Rule number 1........Don't; time the building progress so that the bales travel from the paddock to the site and into the walls
Rule 2........If you need to store them then find a barn and pay whatever the owner asks.........its worth every cent
Rule 3........If neither is available then delay building for a year and revert to Rule 1
If all of the above just don't happen then storing them under plastic is an exponential learning curve. A short story about our experience so far:-
- Pick up from field after being baled a day or two and having the biggest storm for ages soaking them the previous night. Work until dark shifting 500 bales in a 8x6 trailor. More wind and rain approaching so Greg and i battle to stick large sheets of plastic (DPM) together on top of the stack in the dark and with the tape usually used for taping DPM under the slab. The apparent effort involved and perceived cost of organising a proper tarp seems very short sighted now.
- Turn up a couple of days later after more wind and rain and sheets unstuck and across site. Tape up again and return following day with same result...slow learners! Now told that the DPM tape works only under pressure (ie concrete)!
- Retape sheets using gaffer tape in dark with storm approaching and feeling pretty confident as have overlapped seems. Following day huge rainstorm opened outer seems and notice that we have put sheet on upside down........instead of water being flashed away from inner seam it is actually funneled into the stack! Return after 2 days of rain/wind and sort out 20 - 30 wet bales and stack seperately (they never really dry out again and end up on the garden).
- Drier colder autumn weather so time with the sheet off seems to dry the stack out (although a few inaccurate forecasts cause Greg to rush out pre-dawn and save the stack from further soakings!). Leave sheet on for a couple of weeks during early winter freeze thaw and and then discover condensation has soaked bales along S side wher plastic is touching them.
- Build an angled stud wall along S side under the plastic that appears to work very well for air circulation. Batten down all the hatches for 5 weeks in Britain.
- Return to a dry stack.........hurray!.........phew! Heavy rain for most of August, seams stressed to failure during stormy wet weather.........more soaked bales and repair seams in strong NW'erlies after dark. Gales try to blow off plastic and continue to test the hastily bodged seams.
Weather calmed down a bit recently and unbelievably the bales are generally looking pretty good. I dunno how! Time spent on uncovering, covering, repairing, sorting............makes paying for shed storage worth its weight in gold!
