# Best way to store wood - split or unsplit..?



## MountainKing

OK, I realize that there is a third answer that is most desirable - leave the wood standing <wink>

...BUT, that understood, I had to take down quite a few oak trees recently for a project on my land. I heat my home exclusively with a fireplace insert (I can't say enough good things about my Lopi Freedom!) and in the mild winters of the Carolinas I probably burn through about three cords of wood a year. Currently I probably have about six cords split and stacked.

My question is - I'm pretty much covered for a couple years at the current rate of use and storage. I have a few more trees to take down. Assuming I cut them into firebox length rounds - am I better off just stacking the full rounds or should I still split them for storage? Which will store longer without bug infestation (termites or ants?). I already know to raise them off the ground (I use landscaping timbers set in concrete building blocks with fence posts on the ends of about 16' segments).

Just interested on thoughts. I almost think they'd be LESS susceptible to burrowing bugs if they are split.

MK


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## greenoak

All else equal, split will store better. Bugs and fungi need moisture to eat the wood and split wood dries much faster than bark-on rounds. But you need to keep the rain off the stack. Off the ground and with a piece of tin on top it will stay sound for years.


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## farright

store split if splitting by hand the ends get tough and hard to split after wood is cut firewood lenth. I would store treelenth or convient size 8 or 10 food till needed i had loads of tree lenth delivered and only cut enough for winter. Didnt seem to get to dry that way hope this helps.


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## Grizz

I prefer to cut stack. It sounds as if your in good health, now. What if you were to become injured and unable to split and stack it next year. At least you would have the wood ready to go as it's your single heat source. To have a couple years worth of wood ready to go would give me peace of mind. And allow me to get other projects done. MY2CENTS.


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## ZoomZoom

I'll pile on and say to do the splitting now.

Oak will keep for several years if you keep the rain off of it. I have oak firewood (in a woodshed) that's 4-5 years old and as good as 1 year old. Cherry and maple only last a couple years so if you do end up with those, burn them first.

If you need a temporary woodshed to last you a few years, consider one of those $100 canvas covered carports. _I say a few years because those canvas covers don't seem to last much longer then that._


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## hiwall

Just like the food you put thru the dehydrator will last longer dry, so will your wood if you split it. So yes split your wood so it can dry.


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## Magus

Lay some pallets in a row on the ground, stack two deep, 5' high, cover with sheet tin weighted down with cinder blocks.
next year turn the pallets into kindling and get fresh ones as needed.


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## jsriley5

I've seen rounds go dodie (have no idea if that is a real word but is the word grandpa and dad always used for the soft moist and crumbly way wood gets as it starts to rot. ) in the wood pile in a couple years seen even uncovered splits last far longer so definitely split all big enough and keep the smaller rounds for this years use and save the splits you already have.


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## Jason

Jsriley5- we have always used "punky" like you guys use dodie. 

MountainKing-I'd go with split and cover now. I heat with wood too, via an outdoor wood burner. A huge pile of wood is better than money in the bank.


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## MountainKing

Thanks All.. Sounds like the general consensus is split now.. 

Sounds good to me (I enjoy doing it)..

MK


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## UncleJoe

Jason said:


> Jsriley5- we have always used "punky" like you guys use dodie.
> 
> MountainKing-I'd go with split and cover now. I heat with wood too, via an outdoor wood burner. A huge pile of wood is better than money in the bank.


Yep, punky is our word for it too.

And I like to have about 6 cord of split wood on hand at all times. We're down to that level now so I'll be doing some splitting next week when we get our January thaw.


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## Tribal Warlord Thug

split and stacked is the best way to keep the hardwoods.........


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## cnsper

If it were an evergreen I would say leave it in rounds. I do that and split it as I need it for the following year. Since it is oak.... Split it while it is still green, you will thank yourself for it.


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## Jason

Rabidcoyote, that's a really nice wood cutting area and woodpile!


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## TheLazyL

MountainKing said:


> ...My question is... am I better off just stacking the full rounds or should I still split them for storage? ...


Split with the bark side up to repeal rain.


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## LincTex

I do not store any wood in the rain, ever. 
I keep enough under the "lean-to" of the garage for each heating season, and replenish when spring comes.

I cover bulk piles with decent plastic sheeting, but over that I use old "cotton bale tarps" to keep the sunlight from killing the plastic. The cotton bale tarps are not waterproof, but they protect the good plastic underneath them from UV rays.

Cover is cheap. Use your imagination - - you can fit a LOT of wood in an old car/truck!


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## cnsper

LOL, mine is in the rain and snow. Remove the top couple of pieces and wow the next row is dry. Besides the wood that is wet will dry by the time I need it.


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## LincTex

cnsper said:


> LOL, mine is in the rain and snow.


Here in Texas in the spring and summer, with the heat, humidity and bugs your wet pile of wood outside would be nothing but dust by the time fall arrived.


