates to bolt to the floor so I made some up. I'll weld them to the uprights.

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For the sidewalls, I just let the stock length of the crossmembers dictate where it ended. The backwall needed to be shorter on one section so I need to cut 7 of them down. I just used a chop saw for this.

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Cut the end plates off and I'll reweld them on to the shorter sections.

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All done and ready to go

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Shot a line and started setting posts and putting the crossmembers in as I went. I left the bottom rail about 6 inches up so I can sweep under it. I'm going to use the cattle panels you see on the floor here to fill in the gap. They will still let air pass through and will hold the wood.
 
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I drilled into the floor and secured the posts at the bottom with anchors.

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I also attached the posts to the upper wood rails to hold them plumb. Just used the U bracing steel I removed from the sections and welded angle iron and flat steel on the ends for attachment. Horizontal rails are spaced so edges of 4 ft cattle panels are supported and 2 rails will be the middle.

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I used wood blocks on the bottom to keep the panels in place while banding them on. For the top sections, I used 2 pulleys with ropes ans hooks to hold them up and adjust as I was working by myself.

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I'm using Band-it band clamps to hold the panels on. Really strong and smooth so nothing will catch on them.

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These are really nice to use and have a lot of clamping power. These are 5/8" wide and .030 thick.

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This should be really nice and strong.

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I have 4 support posts in there so I used 4 posts and cut panels to protect those as well.

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Plenty strong enough to stack against and they too are lagged at the top via brackets.
 
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The post closest to the door I tried to move them toward the center as much as possible. This will give me more roon to back a truck from the center door to the inner bays. Anything that cuts out steps is a win to me.

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On the tops of the posts, I'm using high tensile wire to help hold the outward force of the stack. Sides connect to each other over top the center. The end wall posts connect are runto the top of the outside post. Just trying to distribute force.

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Ratchet spools allow tightness/pull to be adjusted.

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On the top of the beams where the wire rides and forces down, I used sections of pipe lagged into the beam. Keeps the force from cutting into the wood and binding of the wire.

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All done now and I'll finally have some nice indoor staorage here at the home place. With it stacked 8 ft high, it figures out to holding 56 cord. With no ricking and no fall overs to deal with, it should make it easier.
 
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The post closest to the door I tried to move them toward the center as much as possible. This will give me more roon to back a truck from the center door to the inner bays. Anything that cuts out steps is a win to me.

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On the tops of the posts, I'm using high tensile wire to help hold the outward force of the stack. Sides connect to each other over top the center. The end wall posts connect are run to the top of the outside post. Just trying to distribute force.

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Ratchet spools allow tightness/pull to be adjusted.

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On the top of the beams where the wire rides and forces down, I used sections of pipe lagged into the beam. Keeps the force from cutting into the wood and binding of the wire.

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All done now and I'll finally have some nice indoor staorage here at the home place. With it stacked 8 ft high, it figures out to holding 56 cord. With no ricking and no fall overs to deal with, it should make it easier.
 
Nice work! How many year's worth is that and how do you FIFO it?
I average around 13 and Dad averages around 9 cord/yr. We had 170 cord under roof at one time. Probably 1/2 that now. Some wood has been cut for over 10 years so we just pick a storage place and empty it, then refill when we have time.
 
Can the wood get too dry so it burns up too rapidly? I have never had that experience with mine stored outside but had a friend who had wood in a barn for years that was light as a feather.
I am not trying to be critical just want to know if it is possible to dry wood too mch for the best burning?

Pretty work on your firewood racks!
 
Can the wood get too dry so it burns up too rapidly? I have never had that experience with mine stored outside but had a friend who had wood in a barn for years that was light as a feather.
I am not trying to be critical just want to know if it is possible to dry wood too mch for the best burning?

Pretty work on your firewood racks!
Only issue we've had is if powder post beetles get into it. If you put in box elder, willow or any other low quality wood into storage, it's gonna be light regardless when it dries out. Same with doady wood. I've run a moisture meter and have never had anything get "too dry" b my standards. Wood will pick up moisture out of the atmosphere and vary some. I've had wood stored inside for 15 years and STILL have it sizzle. Some will argue storing inside, stacked tight will never let the wood dry correctly. I have not noticed that. Inside a barn will get plenty warm in the summer and none of ours are airtight. I do know srtuff stored outside in the weather for 10 plus years will no way have the same BTU's left in it as compared to something inside on concrete. LOL Just do what works best for your situation.
 
Kevin Nice job. Always nice to have your wood under a roof and at the home place. I have enough big dump trailers that I keep my 15 cord of hedge for the year on trailers and in the shed. Nice to not have to re handle wood again. My Garn barn is in one of my pole sheds and I have a three or four cord load of wood backed up to the Garn barn. Nice to feed the boiler inside.
 
Kevin Looks like a nice set up. We have 40-50 below wind chill this AM here so it was nice to be inside the Garn barn loading it. Looks like we have several below zero days coming. Late next week looks a little better. As I get older I really hate this kind of weather. Have a happy holiday season.
 
@rancher2 Martin keep that wind out there, its cold here too, we were -7 here this morning with some wind, it is picking up now. I wish I had got my shed put around my Polar this summer, but alas the shoulder injury got in the way. I was hoping to actually put it into my garage but it was just to big to fit where it needed to go to make everything work out. My plan is to build a small shed on three sides of the boiler and use the garage wall as the other, maybe this coming summer I can get that done.
 
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