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This summer, we’re giving ourselves a push to improve our outdoor space and make it a more usable and pleasant space to be in.
We’ve taken up some of the tarmac that covered most of the garden (more on that soon), we’ve cleaned the patio and now we’ve just finished building a log store, too!
We’d looked at a few ready-made log stores, but the only ones we could find were fairly expensive, not as big as we would have liked and some of them were a bit flimsy. We knew we couldn’t store the wood in the big bags they came in and whilst the colder weather is hopefully still away off, it was definitely about time to get some proper storage sorted.
The most complicated bit about this project is calculating the supplies that you need, but there’s nothing stopping you making your own, as we’ve done it for you!
Our log store is about 1.8m x 1.8m which means that it’s big enough to hold all of the wood we need for a winter.
As much as possible, we planned our log store around standard available lengths of wood. This way we could avoid too many offcuts and waste and also save money. We’ve also set out all of the gaps so that they are the width of another panel which means that instead of having to measure, you can just use a batten as a placeholder to keep an equal distance.
But before you start…
To make building this log store even easier, we’ve created a detailed downloadable tutorial with checklist, supply & cutting list and 3d colour-coded diagrams to make assembling this log store as easy as possible. It also comes with a bonus design option that includes a practical kindling shelf!
This is what you will need if you want to build a log store:
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All wood we used is tanalised sawn timber. It’s fairly rough but cheap and perfect for outdoor use. All materials for this project came £90, which is less than we’d seen any log store available for.
Supplies:
- Main Structure (47x100mm): 3 x 1.77 m lengths (for the back), 2 x 1.567 m lengths (for the front), tops trimmed at a 20° angle – which is the pitch of the roof
- Roof Structure (22x100mm): 2 x 1.756 m lengths (for front and back), 2 x 0.855m lengths (for sides, front and back trimmed at 20° angle)
- Floor Structure (50x47mm): 2 x 1.756 m lengths (for front and back)
- Floor (22x100mm): 2 x 0.556 m lengths (for sides), 1 x 0.603 m length (for middle), 10 x 0.65 m lengths (for all other pieces)
- Roof Covering: 9 x 1.8 m Featheredge Boards
- Cladding (38x19mm): 32 x 0.669 m lengths (for sides), 20 x 1.718 m lengths (for back)
- Bolts & Nuts: 10 x M8 100mm bolts, nut & washer, 10 x M8 125mm bolt and nut (we used 150mm because we couldn’t find 125mm)
- Lots and lots of nails
Tools:
- Clamps
- Mitre saw
- Cordless drill and drill bit
- Hammer
- Nailer
This is how to build a log store:
1. Build the front and back frames of the log store.
Start with the front frame of the log store and lay out the two side posts, one of the floor structure pieces and one of the long roof structure pieces.
Drill two holes through the top and bottom of each main post. The top two holes should be 50mm from the top of the post (half the width of the roof structure beam), the bottom two holes have to be 75mm from the bottom of the post (half the width of the floor structure beam + 50mm distance from the floor).
Once you’ve drilled the holes, line up the floor and roof structure pieces and drill all the way through. Make sure they line up perfectly – you want them to finish completely flush with each other.
Then add the bolts (you’ll need the shorter ones at the top and the longer ones for the thicker wood at the bottom) and tighten everything. Repeat the process with the second post on the other side of the frame.
Then do the same for the second (back) frame of the log store. It’s exactly the same, except that you have an additional post in the centre. Make sure that the slants on the top of the posts face in the same direction.
2. Attach the two short floorboards to the outer sides of the first frame with your nailer.
Then line up the second frame so it’s congruent to the first and nail the other end of the floorboard to the second frame.
3. To make sure that the top of your frames are parallel to each other, clamp one of the not yet used (standard length) floor pieces to the top of the frames. The outer edges of the floorboard should finish exactly with the edge of the frame.
Once it’s clamped into place, it’ll hold your two frame pieces in place and allow you to attach the sides of the roof which you can just nail to the frame.
