2017-04-26
Not all country houses, as well as suburban dwellings, are heated using gas boilers and centralized heating. And many simply abandon it in favor of traditional fireplace and stove heating, which creates a kind of coziness in the house and a feeling of a truly reliable home in terms of heating. After all, such a house is not afraid of fluctuations in the supply of electricity, gas and hot water. But in order to keep a house with stove or fireplace heating warm in winter, you should prepare firewood for future use.
Often there are no problems with cutting firewood. But putting firewood into a woodpile, which would not only be an excellent way to store fuel, but also decorate the overall interior of a personal plot with its aesthetic, elegant and artistic design, is not something everyone can do. In this material we will reveal the secrets of laying some types of woodpiles, and also give examples of the most extravagant of them.
Variety of shapes and options for stacking firewood
The method of storing wood fuel will be effective and in demand only when the firewood is dry and well ventilated during storage. That is why the lower edge of the future woodpile should always be located not ON the surface of the earth, but ABOVE the surface, that is, on a kind of pallet or in a place inaccessible to moisture penetration. Otherwise, after the bottom row of firewood, the top rows will also rot.
Also, the woodpile must be stable, and therefore various techniques are used for stacking firewood, the purpose of which is to give the future “wood building” as much stability as possible. It’s clear that simply throwing firewood on top of each other will move in different directions, forward and backward, and, in the end, falling apart, will again become just a pile of firewood, which you originally wanted to put in the woodpile.
That is why unique columns are laid out on the sides of the future woodpile, reinforcing the overall structure. The logs in these columns with each subsequent row are laid across the previous row, which gives the entire structure stability and allows, along with chopped logs, to store unchopped round timber.
There are three most common types of stacking logs in a woodpile. In particular they are:
- stacking firewood, where firewood is stacked row by row on top of each other in parallel;
- laying firewood in the manner of a cage, where each subsequent row, as in the case of the side columns described earlier, lies perpendicular to the previous one;
- stacking firewood using the circular method, where firewood is stacked in a kind of circular stack.
Often, stacking is a shaky structure, and therefore this method is good if there is a supporting wall. It can be the wall of a barn or any other outbuilding.
In the process of stacking logs in a stack parallel to each other, you should pay attention to the fact that the growing woodpile constantly tilts towards the supporting wall. The slope is created by placing the thicker edge of the logs on the outer side. If the woodpile runs steadily and levelly without any slope, the structure can be given a tilt by placing thin slats between the rows on the outside.
But you shouldn’t get carried away with too sharp corners, because otherwise the middle part of the woodpile can be pushed forward under the weight of the top firewood, and the result, again, can be the same chaotic pile of firewood, now requiring re-stacking in the woodpile.
The following photo shows an example of a free-standing woodpile, where the sides are protected from spillage by a kind of frame made of boards.
This is what it looks like initially. The lower part protects the firewood from contact with damp ground, and the side parts prevent the woodpile from spilling.
Wood crates are many times more stable than stacks, however, even a free-standing wood crate is not immune to tilting and subsequent disintegration. As already mentioned, a cage is often used to strengthen a stacked woodpile against spillage, and by approaching the process of folding the woodpile creatively, one can “blind” a real “Portrait of the Artist’s Wife.”
Also worthy of attention is this circular woodpile in the shape of a kind of tent, thickened towards the top. But it is worth remembering that creating such structures can take much more time and patience.
Some particularly advanced masters even give their masterpieces the appearance of original residential buildings, decorating them with doors into which a drunken, lost neighbor might begin to break, and window frames in which he might try to break the glass.
By the way, for some resourceful summer residents, firewood can be not only fuel, but also excellent ingredients for creating various elements of landscape design.
Closed structures made like huts are also ideal for storing firewood. Here the fuel will be the driest and always ready to ignite.
And after a long and meticulous laying of such a woodpile, which is a real work of wood art in the form of a fallen tree with unfallen golden leaves, the unlucky and patient wood sculptor and dreamer will seriously think about preparing more firewood for heating and putting it in a separate inconspicuous woodpile , which you won’t mind disassembling later for firewood.
Some even manage to use firewood with different end geometric configurations instead of elements of the future mosaic. As a result, we have another creation of wood-burning art, namely the painting “Owl taking off against the backdrop of the full moon.”
Along with “Portraits of the Artist’s Wife,” some manage to create self-portraits.
Some lover of ancient old Russian wooden architecture decided to create woodpiles, like no other, more suitable in geometric slope to the domed church located in the background.
We have already dealt with stacking firewood from the previous section. The main thing is not to forget to create a slight slope towards the supporting wall. It is better not to make free-standing stacks too large and high for two reasons:
- So that under the weight of the upper tiers it does not move in different directions or does not tip over completely from a strong wind;
- So that you don’t feel hurt later because of futile efforts, efforts and wasted time.
Everything is clear with stacking firewood in a cage. Therefore, in this section we will consider in more detail the stacking of firewood in a circular woodpile.
The first thing to do is draw a circle in the place where the future woodpile will be created in the future. As a rule, a circle is drawn using the method of an ancient compass - a stake is driven in, a rope is tied to it, to which a piece of wood chips or a piece of reinforcement is tied from the free end, with which the circle is drawn.
Then a circle of longitudinal logs is laid out along the line, after which the first transverse row begins to be laid.
This is done so that the woodpile does not fall apart in different directions due to a slight slope towards the inside of the circle.
It is possible to fold a round woodpile into one row, but such a design will be relatively unreliable, and therefore, along with laying out the outer main row, the layout of the inner one, the additional one, also occurs.
Do not forget that it is necessary to monitor the slope of the inner circle so that it does not subsequently fall out, collapsing the outer one along with it. During the installation process, the entire structure of the circular stack, due to the constant inward slope, takes on the appearance of a kind of dome or stack.
In the middle empty part, firewood can be stacked freely without fear that it will “break free” by pushing through the double shell of the outer perimeter.
Having raised the wood stack to a height of one and a half meters, you can begin to round off the dome part. First, this is done by placing a row of narrow firewood logs in the spaces between the rows on the back side.
And then in the middle part you can begin to form the final upper cone in the form of longitudinal rows of firewood, raised towards the center.
The most optimal parameters for a woodpile are a 2-meter stack height based on a 3-meter diameter.
This completed woodpile will effectively store firewood throughout the winter. To keep the firewood drier, you can throw a large piece of plastic film or pieces of roofing felt on top of an improvised stack.
Although, of course, for some it will do!
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If for some reason it is not possible to create a decent place to store firewood, then creating a woodpile with your own hands would be a very good option.
In addition to the fact that a woodpile is necessary for drying firewood, it can also be used in landscape design. How to do this? Everything is very simple, you need to fold the structure beautifully and in the right place in the garden.
Firstly, you won’t need to walk through the entire garden (through mud) in bad weather, and secondly, in winter, a wall of firewood will save your time when clearing snow from the garden path (the woodpile will act as a barrier).
In addition, this structure can be used as a base for a table in a barbecue area.
As you can see, a woodpile can be used for very different purposes, so creating such a garden element makes perfect sense.
How to fold a regular woodpile?
Materials and tools
In order to put together the simplest woodpile for firewood with your own hands, you will need the following tools:
- Carpenter's clamp (for convenience)
- Hammer
- Circular saw
- Screwdriver
- Wood screws (length depending on the thickness of the boards)
- Roulette
Materials for creating the frame:
- Two 3-meter boards, at least 3 cm thick and 10-15 cm wide (base)
- Four 1.5-meter boards of the same thickness and width (side parts of the woodpile)
- One board is 1 meter long, 3 cm thick, and the same width as all other boards.
Once all the materials and tools have been collected, we move on to the main process.
Site preparation
First, we select a place for the woodpile. It is recommended to install it on a concrete base (if there is one) or, as a last resort, lay out a flat area of red brick.
Such a platform will protect the boards from rotting, which can quickly occur when the lumber comes into direct contact with the ground.
Once the base is prepared, you need to fold the woodpile frame.
Creating a wireframe
To begin with, we cut a meter-long board into 4 even parts (25 cm each). The resulting short boards are necessary to create the cross members of the frame. If the length of the logs in the woodpile is less than 25 cm, the boards must be shortened so that they are shorter than the material being laid.
Now you need to assemble the frame. So that you can clearly see the whole technology, we recommend watching this video lesson, which shows all the intricacies of carpentry using a screwdriver and clamp:
Video: how to make a woodpile with your own hands
After creating the frame, it is necessary to lay the woodpile.
Laying technology
Laying a woodpile with your own hands is no less important than creating a frame. The stability of the structure and, accordingly, its durability will depend on how correctly you stack the logs.
It is recommended to lay the logs close to each other, with the longest and straightest lumber placed at the bottom. The maximum height of our woodpile is 1 meter 30 cm. A slide no more than 20 cm in height can be placed on top. When laying, ensure the stability of the structure. If the logs begin to deform the frame, it is better not to risk it and remove excess materials.
We draw your attention to the fact that loose stacking of the woodpile after the firewood dries out will make itself felt, because... materials decrease in volume and form voids, due to which the entire building can collapse.
That's the whole technology for creating and laying a simple woodpile for firewood. As you can see, there is nothing complicated, the main thing is to do such work efficiently, conscientiously.
It should be noted that the disadvantage of this design is that it is not protected from rain and snow. For protection, you can put two slate sheets on top, making a slight slope of firewood in advance to ensure water drainage. Please note that the width of one sheet is 113 cm, so it must either be cut in half (lengthwise) or the firewood must be laid out in two or three rows.
How to fold a round woodpile?
It will take more time to create a round woodpile, but this design looks much more beautiful. Now we will look at the simplest technology for laying such a structure.
Materials and tools
To assemble a round woodpile with our own hands, we will need the following materials and tools:
- Polyethylene film
- Roulette
- Nail
- Rope
- Marker
Apart from the logs themselves, no other materials are required, i.e. the frame will be missing.
Preparing the base
First you need to prepare the base. In our example, the installation will take place on the ground, so it needs to be prepared: remove excess debris and level it.
Next, a plastic film is laid on the prepared ground, which will protect the logs from direct contact with the soil. Since the object will be round, the excess film must be cut off. To do this, drive a nail into the center of the piece and fasten one end of the rope. We fix a marker to the second end of the rope and, using tension, create the outline of a circle. We cut off all excess, after which the base for the woodpile is considered ready.
Laying technology
In order to fold a round woodpile with your own hands, you must first lay out the logs evenly in a circle, without going beyond the film. We draw your attention to the fact that the very first row must be laid out with the utmost care and attention. If the row is uneven, this will certainly affect the stability and aesthetic appearance of the entire structure.
After laying out the first row, it is necessary to repeat this activity until the height of the building is half a meter. After this, you need to move on to filling the space inside. There is nothing complicated here - you lay out the material along the inner diameter, making sure that the logs lie evenly.
Next, you again need to move on to laying out the outer ring of the round woodpile and carry out this activity until the desired height of the structure is reached. If the woodpile is too high (about 1.5 meters), it is necessary to alternate the laying out of the outer and inner rings so as not to create difficulties during installation.
Finally, move on to creating the roof of the round woodpile. To do this, we recommend that you make the inner ring slightly higher than the outer one and, using planks, lay out the roof like a tile (as shown in the picture).
If you doubt the stability of the structure, we recommend that you dig wooden posts on the sides that will serve as a kind of supports!
How to make a simple woodpile?
A simple version of a woodpile is the creation of a structure, as in the first version, but without a frame. The base will be boards, and on the sides you can make stops using the same logs, carrying out the laying, as shown in the picture.
To dry firewood for the winter, you need to have a specific place for this in the form of a barn or, in extreme cases, a shed. However, not everyone has the opportunity to arrange such a storage facility on their territory. An alternative solution is to create your own woodpiles.
In addition to its function of drying firewood, it can become a decorative element in the garden: the woodpile needs to be beautifully decorated.
We recommend storing firewood behind the house near the garden path. This will be most convenient when the weather is inclement and you won’t have to walk through the mud across the entire garden. In addition, the woodpile can also serve as a base for a barbecue table.
To arrange the laying of an ordinary woodpile on your own, you need to have the following tools in your arsenal:
- hammer and screwdriver;
- carpenter's clamp;
- circular saw;
- tape measure and screws for woodworking.
In addition, you will need materials for the frame:
- 2 boards of 3 meters each, at least 3 cm in thickness and up to 15 cm in width for the base;
- 4 boards of 1.5 m each for the side parts;
- 1 m board, 3 cm thick and up to 15 cm wide.
Preparing the site
First, we decide on the location of the woodpile. We recommend placing it on a concrete base or on a brick-lined surface. This way the boards will not rot. After preparing the base, the frame is created.
Folding the frame
A 1 meter board must be cut into 4 elements of 25 cm each. They will be needed for the transverse sides of the frame. When the logs are less than 25 cm in length, the boards will need to be cut to ensure that the material being laid is longer. Next we assemble the frame. You can watch the details of the installation technology in the video tutorial.
After assembling the frame, we begin laying the woodpile.
Photos of woodpiles with your own hands
Laying methods
The strength of the woodpile and its service life depend on the stacking of firewood in the frame.
Recommendation! Stack the firewood tightly so that the longest, straightest logs are at the bottom. The maximum height of the structure should be up to 1 meter 50 cm with a slide. During installation, the stability of the woodpile must be taken into account. To prevent the frame from deforming, it is better to remove excess material.
It is worth noting that due to loose stacking, the woodpile may collapse as the firewood dries out and gaps appear between them.
Simple DIY firewood woodpile, video
However, this design also has some disadvantages: there is no protection from snow and rain. An alternative could be slate sheets that are laid on top of the structure. Place the firewood on a slight slope in advance so that water can flow down the slate. The slate sheet is 113 cm wide; it is either cut in two or the logs are laid in two or three rows.
Setting up a round woodpile
This type of woodpile requires more effort, but the round arrangement looks the most attractive.
How to stack a round woodpile of firewood
To carry out the process yourself, you will need:
- polyethylene film;
- rope and tape measure;
- marker and nail.
Preparing the basis
First you need to clear the surface of the earth from debris and prepare an even layer. Then a polyethylene film is placed on top of the ground to protect the firewood from rotting. To make the woodpile look aesthetically pleasing in the form of a circle, the edges of the film are cut off. This is done using a nail, which must be driven into the center of the film, and a rope. We take the end of the rope with a marker and, pulling it, draw a circle. This gives the base a round shape.
The logs require even laying in a circle so that they do not extend beyond the boundaries of the film. Pay special attention to the first layer, lay it out as carefully as possible. A crooked layer will certainly make itself felt: the structure will turn out unstable and unsightly.
Oval woodpile, video
After laying the bottom layer, we repeat the process up to 50 cm in height of the structure. Now we fill in the gaps so that the logs fit evenly inside. We proceed again to laying the outer rings to the required height of the woodpile (usually 1.5 meters). The end of the installation is the design of the roof. The inner logs should be slightly higher than the outer ones. We lay the planks on top in the form of tiles.
You can’t live without firewood in your dacha or country house. Even if gas is installed in the house, you need to heat the stove in the bathhouse, the fireplace in the house, logs are needed for the grill and barbecue. The estimated amount of dry pine firewood for heating a house with an area of 100 m² in the autumn-winter period is about 2.1 m³; less birch firewood is required - 1.7 m³. We will take this amount as a base amount, since a lot depends on the insulation of the house, the glazed area, etc. Logs with a humidity of 15-20%, no more, are considered dry. To obtain this moisture content, they must be stored in a woodshed or properly stacked woodpile for at least one year. You will need a lot more raw firewood (freshly cut), because their calorific value is two times lower. Logs harvested in late autumn or winter quickly acquire the required moisture content. During these two seasons, the circulation of sap in the trees stops, and due to this, the logs dry out faster. Centuries-old experience suggests that a supply of firewood should be stored in the house for at least two heating seasons, based on your needs. And to the heating reserve you need to add the reserve for the barbecue, barbecue and stove in the bathhouse. So without firewood it’s like without water, neither here nor there (from the film “Volga-Volga”). Therefore, let's talk about how to properly fold and store logs and how to build a beautiful woodpile with your own hands.
