Firewood Racks

Simple firewood racks can be quick and cheap to build, but can make a big difference if you have to store and season a lot of firewood. While it is possible to simply stack firewood directly on the ground, the ends of stacks can be prone to collapse, and the lower layers of logs never dry as they suck up water like a sponge from the ground beneath.

Even if your personal carpentry skills are limited you should be able to assemble the rack in the video below without too many problems. It has the advantages of being simple, cheap and robust, unlike many of the other firewood storage racks I have seen plans for. The overall length of the rack is entirely at the discression of the builder, so you can fit the rack exactly into the space you have available.

All the logs are supported off the damp ground, and a nice neat stack like this would be easy to put a firewood rack cover over. The ends are neatly secured so that the pile won't collapse outwards and, when it reaches the end of it's useful life, the pieces can be recycled through your wood stove.

We tested out this design ourselves and ran into a few minor problems of contruction, mostly because we tried to cut some corners.

• Predrilling the holes is important
• The washers stop the screws digging too deeply into the wood instead of binding everything together. We didn't see washers in the shop so tried it without and had some trouble getting everything to bind tight enough.
• We burned out the motor on the electric drill - not the fault of the firewood rack design - but it scuppered my attempt at recording the process.

The resulting racks are servicable and neat and we customised them to fit nicely in the space available.