How to Stack Firewood

Is there one superior way to stack wood? I built a round pile, a stack strung with rope, and one braced with the traditional cross-hatched end towers. I’ve spent every autumn painstakingly crafting sturdy, old-fashioned towers—was the work worth the time and effort? Here's what I found.

By Doug Mahoney
October 22, 2010 4:12 PM

That's a lot of wood to stack. But how to stack it?

As the old saying goes, wood warms you three times: Cutting it, stacking it and then finally burning it. It's the second step in the process that I'm concerned with here.

If you've got the right backyard infrastructure, stacking wood is easy. There's not much technique to piling logs in a woodshed. If you have a few trees on your lot spaced about 13 to 16 feet apart—in warmer months, an ideal hammock span—then stacking wood between them is a no-brainer. But if you don't have either of these things, and, like me, you recoil in horror at the idea of buying a prefab wood rack, you have to get involved in a more complex stacking process. In doing so, you tap into an ancient craft.

There are plenty of ways to create a nice stack of wood. Armed with approximately five cords, all of it culled from my property, I investigated three of these ways. First, the traditional method, with the cross-hatched end towers, then a variation on that with no end towers, and finally the Shaker round style.

Traditional Towers

The Look
This tried-and-true wood stacking style consists of several rows of piled wood held in place by a support tower at each end. Support towers contain log courses oriented so that each is perpendicular to the one above and below it. It's what my dad did, and it's probably what 10 generations of dads did before him.

Making stable end towers is the cornerstone of this method. It can be tricky, fussy, and time-consuming. A little wobble in an end tower can spell disaster, so finding the right pieces can be a hunt, especially if you're like me and your wood supply has an abundance of oddly shaped pieces. When constructing my towers, I try not to do any shimming. I prefer the pieces to fit together nicely on their own, as they'll be more likely to withstand the slight shifting that will go on underneath the pile as the ground freezes and thaws. There's nothing more embarrassing and frustrating than a mid-February woodpile collapse. Stacks can vary in size and still remain stable. I tend to build my towers about a dozen courses of logs high, and I stack logs in rows between the towers for a span of about 20 feet.

The Good and the Bad
This method has a great aesthetic appeal. Because the end towers take some effort, there is satisfaction in doing them well. If you're the type of person who not only stands on tradition but also enjoys finding the craftsmanship in the little things, the process of creating a solid end tower will likely appeal to you.

The Tower-Free 2 x 4 and Rope Method

The Look
This one is a little odd. Like the traditional stack, a single row of logs makes up the body of the pile. But instead of the end towers, the pile is braced with vertical 2 x 4s and ropes. The ropes are tied to the 2 x 4s, then they're woven through the center of the pile, tied to the opposite 2 x 4, then threaded through again. The rope goes in and out like this the whole way up the stack. The weight of the wood on the rope tensions the 2 x 4s, drawing them in towards the pile.

First, get four 4-foot 2 x 4s and four 8-foot lengths of weatherproof, double-braided marine-grade nylon rope. Drill two 3/4-inch holes in each board, approximately 8 inches from the top and bottom. Thread one 8-foot rope through the two bottom holes; thread the other through the top holes. Repeat for the second 2 x 4. Tie a knot in the rope at each of the eight points where it passes through the 2 x 4s. Next, lie down a few courses of wood in a single row about 7 feet long, like a small version of the traditional stack with no towers on the ends. Here is where things get a bit tricky. Stand up two of the 2 x 4s at each end of the small stack. Drape the lower ropes across the already stacked wood. Then continue stacking wood on the ropes, pulling them into tension and drawing the 2 x 4s closer, towards the center of the stack. When the pile gets up a few more feet, drape the upper ropes across the pile. Stack wood on top of those ropes until the heap rises to the top of the 2 x 4s.

The Good and the Bad
I find that it's best to begin stacking on top of the rope at the center of the pile. The downward pressure in the middle tensions the rope up at each end. By the time you're stacking next to the 2 x 4s, the rope has been pulled stiff and the new wood actually snugs the 2 x 4s in against the pile. Ideally, you want the 2 x 4s leaning in towards the wood, which is an effect I am not always able to attain.

Once the 2 x 4s are locked in position, this is the fastest method of the three. With the sides supported, I can hit a cruising speed and stack away while my mind wanders.

The finished product doesn't look all that great, but there doesn't seem to be any structural difference between this method and the traditional one. There is the issue of the 2 x 4s remaining at full height as the pile dwindles throughout the winter. In the past, I've cut these down as the season progressed.

The Shaker-Style Round Stack

The Look
It's a big round pile of wood.

In principle this is an easy one, but in reality it's tricky and at times difficult. First, there is the issue of dunnage—how to keep a giant round brick of wood off the ground. I didn't have any pallets (which I figured is the most effective way to do it), so I just piled directly on the ground, sacrificing some old rotted wood for the bottom course.

Then, because the wood is being stacked in a circular pattern, the pieces touch each other at the inside of the circle, but logs sit with large gaps between them along the outside perimeter. This means that care has to be taken to keep the weight of the stack leaning back to the center of the circle. I find this woodpile works best with all of the lop-sided, bizarre, and uneven pieces that are frustrating to fit into the other two pile styles. The Shaker requires logs that are fat on one end and thin on the other, which can be in short supply. In fact, while building my round pile, I ended up scavenging through the other two completed stacks looking for chunks of oddly shaped wood.

When building up the outer walls, I could fill the inside of the circle with all of the really screwy pieces—6-inch cutoffs, lumpy bricks of knots, and others just too disfigured to exist in any sane woodpile. The round pile serves as a large garbage can, built out of bad pieces, ready to stow the even worse pieces.

The Good and the Bad
This method moves along fairly quickly. It's not as fast as the 2 x 4 method, but it's faster than the traditional towers. A place to toss all the oddballs is nice. And the pile is compact, so there's less time wasted walking up and down the 20-foot stack looking for the perfect place to wedge the next piece. Because I had such an abundance of oddly shaped chunks, the round pile worked great as a companion to the other ones. In fact, I plan on building at least one every year from here on out, just for the freaks.

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