The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Buildings & planning => Topic started by: wren on July 05, 2013, 11:01:27 am
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Hi I have just built a log store. What's a good woven textile product which is air permeable but shower proof to keep the water off he front? Ideas appreciated....
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Just took a photo as we have a lot of logs, this is one log store we made from Pallets and put plastic corrugated sheeting on the top, sort of like a shed!! You could use normal plastic tarpaulin !
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Hi I have just built a log store. What's a good woven textile product which is air permeable but shower proof to keep the water off he front? Ideas appreciated....
In general, log stores are built facing away from the prevailing wind but open at the front so that air can circulate. Only the ends of the logs get wet and soon dry, but when it snows it can be more of a problem as snow will drift inside then melt.
I can't think of a woven textile (if you mean handwoven) which would provide much protection. We end up using tarps in front of our hay as we haven't built the doors for the hay shed yet, and that always flaps itself free of any ties with the first gale, so is never totally satisfactory.
When building a log store it also makes sense to leave narrow gaps between the planks all the way round to allow air to blow through. We have used tree trimmings ie from the outside of trunks cut up at the sawmill into planks, which have a waveney edge so they leave narrow gaps.
As a matter of interest, why do you want to use a woven textile for this purpose?
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As above - I would not worry about a bit of rain on the log ends as long as you allow prevailing winds to blow thru. Our log store only has 2 sides to it and even these sides do not drop to the ground - thus the wind can blow thru but not too much snow or rain.
(http://d11fdyfhxcs9cr.cloudfront.net/templates/203103/myimages/wood_pile_web.jpg)
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Wow that's some log store, makes our tiny pile look, well, tiny :-[ ....ours also have air going under and at the back as the pallets are not flat to the wall and off the ground, the logs appear to dry out well.... :thumbsup:
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MAK - post that picture once more and I'll report it... it's obscene :D
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I used some plastic kind of mesh close weave netting i bought from a garden centre quite cheaply. It's pretty much the stuff they use for onions sacks. I weighted it at the bottom so it "hangs" and attached across the top. Any wetness just rolls off - it's pretty effective.
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Thank you very much for the replies. The structure is much as you suggest Fleecewife with gaps in the boards on the sides, a sloping galvanised roof and pallets under the base to allow for air circulation. I had seen a woven 'plastic' textile, like a geofabric, on a number of commercial products and fancied something similar to finish it off. I think Greenerlife has pointed me in the right direction - thank you. Mak - that is one serious store! Thanks again.
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wren, the pictures of log stores/piles are like man porn to my husband....when we drive anywhere and he spies a pile of logs, his head turns.......When I check the history on here is often logs or things to chop them up!!! :roflanim:
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Sorry folks - my photo was meant to be informative but in the back of my mind was a wind up for Spandit.
Last Friday we powered up the ancient tractor and collected this years wood that I cut very early in the year. Soddin snakes in the wood piles though. We now have wood stackers buttocks but a very large pile for the winter !! ;D
I cut new ( green wood) too but will leave it stacked on the edge of woods for a couple of years before a year under cover.
Spandit - my brother in law is so happy to visit us and cut wood that he neglects his house in northern France and drves another 350 km down to us so he can cut wood with me - he even bought a chain saw for himself.
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We have more firewood than we ever have had, we have 2 open fires in the house so hopefully enough to get us through a bad winter
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I've got very little wood stored up as we're moving and I'd have to transport it. Hopefully have enough for a couple of months but it's going to be an expensive Winter methinks...
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Our house is up for sale too spandit..but we are not taking any chances...my husband will be gutted if we cannot take it with us :innocent:
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Yes it is expensive to buy but given the work involved I am not surprised at the cost.
So far I have lifted each and every log 6 times and the final carry will be to burn it. We spent a 1000 € on wood the first year we moved here and despite my best efforts we have been unable to build up a year on year surplus. That said I have new wood laying around all over the place and more to cut. Problem I have is not having my own tractor and being reliant on my neighbours son to collect a big trailer from his father-in law and take a day off work or a free weekend to help me.
My worry is that if I get ill or too old then I can not meet the challenge of getting us enough wood - mission is thus to build up a massive stock like everone else of my age in these ere parts.
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One year I swear my husband had counted each and every log...It is hard work, in fact I am unable to do too much cutting etc and we only have a crappy van...I really want to trade it in for a small 4x4 and a trailer, its the first year we have had a licence to collect wood so we are making the most of it!!
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Landlord here needs 24 cubic metres a year to heat his big uninsulated house. He uses a huge dumper truck to move the wood (3 cubic metre bucket) but one half the size would be perfectly adequate.
We need 8 cubic metres and drag it down to the roadside in 4 metre lengths and take it up in the back of the van. It is cut with an electric chainsaw outside the house as that is far cheaper to run -and quiet. I've started trimming all the rot and bark off with a billhook to reduce the storage area and speed the drying.
Our problem is drying it in the house. The place is so damp the wood gets wet unless stacked around the fire. Outside we have slung a tarp between trees. But even though it is tinder dry at the end of Summer it collects moisture from the air during Winter and gets damp again. That lowers the burning temperature and soots the chimney. We are seasoning some wood in the greenhouse as an experiment at the moment. It gets over 50 degrees in there which is supposed to be enough to split the cellular water entrapment (25% water content in green wood). So far it is working fine but time consuming. Thought about wrapping it in industrial cling film.
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We buy an artic load of softwood at a time, main heating in the house! it all goes through a palax processor and the hardwood i get via blowdowns and surgery work.
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We have just read Chris Mahon's comments re. the dumper truck. Our friends who we know very well, need the dumper to collect the many fallen trees that they have on their property of about 60 acres. As you can imagine the fallen trees are spread about in different areas. It is not a 3 cubic metre dumper, but a 3 ton with a 1 1/2 cubic meter bucket, so it is exactly the size he suggests they should have.