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Most of our country is heated by wood-burning stoves. If not at home, then in the country or in the bath, firewood is definitely needed. But firewood is bought raw and needs to be dried somewhere. To do this, they are stacked in woodpiles or built special sheds – woodsheds or woodsheds (they say differently in different regions). The design is simple and making a woodcutter with your own hands is a simple task.
What are the
If you do not pay attention to the size, there are two types of firewood sheds – attached to the wall of a building or standing separately. It is clear that it is easier and faster to attach, but this is not always possible. Or rather, not with all buildings: it is dangerous to attach to wooden walls. And not only in terms of fire safety. A whole army of wood-boring bugs “arrives” with firewood, which will gladly take over your house. Therefore, it is better not to attach woodsheds to wooden buildings, even with wood treated with biosecurity, and if you really want to, then nail an iron sheet to the wall. As in the photo. It should be larger than the size of the firewood. Then all the bugs (most of them – for sure) will remain in the firewood.
Free-standing firewood sheds can be completely open – a few poles, a couple of lintels and a roof. The main thing is that the roof is large enough: it is desirable to make more overhangs. And the rest will be done by the air and the sun. They say that they dry no worse than in more enclosed structures. In regions with heavy snowfalls, so that snow does not clog inside for the winter, sheets of plywood are attached (attached) below. They are removed in the spring.
What are the walls made of
More often, firewood builders build with lattice or slotted walls. It is better if the boards are stuffed at some angle – like blinds. Then precipitation, even with an oblique wind, does not get inside much. But even if the boards are stuffed with some gap, everything dries well.
Boards / planks are stuffed onto the frame mainly horizontally, sometimes vertically, and they also make gratings from thin planks or put them obliquely. In any case, there should be a lot of slots for ventilation.
Does the drying speed depend on the way the planks are installed? No comparisons have been made, so it’s hard to say for sure. But one owner claims that if you fill the boards obliquely (he has 10 cm with a gap of 2 cm), with each wall in a different direction, it dries out faster: in a month.
About the size of the slots: they are made from 2 cm to 10 cm. But it also depends on the width of the board. If you leave the cracks very wide, it will sweep up a lot of snow. If there is not much snow or its amount does not bother you, you can fill the boards less often. It’s also more economical.
Not all woodsheds have doors (with doors they are also called a “woodshed”), as in the version in the photo. Often there is not even a front wall: this way it is more actively ventilated. The front wall and doors are needed if they steal in your area, but in general you can do without them.
Log location
Now a little about the structure of the woodcutter. If it is small, and everything fits in one row, then there are no particular problems – everything is available. But if large volumes are loaded, it is better to divide the area into sectors into which batches of firewood will be loaded. Thus, previously imported and already dried up will not be covered with fresh ones.
If the woodcutter is square, arrange the sections so that you can go inside, taking out the driest logs. To do this, leave a passage in the middle. In depth, it should not be up to the wall, but it is desirable that only one, maximum – two rows of logs separate you from the wall (but in general it depends on the volumes) – so all of them will be available. It is easier with rectangular ones: they are simply not divided by sectors with a partition. For example, as in the photo.
And a little about height. A large woodcutter for a summer cottage (seasonal) is not needed. All that is needed is that one or two cubes for heating in the fall / spring, and even then only for the weekend. But if you have to heat the house, and even the bathhouse, you will have to build something solid. Then, regardless of the layout – long or square, the height is about 2 meters. With an average height, you can load almost to the ceiling. but at the top there should be a ventilation slot.
Read about how to make beautiful and inexpensive paths in the garden or on the site. You can read about the device of a homemade pond in this article, and about how to turn it into a fountain, here.
We build a woodshed with our own hands
In this section, we will describe how a woodshed was built near the house. It took three days to build and paint with no pressure. It was built like a frame barn.
Materials
The internal dimensions are 1,8 * 3,7 m, the height of the front racks is 2,45 m, the rear – 2,2 m. The total volume turned out to be 13 cubic meters, but a maximum of two cars are loaded – no more than 10 cubic meters. Moreover, tracks are left inside – so that it is convenient to take, they do not load to the top – not everyone in the family is tall. If the load is full, it is advisable to put additional jibs: so that the weight of the firewood does not squeeze out the sheathing boards.
The frame is made of timber – racks, lower and upper strapping are made of timber 100 * 100 mm. The bar is pre-impregnated with used engine oil. Everything was assembled end-to-end, with nails, reinforced with corners on screws. For supports, standard small foundation blocks 200 * 200 * 600 mm were purchased in the amount of 6 pieces.
Building step by step
The beginning of the construction of a woodcutter is standard – leveling the site and setting it to the level of the blocks. If the soils are viscous (loam clay, black earth), it is better to make a sand and gravel cushion. Dig small pits 20-25 cm deep, pour and compact rubble, install blocks on top.
A roofing material is laid on the blocks in two layers, a beam is laid on top. The binding does not fit with the support. If you wish, you can drill holes and hammer in studs.
First, they laid out the bars of the lower trim, fastened them with nails (80 * 3 mm). Then the screws were screwed into the corners. The next step is to install the racks. They are placed in the corners and above the intermediate support. The rear pillars are shorter than the front ones – so that there is a slope of the roof. They, too, were first placed vertically (they were checked with a plumb line), hammered obliquely with nails – two on each side. After they reinforced the corners with screws – two per rack. If there are concerns, you can also screw / nail the plates to each rack from the outside.
The entrance to the woodshed is made in the center. Because of this, the posts are offset and not installed above the support block. As a result, there is a slight deflection. To eliminate it, place four blocks in the first row, taking into account that the middle will be occupied by the entrance. Especially if there are doors: they decently load the racks, so they need support.
After the racks are exposed, it’s time to assemble the roof. First, I nailed the side boards at the top. They are mounted on the same level with the upper trim of the rear, shorter part (seen in the photo below). They and the rafters are made of boards 50 * 100 mm, the crate is made of boards 30 * 100 mm.
A professional sheet was used as a roofing material, the boards were laid flat under it. The roof overhangs are about 35 cm, the side protrusions are about the same. The size of the roof was selected so that there were no scraps: exactly four sheets lay down.
A roofing material is laid under the profiled sheet – so that the condensate does not drip onto the firewood: the costs are small, but there are benefits. The roofing material began to be laid from below, laying along the overhang. The next one with a 10 cm approach. It turned out that the drop that fell at the top simply flows down without getting inside.
The next step is laying the floor. It was made from a board 100 * 40 mm. They laid it with gaps of 2-3 cm. Next, the wall sheathing is nailed. It was decided to make a gap equal to the width of the board (100 mm). Boards were nailed, two on each edge. The design turned out to be well ventilated, however, with a side wind it clogs with snow.
The last step is painting. Here you take any composition for wood with bio-protective properties: so that the bugs eat less. In this version, it is painted with BioTex, rosewood color.
That’s it, the woodcutter is built. You can repeat this: nothing complicated. Carpentry work in terms of complexity is at the level of high school students. The most complex nodes are the roof, but it is made very simply.
See the video for another build option.
You can read about how and with what to decorate the site in this article.
Homemade firewood: photo
There are many other similar buildings. The differences are small, the principle is the same: the frame is upholstered with a board with different gaps. There are several copies that were built by the owners of cottages or private houses themselves.
A woodcutter attached to the barn in the country
For its construction, only two pipes were needed, which were dug into the ground and concreted. Two beams were then attached to them. Similar bars were fixed on the wall of the barn. Boards were stuffed between them, the roof was fixed (cuttings of profiled sheet). To prevent firewood from lying on the ground, they put bricks and on them – a sheet of old plywood. To make such a canopy, you can use the remains after construction or buy pallets and disassemble them. Just the right size.
The second canopy was made of the same type. It is additionally divided into sectors, in which firewood of different sizes lies. The foundation for this structure was also not made, the fertile layer was removed, covered with sand, and compacted. They laid paving slabs. On it are bars that serve as a support for the crossbars on which the firewood of the lower compartment lies. It turned out neat.
Standing separately
The slope of the roof is unusually organized here: the front pillars are made higher, there is nothing unusual in this. But grooves are cut in them that hold the rafters of a pitched roof. That is, the roof does not rest on the upper trim, as usual, but on the side racks. With a small snow load, such a design is quite viable; with heavy snow, the roof is unlikely to stand.
You may be interested in reading “How to make a gazebo out of wood.” It can be built in the same style as the woodshed, so that everything will look like a single ensemble.
You can read about what a wooden fence can be in this article.
How to fold a round woodpile
Repeatedly, probably, they saw firewood stacked in a cylindrical woodpile (or photo). They look good and, more importantly, the wood dries quickly in them.
Everything is very simple, but without knowing the secret it is impossible to do well. Below is a photo report that shows step by step how to fold a round log of chopped firewood.
First, dig in securely fasten the pole about 2 meters high. Spread chocks of small diameter around. The distance to the center is twice the length of the firewood (if the firewood is 40 cm, to the center is about 80 cm).
Next, lay out the chopped firewood. At one end they rest on the laid out chocks, at the other they lie on the ground. Lay so that on the inner edge everything lies almost back to back (with small gaps). There will be gaps on the outside. It’s not scary – the second row will fit in them.
Lay the second row on top of the first. Trying to fill in the gaps as much as possible. Around the pole, we begin to stack wood tightly while standing.
As soon as you notice that the outer edge of the firewood began to slope down, lay out a row in a circle that will lift them. Then you continue to stack the firewood in the same way: in a circle up to half the height of the firewood (20 cm), then fill in the middle. The second row in the middle is not just placed, but stuck into the slots. Try to insert pieces of wood tightly.
The same process can be repeated with more wood. Lay two or even three rows in a circle. The sizes of such firewood are huge. In the photo gallery is an example of how to fold a large log.
Since you have already taken up the arrangement of the site, you may need an article on how to make paths (from the same tree, for example) or benches.
Ideas in photo format
All of these models are easy to build, some are just modifications of those described above. We hope you find it easier now to build a woodcutter with your own hands.