I built a log store

UberTiger

UberTiger

UberTiger

Soldato
Joined
1 Nov 2008
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Took on a project the last couple of weeks which was supposed to be pretty basic, just popping some posts in the ground and some plywood on top, but after googling custom log stores I had to put in a bit more effort.

The frame was made using 3"x3" fence posts, secured to the ground using metpost spikes, hammered into the ground.

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The base for the floor was taken from a broken down pallet

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The front base board, floor, and siding were all 6"x1" boards. Cheapest I could find was Selco.

Didn't order quite enough on the first order, so had to take a trip in person with a hand saw to cut down a couple of extra 4.8m lengths to get enough to finish and be able to fit them in the car.

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Laying out as many off cuts as possible to use up on the flloor to minimise wastage

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Floor all secured:

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Needed to try and match the paint to the existing shed, which had a dark green shed paint from 15 years ago that was no longer made by the company.

In fact, dark green in general was pretty much impossible to find for outdoor fence and shed paints in my research.

I ended up getting Cuprinol Ducksback Black shed paint and their normal Woodland Green less mess fence care paint.

I mixed them at a ratio of:

Black : Woodland Green : Water
1: 2 : 0.5

Mixed, with a drill mixer attachment in a bucket and poured into a Wagner W100 Paint Sprayer

The roof is an old piece of plywood from some previous work, with some new green felt tacked on to waterproof it.

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With a few logs added!

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Update:
Got a chainsaw and splitting axe to start properly breaking all the wood down

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:)
 
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DXP55 said:
You need a lot more logs yet.

The leasons you learnt from SAS on how many picture to post certainly worked :cry:
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They were previously just piled up on the ground without any cover after my landlord found a log hookup and just took a bunch home! So now we have more space we'll definitely be after some more to get seasoning!
 
dLockers said:
@UberTiger educate me on logs. Don't they need to be dry? And outside isn't dry?
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Hi mate, they do indeed need to be dry, hence the use of a covered log store as opposed to leaving them just piled up and completely exposed to the elements.

The gaps in the walls and floor allow strong airflow to aid the drying out of the logs and reduce moisture build up in a confined space.

The roof is solid and water tight. Sure, they're not completely boxed in, but the edges that may get a bit wet dry out very quickly and easily and the core bulk of the logs always remain dry.

Usually you'd also have a small store indoors that gets replenished, and by the time the outdoor logs from the store sit inside for a bit they're in great shape to burn.
 
UberTiger said:
Hi mate, they do indeed need to be dry, hence the use of a covered log store as opposed to leaving them just piled up and completely exposed to the elements.

The gaps in the walls and floor allow strong airflow to aid the drying out of the logs and reduce moisture build up in a confined space.

The roof is solid and water tight. Sure, they're not completely boxed in, but the edges that may get a bit wet dry out very quickly and easily and the core bulk of the logs always remain dry.

Usually you'd also have a small store indoors that gets replenished, and by the time the outdoor logs from the store sit inside for a bit they're in great shape to burn.
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Top man. I'm a city boy but our house lends itself to having an "inside log store" in our porch (1930s semi), and the garden is big enough for a proper external one, and the shed is setup for breaking logs. Actually the log burner in the living room is (sadly) still prepped from the last time the previous (now deceased) owner set it up.
 
Blends real nice into the garden, top job.

I'm wondering to build one up as got a logburner going in next month. The old wooden coal shed i have i don't think will cut it for air flow as it's sealed.

How much did materials cost in the end? I know somewhere that i can get old pallets from for free, but will end up a bit shabby.
 
The_Arbiter said:
How much did materials cost in the end? I know somewhere that i can get old pallets from for free, but will end up a bit shabby.
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Initially I was going to use pallets, as I had 3 lying around. They were all different shapes and types of wood though, so would have looked weird if I'd mixed and matched, hence only using one pallet in the end for the subfloor.

If I had access to loads of the same type of pallet I could have saved a bunch by breaking them down. I'd have had to alter the dimensions a bit too, to make the pallet lengths work.

I ended up using sawn green treated 6x1s from Selco at £14.83 a pop for 4.8m lengths.
Approx 18 of them was £266

About eight 75x75mm treated fence posts. 2.4m for £17 each = £136

6 Metposts at £9.66 each was £58

Felt and tacks was about £50. I could have gone with some cheaper stuff for £25, but the cheap stuff had terrible reviews about melting in the heat, and as the summers get hotter and don't want to be bothered fixing it anytime soon.

Cuprinol Paint was about £30 from B&Q

Bought a 1500 pack of wood screws to tide me over for the next few job, was on sale for £27.
Outdoor decking screws - £12
Also used some 100mm Spectre Timber fixing screws, which I've used in the past and are great - £8

Also had some scrap wood which I used up for the shelf supports.

So spent about £580 in total. It's crazy how expensive wood is still.

Could have halved that if I had access to a ton of old pallets, I'd have happily used all pallets for the walls and floor if they were the same type.

Could have also reduced cost a fair bit by making it smaller both in height and width (it was initially going to be a fair bit smaller), not put in a shelf, not painting it, or dropping the divider to add more sections.

Probably would have been cheaper if I didn't have to build it on a slope too, using the metposts direct into the earth.
 
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Indeed, it doesn't help being in London either.

I built a fence not long after covid started and wood was so much cheaper then. The same company I used a few years ago currently has 6x1 gravel board at £2.16 per metre, up 30% from what I paid a few years ago. But still a lot cheaper than the £3.08 per m from Selco currently and the old company I used doesn't have distribution down here.

So even though Selco was the cheapest I could find locally in London (I checked the national brands and local companies), other companies can be up to 30% cheaper if you're in other parts of the country (or happen to find a better supplier than I did!)
 
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UberTiger said:
It's not the size of the log store that matters, it's what you do with it :p
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I'm in the process of moving the fresh logs at the bottom and the back and the seasoned ones at the top (only 2 layers deep). But I have access to hundreds of logs fortunately but they're not seasoned so bring some in and let them dry out.

I have a basket in the house with enough for a week's worth.

Here's my puny stash.
 
Looks darn good to me! All I see it copious amounts of warmth and heat energy bundled into log form.

That's why I figured adding a shelf and divider would be good, so I could section off the seasoning stuff vs. the stuff ready to burn and try to minimise complete reshuffling of the entire pile.
 
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