The roof has a slight overhang to the back and a slightly larger overhang to the front. To get both sides of the roof structure timber to line up perfectly, use a leftover piece of wood to help you line up the edges. We used a leftover piece of 50 mm wood as a guide – we rested it against the edge of the back frame and then lined up the edge of the roof timber with it.
4. Now it’s time to attach the floor.
Lay the boards on the base with a piece of the cladding battens between each. You’re just using them to keep an equal distance between each floorboard and will remove them later.
The outer two floor pieces are the shortest, as they fit between the posts, the middle one is a bit shorter than the others as it fits in front of the middle back post and all of the others are the full width of the log store. Once you’ve set out the boards, nail them down using your nailer and remove the pieces of timber between the floorboards.
5. Then it’s just a matter of attaching the cladding battens to the outside of the frame. Again, using an additional batten as a guide to keep an equal distance between each row, work your way around the log store, nailing the battens in place one at a time.
We started our first row 38mm (one batten width) from the bottom. Once the first row was in place, things progressed really quickly. Check at regular intervals to make sure that everything is still level.
If we’d had to nail everything by hand it would have taken forever, but with the help of our new nailer, it only took a few seconds per row.
6. The last step is to nail down your roof. We used feather boards for this as they were not only the cheapest option, they also have a slightly tapered profile which works perfectly on the roof. Lay out the boards across the roof with the narrower edge facing downwards.
The very front board and the very last board have to line up with the ends of the side roof structure pieces. If you’re using the same measurements as us, each board will overlap the other by 2.9 cm.
As you can see in our picture, you’ll have to add a small piece of wood to the bottom roof panel to give you the angle you need. We used an offcut of the wood that we had from cutting the angle on the side pieces of the roof structure.
Now all that’s left to do is fill the log store with your logs!
This project may sound complicated as it seems like there are a lot of steps, but it’s actually really straightforward and easy to build. All in all, it probably took us about 4 hours to build (which included about an hour of cutting as we did some of it ourselves).
It actually took us longer to remove all of the weeds and dirt from the corner of the garden where we decided to place the log store!
It’s important to store your firewood correctly and our new log store will hopefully help us to do so. It has to be stored so that there is plenty of airflow around the wood, this means that you shouldn’t stack logs or stand the log store too close to a wall (leave a 5-10 cm gap) and also stack the wood so that air can circulate between and around it.
You also shouldn’t cover the wood with any tarpaulin or similar as it can cause condensation to build and allow mould to develop.
We’re really happy with how our log store turned out and it fits perfectly in the little previously unused and weed-covered area next to our garage (which looks like we planned it, but is a total coincidence).
We still love our wood burning stove and it’s still one of our favourite home improvements, especially as it helps us stay nice and toasty in winter. How do you stay warm in winter? Do you have a wood burning stove or another type of fireplace? How do you store your firewood?
Don’t forget that you can get your detailed DIY log store woodworking plans by clicking the button below!
You should be proud of creating such a comprehensive post. So many others I looked at didn’t detail all the actual wood measurements very well, which is the detail most people are looking for :s
Thank you, Steve!
Cx
Our power company recently removed trees that were interfering with the wires. We now have firewood to store. Saw your post on Pinterest and I was inspired! While watching it rain today, and with school about to start, I began thinking with a few tweaks this could also evolve into a separate, simple school bus shelter project. Funny how one project can quickly turn into the start of many more! Great post!
Thanks for the feedback, Lucy! I’m always adapting projects to suit my needs – I guess that’s the fun of DIY as you can always make things your own!
Cx
☺ Thank you for your reply. A great service. This is my first venture, but 3 posts up (harder thanI thought) in three days is going at almost the speed of light. Age 74, 5 tall, and try anything!
Keep well, and happy.
Clare of Devon
No problem! Always happy to help if we can – do let us know if you run into any problems! Love your attitude – we should all push ourselves to try new things.
Good luck with your project!
Cx
Hi,
Excellent resource !! Thank you!!
Built mine slightly smaller to a space that was available on my patio. Also added the middle upright to add further support and a small shelf for kindling. Nice project, although I didn’t buy a nail gun, so took a few evenings to complete. Materials cost about £100 delivered from a local timber merchant.
