We had always used the traditional firewood stacking method, but after installing our own wood-burning stove a few years ago, we wanted to figure out the most effective methods for stacking a lot of firewood. When we stumbled upon the Holz Hausen idea online, we loved how it looked but were also super interested in the benefits of stacking in round piles. Not only do these piles dry really well due to the better airflow, but they also don’t require any extra equipment, and they’re an excellent way to store those awkward pieces of wood that inevitably end up getting wasted much of the time.
After making and using a number of these round piles, we are totally convinced that this is one of the very best ways to stack wood. And we’ve learned a number of helpful tips and tricks along the way, too.
Having a steady supply of firewood is an incredibly efficient way to keep our heating costs down, and truly, you just cannot beat the incredible warmth of wood heat. Of course, we also love that we can supply our own heat and don’t have to worry about propane heat in the winter or even about the power going out. We’ll be cozy next to a roaring fire!
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Alternate Names for a Holz Hausen Wood Pile
There are actually a bunch of different names for these circular stacks of wood, but they all follow essentially the same process (or very similar). Here are a few other names you might have heard for this type of structure:
- Round wood pile
- Beehive wood stack
- German method (known as Holz Hausen)
- Amish method (or Shaker method)
- Norwegian round stack
- Scandinavian round stack
Benefits of a Round Wood Pile
1. You don’t need extra equipment
Like a firewood rack, stakes, a wood shed, etc. to keep your firewood neat and tidy. The structure is self-supporting and doesn’t take up very much room (we build ours to be around 9′ in diameter). If you’re looking to be frugal by heating with wood, this stacking method is a good way to go!
2. It gets better airflow which dries your wood more efficiently
The design of a round wood pile facilitates better airflow as the air travels into the pile and then up and out of the center. This level of airflow allows your wood to dry out more quickly than it would in a traditional wood stack.
3. Your odd and awkward pieces of wood can stay neat and tidy
A round wood stack naturally affords a space in the middle that’s perfect for throwing your awkward pieces of wood that just don’t stack well. It ends up being a lot of wood that would otherwise either be incredibly difficult to store, make your stack uneven, or just get wasted. With a Holz Hausen, you can store it easily and get lots of extra hours of burning with those odd pieces.
4. It repels rain and snow
Because the stack ends with a naturally angled “roof”, it naturally sheds rain and snow.
5. It’s steady, even on uneven ground
Because the base of a round wood stack is wider than a regular, straight stack of wood, it’s a lot more steady. Although it’s best to have as flat a piece of ground as possible, you can remedy a slightly less-than-flat space by using bigger logs on the lower-ground side and smaller logs on the higher side when you’re building the bottom row. As long as your space is reasonably level (not on a hillside), the process of stacking will compensate naturally for any unevenness on the ground.
(You do definitely want to make sure the bottom row is very stable, though, or your whole pile will be unbalanced and could potentially topple.)
6. It looks unique
Last, but not least, these stacks just look way cooler than a regular, straight row of firewood. It is definitely rewarding looking out the window at all of our neat, round stacks. And it’s usually one of the first things people comment on when they pull into our driveway!
How to Build a Holz Hausen Round Firewood Stack
There are many benefits to the Holz Hausen and virtually no downsides. Let’s get to the how-tos of building your stack!
Step 1: Find a flat piece of ground
You’ll want to start by finding a section of ground that’s as flat and clear as possible. A 6′-10′ diameter space is common (but we’ll explain more about that in the next step).
While it’s not imperative to have a totally flat piece of ground, you do want to create a stable pile. These round stacks are naturally more stable than a straight pile of wood, but we still want a reasonably level space. Just make sure your first couple of rows are stacked neatly so that they’re super sturdy.
One other (somewhat obvious) consideration when determining the location of your stack is to be sure this location’s soil has good drainage or is not in a low spot that will cause your stack to be standing in water in different seasons throughout the year.
Tip: In addition to looking for a space that’s flat, consider where you want your pile to be in relation to how you’ll be using it. Make sure it’s easy to access. We drive a small trailer up to our pile about once a week in the winter. We load this up with wood and take it around to where we stack it in the living room to use for that week. If you’re going to be driving any equipment (or even a wheelbarrow) up to your piles, make sure there’s enough room on all sides to easily maneuver in and out.
Step 2: Choose a center point and measure your diameter
Next, choose a center point and mark it with an upright stick.
You’ll also need to choose your diameter. We make our piles about 9 feet in diameter, but you can make yours larger or smaller. We’ve found that 9 feet tends to be a good size. It’s easier to stack than smaller piles, and we get more space on the inside to throw the odd pieces. With smaller piles (such as 6′), the tight radius makes the pieces of wood begin to overlap and makes it harder to create flat rows.
Next, we take a tape measure and measure the radius from the center point (in this case, 4.5 feet). At this measurement, place a split piece of firewood bark side down. Do this at four different points around the circle.
(If you don’t have a tape measure handy, you could even use a cut piece of string tied loosely to the center stick to measure out the diameter at different points. There are a number of different ways to measure your diameter. This is just what we find to be simplest, and it works well.)
Some people also use a circular mesh base as a guide for starting their stack and also to suppress the grass underneath the stack. We did this once but honestly didn’t find it to be all that beneficial.
Step 3: Place split pieces around the circumference of your circle
After you have four different points marked around your circle, you can fill out the rest of the circumference of the circle. Remember to place the bark side down since the log will be contacting the ground – the bark is more resistant to taking on moisture from the ground and rotting than the open face of the wood.
After you’ve filled in the gaps in your circle, go back through with your tape measure and adjust each piece as necessary, ensuring the radius is consistent. Take your time to get the foundation right!
