Wood-store

For the last month or so, at weekends and evenings, we've been building a wood store. It's where we originally thought we might put a shed and greenhouse, but we've had concerns about light levels (and the site's suitability for a greenhouse); the shape of the ground available isn't ideal; and we need the space for seasoning wood. Until now, we've been stacking the wood and covering it with a tarpaulin, the sides of the dismantled shed, and a couple of fence panels. Not the most attractive, and sadly ineffectual. The wood's not dried at all well, and in places is wetter than it went in.

It's taken so long partly because we've been building the new store around the woodstacks, because there's nowhere else for the wood to go, and moving it all wholesale onto the games lawn (the only alternative) would have taken an enormous amount of time/energy in itself. So we've worked around the stacks, dismantling them where we needed to dig post holes, and tossing it into heaps.

The woodstore is now complete. It's built of 75mm posts, with bearers/rafters at a height of 195cm at the front. There's a 5° pitch to the roof, so it's taller at the back. We stepped the roof, or the left side (where the ground's quite a lot lower) would have been very tall. The roof is made of 22mm OSB, painted with weather-proof shed/fence paint. This we covered with two layers of polyethylene, a continuous layer of pond liner, and clamped all the way around. This makes it completely watertight, and means that we can (in the spring) add fascia boards around it, and turn it into a green roof—with the sorts of plants I was eyeing up at Harlow Carr.

Wood store, from the path to the fruit beds (© Ian 2012)

It's got guttering along the front, draining into a waterbutt that I've never got round to attaching to the house's gutters. And, finally, we've cleared the ground between it and the kitchen garden beds, put down weed-suppressant membrane, made a stone-lined rill ditch (to minimize water entering from the front, and put down chippings. Constructing it has been a mammoth bit of work, but it's given us about 50m³ of wood storage, which should be two years' worth of good drying space.

Front of wood store, with mulched path and drainage rill (© Ian 2012)

And don't worry, we've got alternative/back-up plans for shed and greenhouse locating.