Help with firewood barn

[openspaceman]

9 hours ago, Woodworks said:

Here if you had large doors they would be a nightmare when it's windy

This is why the local mushroom farm had sliding doors on rails for the whole bay, each alternate overlapped.

[muttley9050]

This is why the local mushroom farm had sliding doors on rails for the whole bay, each alternate overlapped.

This is what i was going to suggest. Easy to make and easy to fabricate some channel and wheels into the rollers.
You canals the doors louvre style by just making frames and got the cladding use feather edge with a piece of half inch timber screwed on top of the fixing points before fitting next board.
If you have roller doors you can not have doors for all of them but could choose which ones to put doors over by sliding them along the bays.

[Retired Climber]

I'm working on a similar project myself (albeit on a smaller scale) and can't quite bring myself to have the closed side facing the prevailing wind as here that's from the SW and will also block a lot of sunshine getting on the logs. Does this really matter, or is rain protection and airflow the name of the game? 

[Danny Boy]

Sliding doors! That's the great thing about forums. There's always an obvious simpler easier solution just round the corner [emoji1]

Personally RT, I'd go for wind over sun if I had to choose. In an ideal world both would be great.

Its probably most important to keep rain off to avoid mold.

[Danny Boy]

This is what i was going to suggest. Easy to make and easy to fabricate some channel and wheels into the rollers.
You canals the doors louvre style by just making frames and got the cladding use feather edge with a piece of half inch timber screwed on top of the fixing points before fitting next board.
If you have roller doors you can not have doors for all of them but could choose which ones to put doors over by sliding them along the bays.

Good idea. The one thing I'd say for any sliding doors outside would be either suspend them with the roller on top or have a raised channel with grooved wheels on the bottom.
Just incase the channels fill with debris or water & freeze in the winter.

Had to look into all this recently when thinking about a sliding gate at home.

[the village idiot]

Some great thoughts coming in.

 

I personally probably wouldn't go for sliding doors, haven't got on too well with them in previous jobs. They could be a great option for certain setups though.

 

I will probably leave the bay fronts open initially until I can gauge what the elements are going to do. If I have water ingress issues I can look to some form of retro fit. 

[openspaceman]

1 hour ago, Danny Boy said:

Personally RT, I'd go for wind over sun if I had to choose. In an ideal world both would be great.

Me too but a transparent roof does the job of catching radiant energy and not letting it out, Once the inside air temperature gets up in the 30s drying can be measured in days

Edited February 14, 2021 by openspaceman
spelling

[drinksloe]

Plenty of good advice already.

 

A few questions I'd ask thou are wot volumes do u want to store?

How long for? Is how many years and how often do u intend handling/moving it?

How are u storing it? Althou I think u said vented bags.

Also how are u handling it? Will affect roof height and stacking height, I think some traditional forklifts had masts above the forks.

Even where/how do u log/split and process it?

Even how u get the timber too the shed.

 

My 1st thoughts not knowing exactly wot ur plans are.

Bays are a must, possibly not as important if bagged thou, but very mportatant if hand stacked loose

Personally I wouldn't bother too much about rain blowing in, my lean toos where built way back and all face SW, giving where I live in SW Scotland see a lot of driving rain.

Yes outside may get wet but soon dries off. Not like it soaks into the wood far.

I wouldn't bother with doors on ur log bays, when u get to size ur talking about get big and heavy, sliding doors can be a pain when u want access right along front.

U will most likely always seem to be sliding doors that are in ur way. Be a real pain if u have to move logs not adjoining bays

 

If have ur workshop/safe storage area completely solid walls, even think about blocking them, then secure and warm for working on stuff.

 

Dunno how u transport ur timber about, but looks like it siteing ur shed right out main access road.

If that is ur main access track I'd site shed to side of it so u can still run about on it, and the hard to load shed esp if screwing wheels.

If u site shed on the concrete u will be loading and screwing wheels on the dirt.

If leave the log bays either bare or hardcore but concrete the work shop floor.

 

Everyone will have there own ideas depending on how they work and there machinery, just getting the right blend off ideas for how u want to use it.

 

[the village idiot]

36 minutes ago, drinksloe said:

Plenty of good advice already.

 

A few questions I'd ask thou are wot volumes do u want to store?

How long for? Is how many years and how often do u intend handling/moving it?

How are u storing it? Althou I think u said vented bags.

Also how are u handling it? Will affect roof height and stacking height, I think some traditional forklifts had masts above the forks.

Even where/how do u log/split and process it?

Even how u get the timber too the shed.

 

My 1st thoughts not knowing exactly wot ur plans are.

Bays are a must, possibly not as important if bagged thou, but very mportatant if hand stacked loose

Personally I wouldn't bother too much about rain blowing in, my lean toos where built way back and all face SW, giving where I live in SW Scotland see a lot of driving rain.

Yes outside may get wet but soon dries off. Not like it soaks into the wood far.

I wouldn't bother with doors on ur log bays, when u get to size ur talking about get big and heavy, sliding doors can be a pain when u want access right along front.

U will most likely always seem to be sliding doors that are in ur way. Be a real pain if u have to move logs not adjoining bays

 

If have ur workshop/safe storage area completely solid walls, even think about blocking them, then secure and warm for working on stuff.

 

Dunno how u transport ur timber about, but looks like it siteing ur shed right out main access road.

If that is ur main access track I'd site shed to side of it so u can still run about on it, and the hard to load shed esp if screwing wheels.

If u site shed on the concrete u will be loading and screwing wheels on the dirt.

If leave the log bays either bare or hardcore but concrete the work shop floor.

 

Everyone will have there own ideas depending on how they work and there machinery, just getting the right blend off ideas for how u want to use it.

 

Excellent stuff, thanks Drinksloe.

 

In answer to your questions:

 

I would like to be able to store around 300 cubic mtrs of firewood in the barn, plus a relatively modest amount of milled timber. All of our firewood is sold wholesale and at least 50% of it is collected green straight after splitting. I would also like to save a bit of space for splitting under cover.

 

The firewood that goes into the seasoning barn would stay in situ for at least a year, same with the timber. Don't intend to move it around very much.

 

Stored in vented cubic mtr bags at present.

 

Handling is done with my reversible alpine tractor with forklift attachment. Should be able to stack 4 high (if stable enough) with the planned roof height.

 

Most of the processing is done adjacent to the barn site so a very short drive to the barn with the tractor.

 

The barn would completely cover one of our rides but there are other routes to take nearby so not too concerned (see map, barn site in red).

 

 

 

[drinksloe]

Cheers village.

U didn't have to answer the questions more to think about them urself.

They pull be the things I would be looking at.

U seem to have thought about most things thou 

 

Seems a big shed but u are storing a fair bit of timber.

Only other thing possibly u could build it in the or so it can be extended.

Design it so u can add extra bays in the future