We heat our cordwood home with wood, ironic yes, and have done so for twenty-one years. For many years I cut, blocked and split our firewood myself; mainly supplied from blowdowns and standing deadwood on our property. Seasons in life change, and I no longer have the necessary time to do the bulk of this work – except the stacking. We now buy our firewood from a local supplier.

Storage and drying of firewood can be tricky. You want enough space, obviously; but you also want plenty of airflow. For years I did the tarp and pallet thing, and then the “upgrade” to the instant tarp garage thing – which actually lasted ten years – so well worth the $300 I paid for it. Then, after a windstorm finished the tarp garage off, I decided to build a structure that suited my needs.

The wood storage building pictured above measures 8’x16’, 6’ high on the backside and 8’ high at the front. I settled on this dimension based on the usual footprint of stacked firewood in years past.

It is a very simple building, and anyone could put it up.

Foundation: the gravel pad was put in twelve years ago, and only settled 1/2 inch over 20 feet. Excellent. I used 6 deck blocks as the foundation, as I had little concern with settling at this point. With a level grade, it only took a few minutes to square the blocks.

Timber framing: I used three 4x4x8 pressure treated posts for the front wall, and three 4x4x6 pressure treated posts for the back wall. These were “tied” together by 1x6x8 and 1x6x16 pressure treated boards. On three sides, between each 8’ section is a 2x4x8, hammered in at an angle, to give the walls rigidity, that worked great and locked the entire structure together. The roof is 2x6x10’ lumber, with 4×8 plywood sheathing, roofing felt and shingles.

Time: it took about 7 hours to build. By using dimensional lumber in full lengths, cutting was kept to a minimum, which also saved time.

Cost: using all new materials, about $600. If someone had time to find recycled materials that price point would drop considerably.

What to do differently? I would have used 2x6x12 for the roof and given myself more overhang in the front. As it is, even with two extra rows of firewood in front, the wood is covered well enough.

The rows: the wood is stacked on repurposed 2×4’s, nothing fancy. But they keep the wood off the ground.

How has it worked? Great. From time to time snow blows in during a storm, but that hasn’t caused any problems. The wood is very dry, and stays clean.

I used this same idea for a four wheeler, utility shed which I will share later on, after I dress it up a bit. That has worked great for keeping ice/snow/rain off the vehicle, as I use it for plowing, and my utility trailer is accessible. Plenty of room for the snowblower as well.

Simple design, easy to build, strong and functional. Not winning any design awards, but does the job!