# wood chips what do you do with'em



## caserat (Mar 12, 2006)

i have been cuttin down trees on the side and have been burning the branches in the backyard,and its getting a little old. i have been considering getting a wood chipper,but what do you do with the chips? does somebody buy them? will the county take them? any ideas--thanks


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## woodchux (Mar 12, 2006)

Most customers like to keep the chips.

Some will actually pay more for chipping and leaving.

I give them away FREE to any takers.

$28 / Ton to dump here.

We burn them sometimes.


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## rebelman (Mar 12, 2006)

I sell them 20-40 for pickup or trailer loads. I do landscaping also, mostly small jobs, root zone protection. There is a wide open market for root zone protection, and it's bound to be in fashion some day. Look for rough patches of harsh soil that could use a perfect circle, eroded areas, etc. to cover. Or just pile them in the corner for people to use as they need. Wood chips can do much to contain storm runoff. Treat them as a valuable product, because they are!


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## Diesel JD (Mar 14, 2006)

They're a light mulch real good where you don't need something as persistent as pine bark nuggets. You could probably find lots of takers if you give it away for free and maybe you could even sell the chips. Very useful product for teh homeowner or landscape guy.


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## Steve-Maine (Mar 14, 2006)

When I was in the tree business, We had a construction company about a mile from the shop and could dump all we wanted to, day or night. He used them on slopes on construction sites. He was glad to get them for free as we had to pay $75 to dump single axle 12' chip body at recycling center


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## Newfie (Mar 14, 2006)

I sell for $10 a yard. What I don't sell I leave on-site for the excavating contractor to stabilize grades.


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## BigUglySquirrel (Mar 15, 2006)

*what the?!?*

You guys are kidding, right? Homeowners paying more to keep the chips? Selling unprocessed chips? Letting you chip onto their property? You guys sure aren't in Ohio. We have places to dump, but chips are no asset here fellas. Everybody and their brother has a landscaping business which means that there is plenty of mulch to go round. We certainly can't charge more to leave the chips behind, we actually have to knock off the price for that convenience. And if we tried to pawn unprocessed chips off as mulch we'd be sued!

My point is that locale plays a major role in this game. What works well here, would be a major blunder elsewhere. Do a little local research before you try to sell your chips to the local mulch yard...he may laugh in your face. At the same time, if selling is the standard where you are you don't want to give away free cash.

Contact landscaping companies. A BUNCH of them. Anyone who sells mulch. Get as many dumpsites as possible so you don't burn anyone out. It's also a matter of logistics. Dump at your closest site to the job so you spend less in fuel.


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## kujoe (Mar 15, 2006)

Run a free classified ad in your local newspaper - "Free Wood Chips". Alot of people have different uses for them. We have done this twice and it hooked us up with enough locations to dump chips for free for the past two years. And since we got several responses, we have locations close to just about any job we do which cuts down on travel time. We get some homeowners wanting just a few loads, to landscape companies who will take all we want to bring. Also have one guy we give them to who sells the chips by the pickup truck load. It all depends on where we are working, we take them to the closest one on our list.


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## chippermaster01 (Mar 22, 2006)

*use them for mulch!*

i would use them for mulch. best way to go!


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## KentuckySawyer (Mar 23, 2006)

I'm doing good if I can dump chips for free. The big outfit in town has a dump spot in a quarry were I can dump clean loads for free. Then they load up 18 wheelers and sell them to a pulp mill (I think) where they burn them and generate electricity.

Dirty loads (with stump grindings and/or chunks of wood) I can pay $20 to dump at another tree service. They tub grind it and sell it as mulch.


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## Tree Machine (Mar 23, 2006)

By the way, welcome to the site, Caserat!


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## okietreedude1 (Mar 23, 2006)

Ive got a local nursery that take them. Uses them to heal in trees or mulch the potted trees. I could take them whatever Im sure but i try to keep them relatively clean. If its a dirty load, our city dump takes them and brush and grass clippings free, tubs the chips and brush, composts them w/ the grass and gives it away.

A few yrs back the company I worked for had 12"x12" signs on their trucks announcing FREE WOOD CHIPS. They got quite a few calls. Actually had a waiting list. But contacting the homeowners during the day for the dump spot got annoying so they pretty much abandoned it.


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## vharrison2 (Mar 23, 2006)

Tree Machine said:


> By the way, welcome to the site, Caserat!



Welcome to the site Caserat. Tree Machine, those are beautiful chips.

Oh, we give our chips away.


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## grnlfclimber (Mar 23, 2006)

*chips*

WE take everything to a wood waste recycling facility.:jawdrop:


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## chippermaster01 (Mar 23, 2006)

*chip size*

does the sice of the wood chip depend on what size of chipper you use?


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## bendtrees (Mar 23, 2006)

*Roadkill and Woodchips, a match made in heaven!*

Sometimes reading my hometown news pays off big.
This story is a great laugh in addition to being informative. Great quotes.

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2006/03/15/news/news01.txt

http://www.ravallirepublic.com/articles/2006/03/15/news/news01.txt


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## momdts (Mar 23, 2006)

*wood chips*

we have a chipper and we have 2 kinds of chips clean and dirty. Clean doesn't have leaves etc in them but they sell for 18 cubic yard. We also have people on waiting lists for dirty chips. We take the chipper right to the site and chip it and goes right into the chipper truck so then we can take right to where we need to dump next on our waiting list.


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## yooper (Mar 23, 2006)

Not to get off the subject of getting rid of the chips but has any one tried planting potatoes in 1 yr old wood chips piled about a foot deep. Works as good as dirt but much easer to dig up the taters in the spring. I have been doing it for 10 yrs although i do have to replenish the chips every so often because they do turn to compost in time.


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