Holz Hausen - Fast & Efficient Firewood Stacking

I'm somewhat new to stacking firewood and have found that over the past 4 years not only is it hard work but its also like doing a challenging Jenga puzzle, making sure everything lines up perfectly so it doesn't tip over.  My husband and I recently invested a substantial amount of time stacking unseasoned wood along our property only to find the next morning raccoons had knocked over our prized wooden towers creating a big mess.  After all the hard work gone to waste, we gave up and let the wood piles sit while we formulated a new plan.

Recently my husband had read about building "Holz Hausen" (meaning wood house) for firewood in Backwoods Home magazine.  When he told me about it, I had check it out online to see if this was an option for us.  Once I saw a picture of this neatly stacked circular structure, I was sold.  In Germany this method is used to create solid circular structures which not only look neat and tidy (my favorite feature) but are designed to season and dry firewood faster.

We decided to give it a try...

First we took a rope which we knotted at 4ft and attached the rope at the center of the circle with a stake (you can also have someone hold it in place) and measured out an 8ft diameter circle.  We then used the rope to as a guide to create a border with medium pieces of firewood (it works nicely if they're all about the same size).  This border, as seen in the photo below, creates a ledge for the first layer of wood to rest at an inward angle.  

  

Then the stacking began.  Whats great about this method is that there is no balancing needed, you just stack layer upon layer and from the ground up the structure is very strong.  Within 15 minutes two of us had already stacked 2ft of wood into the 8ft diameter circle.

While stacking its important to make sure the firewood is placed at an inward angle.  There were times when the angle seemed to disappear and this was easily fixed by placing a slender piece of wood along the outer edge. 

There's even a place for all those funky wood pieces that are hard to stack.  They can be easily thrown into the center where they will also season and dry.

At 3ft we placed a medium size branch over the top for added stability and continued our stacking.

 Once again at 4ft we added another branch across creating an "X" and continued stacking.

We could have kept going but we completed our firewood pile that needed stacking.  Apparently these Holz Hausen structures can be built up to 8ft.

All this in only 45 minutes!

More information about building Holz Hausen here.