After a bit of debate,
we decided to use pallets as the floor of our new
woodshed. The woodshed
(and half of our core homestead) is in an area with very high
groundwater, so you really can't just stack wood directly on the
ground. (Well, you can, but then the firewood is not only
unburnable, but is also impossible to pry loose from the frozen muck.)
In our previous
incarnation, Mark cut
sassafras saplings and lay them on the ground to stack on top of, but those quickly sunk into
the mud from the weight of the firewood. My pallets may too ---
we'll just have to wait and see.
The other innovation (in
addition to size) for wood shed 2.0 is adding some two by fours to
partially close in the walls. Our efficient
wood stoves have
very small fire boxes, and short firewood has a bad tendency to fall
back on top of me when I stack it over my head. Now I can layer
the wood so that it leans against the back of the shed, which will give
the stack better stability.
I'm still plugging away
at hauling in the firewood that's been sitting out in the parking area
for months, some of which was bought and some of which was cut from a
big tree that fell on the driveway. Since the parking area wood
is wetter, those logs are going in the back of the shed, then I'll
stack the leftover firewood that was in the old shed in front for early
winter burning. We've also got a few box-elders and red maples
that Bradley cut away from the back side of the barn and left to lie
until the sap dries up a bit --- those will be added to one side of the
shed once I rustle up a few more pallets.
As you can see, we've
still got a ways to go before our winter's wood will be under roof, but
it's great to make progress (and to think of cold weather on a
sweltering summer day).
We had a woodshed, my dad built it back in the 70s with all leftover pallets. It had a gently sloped shed roof with leftover shingles on it. 2x4 braces with pallets for floors, walls, ceiling. Still standing. It's his "backup" woodshed now. He built a fancy one with a hanging sliding door as an addition to the house itself 30 years later, walk through the attached porch to the woodshed and back inside. Can use either a wheelbarrow or the woodbox on wheels to go out and get a proper load.
From experience I'd say "excellent choice" "very stylish" ;D