Firewood is an invaluable source of heat and light. Many people use firewood during winter to warm the house. Firewood also produces good heat for cooking tasty meals when camping. It takes a lot of time to cut down firewood and trimming them correctly. However, without a proper storage mechanism, you may lose this natural resource. Your sheer hard work may also go to waste.
The last thing you would like to hear is that most of your firewood is rotting away, at the time when winter is knocking on your door. Even well-chopped firewood is prone to bugs and moisture that can end up destroying it. A little rain or snow can be a disaster to your stack of firewood. Of course, nature cannot be tough enough. In this storage guide, I will take you through the best way to store your firewood without a glitch.
Split the wood into small pieces
First, you need to cut the wood into small pieces to prepare textbook firewood. Huge chunks of wood may take time to dry. By splitting them, you are opening up the wood to air and sunlight, further increasing the rate of drying. This also wades off termites or carpenter insects.
Nicely-split wood can be stored easily and can also be transported effortlessly from the storage place to the fireplace. Moreover, small pieces of firewood can burn easily, as compared to large pieces that may require a long time to catch fire. Small pieces also need little space of storage as compared to large pieces of wood.
Select a strategic location
The exact location to store your firewood should be a crucial thing to consider. Firewood must not be stored indoors, but you may keep them close to your house for convenience especially when the weather turns terrible, such as during winter.
You need to factor in how to transfer firewood to your house and light a fire. If you must stack them at the far end of your yard, then ensure that you have something to carry them back to your fireplace easily, such as a wheelbarrow.
Do not stack firewood against your house
Some people stack firewood end-to-end their houses, possibly for convenience. It may be easy to build a shed touching your house as well, but this is not advisable because the house may block the movement of air in and out of the firewood shed. Air should move freely to facilitate proper drying.
Equally, it is advisable to store firewood some distance away from the window for safety. Insects or rodents can find their way into a stack of firewood and subsequently into the house. It is also easy for snakes to get into the house through stacks of firewood if they are close to the window or door.
Most of all, firewood burn fast, even with little sparks. In the event of a fire, the firewood can catch fire and cause a lot of damage to your house. Therefore, consider having a separate shed for firewood, almost close to the fence or a reasonable distance from the house.
Keep your firewood dry
Firewood burns easily and best when super dry. Therefore, always ensure that your firewood is stored in a dry place away from moisture and water. It is advisable to build a simple shed that you can stack your firewood in an orderly way for easy retrieval.
A stable shed will be ideal, mainly because you may require storing the firewood through the season, until winter, when you need them for warming the house. A shed with tough roofing that is also water-proof is superb. Also, ensure that the shed is well aerated to facilitate fast drying of wood that is still wet after chopping.
Don’t stack firewood in a play area
Firewood requires ample space for storage. If you got some kids or animals on your yard, you might consider demarcating your yard to ensure that everything is in order. Do not stack firewood in the place where your kids will be playing up and down.
Keep the firewood nicely-stacked in one corner and leave enough room for playing. Dogs love space to run and play. Kids also love moving around freely. Poorly placed firewood may block them or even cause accidents.
Stacking your firewood the right way ensures that they last longer than when you pile them around your yard without any proper strategy.
Keep your firewood area clean
This is where proper planning comes in mind. You must have a well-organized firewood area that is meant for the firewood only. You need to pile the firewood lying on each other in a fitting stack.
Keep an eye on any unwanted material in the stack and remove them. Some foreign materials can affect the quality of the firewood if left in the firewood area, for example, plastic bags. These can provide room for insects and vermin that may end up destroying the firewood.
A firewood area, characterized by haphazardly tossed pieces of wood, is not recommended. This can affect the way air circulates in the area, therefore affecting the moisture content of the wood. This can give you a hectic time when lighting the firewood. Most of all, a wet field can increase the growth of mold in the firewood, further causing rotting.
Don’t pile firewood close to the ground
If you stack your firewood right on the ground, you will end up losing it to molds and destructive insects. Firewood is prone to moisture on the ground, especially during the rainy season.
It can absorb moisture from the ground and end up soggy, which attracts rotting or decay. Some insects can attack the wood, for example, termites and end up destroying the quality of your firewood.
You must always aim to preserve your firewood for use in the future through raising it a little higher from the ground. You can use a concrete floor to place the firewood or raise the firewood off the ground by using sticks.
There’s nothing comparable to the enjoyable setting of a crackling fire in winter. Well stored firewood burn cleanly and generates little smoke with more heat. You have nothing to fret about if you have all your firewood stored impeccably.
Check out the list of top rated electric wood splitter