Why do we stack firewood in the first place? A few of the main reasons:
To keep it dry. When I’m talking about stacking firewood, I am always assuming we are getting it off the ground. If not, we’re dealing with ground moisture and insects seeping into our wood, which nobody wants. Dry wood means a cleaner, more efficient burn.
To easily measure in commonly accepted quantities. What do I mean by that? Especially if you’re buying large amounts of wood, you want to keep close track of “bang for your buck”. Stacking wood in the same rack or to the same dimensions each year will allow you to get the most accurate picture. That said, we suggest having a rack that measures either ¼, ½ , or 1 face cord (or rick). We get into the nomenclature in another section of our guide, but what this really means is you should have a rack or stack your wood in either a 2ft wide, 4ft wide or 8 ft wide by 4ft high stack. (Related Article: How is firewood measured? What is a rick? What is a cord?)
It looks neat! A well-stacked wood pile can be a piece of art. In the dead of winter, when you’re making multiple trips back and forth from the woodpile each day, it’s also a lot more functional in a neat stack than in a loose pile.
Hopefully we’ve convinced you on the importance of stacking your firewood, but how should you go about it? Here are a few different options:
An “out of the box” wood rack - If you are more conscious of aesthetics and need each piece of your household furniture to be coordinated, you may want to do a deep dive into the plethora of design options. Again, we recommend sticking to a standard sizing for the rack, but the design itself doesn’t have to be limiting. Also, whatever you choose, make sure the basic function is there: keeping your wood elevated and protected from moisture.
A DIY Firewood rack. If you do a quick Google search, plenty of options are out there. At ENFD, for our own household supply, we used cinderblocks and 2x4s to build a basic ½ rick rack and found this cover on Amazon that protects the wood and also does a nice job covering up the “DIY-ness” of our setup.
Go “rackless”. If the outsides of your wood stack aren’t held up in a rack, you can use the cross-stacking method. Again, even with this method, it’s encouraged to keep you stack to a standard size. In the video below, we show you how we use cross-stacking in our woodshed.
No matter what method you choose, just remember that you want your wood off the ground and protected from the elements. Another quick tip: Make sure all your wood is cut roughly to the same length. As you build a stack higher and higher, it is more likely to tip if you have uneven log sizes. Here at ENFD we recommend cutting your logs to 16-18” inches depending on your preference. If you are buying wood in bulk, it’s worth asking the seller what length they cut their wood to.
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