Anyone who burns wood for primary or secondary heating has had to come up with a system for keeping their firewood dry and easy to get to.
I know a lot of folks are satisfied using a combination of pallets and tarps, but this just wasn’t working out for me any longer.
We live in a windy area which means our tarps take a beating every year and end up not faring too well from the weather.
So what I wanted was a stronger, fixed structure to create a happy home for our firewood to get plenty of sunshine and season properly.
After looking at several designs online, here’s the firewood shed I came up with.
My Firewood Shed:
Firewood Shed Materials List:
- 6 – 14’ decking planks 5 1/2” spaced 3.5” apart
- 2 – 2 x 8 x 14’ pressure treated
- 5 – 2 x 8 x 4’ pressure treated
- 3 – 2 x 8 x 4’ for back support posts
- 3 – 2 x 8 x 6’ for front posts
- 4 – 80” decking planks
- 3 – 1 x 6 x 16′ planks for roof support
- 4 – sheets 48” x 84” metal or similar for roofing
Base
What I built first was a 4 foot by 14 foot deck base made up of the 2 x 8 boards.
I set the 4 foot boards of 2 x 8’s (5 of them total) to make up the inner bracing as well as the ends of the deck base.
With the two ends attached, I laid the other 3 boards at 3-½ feet on center (O.C.).
I made the deck level by raising or lowering it when attaching the front and back posts.
Not the best method, but for a firewood shed, it should be fine.
Posts
I went with 6 posts in total.
Three 6 footers for the front of the shed design and three 4 footers for the back, giving me the roof pitch I wanted.
I used 2 x 8’s because that’s what I had laying around but you could substitute 4×4 posts or 2 x 6 rough sawn boards, etc…
You just want something sturdy that you can screw into the deck base.
Roof Supports
Here’s where I attached the 4 deck planks to the front and back posts at the right height and angle to match the roof pitch.
2 x 4’s would have worked fine here and they would have been easier to screw the joists into, but again why buy stuff when you can use what you already have, right?
On top of the deck planks goes the 16‘ roof joists that I used rough sawn 1 x 6 boards for.
Using 16’ roof joists gave me a 12” overhang on the sides of the firewood shed.
Roof
Sourcing the metal roofing actually kicked off this whole project for me.
I had all the other materials around the farm, but I did not have any tin roofing.
Not that metal roofing is super expensive, but for a wood crib like this, I didn’t want to spend a lot if I didn’t have to.
Luckily a sweet deal on my local Craigslist came through.
A timber company in town had just replaced the roofs on a few barns and was considering selling the old metal for scrap unless someone wanted to pick it up.
For $5 a sheet (4’ x 14’) I happily picked up 20 of them.
I figured that 4 sheets cut in half (7 feet in length) would span 16 feet across, matching the roof joists mentioned above.
Plus the 7 feet distance from front to back provided a good overhang on the front and back of the firewood shed.
I used the roofing screws with the rubber washers on them to attach the metal to the joists.
Notes
Each firewood shed will hold about 1-½ to 2 cords of wood.
I used 3-½ inch outdoor decking screws for the majority of the build.
I built two of these firewood sheds with a friend’s help in about 8 hours total, spread over two afternoons.
I still have materials to build at least two more, but I think when the snow melts I’l’ make at least one more depending on how much firewood we burn this Winter.
Why all the 14 foot materials?
It’s just what I had around from another deck project that I had to put on hold.
I was also fortunate that the metal roofing was 14 foot too because when cut in half at 7 feet (84”) it made a perfect fit.
Questions/Comments?
Any other questions please feel free to let me know in the comments below.
And a happy (dry) wood-burning season to all!
