We've had our fireplace for about two weeks and a severely underestimated my wife's interest in using the device. Previously she seemed lukewarm on the idea. It was mostly my silly idea. I thought we'd use it mostly on the weekends but its become an every night sort of thing. I have no doubt that the novelty will wear off but I'll likely run out of firewood first.

My current firewood rack - [www.amazon.com]

I'd like to build something 4x the size - twice as deep, twice as tall.

I don't think there's a lot of complexity to building a firewood rack but I'd like to do it competently and therefore I'm doing some research.

I particularly like this design although I'd want to scale it up -



this page is good for ideas but short on specifics - [freshpatio.com]

I wonder if I need to be concerned with footings considering the freeze / thaw cycle.

any ideas or advice?

---

Footers aren’t needed. Have it sit on top of the ground.

.....according to those pharmaceutical commercials.....your wood should be stored in an.....outside bath tub......

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Concrete squares on the ground
Landscape Timbers on them
Firewood stacked on the timbers
Timbers cut and in the ground as uprights
Thinking about a tarp roof for winter.

Firewood is really best not stored by covering all four sides and the top unless you're absolutely sure it's seasoned properly. We store ours near the back of our acre on timbers to keep it off the ground and only cover the top. We have a small arc shaped rack on the carport that will hold 2-3 days worth of firewood.

---

Grateful11

Plus if you live anywhere close to a wildfire area, you want firewood away from the house. Once you get into a wetter or snowier season, then it's fine to keep a small rack closer to the house. We also found that keeping firewood closer to the house seemed to be an invitation to carpenter ants, various beetles and rodents.

---

“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA

Wood fires are addictive . You need 6x6x8 foot shed . To store a couple of cords of wood . Then as you get into your late 50's. you will change to pellet stoves don't need to pack wood . Then in your 60's you will change to some kind of gas .

Ours is four 4x4 posts with 2x4's around the perimeter with 2x4's as rafters then covered with tin. Size it as desired. Ours is 10x10x6.5 feet high (posts are 1.5 feet in the ground). It's behind the house and below the deck so it doesn't need to be pretty. Wood is stacked to 6' high so I can get it in and out easily.

I like the various ideas from your link. I think you could pretty easily scale up the one you have on your post wider and higher. I'd bet it's primarily 2x4 as studs and rafters with1x6 fronts, sides and back, all pressure treated. If you have room you could do it 8' wide and 4' deep with a couple of the chevron backs instead of the single one. I'd bet the pictured one is about 5' high. You could go a little higher and still get wood in and out.

The suggestions about not completely covering it with a tarp are correct, in my experience. When we built 30 years ago I cleared the lot and cut and stacked a lot of wood. Covered it all in tarps. It was a race to use it before it all rotted (I lost a couple of stacks). Later a timber friend of mine told me the moisture comes up from the ground and is captured by the tarp, keeping the wood wet and promoting rot.

Quote
srf1957
Wood fires are addictive . You need 6x6x8 foot shed . To store a couple of cords of wood . Then as you get into your late 50's. you will change to pellet stoves don't need to pack wood . Then in your 60's you will change to some kind of gas .

LOL

We did all wood heating for the first 20 years...and have now had gas forced air + plus a gas fireplace with a remote control. So we turned over at age 40ish...

I don't miss the mess from wood.

---

“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA

IMO theres not much difference between gas and the yule log tv show.

---

Except the gas fireplace operates as our backup heat source when the power is out. The yule log on the TV...not so much.

---

“Live your life, love your life, don’t regret…live, learn and move forward positively.” – CR Johnson
Loving life in Lake Tahoe, CA

Quote
srf1957
Wood fires are addictive . You need 6x6x8 foot shed . To store a couple of cords of wood . Then as you get into your late 50's. you will change to pellet stoves don't need to pack wood . Then in your 60's you will change to some kind of gas .

Heh! This!! ^

---

Mr. Lahey: A lot of people, don’t know how to drink. They drink against the grain of the liquor. And when you drink against the grain of the liquor? You lose.

Randy: What the @#$%& are you talking about?

I'm about to do the same this weekend. But I'm doing the hillbilly concrete-blocks with some uprights intoba v-shape. That's about all I can muster given the number of unfinished projects I have at the moment



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/21/2020 11:13AM by mrbigstuff.

I store mine in 40 lb bags.

Back when I had a log house I bought a truckload of wood and stored it between the posts on the front porch. Was really convenient to bring in; I never gave a thought to fire.

That house had a large fireplace and I kept a pretty good bed of ashes which got hot enough to melt the grate. The thermostat was close enough that the heat from the fire "declared" the house plenty warm meaning that every other room got cold.

Quote
Don C
The thermostat was close enough that the heat from the fire "declared" the house plenty warm meaning that every other room got cold.

Same thing here. I momentarily wondered if I should get an additional sensor for my Nest thermostat and then decided that if I'm paying for firewood it might as well offset my gas bill.

---

....wood you.......wood you...???????

---

_____________________________________

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

Quote
mattkime

Quote
Don C
The thermostat was close enough that the heat from the fire "declared" the house plenty warm meaning that every other room got cold.

Same thing here. I momentarily wondered if I should get an additional sensor for my Nest thermostat and then decided that if I'm paying for firewood it might as well offset my gas bill.

Have your Nest set to fan on when the fire is running. That should distribute the heated air to other rooms.

---

C(-)ris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Throwback Thursday Signature: