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One more thought about the pallet base: I put one into my log store a few years ago but I was forever losing smaller logs down the gaps (even though the slats were at about the same pitch as yours). Solution: chicken wire over the pallets. This has a double benefit: it keeps the wood out of the gaps without hindering the airflow AND it makes the pallet a lot less slippery when it's wet. Also, speaking of wet: I hope you've got drain holes in that black plastic kindling bucket!
Avoid Conifer. Best wood advice is: Beechwood fires are bright and clear If the logs are kept a year, Chestnut’s only good they say, If for logs ’tis laid away. Make a fire of Elder tree, Death within your house will be; But ash new or ash old, Is fit for a queen with crown of gold. Birch and fir logs burn too fast Blaze up bright and do not last, it is by the Irish said Hawthorn bakes the sweetest bread. Elm wood burns like churchyard mould, E’en the very flames are cold But ash green or ash brown Is fit for a queen with golden crown Poplar gives a bitter smoke, Fills your eyes and makes you choke, Apple wood will scent your room Pear wood smells like flowers in bloom Oaken logs, if dry and old keep away the winter’s cold But ash wet or ash dry a king shall warm his slippers by.
This rhyme is another reminder of our collective stupidity in allowing lax biosecurity to bring us Ash Dieback through ash saplings, needlessly imported. 'Needlessly' because ash propagates and grows well here - there's no point whatever in taking the risk of importing a disease that is now wiping out one of the most important of our forest trees. And 'stupidity' because we made just the same mistake in the 1970s with Dutch Elm Disease and failed to learn from it. Before DED 50% - HALF! - of our wayside trees were elms. BTW the rhyme is wrong about elm wood - it burns hot & without smoking if REALLY dry (
Great- thank you! From a ‘niche’ viewer: We own a small wood and would love to know how to efficiently prep firewood for our soon to be built logstore 😊
Treat yourself to some sort of log splitter - you can get simple mechanical ones, or electric, or hydraulic (mine's hydraulic: basically an 8Ton bottle jack with a blade above it!) It will make your life SO much easier!
Did a couple of seasons splitting with mauls. I don't mind the exercise. Then happened to be able to borrow a splitter and gave it a go. Totally different, night and day experience and you can get so much done in the same time. Partly because you're not wasting time picking up split pieces as the slower hydraulic means you.can catch the split pieces and put them straight on the pile.
@@jamesantill5065 "you can catch the split pieces" yes, unless you hit a knot or some other discontinuity in the wood. Then sometimes if you keep pumping the pressure builds up and BANG - the two pieces fly off in opposite directions. My personal best was when one half of the log flew through the shed window (fortunately open) and the other half fired out the door and 20 yards up the garden! Fun times... 🙂
As usual is great to see someone who isn't afraid of a bit of work to get a good job done. What's impressive is you take the next step to record and explain yourself.
Thanks buddy. I appreciate that. It's a funny old game this YouTubing but I enjoy the learning process and the suggestions and feedback from you guys. 👊
Appreciate this video for a number of reasons Charlie - 1) comforting to know even very competent DIYers still make mistakes; 2) always good to see which tools and parts you use for the jobs (and why); 3) little bit of home inspiration :D
Please be sure to dry conifer timber thoroughly before burning it. If you don't, the resins released can cause fouling in the chimney and lead to increased risk of a chimney fire. Once dry, conifer wood becomes what I've seen referred to as a 'super fuel' precisely because of the resins. When burning it, it won't last as long as hard woods, but burns fairly hot and bright, plus when it's the result of felling unwanted trees, you make the best of something you'd otherwise have to spend time/money getting rid of.
My grandad was a tree feller and firewood merchant, he saw his fair share of chimney fires and repairs needed because of people going with cheap conifer wood. Made me promise to only burn it in our outdoor fire pits. I wouldn't risk it.
"Never use sap rich softwood, unless your looking to create chimney fires", advice from chimney filter my old landlord knows, said had been involved in plenty of cases of house fires.
I'd be interested in seeing how you deal with wood. I wound up with a few logs a ways back because of reasons. When I looked up how to deal with them, all the videos were made by macs from the US with beards you could lose a badger in. It'd be nice to see how you deal with them
Deffo go for the water butt idea off the guttering. Great job. Happy new year to you Charlie. Looking forward to what you’ll be up to this next year. 😊
Love the fact you’ve taken so much effort to make a full vid incorporating suggestions from RU-vid comments - really hats off. Must admit I don’t get the trellis thing at the back, seems massive overkill, could have just made a small lip on the shelf and trust your intelligence to stick to that. Other than that though all makes complete sense
Hi Charlie if you decide to install water butt, I'd recommend going for the largest you can fit in and one that you can get a bucket into to dunk for water. I use them on my allotment and waiting for the bucket to fill every time from the tap you can spend a lot of time waiting for them to refill. The plants will thank you for the natural rain water!
Here you usually need to cut the trees and split the logs yourself so a video about splitting the logs is always usefull cause storing is only one part of the long way from the forrest / garden into the oven and splitting takes quite a long time. great video about the Log Store 2.0 with all these improvements. and not to forget: Happy new year !
Excellent good ideas of the pallets under. Yes please let’s have a look at different splitting options. I have loads to split and my splitter is 40years old so I’m looking at what is about these days to make the job easier. Thanks for info
Hi Charlie should be a good wood store , I suppose you could angle the lower edge of the roof so you don’t hit your head . And it might make a nice feature as you would create a curve to the tiles , like you sometimes see on old cottage roofs. Best wishes and kind regards as always and a happy new year to 😀👍👍👍
Excellent! Go one step further and install motion lights. I wish I could as it’s hell finding logs in the dark and you could take a spur from the garage potentially.
Happy new year Charlie. Great mods and great community interaction. 👍 how about simple hooked bungee cords to provide infinitely adjustable partitions. Some screws or hooks at top and bottom of the store and then just clip the bungees and move them as needed. Stretched tight enough should be enough support for the logs.
Great improvements Charlie! I Didn’t really understand the ridge tile bit…but I would definitely fill in that triangle aperture on the right hand side though!! Good work
The ridge tile basically maintains the overlap. Without it you have a short distance below the lead and before the next tile where there's no tile below where the tiles butt up to each other.
Brilliant again Charlie, we have a very basic store which is just a shed with the doors removed, still able to take some tips from your video though. We’ve spent the day tidying the garden with wood we’ve collected over the year and still have loads to chop and split so we would (ha pardon the pun) love you to do a video on how you chop, split and store your wood! Ours store isn’t anywhere near the size of yours but it is now almost full with the wood needing seasoning at the bottom and the seasoned wood at the top! Back breaking but quite enjoyable.. more to do tomorrow 😊 keep up the great work 👍
Hi Charlie , always enjoy your videos , I like how your honest and admit your mistakes, we’re all human and unless your building stuff all the time, we all learn on the job , we’ll done again nice log store.
Thanks Neville, I appreciate that. The missing eave tiles was pretty stupid but I'm always going to talk about my mistakes - it's real life after all 👊
I'd love to see the log splitting, just finished chopping my tree in to logs. Talking of chopping, best not to clamp the wood by the sides when cutting long lengths down the middle as will pinch the blade (hence battery dying quickly). You can also use a wedge just behind the first few inches of cut to help keep the cut open :)
Thanks, yep I'll do the splitting vid. You're probably right about the clamp but the main reason the battery died was the wood was so wet. I didn't mention that for some reason👍
I'm in the States and have access to large pieces of Spanish oak from my tree every three or four years, which is difficult to split by hand. I believe I need a maul and a 20lb hammer to get close to spiting. Going to look into a mechanical splitter. I would watch your info on splitting different types and sizes. BTW ... I was sucked into your stream with your analysis of dealing with indoor humidity, good info!!
Great to have you on board, thanks for watching my stuff, and for letting me know how you find me - really useful feedback 👊 Yes, just bought a big heavy maul and I'll be doing the log splitting vid, probably this week.
Like you, I have had 2 very large conifers cut down. Unfortunately, despite promises to leave the logs in manageable pieces, the tree surgeon left them in very large bits. Therefore, I would welcome any videos on dealing with logs, especially large ones. I'm in the process of buying a log burner, but at the moment every company I speak to have such a back log of installations. I must be in the wrong business! Keep up the good work Charlie.
Love how things evolve Charlie. I am sorting a wood store that will be completely different from your but loads of ideas will be applicable. Please do consider adding a video on you log splitting. I don't have the same access to the trees you do but I will be sourcing them for friends and family like may other could also. Keep up the great work and happy new year.
Great video Charlie. You could make the wood cutting video into those shorts vids. Review on the Fisker axe would be nice. Thank you for your inspirational content.
Great log store, looks like it’s part of the house / garage. I get a 2m3 crate of kiln dried delivered to the driveway, and given that it’s so well stacked, I just clad it with a roof and sides to make a pop-up store. Takes about 1 hour. Doesn’t look anywhere near as smart as this though 👍🏼
I salvaged a boat load of logs from a neighbour that had cut down a mega tree in their garden. Bought a long handle axe for splitting but what a pain in the arse it is. Partly because I'm not that experienced weilding an axe and often miss the logs, but even when I do get it bang on it takes so much effort to split them. The larger ones I've just stored for when I'm really desparete because it's too much effort to cut + split them. TLRD: I'd be interested in seeing & hearing how you and everyone else approaches it.
It would be good to see a short video on log splitting. I originally used a normal felling axe, played around with a grenade wedge and eventually got a splitting maul.
Hi Charlie- a though on water buts, I had several on different down pipes and some always full but others not so much. I daisy chained garden hose between the drain tap of each but and ran a further length to the optimum place for a tap within the garden. The hose allows all the water buts to equalise and ensures you capture the maximum rain regardless of which down-pipe produces the most water. I buried the hoses but you can just lay them round perimeter. Now all my water buts are full after ever rain and all my water is available from a single tap (you can extend the design to have multiple taps if required and add further buts at any location to increase capture capacity).👍
Be interested to see this idea...lots of rain in western Ireland. Currently have just one butt but was thinking of something similar to what you've done. 👍
@@seandiviney7381 if you want to really store a lot but don’t want a big water tote under your down spout you could locate those big white totes elsewhere and just have a small water butt under the down spout(s). I forgot to mention two points 1) the tops of all the butts./ totes must be at the same level for obvious reasons 2). I have a diverter on the downspouts so that when the hole system is full water goes into mains drainage so there is no overflow situation to deal with. Good luck with your Instalation
A tutorial on log stacking would not go amiss. I had a log store but my wood sources were basically any old stuff I could lay my hands on as long as it was flammable...so it never looked like those beautiful Alpine wood stores with regular lengths and symmetrically split wood.
I love your channel and you inspired me to slate my wood shed roof. It looks good just need to put a gutter on and downspout. Keep up the good work 👋👋👋
The gutter is installed too high if you have snow from time to time. Snow from the roof will not slide over the gutter and might break it. It's not a problem if you have no snow.
How long will it be before someone steals all your wood, as happened to a friend of mine, Don't leave your storage open put doors on and lock them, more work but better than having no fuel for the winter.
It's never over the top or useless. We always learn from your videos and we can apply the tips/lessons on other projects as well. Also, we get an idea of which tools are appropriate.
Great video. I think it would be great to see your splitting methods in another video. I purchase logs, but sometimes they arrive too big for my burner, so I have to split their circumference. I use a maul but I had to sharpen it a bit for more effectiveness with a bastard file and I also occasionally use a grenade. Would be great to see the splitting machine and also how it handles knots. Cheers.
Your guttering should have been fitted perfectly level, there shouldn’t be any fall when fitting gutters, that’s not how they work. It’s a misconception to have a fall on your gutters.
@@CharlieDIYte it doesn’t matter Charlie 🤷♂️ fitting your gutters on a slope is incorrect ! Now imagine you had to fit a run of guttering 10m long ! Top of gutter should sit in line with the bottom of the roof tile along it’s whole length, this is incase of high winds which in turn could blow drips of water backwards on to your facia boards if guttering is fitted to low. To fit your gutters on a slope is INCORRECT !
Another great video Charlie and would like to see your wood cutting video as I have some wood left over to cut that has nots in them and it's been a pain using the axe.
Don't use too much conifer wood & only use really dry stuff with a mix of hardwood. Check its no more than 20% with a cheap moisture meter (Amazon etc £20). If you don't have a log burner get a decent one otherwise most of the heat will just disappear up the chimney (also cuts down on PM2 inside the hose a big issue). Get some Hotspot and use it twice a week. Last, plastic pallets are much better for the base (I got 2 for £10)
Thanks Charlie, a great follow up answering lots of questions. Yes please to a wood logging and splitting video. Would be good to see a comparison of axes, splitting axes, splitting wedges (I love the ‘Grenade’) and the powered log splitter. Lastly, what % moisture content are you looking for before burning? Thanks again, Andy.
Thanks Andy. I think I'm going to be doing another video as a lot of you have suggested that. On moisture content that's a good question. I've never been that scientific about it other than to only use wood that looks and feels dry.
Great video and some fantastic modifications. Stuart over at Proper DIY did a video recently about log splitting which was interesting. Keep up the great work Charlie.
Hi Charlie. Happy New Year to you. I am glad to see that you have added a gutter to the woodstore. That is something that I added to mine. My woodstore has a pallet base. In order to stop smaller logs falling between the pallet planks, I have stapled down chicken wire on the pallets. I used plastic coated 20mm chicken wire bought at Aldi, left over from another project but any similar sized chicken wire would work. It works really well. It doesn't stop air flowing through the wood pile but stops smaller logs falling through the gaps. Thanks for your videos. Really helpful info.
Another great video, Charle. You're a talented man. Even the pro's make mistakes. That's one of the things I love about your channel, showing where things go wrong.
Hi Charlie Great that you have taken heed of the comments and have already acted on them! A few tips which you are welcome to use and or incorporate into your next splitting video, which will help others from making mistakes. When buying or sourcing logs go for Broadleaf deciduous if possible, avoiding conifers if at all possible, because of condensation of volatile hydrocarbons in your chimney, causing a potential fire risk and setting your chimney alight. Split logs season far faster than unsplit logs, especially as the diameter of the round increases. Some fine grained species such as oak need up to two years seasoning before being ready to burn. Ash seasons quickly, most other woods will require at least one year. As regards axe v splitting maul v hydraulic splitter, I have all three, and initially choose the smallest axe that will split the log as it requires the least effort to swing. The Fiskars X27 has great power and will last you decades without needing a replacement handle. I also have an X11 and an X17. With all the Fiskars axes the weight is at the end of the hollow handle, so you get minimal vibration being transmitted back along the handle, which is not the case with some cheaper axes and mauls. Mauls are much heavier, and accuracy goes down with weight, plus you will use much more energy swing them. I reserve the hydraulic splitter for long or knotty gnarly pieces, or large diameter rounds. The appropriate sized axe is far quicker than using a hydraulic splitter, ad you have to wait for the ram to extend then retract, that being said this is provided the axe you use will actually split the logs easily. I have added a wheeled stand to my hydraulic log splitter so that I can work without stooping, useful as you get older! Another mod is to use a table at the same height as the log splitter to keep the split logs at the same level as the splitter, and this will save you lots of effort and make your splitting far more efficient. I hope this helps everyone.
Hello again. That's fantastic - thanks again! I love my Fiskars X27, I'm glad you agree. Out of curiosity I've bought a maul just to see how it compares. I totally agree about the log splitter taking forever to extend and retract. I feel another video in the offing. 😉
Nice job with the modifications. I'd be interested in what you've learned about log splitting. I took down one 60' tree last spring and lost a sending to hurricane damage in the fall, so there's lots of wood to spilt. Particularly, is it worth splitting softwood for firewood?
