Buying logs and selling firewood

[svk]

I am surprised Gunny hasn't posted in this thread yet looking for free wood to be dropped off at his place.

 

[woodchuckcanuck]

...
Hardwood firewood logs here go for around $1300-1500 CAD a truck load of about 7-8 cords.
But then a cord of hardwood firewood is $350-$400 CAD with delivery extra.

Here in our area of northeastern NS, a cord of firewood delivered goes for $210-230. I can't do that. Mine is $250 and really looking at it, it should be $300. So were looking at higher value products like bagged campfire wood.

 

[cantoo]

Jim, do you sell Swedish candles too? I keep saying I'm going to set some up to sell but I usually just give them away. I use pine and cedar cut offs.

 

[woodchuckcanuck]

Jim, do you sell Swedish candles too? ...

I've never had a request for one. If I can get a couple of campfire accounts maybe I could send along some samples for them to try out.

 

[Jhenderson]

Anybody who thinks they’re entitled to make more money with a chainsaw, splitter, and a dump truck than the guy who goes into the brush every day aught to go get their own.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Anybody who thinks they’re entitled to make more money with a chainsaw, splitter, and a dump truck than the guy who goes into the brush every day aught to go get their own.

No one said anything about entitlement. I'm so tired of that word. The guy who g"into the brush every day" as you put it, makes a product to sell. He's welcome to charge what he wants based on his costs and how much profit he'd like to make.

Once someone buys his product they're welcome to do whatever they'd like with it. The guy selling the logs frankly isn't "entitled" to an opinion.

 

[Jhenderson]

My opinion is as valid as yours. Maybe more since I’m the one going into the brush. To complain that $110 a cord is too much to pay for the raw material you’re going to charge $250 for only shows an inherit ignorance for the effort and cost involved in its acquisition and delivery. A trip into the brush to cut, skid, and deliver a triaxle load would, in my very valid opinion, bring a little reality to the conversation.

 

[sirbuildalot]

I do not sell firewood, but I do process my own from tree to stove. I think there is a lot of work on both sides. To be productive a lot of equipment is needed. Certainly bigger and more expensive equipment is needed to harvest the trees and deliver log loads than to buck, split and deliver the firewood. The only way to make decent money in my opinion doing firewood, is to get paid to remove the trees, and then paid again to sell the firewood.

A friend of mine has a full service tree company, and has multiple town contracts for trees on the road, in addition to private removals. He gets paid to cut the tree, paid to sell the firewood from those trees, and turns the chips from the tops into dyed mulch which he sells for money. He even tried opening a stump grinding business where people could bring stumps by the tri-axle load to his facility where a huge tub grinder ground them up, and I believe those chips also got turned into dyed mulch. I haven't talked to him for awhile, but I believe he stopped doing the stump facility due to town regulations.

Of course, to set all that up and buy the equipment was a huge investment.

 

[svk]

Anybody who thinks they’re entitled to make more money with a chainsaw, splitter, and a dump truck than the guy who goes into the brush every day aught to go get their own.

I’m laughing here. Entitlement and firewood sales never go hand in hand. It’s damn hard work (and fairly low pay) making firewood whether you source your own wood or buy it. And the only way it isn’t would be if you shell out big bucks for equipment to process it for you. Which requires its own blood, sweat, and tears.

Secondly if the going rate for logs delivered is $110, what is done with those logs after the fact matters zero to the logger.

 

[SpaceBus]

That's about how I'm setup. We are on ~3 acres. Have logs decked as high as the log truck can pile.
Was really tight this fall, brought in around 1200 tons of logs (roughly 500 cords)

I don't stockpile in piles.
Has been processor, truck, customer.

This year trying out drying some in bulk bags, though limited on space to maybe 40 bags.

How much can you fit per bulk bag? I want to try this for my personal firewood storage, but I can't find a source for affordable bulk bags. The only place I've seen them is on Ebay from Central Boiler...

 

[Ted Jenkins]

After forty years of playing this gamble I have determined that the equipment the investment has not a thing to do with profit. Here in California there are so many variables it is hard to imagine. About thirty years ago I bought the rights to all the timber on about 1500 acres. Basically all the trees that were to be left were marked. The total amount of wood turned out to be about 2,000 cords. At the time I made the deal fire wood was selling quite well. After about six months into the project with a some what normal winter the plan seemed to come together. The first six months at the project was spent thinning out brush that the USDA insisted that needed to done first only they did not indicate that during the original communication. As I got the operation up and running during the following summer the weather turned mild. So for the next six months I pretty much gave away a 1000 cords. Then a local saw mill became interested in the logs which was good, but by then a large amount of the timber had already been cut for firewood. The whole project was less than stellar. Then this last winter starting in January we had a very very cold winter which lasted into May. The folks that had fire wood down in the valley were bringing wood up to the mountains and selling it for a $1000 or much more a cord for junk. They for sure received a wind fall. The wood that I had was difficult to get to because of the solid snow and ice. So profit depends at least some on luck and being at the right place. As of late I am getting many calls from contractors that have 100's of cords of hardwoods that just want to get rid of it. So at the moment am try to get a place fixed up that is low in altitude for wood processing. Thanks

