The Fayetteville Woodpile Is Usually in the Wrong Place

Firewood gets stacked wherever it is easiest to carry it from, which is nearly always against the back wall of the house, under the eaves, next to the door you use. That is also the worst place for it, and the reason has nothing to do with the wood being dirty.

The same logic applies to a good deal of what ends up along an outside wall over the years, which is why this is really a post about storage rather than about logs.

Three problems, not one

A stack against a wall is shelter, because the gaps between logs are dry, dark and undisturbed. It is food, because split wood is exactly what wood destroying insects are looking for and it is already seasoning. And it is a bridge, because anything crossing it goes over the treated band of soil rather than through it.

Any one of those on its own is manageable. Together they put a warm, sheltered food source in permanent contact with the part of your house you least want insects investigating.

Where to put it instead

Away from the building, off the ground, and covered on top only. Away means as far as your patience allows, and genuinely detached from the wall rather than a few inches off it. Off the ground means on a rack or rails so air moves underneath and the bottom course is not sitting in damp sand.

Covered on top only matters more than people expect. A tarpaulin wrapped down the sides traps moisture in the stack and creates the humid conditions you were trying to avoid. Cover the top, leave the ends and sides open to the air.

Bring in what you are burning, not two weeks's worth

Wood carried indoors brings whatever is living in it into a warm room, where it becomes active. Carpenter ants, beetles, spiders and the occasional wasp all arrive this way, and none of them are a sign of an infestation in your house. They are passengers.

So bring in what you will burn that day or that evening. Stacking a week's worth beside the fireplace is how a passenger becomes a resident.

Do not treat firewood

This is worth saying plainly. Do not spray insecticide on wood you intend to burn, and do not ask anybody else to. Burning treated wood is not something to experiment with, and the insects in a woodpile are not a problem that product solves anyway.

The fix is where the pile sits and how much of it comes indoors. If something in the stack worries you, leave the affected pieces outside and burn them from the outdoor stack rather than storing them inside.

The rest of what accumulates along a wall

Do the same walk for everything else. Timber offcuts left over from a project, an old fence panel leaning where it was put down two winters ago, bags of compost, stacked pots, a rolled tarpaulin, cardboard in a carport, a disused hutch, tires.

Cellulose debris and stored wood in contact with the ground are the sort of thing that gets written up as a condition conducive to termites on a North Carolina inspection report, and clearing it is free. It also gives you back a clear view of the bottom of the wall, which is where evidence shows first.

Under the floor counts too

Crawl spaces collect the same things, usually because they are out of sight. Builders' offcuts, cardboard packaging, old carpet, timber somebody was saving. All of it holds damp against a floor structure and all of it is food.

Clearing it does two jobs at once: it removes the food and it restores the working room that lets somebody inspect the piers and sill properly. On a raised floor the guidance asks for at least eighteen inches of clearance for exactly that reason.

What good looks like by spring

Nothing wooden touching the building. Nothing stored in the first couple of feet of ground around it. The woodpile detached, raised and open at the sides. The crawl space empty of everything that is not structure.

That is a free afternoon rather than a project, and it removes more pressure than any single treatment does. Anything left after that is worth an inspection, and the inspection is free.