Step 4: Create your first row
Now that you have the circumference laid out, you can start stacking your first row. with split pieces bark side down. You’ll want to lay the outside edge of your first row on top of the circumference logs to help create an inward-sloping angle. This will even out as you move up in your pile. If you don’t angle in, your pile will end up angling out, because the ends that are toward the middle will start to overlap.
Another benefit of laying your bottom logs on top of the circumference row is that you’ll get some better airflow to the bottom rows of your pile.
Tip: Lay the first row bark down in order to help slow rot. Then, lay the rest of the rows bark up to help shed water.
After you get this first row laid out, you can actually keep it and stack another pile on it later, after you’ve used up the first stack. That way you don’t have to do all the work of measuring and placing your first row again.
Step 5: Continue stacking
Now that you have your first row down, it’s time to start building up the outside walls. As you pull from your wood pile, you can throw all of the uneven, knotty, odd-shaped, or larger pieces of wood on the inside of your stack, while stacking your more uniform pieces around the outside of the stack.
It’s important to keep your rows angled slightly inward and downward, toward the center of your circle. If the rows begin to slope outward, you can lay a thin piece of wood perpindicular on the outside to correct it so that they don’t start to angle down. (You can see what this looks like in the image below.)
Step 6: Build your “roof”
When you start reaching the top of the pile, you can begin to let the rows angle downward to form the “roof”. We tend to make our piles about chest height. This is most practical for being able to reach in to build the roof and also provides easy access for being able to pull wood off the pile when it’s time to use it.
At this point, you’ll want to make sure that the inside of your pile is full of wood. The inside should be the same height as the rest of the pile so that it can support the roof pieces.
Continue to stack pieces bark side up, overlapping one another like shingles, creating a peak in the center.
Tip: Plan ahead when creating your stack, setting aside pieces that have a lot of bark surface area to create this “shingled roof” effect. Even while splitting the wood, consider what pieces you could split differently and set aside from the other pieces that will have a larger bark surface area for the roof.
Step 7: Tarp your pile
After your pile is finished, you’ll want to make sure that your wood stays dry. We leave ours exposed for most of the summer to allow it to get all the sun and breeze possible. When it gets closer to fall and temperatures start to drop, we’ll tarp it when it’s raining but try to take the tarp off on sunny days, allowing it to dry out more. Then, once winter hits, we keep it tarped all the time to keep the snow off and keep the piles dry.
We just use a regular square or rectangular tarp and hold it down with a few logs. Or, you can also buy a cordwood cover that’s specifically made for Holz Hausens.
Tips & Tricks for How to Build a Holz Hausen Round Firewood Stack
Here are a few more tips for building your own Holz Hausen that we learned along the way!
Keep the larger part of your log to the outside
If you have uneven logs that are larger on one side than the other, it’s a good idea to keep the larger part of the log to the outside of the stack. This will help to create that slightly inward angle. Remember, you can also add smaller pieces of wood horizontally along the outside edge of your stack (going in the opposite direction of the other stack logs) to help create this inward angle.
As you stack, it’s important to make sure that the stack is rising totally vertically, or if anything, err on having it angle slightly inward. If it starts to angle outward, like a funnel, and become wider as you go, it will not only look funny, but it will also become more unstable. Take the time to stack it right.
Stack around all sides evenly
Try to avoid stacking one side up a few feet and then going around and stacking up the other side. Instead, it’s better to stack around your whole pile somewhat consistently. This will create a more stable pile and allow the wood to fit together better.
The exception to this tip is that you may want to keep the side closest to you slightly shorter so that you can easily throw those awkward pieces in the center without bumping the outside of your stack.
Plan ahead
The more you plan ahead, the easier the process will be. Of course, you want to think about when your wood will be dry and where you should place your pile in relation to your house. And don’t forget to think about whether you need space in between your piles to drive a truck or quad for moving wood when you’re ready to use it.
But you can also think ahead in terms of where your split wood will be before it’s ready to stack. Whenever possible, we like to split wood right next to where we want our piles to be, so there’s as little space as possible between where the wood is and where it needs to go. Although this method of stacking is fairly quick, stacking wood can still take a lot of time, and saving a few steps in each trip can end up saving you a lot of minutes overall.
FAQs About Building a Holz Hausen Round Firewood Stack
How much firewood does a Holz Hausen hold?
Our 9′ diameter Holz Hausen holds between 2-3 cords of wood. A standard face cord measures 4′ high by 8′ long.
Is it important to use dry wood?
Burning dry wood is more efficient, creates more heat, and makes less soot and smoke in your house. The smoke from burning wet wood can contain harmful chemicals that you don’t want in your home or chimney. So yes, you definitely want to use dry wood to heat your home!
Seasoned firewood should have a moisture content below 20%. The easiest way to check this is with a wood moisture meter. All you need to do is split open a piece of wood and use the probes to read the moisture on the freshly exposed inside of the wood.
If you don’t have a moisture meter, you’ll just need to pay a little closer attention to how dry your wood is. The amount of time it takes to dry wood depends on the type of tree it came from. Certain woods, like red maple, will dry out a lot faster than others, such as red and white oak. For slower-drying woods, splitting it into smaller pieces and stacking them quickly (rather than leaving them lying on the ground) will help to speed up the drying process.
If you’re cutting down a living tree, the best time to do this is in the dead of winter, before the sap starts flowing in the tree once again. At this time of year, with low sap saturation, the tree is in a lower-humidity environment and will be able to dry out faster once stacked.
Depending on your wood, the drying process can take anywhere from 6-24 months. A major benefit of stacking your wood in round piles is that it creates good airflow and can dry out your wood faster than other firewood stacking methods.
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