Drying your firewood before use is essential for energy efficiency.
If conditions are optimal for drying, plan on stacking for a minimum of two seasons. But if it’s hard wood or wet conditions are present, plan on stacking your wood for four seasons minimum. Since you must look at the stack for that long, why not become artistic?
The World’s Most Amazing Stacked Wood Piles
A simple metal framework surrounded by logs of varying size at the Malvern Show, UK. blog.theenduringgardener.com
Firewood fireplace. Stacking your wood in alternating directions allows for better circulation. Image by Jaedde & Sis: flickr.com
Green Roof on a log walled woodshed by Wildwood Landscapes www.wildroof.co.uk
Woodpile Gate at Sakonnet Garden in Little Compton, Rhode Island.
Via: www.slowlovelife.com
Woodpile sculpture on Waiheke Island, New Zealand. angelahemming.com
Firewood wall. Design by the super talented: alexscottporterdesign.com
Cord wood spiral, Woodstock, Vermont by Ken Woodhead, 12 feet high at center. kenwoodart.com
Assorted wood. Image originally found at “youhavebrokentheinternet.blogspot.com/2010/10/lets-buy-cabin-in-woods.html”
Round woodstack, Erlen-Kugeln, 2007 by Urs P. Twellmann: twellmann.ch
A felled tree. By Alastair Heseltine, Vancouver, BC. alastairheseltine.com
Woodpile with leaf in New Zealand. Stack wood bark side up, bark keeps water out of both living trees and dead. Photo : Lyn/Neale, acta.org.nz
A woodpile that will be hard to utilize. gowood.blogspot.com
Cordwood wall by expert Olle Hagman of Sweden. www.kubbhus.se
Cordwood wall with flowers. Via: LaBioguia
An addition to an ancient farmhouse utilizes a wood stack along the north wall. www.propellerz.at
Cordwood wall on north side of house, south wall is completely glass. www.propellerz.at
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Architect Anderrsson-Wise: www.anderssonwise.com
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Architect Anderrsson-Wise: www.anderssonwise.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Seasoned firewood is dry and free of insects. Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
cordwood house
Stone Creek Camp, Flat Head Lake, Montana. Stone wall on left, wood wall to right. www.stonecreekmontana.com Architects: www.anderssonwise.com
Cordwood Home of Armin Blasbichler. Cordwood and clocks are sandwiched between glass. www.arminblasbichler.com
Crates and logs. After wood has seasoned outside for a year, the wildlife has moved out and the dampness is gone. Swedish designers, Studio St Paul. gowood.blogspot.com
Firewood wall at Parliament Design Offices. weareparliament.com
Firewood alcove. Via: BobVila.com
Firewood holder by Olle Lundberg, California. www.lundbergdesign.com
Perfectly stacked firewood. lesliefineinteriors.com
The Cambrian Hotel by Peter Silling & Associates, Switerland. hotelinteriordesign.de
Firewood faced fireplace. www.villamiodula.pl
Cordwood in the bathroom. Must be stacked in clear resin.
blueforest.com
Birch wood panelled wall. How-to: marthastewart.com
Another similar wall here: marieclaireidees.com
Cordwood in an insect hotel. studiourbanarea.blogspot.com.
Lean-to covered woodpile in Poland. www.kochamwies.pl
Create woodpile homes. Bark side up for roof shingles to deter rain. Don’t forget to build houses for the occupant’s pets as well! gowood.blogspot.com
Adding flowers to your woodpile is a nice touch. gowood.blogspot.com
Woodpile in Italy. The metal roof is a good idea. Lots more photos: www.casaetrend.it
Cordwood wall by cordwood expert Olle Hagman of Sweden. www.kubbhus.se
See more Cordwood Houses & Cordwood Construction.
Wood Heats Twice
“Wood heats twice” as you work up a sweat choping, spliting and stacking, and again when you burn it. Actually your wood will dry fastest exposed to direct sunlight, but in wet environments it is best to cover it.
How To Tell If Wood Is Dry
The efficiency losses from burning wet wood (30-50% moisure content) vs dry wood (15-20%) is about 30%.
- Dry wood is lighter in weight.
- Dry wood has cracks in its end grain.
- If you bang two pieces of dry wood together, the sound is hollow, whereas wet wood makes a dull thud.
- Firewood darkens with age, from white or cream to gray or yellow.
- The exposed face of a freshly split piece of seasoned wood feels warm and dry, but green wood feels cool and damp.
- Wet wood hisses and sizzles when burned and dry wood doesn’t.
Or buy a wood moisture meter (around $25) to test your wood.
Wood Stacking Resources
- The Science of Stacking Firewood: motherearthnews.com
- The Best Firewood: motherearthnews.com
- BTUs per wood species: woodheat.org/firewood
- How to build a Holz Hausen. The Holz Hausen is a round wood pile used to store a lot of firewood in a compact space. It is also called a Beehive Wood Pile: youtube.com
- Interesting Design – Large Metal Firewood Stacker: leenders.nl
I like,
I love
this wall of woodenness
beauty and warmth,
very very nice.
Inspiring creativity – both beauty and utility. But some wood boring pests are hard to detect, any easy and safe means to prevent (or remove) them from making home inside (or outside)?
Lovely art in utility. My piles are much more utilitarian.
A trick is to harvest just dead trees, to leave trees standing and to cut trees and then live full log piles for a few years if you don’t have time to cut it all. We burn cull wood from our forest and tend to collect it in spurts every few years, leaving the logs to dry. They would dry faster cut and split but we don’t always have the time to do that during the warm seasons. If we have gathered logs when we can then we block and split as time allows at random times in the year, often during the winter. Frozen wood splits nicely. Wackity-wack.
Fortunately we only burn three quarters cord of wood a year to heat our tiny cottage so it’s easy to put up several years quickly just from dead wood.
Hello!
interested me much information that went up.
I could send everything related to natural building, ecology, whatever is useful for sustainable living ..
Regards, Luciana
Ah … I trducido the Spanish -. Thanks!
As a child in the 50s we would cut up our firewood throughout the year. By summers end we would have a huge pile on the sunny side of our woodshed. Our dad would show us how to make designs as we stacked the wood in the shed. He would have loved these pictures.
Hello sergio from argentina, I would like to ask how they stick the stems, with that material, thank you…
You leave me enchanted by these wonderful woodpiles! Such beauty around us everyday.
Our wood pile/shed is utilitarian. Just finished our wood for the season. We use about 6 cords a year.
has anyone seen tree rounds used as fence posts? I would love to see pictures of fence posts made of tree rounds, ones preferably 2 feet were thicker. I would think that Cedar would be preferred, perhaps they could be stacked by themselves or they could possibly have a course steak and them to hold them up in place. My thoughts were too staple 20 foot sections of hardwire to them. Otherwise I bolts could be screwed into them and they could be wait with carabiners.
Have the same question as Solaris by the way. Curious if anyone has done that.
Check out Norwegian woodstacking. I did it, it is fun and beautiful