Satisfying build though :) Just got to chop the wood for it now!
Thanks for sharing your build, Rich! It looks absolutely amazing! Love the extra kindling shelf, too.
Cx
Hi Guys
I am not a great DIY person but, you are inspiring me to try this project. Kind of hate refurbishment, but loved Mechano so building from new is so much more fun… Anyway, I am kind of surprised that I haven’t seen anyone mention the length of the logs that are being stored!!! I have a space that is a little limited in depth and hope to fit it in there but I am concerned the log length with end up with them hanging out the front. That would kind of defeat the object!!! So, what length of log are you keeping and can I reduce the depth to 57cm for the whole structure? – Ill send a pic of the space…
The length of the logs will depend on where you order them. They’re not uniform at all and vary quite significantly (even within one delivery load) but they’re all obviously cut so that they fit into standard fireplaces and log burners so they’re usually fairly short. To give you a better idea of the size, the logs in our store were stacked in two rows.
Cx
Thanks for such a clear, well-written guide, which inspired me to start my own log store last weekend. After much deliberation and digesting your plans I finally got on with it. Using some available timber and an existing slatted fence on my boundary to form the back panel, lean-to style, saved a bit of money and resulted in a front frame 3.14m in length and 80cm deep.
Due to its length however, a single feather edge board won’t span the roof. So I’m considering using some surplus roof tiles, though this has complications. The roof structure will need reinforcement to cope with the weight, which is fine, but because of my ad hoc approach the pitch is very shallow, about 10 degrees. Received (internet) wisdom says the minimum pitch for roof tiles is 15-20 degrees. Now the frame could be disassembled and the pitch adjusted, but I’d rather avoid that. So I’m hoping even with a low pitch, water penetration will be insignificant as I believe the recommended pitch is to about preventing capillary action, which might not apply with an open structure anyway, but I don’t really know. As I live in Scotland rain and wind is more of an issue than in most areas. Any thoughts from anyone who’s gone about this would be most welcome as I press on with my build.
Thanks again for the great post and an enjoyable site. I’d second a few other commentators too, that a local timber merchant is the way to go for supplies and tips.
Thank you, Paul! So glad we hear that we were able to inspire you!
That sounds like an enormous log store! I agree that the roof may become too heavy with tiles (and depending on which kind you’ll need even more pitch than 15-20°).
Having said that, it doesn’t matter if the timber gets a bit wet (and you’re right about the capillary action). You want it to be ventilated and storing the wood is more about letting it dry from the inside out and not the bit of rain that falls on it.
How about considering a felted roof? It would definitely be a lightweight option.
Cx
You’re right about the pitch and tiles being too heavy. When I tried setting battens out I realised a minimum pitch is also required for the tiles to lie properly.
Sp I ended up using featheredge boards with a join in the span, which does let rain trickle through. Hopefully the air will dry them out overall. If it becomes an issue I might run a felt strip over the join.
Here are some pics of the finished article. It swallowed the first dumpy bag of logs easily as you can see. I’m hoping to supplement the wood I buy with wood foraged locally, but we’ll see how that goes. Some people think it’s more trouble than it’s worth by the time you’ve invested in the tools, labour and time to haul it all back and process it. The forestry commission up here in Scotland sell licenses to go in and fetch wood yourself and they’ll tell you where it’s been felled. You can’t take power tools though and there’s a lot of work involved in bucking, hauling, splitting and then, of course, waiting for it to season.
Thanks again for all the enjoyable content.
Paul
those pics….
https://goo.gl/photos/EWALyrf7aGfa9eXw7
Thank you for sharing the pictures, Paul! It looks great – and enormous! I totally think it’s worth collecting timber yourself. Yes, it can be a lot of work but for a lot of people having a log burner and collecting timber is a kind of lifestyle choice. As you said, you can always supplement it with bought timber and you have more than enough space to store timber while it seasons.
