How is there any money in firewood sales?

[lmbrman]

I think it was Ray Kroc, the founded of McDonalds that said something about doing what you love, and the money might follow? I have sold some firewood when the market was decent, and still sell some. I do some logging, and run sawmill to produce a product, and yet even at the end of a long day I still love to cut firewood.

I think many here on AS have a fondness for firewood. I enjoy hearing these stories regardless of the money involved, or the lack thereof -


-dave

 

[Wood Doctor]

I think it was Ray Kroc, the founded of McDonalds that said something about doing what you love, and the money might follow? I have sold some firewood when the market was decent, and still sell some. I do some logging, and run sawmill to produce a product, and yet even at the end of a long day I still love to cut firewood.

I think many here on AS have a fondness for firewood. I enjoy hearing these stories regardless of the money involved, or the lack thereof -

-dave

I suppose that's why I'm looking forward to splitting, stacking, and hopefully delivering 19 cords of ash, oak, locust, red elm, and mulberry during the next 6 months.

Oops, I forgot that I brought in some pignut hickory in January. This stuff is tough as nails. Not sure how that tree even made it to Nebraska --> a gift from Satan?

 

[VikingDrive]

I was haulin' a load outta cornfield trying to beat the snow with 2wd. Made it to the hardroad and woo woo State Trooper.

He goes, "Son, you about 2000lbs overloaded, I could ticket you $1 per pound." I was scraping by mid winter, I burned coal then and sold wood. He goes, "How much do you get for a load like that?" I told him $50 and was getting ready to explain to him I was barely makin' anything. Instead of giving me a ticket, he gave me directions to his house and bought a load.

There isn't much in it. Poeple often only look at the fact that it is lying around on the ground and think you just pick it up. They rarely have a concept of what that is like when you first start out and that one or two sharp chains is your whole day. And every bum out on the tiles is lookin' in the back of your truck who would short you of your saw in a heartbeat.

 

[MrA]

I paid $800 to have two 40ft eucalyptus trees cut down, which was about half of what bids were from licensed tree service companies. He hauled off the brush and cut the trunk and branches into 18" rounds. I rented a splitter, split and stacked it, tried to sell it. Tree was cut in the summer, no takers for months. First cold snap in November and all the firewood was gone within a week. The trees paid for their own cutting. I just picked up 4 cords of English walnut for free, + $60 gas and $40 trailer rental. I plan to sell 2 cords, $200 each. It's pocket money for a few hours of execise and passtime.

 

[SierraWoodsman]

I only cut for myself, so chasing wood a load at a time is fine. Going to grab one this morning in fact and try out one of the new 550XP's.

Hey Spike,Could you post a thread on your first impressions of the 550xp when your done. Sounds like your lucky enough to be one of the first of us to get your hands on one.

 

[arlen]

Get paid to haul off wood

I met a guy in town that gets paid to haul off four cords of firewood. Seems like a clever idea to me. He owns a trailer that will hold four cords of firewood, and he charges tree service company's $60.- dollars to fill his trailer that he leaves at a job site. When it is full he hauls it back home and splits the wood and delivers the trailer to some other tree service to be filled up with rounds. He told me it saves him gas and tree services are happy to pay $60.- to be shed of the wood.

Myself I have rented trailers, a dump truck now I fill my own dump trailer with wood and bring it home to split. I have not been paid to have landscapers fill up my trailer for me. I would like too though:msp_smile: David

 

[SierraWoodsman]

I met a guy in town that gets paid to haul off four cords of firewood. Seems like a clever idea to me. He owns a trailer that will hold four cords of firewood, and he charges tree service company's $60.- dollars to fill his trailer that he leaves at a job site. When it is full he hauls it back home and splits the wood and delivers the trailer to some other tree service to be filled up with rounds. He told me it saves him gas and tree services are happy to pay $60.- to be shed of the wood.

Now an arangement like that would make the proposition of selling firewood much more attractive.:msp_wink:

 

[singinwoodwackr]

I met a guy in town that gets paid to haul off four cords of firewood. Seems like a clever idea to me. He owns a trailer that will hold four cords of firewood, and he charges tree service company's $60.- dollars to fill his trailer that he leaves at a job site. When it is full he hauls it back home and splits the wood and delivers the trailer to some other tree service to be filled up with rounds. He told me it saves him gas and tree services are happy to pay $60.- to be shed of the wood.

Myself I have rented trailers, a dump truck now I fill my own dump trailer with wood and bring it home to split. I have not been paid to have landscapers fill up my trailer for me. I would like too though:msp_smile: David

this works out great...if...you can get the tree service to cut the rounds to proper length and do so consistently. I worked for a Bay Area wood lot when I first moved to the area in the early '90s and we got some of the funkiest cut wood I'd ever seen. Companies dropped off anything from 2000# chunks of monster Euch to pine pancakes that were just a few inches thick and cut on an angle. Most of the services in the area that dropped wood off had very poorly trained "cutters" or ground crew that had little or no clue as to how to cut downed trees into firewood...and even less knowledge of how to run a saw. I wound up working freelance for several companies just cutting stuff up for them. I set my own hourly rate and provided all my own gear. I could cut stuff up much faster than their guys could and it was all in easy-split rounds when done.

 

[arlen]

singingwoodwackr

You are right some of the rounds are irregularar and some are huge. He told me and in his add it requests that they cut them into manageablele sizes and between 16" to 23". portionon of the rounds are cut correctly.There is still a lot of work left in the wood that he gets.