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## cnsper

One more thing Texas has against it... LOL


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## LincTex

cnsper said:


> One more thing Texas has against it... LOL


Well, It **IS** a good way to get rid of all the nasty Hackberry wood. The rot and the worms/bugs break it down enough to where I can compost it a lot easier (less labor). Hackberry is really only good for bonfires, otherwise. And it smells nasty when it burns.

The good oak and pecan wood goes under cover, though!

Cedar can be left out. Nothing messes with it!!


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## MountainKing

I've been burning wood for the past few years and have always left mine split and uncovered without any problems. It is near 100% oak (very hard). The wood gets wet, yes, but dries very quickly and I've never noticed any serious decay. I do take care to keep the leaves away from the base of the stacks and have them elevated on cinder block and landscaping timbers so that termites don't try making a home in the bottom layers.

MK


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## BillS

I'd be more concerned about making a lot of noise by splitting wood after it hits the fan. I'd split it now if I were you.


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## Country Living

We split our firewood before we store it. We sprayed the pallets for termites before we use them and, as you can see, they're kept off the ground with concrete blocks. "T" posts are at each of the four corners. Goat wire keeps the wood from falling off the ends.


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## MountainKing

My wood pile porn pictures...

I just use a couple cinder blocks with those $2.50 landscape timbers put through the holes to keep the wood off the ground. Drive a couple fence posts in the ends and that does the job. Currently have 8 racks built and I probably use about 3 per season burning in my fireplace insert (haven't turned on the electric heat yet this year). The pallet holds the big "unsplittable" pieces that I took quite a few whacks at and decided they weren't worth the time. All of my wood is hand split, so when I come across a super gnarly one that defies the maul, I just toss it aside to burn in our outdoor fire pit on "camping" days. I long ago decided that if a piece won't split with my maul, it isn't worth busting out the wedge and sledge. Too much chance of injury for not a lot of gain there if you ask me.

One of those racks was actually the shipping crate for the solar array we recently had installed. Double duty.

MK


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## cnsper

BillS said:


> I'd be more concerned about making a lot of noise by splitting wood after it hits the fan. I'd split it now if I were you.


so what are you going to do when you run out of wood?


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## Country Living

cnsper said:


> so what are you going to do when you run out of wood?


I don't understand your question. Do you mean when there are no longer any trees to cut up or when you just run out of cut firewood?

For me, and I also suspect the same is true for MountainKing, we live in a sustainable forest area. There are always fallen trees so the prospect of NOT having any trees to cut up for firewood is extremely unlikely. We have a large hardwood that fell and will be a year's worth of wood when we finally get it cut into firewood.

If your question is really about using the last piece of firewood and not having any more.... then we're not very good preppers, are we?


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## Country Living

MountainKing said:


> <snip> All of my wood is hand split..


My hat's off to you! We have a chain saw and a 37 ton gas log splitter. We can split manually.... we just prefer to enjoy the conveniences of our equipment for as long as possible.

Right now we have about three years worth of firewood split. We keep the split firewood in a pit down from the barn (and out of sight) and we put an awning over the back of the barn to keep the current year's worth of firewood dry (also out of sight from the road). It's a lot shorter trek to the back of the barn than it is to the pit.

When I drive into town I see lots of folks stacking their firewood between their house and road - very visible. So far I have resisted the urge to go to their house, grab them by the shoulders and give them a mighty shake, and ask them just what are they thinking????


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## cnsper

When you run out of split wood. You then will have to split it and will be making noise. No matter how much you split and store you will run out.


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## Viking

cnsper said:


> When you run out of split wood. You then will have to split it and will be making noise. No matter how much you split and store you will run out.


 Well in this case I'll have my wife stand armed while I split wood but then I'm not too worried all my neighbors do the same thing and we often share when we have excess firewood. Out here in the Pacific Northwest near the coast we have a hardwood called Madrone, it burns very hot with little ash, it seems to have a great deal of oxygen within the wood when dried out and needs very little draft to burn. But it stores best split under shelter and that's why I built a firewood shed. Before I had the shed I stored it on pallets covered with tarps and as long as the sun didn't rot the tarps it would keep fairly dry but often they would get eaten inside by a Japanese beetle larva which would leave the outside looking normal but the inside could sometimes be pure punk and as long as I didn't drop the wood it would stay together and still burn just as good. Because the shed is dry the bugs don't seem to be as destructive, we presently have about three years worth of firewood stored. Split wood definitely dries much faster for us. Might also mention I'm still cutting trees and hand splitting wood at 70 and will do so for as long as I can, it helps keep me fit.


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## cnsper

Good for you. I too split by hand. Log splitters are good and all but you will be really sore when you have to split by hand because you have no gas.


