Building indoor wood stores

Not been here for a while.
I asked this on a joinery forum but didn’t get much joy. I’m sure singletrack will come up with the goods though.

I’m looking to build some wood stores to go either side of our wood burning stove. This is in our living room and stores will be either side of the stove so they’re going to get quite warm if that makes a difference.
The stores will be quite simple, just a 4 sided box, no front, no back. About a metre high, 30cm wide.

Now I originally intended to get some oak floor boards, about 30cm wide but looking at these online they tend to be quite thin. I’m worried thinner boards will bend once the stores are filled with logs.

Then I started looking at planed oak sleepers which are certainly sturdy enough. But too sturdy. The best I can find is 225m 125m which are not wide enough and too thick.

Questions:

1. Is oak the best material for this? Walnut? Cherry?
2. Where could I get planks/boards in the sizes I want? Ideally I’d say I’d need 6 * 1 metre long boards that are at least 4cm thick, 30cm wide.

Anyone who has built similar?

I think oak is the answer but I’m struggling to find wood of the right size.

Deck joist/ceiling joist???

Why not use the thinner floor boards as per the original plan but add a shelf around the halfway point, It’ll help keep everything held together and also give you more options for stacking.

I wouldn’t use wood, use metal, that’s if you want to really store logs in the house, you will end up with all sorts of un wanted bugs in the house.

Use floorboards from 2 or three different wood types and laminate them. Would make it quite interesting if you had different colour woods (oak, white pine, cherry etc). You could also do nice features with the corners, either chamfered or staggered joints, to add interest.

http://www.venbros.co.uk/oak-beams/

sorry for rubbish photo, but this is my solution:

scaffold pole, mounted top and bottom. lined the alcove with larch cladding. stack against pole. looks good, easy to load and use.

How close to the stove will the logs be?

Thanks chaps. I quite like stoners solution but we’d need to put up two poles.
The intention was put the boxes about 50cm on either side.
A shelf halfway up might be the answer, I just wish it was easier to get wood that’s slightly thicker to give it a more robust look.
I’ll look to see how much wood costs from that site timbur, thanks.

What about using ply? If the sides are visible and you want oak colour get oak veneer version. One sheet should be sufficient.

I had some random pieces of wood shelving left by previous home owner so knocked up a simple frame that holds two largeish log baskets (wicker things bought off ebay). Don’t like the idea of stacking and unstacking logs too much, the problem with wood is the time and labour involved (and the space it takes), so it’s surely best to limit that if possible. The baskets hold about as much as I can comfortably carry (and fit through a door).

We get some of our hardwood from Arnold laver.

You are after quite big planks at 30cm wide (foot) and a normally when you buy planks they are still normally in imperial measurements (1 inch 2 inch etc). Off the top of my head plank that size (1 x 0.3 x 0.05m) will be about £11 in oak. You may have to buy it as a 3 or 4m plank/ board and then chop it down.

The other option is just to cut up some reclaimed wood/ furniture than buying new timber. Pallets?

There is a good chance that they may distort being so close to a fire.

Good look with the spider farm 😯

Reading with interest as planning on doing something similar, although found these Stores today which are quite reasonable
click

Rather than storing a weeks’ worth or so in the living room, why not store the excess in an outbuilding?

We can put a couple of days worth under our stove and have a couple of months worth in the (relatively damp-free) garage.

Stoner

Where’s the step ladder to get at the logs?

Where’s the step ladder to get at the logs?

I keep it nearby for when deadlydarcy visits.

From memory doesn’t combustible material have to be 600mm from the stove?
Like the scaffold pole idea that stoner uses. We’ve got left over studding doing a similar thing either side of the chimney stack.

From memory doesn’t combustible material have to be 600mm from the stove?

depends on stove spec.

But that’s not the same as distance for stove pipe or twinwall. All have their own specs.

Just to say, don’t get fixated on oak, there are loads of species that will give various finishes. Chestnut, ash, beech, cherry, elm, whatever fits your room. Would probably stick with hardwood, or a harder softwood like Douglas fir.

Something dry would be good too, to avoid warping, so not fresh sawn green timber, floor board blanks from a small mill may give the width you want.

An inch thick, dense grain board probably won’t have much flex over a metre, particularly seasoned chestnut.

I did something similar to Stoners. I cut a length of 6″ square gatepost for the base and some 3″×2″ for the top. Both pieces got sanded to take away the roughness but not made too smooth, then I drilled two holes in each to take the two lengths of twisted steel bar that I had in the shed. The base piece didn’t need to be fixed down as it nestled against the lip of the Clearview stove. The top was held in by a couple of screws into the joist. It held a fair bit of wood and due to the steel bars the heat from the stove helped to dry the wood out that little bit more.

I built something pretty similar to the dimensions you mentioned using chunky pine. It doesn’t sit next to a stove though. I’ll see if I can get a picture of it up tomorrow.