Wood Sheds Designs That Ensure a Clean, Hot Burning Fire

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By Jonathon Lambert

If you have a fireplace and intend to use it, you must use wood that is properly prepared. If you light freshly cut wood or store your firewood in piles on the ground you will have problems as the wood will be damp and green and if you do manage to get it to light, you'll end up with a lot of smoke and not much fire and heat. When you get your firewood, split it and store it off the ground, arranging the wood so that air can dry the wood out. This will ensure a clean, hot burning fire.

The best way to store firewood is in wood sheds, designs for which can be found online and in magazines. They are a great do it yourself project, designs being such that beginners can build one in as little as a weekend, with materials costing significantly less than those needed to build a garden shed. What you need to realize before starting that most people sell wood by the cord, a cord being a stack 8' x 4' x 4'. As a result wood sheds designs will have been developed to hold one or more cords of wood.

Wood Sheds come in one of two basic style. The first has a pitched roof and looks like a garden shed except that it only has 3 sides and a roof. These firewood sheds have foundations, or racks on top of the ground on which the wood is stored. This design protects wood from pests, ground water and bad weather on all sides, the open front still allowing for airflow which dries the wood.

The second style works great in drier areas but where you have damp or wet wood. The wood shed has a mono pitched roof (basically half of a pitched roof that is higher at the front than at the back) but no sides at all. Wood can be stored on racks or on the floor if a gravel bed or moisture proof barrier has been laid first. The bottom layer of wood may become unusable over time, but it is a much cheaper option than digging a foundation. The mono pitched roof protects from the rain, the open sides allow for a lot of airflow that speeds up the wood drying process.

So what should you look for in wood sheds design plans? Firstly, whichever style you select, the finished building should be high enough that you can get in and out without having to bend over. It should also not be so large that you have to struggle to get to the wood in the back. Finally the pitch of the roof should be such that rain and snow run off and don't collect on the roof.

Once you have purchased your plans you need to decide the location of your wood store. You need to balance ease of access with sunlight and wind. In the winter you want to be able to quickly get your firewood without having to trudge across your yard in the rain or snow, but you also need the wood to be dry, so it will burn clean and hot.

The best time to build and stock your wood shed is in the spring. The weather is good for working outside, firewood is typically at its cheapest, and you have all summer and fall to dry and age your wood. After your first winter you may find that you have some firewood left over. When you are restocking your wood shed, remember to rotate out the old wood. This will ensure that you are using the driest wood for your fire.

Source : ezinearticles.com