Cx
Fabulously helpful – thank you. Really enjoyed making this. Mine is 1.50m wide, 0.7m deep and 1.06m high at the back. I bought my timber at Travis Perkins but I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone – they couldn’t promise to deliver the timber until 3 days after I ordered it and then having stayed in all day for it to arrive (having confirmed in the morning it would be with me between 1 and 4) they never turned up. Very aggravating. Then the next day they delivered 22mm x 150mm boards because they had no stock of 22mm x 100mm left. Very unprofessional – use anyone but them.
Hello to you both!
My Dad and I followed your excellent guide to building a log store over the course of this weekend and the final result is superb, much better than I think I could buy elsewhere for less money and just a little bit of effort. I hope you don’t mind but I’d like to make the following comments/ corrections to the cutting list and instructions?
1) You don’t specify the dimensions for the cladding batons other than saying “38mm wide” in step 5. We chose 19mm thick as they don’t need to be load bearing. We couldn’t get 38mm wide at our local supplier so went with 35mm wide but that just meant 21 batons along the back of the log store instead of 20, this will always be dependant on what’s available at the timber merchants!
2) The cladding baton lengths specified in the cutting list don’t match the dimensions listed for the store. The side wall batons are stated at 0.72m but the actual dimension for the store are 0.65m (the length of the longer floor boards so the baton dimension need shortening to 0.65m. The cladding batons for the rear of the store are stated at 1.72m but the actual dimension needs to be 1.76m based on the length of the horizontal roof structure supports.
3) As others have done, we added three additional supports for the floor, out of excess 47x50mm timber, in line with the rear central support and equidistant between this and the end supports. All three were 0.56m long.
4) We didn’t have the luxury of a nailgun so used 60mm long oval nails in it’s place. Oval nails are a must as there’s a risk that round nails will split the timbers and should be used in the direction of the grain on the thinner boards. Worth mentioning in case other builders don’t have access to to a nailgun?
5) You don’t specify, but we felt it was best to use non-ferrous clout nails to attach the featheredge boards, aluminium in our case. We pilot drilled the holes using a 2.5mm bit as the nails were round. We didn’t for the first nail and it split the board, see above! Clout nail have a wide head to aid securing the featheredge boards, whereas the oval nails don’t have a large head and risk pulling though the timber a it dries and warps etc. Carbon steel (ferrous) nail will rust and weaken the roof.
6) I’ve calculated that the log store has a volume of up to 1.3m3 when it comes to ordering logs. From what I’ve seen logs can be sold by the cubic metre so just thought this would be helpful to others when they order their supplies?
Absolutely love the website and have lost hours of my life this week looking at your home buying and DIY journey. You guys really are an inspiration and show what what can be done with a bit of thought and effort. My wife and I are 6 years into renovating our 1912 town house and it’s taking every amount of money, resolve, skill and patience that we can spare. You have been such an infectious inspiration to us! Thank you!
Alex.
Wow, thank you for the feedback and taking the time to leave such a great and helpful comment!
We’re always happy to receive any advice and I’ll definitely check/update the measurements!
CX
Hi folks,
Joining the long queue of people here who have relied on your excellent instruction and pictures to build a log store.
I made mine a bit longer than yours and decided to do a roof with chipboard and roof felt and it has worked out great.
I would leave a picture, but can’t work out how to do that here!
Thanks
PS. Simon was kind enough to send us some photos of his gorgeous log store. You can see them here! Cx
https://wp.me/a2x19J-4j2
https://wp.me/a2x19J-4j3
Thank you so much, Simon! DIY is always the best way to get exactly what you want. If you send us a picture (general@littlehouseonthecorner.com) I’ll upload it for you – would definitely love to see what you made!
Cx
Hi there, made this last weekend and just wanted to say its an excellent design with use of standard lengths where possible making it easier to do. Took about 4 hours to do in total. We made one modification in putting 3 supporting pieces of wood between the front and back sections which attached to the roof to give it more support, the feather board was flexing a bit otherwise.
Thanks for sharing this, really pleased with it.
Thank you so much for your feedback, John! So glad to hear that you managed to build a log store you can be proud of!
Cx