what is a holz hausen
A Holz Hausen or wood house is a European method of stacking firewood. The Holz Hausen holds more wood in a smaller footprint compared to traditional firewood rows. If you are short on space or do not want to build a firewood shed, but need to have an ample supply of firewood to get you thru the winter a Holz Hausen may be just what you’ve been looking for.
Why you should build a Holz Hausen
Tired of boring ugly woodpiles? Or you simply do not want to build a woodshed to store your precious firewood? A Holz Hausen is a simple yet elegant way of storing and presenting your firewood. I think it is visually appealing to look at. Holz Hausens also store a greater amount of firewood in less space. While also being able to naturally shed water and dry your wood in style.
How To build a Holz Hausen
First you will want to find the area you would like to build your Holz Huasen. You want a nice flat spot to start with. You will than take a string and a screwdriver , or nail and drive it into the ground in the center of your holz hausen. Measure out how big you want your holz hausen to be. I did about 4 feet. The goal is to create a nice even circle to lay down your foundation. I started taking pictures a little bit late but you get the point.
Now that you have marked out your holz hausen, make sure the ground is level . In our case we were building on a slight slope so we dug out the top of our circle to make the ground more even. Don’t rush this part a solid foundation is vital for success.
Next you will want to take some bark and line the ground with it. you can lay down a tarp or pallets if you prefer The goal is to make some sort of a barrier from the ground so you are not just soaking up ground water into your woodpile that is supposed to be drying.
After you have the base down start making a ring around the circle you have marked out. This will make the wood you lay down next lean slightly inward.
Now that your foundation ring is all done start laying your firewood around the ring. You want to maintain the inward slope of the wood so that when your pile gets big it will contain itself and be freestanding.
As your pile starts to level out after a couple rows or you have a flat spot, stick a thin stick horizontally like so to make the next piece stacked there lean inward again.
Now that you have stacked the first couple rows and made a solid foundation it gets pretty easy just keep stacking as you have been until your Holz Hausen gets to be around 4′ tall. You will now start filling in the inside of the circle. This is where I throw the misfits of the firewood pile. Twisted Pinon and juniper branches that are too gnarled but still to large to be wood chipped end up here. You want to be careful when tossing in your branches that you don’t destroy your outer ring you’ve built up. But if you’ve done a good job it shouldn’t be an issue.
You are nearing the finish line! Now you need to go around and stack a ring or two on top of the innards in a nice conical shape.
Go around with your final wood layer. I like to use thin pieces that I have set aside. You want to lay these pieces in a shingle type manor. Start at the outside of your Holz Hausen and work your way towards the center overlapping your pieces so that they shed rain easier.
From here you can either call it a day and throw a tarp over your Holz Hausen to keep it protected from rain and snow.
Or you can make a roof out of bark. That is what we did as this is next years wood, So I’m not to concerned about it getting a little wet inside.
Congrats you have made a beautiful Holz Hausen!
Now sit back and admire your hard work.
A 4′ x 8′ Holz Hausen should hold about 2 cords of wood.
Don’t be afraid to experiment And build what looks visually appealing to you. My next wood house I want to build in more of a beehive shape. As I get more and more ahead of the game with my wood storage I will be sure to experiment with all styles of wood storage.
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