Storing wood outside

[James Hart]

I've accumulated more wood than I can use in a while. It's all kiln dried. To free up room in the garage, I'm thinking of attaching one of the Triton lumber racks to a cinder block fence in my backyard.
I live in Phoenix and have a spot that get only an hour or two of sunlight and good air circulation.
Is there a way I could cover the wood to make this work?

Thanks,

Jim

[Chris Padilla]

Just throw a tarp over it to keep all direct sun off of it and I think you should be okay. I've had several 10/4 planks of maple in my backyard for a couple years now and they are fine with just a tarp.

However, you should be wary of any critters that might like to either burrow in the wood or make nests or whatnot. In that case, you may wish to cover it better. If the wood is dried, I wouldn't worry about air-circulation much and wouldn't have problems "sealing" it more or less.

[Frank Drew]

Unless you've got tons of indoor storage space, sometimes you've got to store wood outside. As Chris said, it's perfectly doable and with a few precautions won't hurt the wood. But be sure to bring it back indoors well before working it up into a project.

[Tom Veatch]

... Phoenix ...Is there a way I could cover the wood to make this work?...

Don't know how much precipitation you get, but I have an image of that area being somewhat arid with low humidity. If you keep it dry and shaded, it should keep quite well. As others mentioned, with kiln-dried wood and a dry climate, the air circulation should not be critical.

[Dave MacArthur]

James,
My Surprise AZ plan was the same, almost--I was going to lag bolt some 2x4 treated stuff to get 3 verticals, 4' apart, with a 45 degree slanted top. Then using that as the "base", was going to screw a 1' x 8' sheet of cement siding across the tops to make a "roof", and build a bit of a shed around it, again attaching to the verticals and standing on some cinderblocks. The idea was to make a 2' or so deep, 6' high, 8.5' long "shed" against the cinderblock wall to allow me to slide 4'x8' sheets in there on the bottom and boards on top, cement board siding to protect from the weather exterior.

[Johnny Kleso]

I have about 500bf tarpped up on the side of the house for about two years now...

I have cinder blocks with two 4x4s on top..
I have 3/4x1x24" sticks every 3' feet on every row..
STICKERED

I use a way over size HF silver (best) tarp

TWO one folded several times just to cover top of pile
and one to cover all with a dozen padio blocks to hold down tap..

The outter trap only lasts one year in the Georgia sun and needs to be changes now as I can poke my finger threw it last I ckecked two days ago...

The inside tarp keep water off top/wood the outter one just helps shed sun and weather some..

PS:
Level the 4x4s this will keep your wood from warping if stored on a twisted bed..
I also use weed blocker under the cinder blocks to stop ants and bugs and stuff..

[ken gibbs]

I just completed adding a 4' X 12' lean-to set of lumber racks outside of my new shop building. I used treated 2" X 4" stock for uprights and support beams and used three inch deck screws to attach it to the outside wall. I added a 5' X 12' shed roof with shingles and added a nice tarp up under the eves to keep precipitation out of the racks. I even have room to keep my log splitter under one end of the shelter.