Lady winter is on her way and if you are like us and plan to heat your home using a wood burning insert or wood burning stove then your firewood preparations should be well under way. But storing a winter’s worth of firewood requires a lot of space and proper firewood racks. A firewood rack not only has to be strong enough to support the tonnage of wood that will be supported by it but it also has to be stable and safe; a heavy stack of firewood falling on someone, especially a child, could result in a serious injury. To accomplish all of this you don’t need to spend a lot of money, however. A lot of companies sell firewood rack kits ranging from thirty-five dollars to fifty-five dollars but even then you still have to purchase the 2x4’s for the frame rails, further adding to the cost. I don’t know about you, but spending sixty dollars on a wood rack is a lot of money and I don’t have money to burn, just lots of firewood. The one my wife and I built, featured here, costed about thirty dollars total and was simple to build.
First, start by cutting the 2x4’s that will determine the width of the rack; I call these boards runners because they run from end to end. You can make them as wide as you want them to be; obviously the longer the boards are the more firewood you will be able to store on the rack. I cut my runners to five feet because I had a space in between my garage doors that was just over five feet wide and it was the perfect spot for storing firewood. To increase the amount of firewood that this particular rack was able to store I constructed a double-rack, consisting of two sets of runners. This rack design allowed us to stack two sets of firewood in the same area.
Next you will cut two 2x4’s that will screw onto the ends of your runners. We will call these “end” boards since I don’t haven anything cool or creative to call them. But how do you determine how long these boards will need to be? Well, a properly cut piece of firewood is approximately fourteen to sixteen inches wide so your runners should be spaced about ten inches from each other (interior surface to interior surface) which will provide for a couple inches of over hang for the firewood on each side, creating a stable platform. If you build a double-rack like ours then you will also need to add about eight inches in between the two sets of runners to provide ample space in between the two stacks of firewood. Once you determine what length to cut your 2x4’s, add four inches to that measurement. This will allow the 2x4’s to extend past the outside edge of your runners by two inches on each side, which will help stabilize the rack. For extra stability you can cut your end boards even longer, allowing for more extension.
Once you have figured out all of your measurements and you have completed all of your cuts, pre-drill the holes for your screws. I always use galvanized deck screws in my exterior projects and I also countersink/recess all of the holes. Additionally, for anything that I build that is going to be seen by a lot of people I go the extra mile to finish turning the screws by hand such that all of them are facing the same direction. It’s the little attention to detail things that separate the men from the boys when it comes to working with your hands and you can tell a lot about a man’s work ethic when you look at his finished product. Is the work sloppy? Are some screws recessed deeper than the others and are they all facing different directions? Or is everything built with precision, pride and attention to each little detail? Maybe it’s my OCD kicking in but small things like that mean a lot to me when I buy or build a product. Anything I build or put my name on is 100% my best work. It may not be perfect, nothing ever is and we all make mistakes but it is always the best that I could do, no less. I would be ashamed to build something for myself or someone else that I didn’t put 100% into.
Now then… go ahead and screw the runners onto the end boards, leaving the two inch overhang at each end. Once that is complete you will cut two 2x4’s (or four if it is a double-rack) that will screw into the rack vertically and will prevent the firewood from falling off the ends of the rack. These can be as high or as low as you want them but do not stack the firewood any higher than these boards as it will create a safety issue. Once again pre-drill your boards and screw them into the rack such that they are centered in between the runners. If this is a double-rack you will screw these boards to the outside of the end boards and if it is a single-rack you will screw them into the inside edge of the end boards. If you are screwing them into the inside of the end boards then you will need to account for this when you are cutting your runners as you will be loosing about three inches off of your width and you will need to compensate for this by cutting your runners three inches longer. You will notice some play in these vertical 2x4’s even though they are screwed in tight. You can stabilize these by adding some bracing- essentially blocking the them in by screwing in additional 2x4’s around them. This is why it is important to secure the vertical boards to the inside edge of the end boards if it is a single-rack because it is a lot easier to properly brace the vertical boards by simply running a brace board in between the two runners, which will lock in your vertical board. I realize that this is a bit wordy but it will make sense when you are building it and you see what I am talking about. Also, if you scroll back up to the first photo in this post you will see how I braced in the vertical boards by adding a 2x4 in between them (bottom of the photo) and by adding an extra end board to each side.
Now the only thing left to do is to stack all of your firewood. They say firewood warms you twice. Once when you are splitting it and the other time is when you are burning it. I don’t think this is true. I think it’s more like three times because stacking it is hard work too! As always, thanks for reading.
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