 

[Timber_Hitch]

I met a guy in town that gets paid to haul off four cords of firewood. Seems like a clever idea to me. He owns a trailer that will hold four cords of firewood, and he charges tree service company's $60.- dollars to fill his trailer that he leaves at a job site. When it is full he hauls it back home and splits the wood and delivers the trailer to some other tree service to be filled up with rounds. He told me it saves him gas and tree services are happy to pay $60.- to be shed of the wood.

Myself I have rented trailers, a dump truck now I fill my own dump trailer with wood and bring it home to split. I have not been paid to have landscapers fill up my trailer for me. I would like too though:msp_smile: David

Arlen, around here in Eastern,Pa they charge 100 a load for tree surgeons to dump wood off. I think the place grinds it up into something. They dump at my house and a neighbors for free where we both have about 10 acree combined.

 

[arlen]

pay to have wood dumped

Timber-Hitch, I myself have about one acre. My friend who is into wood as a large part of his income has 40 acres. He lets tree services dump huge rounds of eucalyptus some 5' or larger in diameter, really any species of wood including pepper tree. Lately he has not been getting enough wood so he has to pay to have wood dumped in his yard. I guess if you can make it real convenient for the tree services they can provide you with wood. Sometimes there is a glut of wood form tree die offs and Davy Tree service or some other bib contractor is buried in wood and they want to get rid of it as cheaply and quickly as possible. Sometimes they are slow and keep some of the wood and sell their own firewood. David

 

[sodbreaker]

This weekend me and a buddy hauled loads of old plallets to various people. There were paying $30 a pickup load just for broken pallets for "campfires" Then tonight I hauled a load of black dirt and got $60/ yard delivered. just plain black dirt. So I quess what I've always said is true of firewood or anything else. You can sell any thing if you find the right person and put the right price on it, And if you find the right person the price is usauly negotiable

Sod breaker

 

[BarkBuster20]

Im aiming to sell 10 cord this year, iv got 2 sold. Wasnt able to cut this last winter due to a shoulder surgery, so now im scrounging for seasoned wood, which iv actually had good success, only 2 mile round trip from home. I am down to one saw, my trusty 026, and my wood hauler is a compact 82 datsun 4x4. i can get a cord in 2 1/2 trips, so im not delivering. We will see how it goes. I figure with the minimal driving i have to do to aquire the wood i will likely see a profit of 1200-1400 selling at 150-170 a cord.

Not a huge money maker, but if you look at the minimal time i am putting in, 1-2 hours 5 days a week, it isnt bad. I am also rehabilitating my shoulder, and hopefully putting enough money away to replace my stollen 044, and maybe a full size wood hauler, and a clutch for my echo. If all goes as planned my truck and saw will again have paid for themselves, and i will hopefully have another truck and saw waiting to pay themselves off....might take a while for my shoulder to pay for itself :msp_rolleyes:

 

[Coldfront]

Its hard to figure out how anyone makes any money around me selling fire wood. Like Steve said I think they just sell it to buy a bag of weed or a couple cases of beer. A pick up truck full of cut and split oak anywhere from $60 - $75 a truck load probably about 1/2 of a cord not seasoned. But they get the wood for free.

 

[BarkBuster20]

Its hard to figure out how anyone makes any money around me selling fire wood. Like Steve said I think they just sell it to buy a bag of weed or a couple cases of beer. A pick up truck full of cut and split oak anywhere from $60 - $75 a truck load probably about 1/2 of a cord not seasoned. But they get the wood for free.

What is wrong with selling a half cord of hardwood unseasoned for 60-75$? I didnt realize buying beer was so horrible, maybe i should stop drinking it :msp_tongue:

If i could get 75$ for a half cord of unseasoned fir or alder i would be.

 

[Steve2910]

I don't sell a whole lot, but figure I'm making a few extra bucks off of a hobby that I enjoy. If you look at heating w/ wood as a lifestyle w/ many benefits beyond the economic ones, then you're doing it because you enjoy it. Taking that one step further, cutting more than your own needs allows a person to "cherry pick" the very nicest wood for themselves & sell off the rest.

I divide my wood into 4 categories in order of quality:
(1) House wood--- Black Locust, Oak heartwood, anything else above 25 MBTU/ cord.
(2) Wood for sale--- Oak that's a little twisty or knotty, Oak sap wood/ heartwood mixed/ bark attached (smaller dia. rounds), Maybe some Ash or Cherry, etc.
(3) Shop SHXX--- Maple, Cherry, Tulip Poplar, etc. Lower BTU stuff & other hardwoods that may be mostly solid, but have some punky sections.
(4) The junk or free to good home pile.

I use the wood sale $$ for something I wouldn't buy otherwise like better saws than I need, family vacation, etc.

Getting back to the OP's question... If my regular income dried up tomorrow, I think I could probably survive & stay in my house just selling wood. Not saying I'd want to, though...

 

[lone wolf]

I made a $100,000.00 last year making / selling firewood.

Problem is, I started with $200,000.00 :msp_sad:

Seriously? Did you buy a processor?

 

[redprospector]

Seriously? Did you buy a processor?

Nah, couldn't have. If he would have bought a processor there wouldn't have been over $50,000.00 left of the $200,000.00.

Andy

 

[Bozzaa69]

We're lucky in this area that there just aren't a lot of guys like the ones you describe. The Weights and Measures guys ran a series of stings on firewood sellers, concentrating on the scam artists. They really cleaned out the questionable ones.

Ran a sting on firewood sellers? Where's this Nazi/ commie place?

 

[Big_Al]

Ran a sting on firewood sellers? Where's this Nazi/ commie place?

8 year old thread