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

How much can you fit per bulk bag? I want to try this for my personal firewood storage, but I can't find a source for affordable bulk bags. The only place I've seen them is on Ebay from Central Boiler...

Roughly 1/3 cord.

I got them from from a place in Cali called Flex-E-Sack. John owns it (I think it's more or less a 1 man band). He's an Army vet I believe. It's been a while but I remember trading a few war stories with him.
He was selling them in 5 packs and up. That's how I started... tried it out with 5 and then bought 1/2 a pallet.

 

[Jhenderson]

I’m laughing here. Entitlement and firewood sales never go hand in hand. It’s damn hard work (and fairly low pay) making firewood whether you source your own wood or buy it. And the only way it isn’t would be if you shell out big bucks for equipment to process it for you. Which requires its own blood, sweat, and tears.

Secondly if the going rate for logs delivered is $110, what is done with those logs after the fact matters zero to the logger.

It makes no difference to me what someone does with the wood after they buy it. What annoys me is when someone with a 10-20K investment ( likely less) says more than doubling the purchase price ($110) of their wood for 2-3 hrs labor isn’t worth the work. How many of them make that kind of money on their regular job?

 

[svk]

It makes no difference to me what someone does with the wood after they buy it. What annoys me is when someone with a 10-20K investment ( likely less) says more than doubling the purchase price ($110) of their wood for 2-3 hrs labor isn’t worth the work. How many of them make that kind of money on their regular job?

If someone can block, split, stack, load, drive to customer's house, and unload a cord of wood in 2-3 hours then they deserve to make $110 for their time.

When I do a cord of wood including delivery I make between 12-18 bucks an hour after fuel, oil, and chain depreciation. Nobody is getting rich off that.

 

[SpaceBus]

Roughly 1/3 cord.

I got them from from a place in Cali called Flex-E-Sack. John owns it (I think it's more or less a 1 man band). He's an Army vet I believe. It's been a while but I remember trading a few war stories with him.
He was selling them in 5 packs and up. That's how I started... tried it out with 5 and then bought 1/2 a pallet.

I made some toes out of pallets that I could loose stack firewood. Making the totes became a chore after six of them, but they seem to hold half a cord if I pile it up on top to prevent the tarps from pooling. This seems like a much more convenient, if not a bit more expensive, method for handling the wood much less.

 

[Jhenderson]

If someone can block, split, stack, load, drive to customer's house, and unload a cord of wood in 2-3 hours then they deserve to make $110 for their time.

When I do a cord of wood including delivery I make between 12-18 bucks an hour after fuel, oil, and chain depreciation. Nobody is getting rich off that.

One guy I know loads by hand and stacks. Everybody else I sell to bucks, then splits into a conveyor and into the truck. About 2 hrs a cord + delivery. Most of them do a couple of cords before lunch on Saturday. About the same amount of time it takes me to cut,skid, load, and deliver 2 cords of tree length to them.

 

[sirbuildalot]

One guy I know loads by hand and stacks. Everybody else I sell to bucks, then splits into a conveyor and into the truck. About 2 hrs a cord + delivery. Most of them do a couple of cords before lunch on Saturday. About the same amount of time it takes me to cut,skid, load, and deliver 2 cords of tree length to them.

So no one that you sell logs to sells seasoned firewood? Seems like they are giving away potential profit

 

[Jhenderson]

People who burn wood for heat rather than atmosphere don’t spend money for someone else to dry their wood.

 

[SpaceBus]

People who burn wood for heat rather than atmosphere don’t spend money for someone else to dry their wood.

Those who can only keep a season's worth of wood do.

 

[sundance]

One guy I know loads by hand and stacks. Everybody else I sell to bucks, then splits into a conveyor and into the truck. About 2 hrs a cord + delivery. Most of them do a couple of cords before lunch on Saturday. About the same amount of time it takes me to cut,skid, load, and deliver 2 cords of tree length to them.

Maybe I'm confused. If you think the money's on the other end of making firewood why are you selling log length instead of finishing out by splitting and selling firewood?