Basic rules for storing firewood in a woodpile
Regardless of whether you store logs in a woodshed or just in a woodpile, there are certain rules. These rules stem from the vast experience of people, and simply from common sense:
Which firewood to choose
Important! Here are the factors that determine the heating value of firewood: wood density and moisture content. The greater the density of the wood, the more heat it will produce in the furnace firebox.
Oak has the highest density; it has the ability to smolder for a long time and thereby reduces the number of stacks in the stove, but oak firewood is quite expensive. Tree species with hardwood include birch, which is accessible to everyone, as well as beech and hornbeam. These are all hardwoods.
Species with medium hardness include fruit trees and conifers. Their calorific value is lower than that of birch. Pear and apple wood burn well. And the smoke from them has a pleasant aroma. Cherry logs burn worse. An affordable and good option is firewood from coniferous trees: pine, spruce, larch. There is a known problem with them - they “shoot” coals, so they must be used very carefully in open ovens. But there is also a “bonus”, which is that when burning such firewood releases essential oils. It is also good for health, and the premises are sanitized free of charge.
Softwood tree species include alder and aspen. They cost less than other firewood and burn completely in the stove. This quality is often used and placed at the very end to clear the chimney of soot. And in order for the calorific value of laying firewood to be higher, aspen logs are laid together with birch logs.
How to fold a round woodpile with your own hands
The simplest and most uncomplicated type of woodpile is a stack. We laid one row in one direction, maintaining gaps between the logs, and laid the next one in a perpendicular direction.
You can stack all the logs in one direction, also maintaining a distance between them for ventilation, but this design is unstable. In any case, the opposite ends of the stack must be reinforced with stakes to the full height of the woodpile.
To store a significant amount of harvested logs, there is another type of woodpile - round or stacked (it really resembles a haystack). Its main advantage is its compactness for large volumes of firewood.
We choose a well-ventilated, dry place and arrange a base of gravel or tree bark. The base will simultaneously serve as drainage.
Important! If you do not have experience laying a round woodpile, do not immediately try to set a record worthy of the Guinness Book of Records. Trying to immediately put together a very large round woodpile will result in an unpleasant need to redo everything.
Consider your first experience as the “first pancake” and try not to let it turn out lumpy. Whatever the result, one thing can be guaranteed for sure - it is a very exciting activity!
On the base we arrange a cross of two stakes of equal length. The crosspiece will help us maintain the correct radius of the round woodpile. We lay out the first row of logs in a circle, end to end.
We leave the center of our “stack” empty for now. After completion of the work, the empty center will serve as a kind of pipe, with the help of which good ventilation will be obtained. You can partially fill the center if you decide to stack a large woodpile. Then another row is laid out closer to the center, but the pipe is still preserved. However, we agreed to postpone the records for the future.
We lay the second layer in a perpendicular direction. We now have a slope towards the center of our “stack”. In this circle, the logs touch their side surfaces. And so we continue to lay the logs, while trying to maintain a slope towards the center. You can periodically add logs in the same direction as the first circle. In addition to maintaining the slope we need, such supports will give additional stability to the entire structure. And we need a slope to organize rainwater drainage.
By laying stakes crosswise at the same height, we will strengthen the woodpile. If the height of the structure is more than a meter and if there is an obvious excess of logs that cannot be stacked in this woodpile, you can start throwing them in any form into the empty center. In this case, ventilation will deteriorate quite slightly, because randomly thrown firewood will not impede air circulation. Firewood in the central structure will make the woodpile more stable.
We leave the flattest logs on the upper “floors” and lay them so that they form a dome-shaped roof. We will cover the roof with tree bark. This is enough to protect the firewood - tree bark is waterproof.