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## MountainKing

I really enjoy hand splitting. I do, of course, use a chainsaw to get logs to fireplace length. My Husqvarna Rancher is my favorite tool in my shed. Unfortunately it runs on gas..so in a true SHTF scenario that will suck, but what can you do. I keep about 30 gal. of gasoline on hand plus whatever is in our vehicles, so I'd have to ration that fuel out. 

Wood availability is not a problem. I have 2 acres of heavy woods (oak) on my own property and 8000 acres of state park adjacent to my property. 

MK


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## Viking

MountainKing said:


> I really enjoy hand splitting. I do, of course, use a chainsaw to get logs to fireplace length. My Husqvarna Rancher is my favorite tool in my shed. Unfortunately it runs on gas..so in a true SHTF scenario that will suck, but what can you do. I keep about 30 gal. of gasoline on hand plus whatever is in our vehicles, so I'd have to ration that fuel out.
> 
> Wood availability is not a problem. I have 2 acres of heavy woods (oak) on my own property and 8000 acres of state park adjacent to my property.
> 
> MK


I've taken care of the chainsaw fuel issue, I bought a five foot crosscut saw which I used a few years ago to cut trees down and size them to fit the pickup, brought the loads home and cut those to firewood size with my chainsaw. Cutting trees down with a saw like that is really quiet and believe me, it's great exercise. If fuel gets short I'll make a log holding setup and cut firewood size with the crosscut saw.


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## MountainKing

I had looked at some crosscut saws. Definitely something to put on my list. I don't think my 12" Wyoming Saw is gonna cut it (pun intended)..

MK


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## cnsper

I have one of those too. They cut much easier than one might think. Don't forget about a tooth set and file to keep it sharp.


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## MountainKing

When I go hiking I love my Wyoming Saw. It makes getting campfire wood so much easier. I see they make a bigger one too (Wyoming Saw 2).. I have a half a dozen replacement blades (wood) that I picked up for $3 each on sale once. I haven't tried sharpening them. I use a round and flat file to sharpen my chainsaw chains, but I need to learn how to sharpen that Wyoming blade..

MK


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## cnsper

We posted at almost the same time. I was talking about sharpening the crosscut saw.


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## Viking

I should mention that the Madrone I cut with the crosscut saw is very easy to cut when green because it has a lot of water in the wood grain and no oil is needed when cutting as is the case with fir and pine. In fact sometimes when cutting Madrone with a very sharp chain saw it will throw out really long sawdust, depending on how wet it is it can be nearly a foot long. But when it dries out it'll dull the chain in no time and sometimes when the grain grows interlocked and it's dry it can be dang near impossible to hand split.


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## LincTex

MountainKing said:


> The pallet holds the big "unsplittable" pieces....super gnarly one that defies the maul,.


I waste nothing. I cut those "gnarly" pieces into 6" thick slices with the chainsaw. Most of the time I can fit one in the stove "as is" but I can often split them into smaller pieces once they are cut this thin. My wife loves the small chunks for daytime (warmer) fire since they are easy to handle and she only needs to keep a small fire going. I love to use them to "fill the small gaps" when packing a full load for the night before going to bed.


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## cnsper

Viking said:


> I should mention that the Madrone I cut with the crosscut saw is very easy to cut when green because it has a lot of water in the wood grain and no oil is needed when cutting as is the case with fir and pine. In fact sometimes when cutting Madrone with a very sharp chain saw it will throw out really long sawdust, depending on how wet it is it can be nearly a foot long. But when it dries out it'll dull the chain in no time and sometimes when the grain grows interlocked and it's dry it can be dang near impossible to hand split.


What are you cutting, gum fir and glue pine? Seriously, pine is all I have around here and I have never had to use oil.


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## MountainKing

LincTex said:


> I waste nothing. I cut those "gnarly" pieces into 6" thick slices with the chainsaw. Most of the time I can fit one in the stove "as is" but I can often split them into smaller pieces once they are cut this thin. My wife loves the small chunks for daytime (warmer) fire since they are easy to handle and she only needs to keep a small fire going. I love to use them to "fill the small gaps" when packing a full load for the night before going to bed.


Yeah, I actually like the gnarly ones that will fit in the firebox because they slow smolder for a long, long time. I have two palettes - one has the gnarly wood that is too big for the inside wood stove, the other is stuff that will fit in the door. We have an outdoor firepit that we like to gather around when we are cooking out - so the big pieces work in there.

Couple of pics - one of the oaks that went down for the solar cause, beautiful wood to split and love the smell of it. Sad to see it come down though.

2nd one is the outdoor firepit with boulders from our property around it. Love sitting out by that and drinking a beer and solving all the worlds problems...

MK


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## LincTex

MountainKing said:


> one of the oaks that went down for the solar cause,


Some of my panels are on the roof, and others are mounted to a pole about 12 feet up. I ain't cutting the oaks by my house, I'll work around them!


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