How to store firewood correctly so it stays dry

Firewood is stored correctly in a covered place, raised off the ground and well ventilated, not in a completely closed and damp space.

After you've bought firewood, the way you store it matters almost as much as the species. Oak, beech and hornbeam are very good woods for heating, but if you keep them directly on the ground, under a sheet pulled all the way down or in a shed without ventilation, the quality drops from one month to the next. Wood bought dry can spoil through poor storage — and wood bought green, if you know from the start that it's green, can turn into excellent wood through correct storage alone.

In short:

• Cover the stack only on top; the sides stay open, so air can circulate.
• Raise the wood off the ground — pallets, beams, sleepers — so it doesn't draw moisture from the soil.
• Stack neatly, with small gaps, in an area that's as sunny and windswept as possible.
• Don't push the stack up against the house wall, and don't store large quantities indoors without ventilation.
• Think in two seasons: you burn last year's wood and dry this year's wood.

Sheltered from rain, not suffocated

The most common mistake is to cover the whole stack with a plastic sheet pulled down to the ground. It looks like protection, but in reality it blocks exactly what the wood needs: air circulation. Wood "sweats" — it gradually releases the moisture from inside — and under the sheet that moisture stays trapped, condenses and returns into the wood. Within a few months mold, a stale smell and poor burning appear.

The right rule is simple: roof on top, air on the sides. Cover only the top of the stack — with a tensioned sheet, a metal panel, bituminous cardboard or, ideally, a shed roof — so that rain doesn't get directly into the stack, but the sides stay completely open. Let the covering overhang the stack a little, so the water runs off beside it, not onto the logs.

Raise the wood off the ground

Wood laid directly on the ground draws moisture by capillary action, exactly like a sponge. The bottom row turns black, grows mold and rots — and often spoils the rows above it too.

The solution costs almost nothing: place the stack on pallets, beams, sleepers, pipes or any support that leaves a few centimeters of air between the wood and the ground. If the ground is sloped or water collects in the area, choose the highest and best-drained spot in the yard.

If you have space, a small woodshed — a light roof, a raised floor, open sides or sides of widely spaced battens — solves the problem permanently. It doesn't have to be anything complicated or expensive; it just has to respect the three principles: covered, raised, ventilated.

Stacking makes the difference

A compact pile, dumped from the truck and left as is, dries very slowly: the core of the pile gets almost no air, and the bottom draws moisture. If you received the wood loose, it's worth the effort to stack it in the first few days.

A few simple stacking rules:

• Lay the logs with the split side down or at an angle, so water doesn't pool in the fiber.
• Let the stack "breathe": don't force the pieces together, the small gaps between them are exactly the channels through which air circulates.
• With several parallel rows, keep a hand's width of space between them.
• Don't push the stack up against the house wall — leave a few centimeters for ventilation; you protect both the wood and the wall from moisture and insects.
• The ends of the stack can be cross-laid (pieces placed alternately lengthwise and crosswise), so it stands on its own, stable, without posts.

Split wood dries noticeably better than round logs, because the surface exposed to the air is much larger. If you have a choice, ask for ready-split wood — or split it before stacking, not before burning. Speaking of delivery form: if storage space is your main concern, palletized wood arrives already arranged and ventilated, ready to put in place.

Where to place the stack in the yard

Choose, if you can, a sunny area open to the wind. Sun and air current are the two "workers" that dry the wood for free, month after month. A stack placed in a permanently shaded corner, between solid fences and walls, dries several times more slowly — and sometimes doesn't dry at all.

Orientation matters too: a long stack, placed facing the direction the wind usually blows in your area, ventilates better than one hidden behind the house.

For the wood you use day to day in winter, keep a small quantity — for a few days — sheltered near the entrance or the boiler room. The rest of the stock stays outside, in the main stack. Don't store large quantities indoors, in unventilated spaces: the wood needs air, and you don't need moisture and mold spores in the house.

Think in two seasons

The households that never run out of good wood work on a simple principle: you burn this year the wood bought last year. You buy in spring or summer, stack correctly, and by winter the wood is exactly where it should be. Even if part of the wood comes fresher, it has time to dry before use.

If you use a wood boiler, planning is even more important, because the volumes are large. Wood bought in a hurry, in the middle of the cold season, is harder to find, more expensive and often damper — exactly the combination you want to avoid. How much wood to get for a winter, as a guideline, depending on the house and the heating system, you'll find in our calculation guide.

The mistakes that ruin good wood

A quick recap, because these are the ones we see most often:

• a sheet pulled down to the ground over the whole stack;
• wood directly on the ground, without pallets or supports;
• a loose pile left "for later" all autumn;
• a stack pushed against the wall, in the most shaded corner of the yard;
• storage in a closed cellar or garage, without ventilation;
• mixing new wood with old in the same stack, without order — you end up burning the fresh wood and keeping the already-dry wood to dry.

None of them is hard to avoid — they all come down to how you arrange the wood in the first week after delivery.

Wood delivered correctly, from the start

Good storage begins with wood bought correctly. Galle Silva delivers hardwood firewood — oak, beech and hornbeam — cut and split, in Prahova, Ilfov and Bucharest, from 350 lei/m³, with no minimum order. When you order, we help you choose the right quantity and size for your stove, boiler or fireplace, and delivery comes with an invoice and origin documents.

See the options and the price calculator on the firewood page or request an offer via contact.