After many years of using a store bought metal ring-shaped firewood storage rack, we decided to upgrade and build our own firewood storage hutch. Emerald Ash borer is devastating forests, and ours is no different, leaving many dead ash trees throughout our forest. Our forest cleanup left us with plenty of wood for woodland path and smaller logs which we hoped to store and season for firewood.
DIY Hutch – Use What you Have
We had several leftover pallets from the stone deliveries for our woodland path, some leftover wood and outdoor screws from other projects.
Our leftover pallets were not all in the best condition, so we picked the most sturdy as the base, and cut some rotten wood out of two smaller pallets to create the sides. We re-used some old fence posts to run across the top and serve as a frame to attach the roofing material.
To give it some shelter from rain since we plan to use this as firewood we got a small piece of corrugated roofing material. You could just as easily sit it directly on the ground and use other materials to cover it like an additional pallet and plywood/shingles or even a tarp.
All of this was fastened together using 3in deck screws. To elevate it off the ground we got some basic cinderblocks.
Firewood Breakdown
We broke down the smaller logs from our woodland cleanup project over several months, stacking them to season and store. We did invest in an electric chainsaw and safety gear including kevlar pants, gloves, a hardhat, and steel toed boots, to use it for this project. The electric chainsaw has come in handy as we have so many more dead ash further from the house that fall and need cleanup as well.
Get inspired to do it yourself with more projects in our DIY series.
