Build A Pole Woodshed – Mary Twitchell

Consider the terrain enclosed by this area. An excessive slope may necessitate some grading; a natural depression which will fill with rain or snow runoff may need to be leveled. Avoid these conditions, if possible. Once the approximate corners have been established, check whether the area is square by measuring the diagonals — the lines between opposite stakes.

Adjust the stakes until the diagonals are of the same length. Outside the stakes at each of the four corners, erect batter boards. Drive three 2 x 4 stakes into the ground, spaced four to five feet apart, and to these nail 1″ x 6″ x 5′ boards so they form a right angle. These boards should be about ten to eighteen inches above the ground. Square It Level strings should be stretched taut between the boards; where they intersect should mark the outside corners of the building.

Drop a plumb bob from the intersection of the two strings to the nail head to establish the precise corners. The strings will probably need adjustment. Another way to check for squareness is to use the 3-4-5 principle (Pythagorean theorem). Measure from one corner three feet along one edge and mark this point with a stake. From this same corner, measure along the other leg of the right angle four feet and mark it. The distance between these two points should be five feet.

Again, adjustments may be made to insure you have squared up the shed corners. Any multiple of these number can be used; if you are building a larger shed, 6-8-10 may be more accurate since it means you are checking the angle of a corner over a longer distance. Cut a notch a saw kerf in width at precisely the place where the string is located on each of the batter boards.

This allows you to remove the strings while the holes are being dug yet to replace them whenever you want to check the alignment of the holes. Check the strings for level. Rest a four-foot carpenter’s level on the string, or use a line level. The saw kerf may need to be adjusted so that all strings will read level. Batter boards and strings are used for locating the four corners of the shed. To check for squareness, measure from one corner three feet along one edge.

Measure four feet along the other leg of the right angle. The distance between these two points should be five feet, if the corner is a true right angle. Pole Spacing It is most convenient to space the poles so that dimension lumber can be used. The strings mark the outer perimeter of the shed. The center of the post holes should be marked before digging, and these points will depend on whether you will be using round poles or 4 x 4s.

More and more people are turning to wood as a primary or secondary heating fuel, and as this number increases, so too does the sophistication of our wood stoves/furnaces, and our knowledge of wood heat. By late autumn there are few homesteads, particularly in the northern rural areas, which aren’t obscured by their seemingly infinite cords of split wood — cords stacked outside or in sheds to season. Properly seasoned wood is as important a part of the woodburning process as a well-constructed stove or a safe installation.

Most woodburners now know that green wood can be as much as 65 percent water. This means that in burning a piece of green wood, as much as 1200 BTU’s per pound (or 1/8 the potential heat value of the log), is lost in evaporating the moisture. In addition, wet wood is much more difficult to ignite and to keep burning. Worst of all, it produces more creosote which creates a potential fire hazard. 1kitap1.com/en Wood Must Dry Getting the full heat value from a piece of wood is very simple.

The wood must be allowed to dry, and preferably for two years. (Seasoning times vary with the climate; in the desert wood dries much more quickly, in colder wetter areas drying may take two years or more.) Over this two-year period, the green wood dries at various rates. Much of the moisture evaporates very quickly. In the first three months the seasoning is half complete and the fuel value is 90 percent of what it will be when thoroughly dried (evaporation also depends on temperature and humidity).

In the next six to nine months, the wood is reasonably dry; in two years it will be as dry as it will get. If you have invested time, energy, and money in a wood stove installation, it’s foolish to forego a further savings by burning green wood. It requires no work to let wood season, and in the process you are increasing its heat value; the wood will be lighter, ignite better, and produce less smoke and fewer sparks. The following pages outline various ways to speed the seasoning process — from no-cost methods of stacking the wood properly to building a low- cost, pole-built storage shed.

Preparing Wood for Storage After a tree is felled, it should be bucked to length, then split. Splitting is easiest when the wood is green and preferably frozen. Wood can be left round if under six inches in diameter. If the logs are of greater diameter, they should be split to prevent decay and accelerate the drying process.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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