Keeping your rings dry

[Dean Lofthouse]

getting back to fire wood - i was thinking about looging up al timber as it coes in and storing it in a shipping container , has anyone tried this

 

The container sweats unless you can provide PLENTY air circulation, the roof of the container literally is wet through

[tommer9]

Like this tommer

 

Ah. Sorry.

Eggs. Grandmother. Teaching. Suck.

[combined tree services]

thanks guys that saves me spending 1500 on a shipping container , i think i will try to buid a pole shelter type thing lol

[dangerous brian]

A pole shelter just get some poles give em a blow torch each and an axe job done.

[Tom D]

I think any wood left in large lumps will not dry much, if at all in fact it will rot before it dries. Even indoors large lumps will take a long time to dry, ask a wood turner. Tarps will make things worse, rain will not make much difference either, the benefit of the tarp keeping the rain off is far outweighed by the lack of air circulation.

I know this because a few years ago I used a yard surrounded by trees and which had weeds growing around the log piles. Even this was enough to really slow the drying process. Now, by luck rather than any judgement, I have an exposed yard near the sea, it is always windy and I regularly roundup the area to keep the weeds down. I can dry green beech (as split logs ) down to 20% moisture in just 1 year, this is just left in a big pile, no tarp. When it rains the outer logs get wet, but they are the first to dry in the wind so it balences itself out. One thing I have noticed is that even after heavy persistant rain, break the surface of a pile and the logs are dry after a foot or so, also split a rain wet log and its dry inside. The original moisture / sap in the log takes a while to loose but rain will not penetrate a dry log unless it is in contact with wet plants or soil.

In shorty the best way to dry your rings Dean is to keep them uncovered off the ground in the most exposed part of your yard that you can find.

 

BTW the vented log bags are working a treat.

[tommer9]

Tom, thats a whole looaad o' logs you've got there!!

[dangerous brian]

Thats good to know as from now on the log pile will on a hill in an exposed yard with good hard standing and see breezes.

[Mesterh]

I reckon you are still going to end up with a soggy ring there mate.

 

Too well covered for my liking.

[tommer9]

Thats good to know as from now on the log pile will on a hill in an exposed yard with good hard standing and see breezes.

 

I bet you've got no end of options down your neck of the county. Windy windy:001_cool:

[Dean Lofthouse]

One of the big differences is using black matt rubber tarp, I have tried it over two months of hot wet weather and the logs are bone dry no sweat. Not fungii either.

 

The black absorbs and transfers heat underneath.

 

I have rings and logs stacked outside, some like syc do dry on the inside despite being wet on the outside but Oak and a few others never dry if not covered.

 

The thing is the logs in my barn are very dry and if I do a load of split logs from outside it is very noticable that the moisture content is substantailly higher.

 

End of summer when drying slows, cover the rings and they should not take in any moisture and continue drying allbeit slowly