I've been building these round stacks for the past 4 years or so, and I start mine a bit differently to reduce the chance of the stack collapsing. Begin with a circle of large half- or quarter-round splits laid PERPENDICULAR to the first layer, as the perimeter of the stack. Then lay the first round ON those so they all tip inward. Continue laying the second round on the lower/inner ends of the first round, and I stack the center as tightly as I can, to start it. After I lay the rounds as high as I can reach into the middle, I'll chunk in the weird pieces, but still trying to make the stack TIGHT. (I have squirrels that like to wiggle into the pile and spend the winter in it, growling at me when I walk past, and I don't appreciate that.) The CRUCIAL point is to KEEP THE WOOD TIPPED INWARD. The man I learned from said to tie the stack together with 2x4s or 8-foot poles, but I didn't have any, and found that I could keep my stack from collapsing if I just concentrated on laying it up as tightly as possible, and with the outside ends fatter and higher than the inside ends. Instead of a purchasing a tarp to keep my wood out of the dirt and mud, I open up and lay my plastic dog/cat/bird food bags to cover an 8-foot diameter circle, then stack my wood on it to 6-feet high, making it hold about 2.6 full cords per stack. The first two winters, I covered the stacks with tarps, but the sun and wind combined to rot them out, and I found that the stacks stay fairly dry even in wet weather, even uncovered. The structure seems to allow green and wet wood to dry out very quickly, and I can burn fresh-cut wood all winter because it dries so fast. I've built 4 stacks by myself (a woman currently 68 years old), after cutting and splitting it by hand. I prefer that over using our mechanical splitter - I find something very soul-satisfying about chopping wood with an axe, after 40+ years of doing it, and it keeps me in shape! I love making these round stacks, because they're free-standing and don't need ANY bracing, and if done properly, with a slight inward slope on the sides (like an old-fashioned conical beehive), they won't fall outward and down - stacking the chunks level WILL allow slippage and collapse - I did that on the first stack, but learned quickly to tilt everything inward, and haven't ever had a collapse since then. Another benefit of these round stacks is that they ARE easy to cover - far easier than a regular laid-up linear stack that's just too long. I've filled a barn and a woodshed with linear stacking, and had the wood fall down on me because it wasn't tilted away from me like the round stacks, and longer pieces always wanted to stick out - I can cope with those much better in the round piles. Now, I just need to teach my husband how to remove wood for burning, without collapsing the pile! He can't seem to learn how to take it off evenly around, working from the top down.
I've been building these round stacks for the past 4 years or so, and I start mine a bit differently to reduce the chance of the stack collapsing. Begin with a circle of large half- or quarter-round splits laid PERPENDICULAR to the first layer, as the perimeter of the stack. Then lay the first round ON those so they all tip inward. Continue laying the second round on the lower/inner ends of the first round, and I stack the center as tightly as I can, to start it. After I lay the rounds as high as I can reach into the middle, I'll chunk in the weird pieces, but still trying to make the stack TIGHT. (I have squirrels that like to wiggle into the pile and spend the winter in it, growling at me when I walk past, and I don't appreciate that.) The CRUCIAL point is to KEEP THE WOOD TIPPED INWARD. The man I learned from said to tie the stack together with 2x4s or 8-foot poles, but I didn't have any, and found that I could keep my stack from collapsing if I just concentrated on laying it up as tightly as possible, and with the outside ends fatter and higher than the inside ends.
Instead of a purchasing a tarp to keep my wood out of the dirt and mud, I open up and lay my plastic dog/cat/bird food bags to cover an 8-foot diameter circle, then stack my wood on it to 6-feet high, making it hold about 2.6 full cords per stack. The first two winters, I covered the stacks with tarps, but the sun and wind combined to rot them out, and I found that the stacks stay fairly dry even in wet weather, even uncovered. The structure seems to allow green and wet wood to dry out very quickly, and I can burn fresh-cut wood all winter because it dries so fast. I've built 4 stacks by myself (a woman currently 68 years old), after cutting and splitting it by hand. I prefer that over using our mechanical splitter - I find something very soul-satisfying about chopping wood with an axe, after 40+ years of doing it, and it keeps me in shape! I love making these round stacks, because they're free-standing and don't need ANY bracing, and if done properly, with a slight inward slope on the sides (like an old-fashioned conical beehive), they won't fall outward and down - stacking the chunks level WILL allow slippage and collapse - I did that on the first stack, but learned quickly to tilt everything inward, and haven't ever had a collapse since then. Another benefit of these round stacks is that they ARE easy to cover - far easier than a regular laid-up linear stack that's just too long. I've filled a barn and a woodshed with linear stacking, and had the wood fall down on me because it wasn't tilted away from me like the round stacks, and longer pieces always wanted to stick out - I can cope with those much better in the round piles.
Now, I just need to teach my husband how to remove wood for burning, without collapsing the pile! He can't seem to learn how to take it off evenly around, working from the top down.
Very interesting episode 👍
The bottom ground level should be porous. Water could build up on that tarp causing the bottom level to rot.