The advantages of laying logs in this way are obvious: they dry faster, the entire structure is stable, and much more logs can be stacked per unit area in this way. And what is important, the round woodpile has a very nice appearance. We don't care, do we?
We learned how to stack firewood in a round woodpile. And now a few photos that will once again prove that there is no limit to perfection.
Many gardeners are left with stumps after cutting down old trees. And the owners of the plots are faced with the choice of either uprooting and eliminating them, or somehow integrating the stumps into the design and continuing their useful existence.
There are quite a few recipes for the latter. The easiest way is to use a stump as a stand or pendant for flower pots. But let's look at a more interesting option, converting the stump itself into a large pot - a flowerbed, i.e. we will try to turn the stump into a log, fill it with soil, in which we will then plant flowers. As a result, we should get something like this beauty.
1. Find out the condition of the stump.
It makes sense to make a flowerbed only from wood that is not infested with pests. In some places it will even rot, and even have a hollow, this is not scary, and will even make the work easier. If the stump is favored by bark beetles and other beetles, it is better to eliminate it so as not to create a breeding ground for future problems in the garden.
2. Determine the size of the future flower bed and its configuration.
The simplest thing is to measure 5 cm from the edge on the cut and draw a line through these points - this will be the border of our pot.
3. Choose a method for removing the center of the stump.
But before this, the first thing we remember about safety precautions is to put on gloves and safety glasses - no matter how you work, there will be splinters!
So, you can select the center of the stump in different ways:
- If gasoline or electric saw is available you can saw through the center and then use a chisel to cut out the squares
- You can light a small fire in the center of the stump and thus burn out its center.
- There is an option with “chemistry”- to do this, drill holes in the center of the stump and add Epsom salt (we buy it in pharmacies) or saltpeter there and wait for several weeks.
After such an “attack” the wood will quickly collapse and all that remains is to clean up the edges of the “funnel”.
- But we will go the old-fashioned mechanical way.
- We take a pointed hoe and, moving in a circle, chop a hole in the center of the stump with its sharp end.
When the hole in the stump is larger, unfold the hoe and chop with the wide side.
Thus, we move towards the outlined line of the “pot” border. You need to deepen the hole in the stump by 10-20 cm, depending on its diameter and the plants that you are going to plant there.
When you are finished with the deepening, consider that the flowerbed is almost ready. Let's move on to the final steps.
4. We make drainage.
To prevent water from stagnating in the stump, care must be taken to drain it.
Using a drill with a diameter of at least 1.5 cm, we make several inclined holes from the center of the flowerbed to the ground surrounding the stump.
Next, you can pour drainage from pebbles at the bottom of the flowerbed, then the water will drain away more easily.
5. Fill the stump with soil and plant the plants.
On top of the drainage we pour nutritious soil more suitable for the flowers you have chosen and plant them. A mixture of 1 part compost and two parts soil has worked well.
That's it, all we have to do is water it and photograph the result of the work.
In conclusion, here are some tips and tricks for making a flower bed from a stump:
- To make it easier for you to remove the wood in the center of the stump, use a drill and a large drill bit. Frequent holes around the perimeter of the hole and in the center will significantly reduce the work time and effort required for chiseling.
- If you burn the center of the stump, you can use kerosene (not gasoline!!!) to saturate the wood, after which it will burn better.
- You can plant almost any plant in a stump, but of course, flowering plants like marigolds, geraniums, and begonias look more beautiful. Pansies, primroses and forget-me-nots look great in such natural pots. Daffodils, tulips and purslane grow well in stumps. Hanging nasturtium and petunia look especially impressive in the stump. You can make any height, both low and high plantings.
- You can extend the service life and make it easier to care for the flower bed stump using plastic pots. The manufacturing technology will not change, except that the recess in the stump needs to be adjusted to the size of the pot or tray.
- And finally, a very simple option with a portable stump - a decoy. To do this, we cut down the stump just above the ground and take the cut to process it in the workshop, where, using a saw and all available tools, we make a large hole suitable for a pot, which we insert there. After which we return the stump to its original place - to cut it down. In this way, woodworking and subsequent operation and maintenance of the flowerbed can be greatly facilitated.
