Can I Pile My Firewood Right On Gravel?
It is certainly better than stacking on plain ground, but still not the best solution.
Properly laid gravel, crushed rock or what have you, will provide good drainage… but that is not what’s important when the topic is about firewood.
Split wood contains a lot of moisture. If most of its surface area stays in contact with the ground, even if it’s the said gravel, the firewood splits will not be able to get dry and soon start to rot anyway.
Crushed rock still gives off some moisture coming from the ground, so to think that this won’t do damage to wood which already acts like a sponge is kind of… not right.
It’s best to raise firewood off the ground
Gravel or not, raising the wood off the ground is the thing to do if you want it to season properly.
“Wood Pile” by the real Kam75 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
This allows the air to circulate all around the firewood, as opposed to when it’s laying right on the ground, or in this case, rock.
What to use to get it done? Really any kind of long pieces of wood will work, but if possible, treated dimensional lumber would be even better. Something like 4x4s.
Pallets work great too. Though I do prefer lumber, as I find it easier to build longer stacks with that I like.
Why not both?
Using gravel and putting something underneath the wood you’ll stack is best of both worlds.
What I like about crushed rock is that it makes it easy to keep the place clean. And it looks nice too.
Raising wood off the ground is really not that big of a deal to get done, though it’s something that will make a significant difference in how well it seasons.
If you don’t do that, the splits that are closest to the ground are going to end up being more wet than you like, when time comes to start using them.