# Keeping area of stove wood clean(er)



## Eyes Wide Open (Oct 14, 2010)

We have a wood stove. During the heating season, my husband brings in an armload or two of wood and puts it in a metal wood holder that is located near the stove in our living room.

We stack the wood onto 1/2 cord metal wood holders outside, and cover the wood with plastic sheeting or tarp. But once the winter gets going, there is often some ice attached to the wood. And also it's just generally mixed up with leaves and such.

The ice melts off, of course, and that has somewhat damaged the wood floor under the indoor wood holder. Also, the wall behind that holder has also suffered - the baseboard is a mess, the wall is dirty and I can't seem to scrub it clean and I'm going to have to repaint it. But I don't want to repaint every year!

Obviously we need to be containing this better, and I wanted to get ideas. I told DH we should keep the wood in the back hall instead of the living room, but he is not fond of the idea. 

I also thought maybe we should bring the wood in using two stages - (1) bring the wood into the back hall and let it start thawing, and (2) bring that thawed wood into the living room when he gets the next round of wood and have the new round thaw in the back hall.

We could get a giant plastic bin, maybe, and I could try to have DH not fill it too much when bringing wood inside. I think those plastic bins might all have small holes in the bottom, though, probably to prevent someone from drowning or something in them. So if that's the case, then the bin will just slowly leak out anyway.

Anyway, ideas?


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I solved a great deal of my problems by having the wood in a small Rubbermaid garden cart by the back door. The solid bottom of the cart holds a lot of the debris which I roll to the edge of the porch and dump. It has reduced what ends up in the house by at least 2/3tds.


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

Burning wood includes the planing to burn wood. Most houses are not set up to burn wood....they are set up for a fire for the holidays and use the furnace the rest of the year.

My previous house, we got to really burning wood in a house not really designed for burning wood ! The living room fireplace was located on a common wall to the garage. I took a space beside the stone front of the fireplace, cut a hole in the wall and framed in a wood box about 2' wide and 3' tall. The box could be loaded from the garage side thru a door on the back of the wood box. That keep all the mess you mention confined to the garage, the wood box, and the short space to the fireplace. IF your fireplace is located on an outside wall (many are), you might consider this as a better solution to your wood mess. (and yes, wood, is a mess to use)

Chimneys on outside walls (even garage walls) bleed a LOT of heat off to places you don't need heat, so in our current house, I wanted the chimney centrally located. I built a massive heat storage device....a chimney that spans the entire 16' end of the living room, goes up about 15' on a vaulted ceiling, and is about 5' thick, with the back wall exposed brick in the master bedroom on that side. We get a lot of heat off that back wall, even though it is at least 2' of solid masonry to the firebox on the living room side.

Since the chimney was not on an outside wall, I couldn't do the box thing from the previous house. So, instead, I built a 30" square shaft into the masonry work that goes from the basement to the living level. Then mounted 2x2 steel angle vertically for a track, and built a 'car' that rides in that track, and I load in the basement where I store my wood, and an electric hoist raises the wood to the living room level. (Basically, a 'dumb waiter'). Built a walnut panel door over the opening up stairs that is counter weighted and slides up to reveal the wood in the car, and back down to blend in with the brick work of the fireplace front.

That is how we've burned wood as our main heating source for 30 years.

Also built an ash pit into the fireplace as I was building the chimney, so the fireplace ash dumped down a shaft in the chimney center and are removed at the basement level. Cut WAY down on the mess of burning wood.


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## kasilofhome (Feb 10, 2005)

I grew up with a two fireplace one chimney with an as dump built in to a cement box out outdoors with a metal lid....saved on the carpets.


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## alleyyooper (Apr 22, 2005)

It starts out side. I stack the wood on land scape timbers out side then cover the stacks with galvanized roofing steel. Inside behind the furnace I build a 2x4 rack to hold the wood a week and a half worth you can put down a plastic sheet first to fold up on the sides and staple to hold any moisture that may be on the wood and chunks of bark all that can be sucked up with a shop vac as you remove the wood. A 4x8 sheet of OSB protects the wall behind the rack too.

At one time I kept my wood in the pole barn but no room for that any longer.




















Best to knock off as much loose bark and such out doors and the same with snow and ice.
I don't but a friend wire brushes ever chunk of wood that comes in his house. 


 Al


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## Fishindude (May 19, 2015)

Wood stoves and fireplaces are dirty, no getting around it. Clean-up should be ongoing.

I keep my split wood stored in a nice shed to dry out, where it won't be wet and / or covered with snow, this helps a lot. We then haul it up to the back door with the ATV or wheel barrow and transfer it into a couple large tupperware totes that also help contain much of the mess. Totes are in same room as the wood stove. Just grab logs out of these to feed the stove.

Floor of this area is hard surfaced so it can be swept easily and we keep a broom and dustpan handy and use daily. Also keep a small shop vac nearby to clean up a little better occasionally.

At one time had a wood stove in the living room and had to cross a large room and carpet to a tile area around wood stove, this was no good. Now have stove located in the back porch which is all hard surface / masonry and directly accessible via an outside door to stock wood. Not ideal for heating like a centrally located unit would be, but sure keeps things nicer.


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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

a simple 3 sided shed with a tin roof is a huge help , have the wood in the shed in plenty of time to really get dry , memorial day is a good time to have all the wood in the shed unless you have stored wood inside or under a real roof , you may not even know what dry wood burns like 

tarps just don't make wood dry like a roof that allows air flow and sheds all the water , without a hole lot of work.

you can make a wood bin that rolls from the door where you load it up to sit near the stove and put a catch pan in the bottom that you can clean out from time to time 

I keep meaning to build one but I have several rubber made totes that I use to bring wood into the house 3 is a normal days burn they collect a lot of bark and leaves and saw dust and they get dumped out every few days 

first lesson of burning wood for heat , the people and what they sell at the fire place store don't sell very useful stuff for home heating they sell pretty room settings for those people who like to sit by a fire from time to time but it is more about the look than the function


I was at old world Wisconsin , and some other historical sites and noticed every house had a wood box near the stove , these are historically accurate 1800s houses some the more cleverly design wood boxes had a drawer that was tin lined to catch all the little stuff , I suspect so that you could pull out the drawer and have your tinder that had broken off and fallen through handy to start your next fire

one of the school houses had a wood box built into the wall you walked in the door dumped the wood into the bin then turned and wen through the door to the right , on the other side of the wall inside the class room the wood bin had a lid , you could open the lid an pull out a log and walk it over to the stove , they claim it was every boys job to carry and arm load of wood in with him at the start of the school day to fill the bin


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## Samsa_007 (May 11, 2018)

Cover the wood with polyethylene and that's it. What's wrong?


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