Thanks. Yes I'll do the vid. I would say yes to soft wood if you can leave it to weather for long enough. Obviously hard wood would be better but I have no choice on this given all the conifers I had to chop down.
Hi Charlie, great video and nice to see some of the community suggestions put to action. Would love to see your wood splitting techniques. I'm always on the hunt for newly felled trees and often come home from the school run with a boot full of rounds. I have recently gone down a rabbit hole on log splitting following a great RU-vidr called Ben Scott. He is worth a look on all things axe. Thanks Matt
I think with increasing wood prices more and more people will be buying bulk logs and will be splitting them themselves more than ever. Plus they’ll be more people then ever new to log fires etc over the next year or so with increasing energy prices. A how do video will be more popular than you think. 👍🏻
Excellent Charlie, well worth showing the mods, it's often useful to take a step back after a project and thinking more about it, especially if you can open it up for discussion and take advantage of the prior experience and expertise of others ! Always happy to see your thoughts on breaking up the logs and the tools used, again it may provoke useful debate and tips - safety is of course the key issue here, I would guess the ratio of axe owners to competent axe users is at least 5:1, and pretty similar for chainsaws !
Looks great. Only addition I’d do is what I’ve done and that is hang some mesh fabric netting around the 3 sides. I’ve got some nice green stuff around mine. It’s basically a soft fabric mesh that will prevent driving rain getting through to make the wood wet but will fully allow air through it. For the sides it could be stapled in place and at the front it could be hung from the top and have horizontal strips of wood at the bottom to weigh it down if need be if you think it’ll blow around in the wind
Would very much like to see more of your log splitter. I've got a large garden, plenty of trees to cut and a wood burner. I've heard they are slow to split logs, so any info would be good. Thanks for another great video.
I'm planning a new log shed (5 x 5 x 10m) so all of these lessons are useful. My house runs on solid fuel so I burn _a lot_ of wood. It might be useful to show people how you process your wood because although many will buy it in, some may come their way as with you from pruning and felling. I have an electric log splitter but don't use it now because a) it uses electricity! and b) I bought a Gransfors Splitting Maul. The Gransfors is _far_ faster, keeps me fit and warm and is enormously satisfying to use. I have a cheaper splitting axe that I bought in a DIY superstore but now never use it either; the Gransfors is like a lightsabre by comparison. Love your videos - looking forward to what you do in 2023. 👍 🏴 🇬🇧
Re: logs. The purist approach is, don't buy logs; fetch them off the land. Cut wood/ long logs to the length you need for your wood burner. Then split it straightaway. Then let it dry for 1-2 years. If you have a reason to cut a tree down, do it in late autumn or winter when the sap has fallen and the wood is therefore naturally drier. Per other comments, avoid fir and pine. The resin in these will clag up your chimney. When you are really happy with your store- build another!
Thanks Jeremy, I agree. I have a lot of pine unfortunately but it's been drying out for years. Some of it is over 5 years old now, so fingers crossed if I can keep the fire to a good temp I'll avoid the worse of the creosoting.
Preferably use hardwood for fires. Ideally only use conifer wood for kindling as it will enable the fire to start easier. Use a moister meter to check wood before using - < 20% will be ok, < 18% better. Risk of chimney fires increases with corrugated chimney liners, designed to trap the sap from fire wood. Use chimney flue temperature monitor - keep in optimum range to ensure high enough temperature to burn off wood sap. Your wood store is far to small to cope with your stack of wood. A wood splitter is essential for yearly chopping nominally of up to 4 cu metres of wood. The 'Handy' wood chopper has good reviews and warranty and far cheaper than the 'Forest' wood chopper.
Thanks. Yes I'm aware the wood isn't all going to fit in there. Like the sound of the moisture meter but I'm sceptical as to whether it's accurate enough. 👍
@@CharlieDIYte Stanley 077030 moisture meter reviews on Amazon indicate a good accuracy over a wide temperature, humidity range. Useful for other materials other than wood.
