Hate it when I go to answer something and get that deja vu feeling, just to find out I did answer it, several years ago.
How is there any money in firewood sales?
- Thread starter Rio_Grande
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About $5 and hour and you do not have to show up at a specified hour, work nights or take a whizz quiz. That is my personal analysis
Is that five bucks an hour now or back in 2012 when this post was alive? It's early, waiting for my cutting partner to show up at McD's. Just mess in with ya
There were years when I started that I made much less than minimum wage. Then to my surprise I was able to earn nearly a $100,000 a year. One has to be in the right space at the right time with the right equipment. Here in California with unpredictable weather it goes from feast to famine quickly. At the moment knowing how to be smart seems to be the key to turning a profit. Thanks
May as well resurrect it.
If wood is your secondary income you just need to sell a value and deliver on it constantly. I’m in a position where whatever someone who is out of work and not concerned with factoring in real expenses wants to charge for wood doesn’t affect me. We sell $25-$50 over the market and deliver a premium firewood to the same customers over and over.
BBQ guys are becoming my preferred customer. They are demanding, but when they burn 50 a year I can work with that. I like the consistency. It feels like a pain when it’s the October firewood fill, but I’ll take the year round income any day. Maybe next year I’ll have all my bbq guys cut for oct and nov before then.
I rarely have wood sitting around, we cut split and load it where it stands and deliver straight to the customer. Fuel and Taking the time to unload and reload will kill you. I do some totes for wood that’s not sold when cut, works pretty good, but they are a little too small for it to be optimal for me. They aren’t big sellers, but I’m probably going to approach some feed stores about peddling them on consignment next winter. I’d need a big premium for that to work though.
If wood is your secondary income you just need to sell a value and deliver on it constantly. I’m in a position where whatever someone who is out of work and not concerned with factoring in real expenses wants to charge for wood doesn’t affect me. We sell $25-$50 over the market and deliver a premium firewood to the same customers over and over.
BBQ guys are becoming my preferred customer. They are demanding, but when they burn 50 a year I can work with that. I like the consistency. It feels like a pain when it’s the October firewood fill, but I’ll take the year round income any day. Maybe next year I’ll have all my bbq guys cut for oct and nov before then.
I rarely have wood sitting around, we cut split and load it where it stands and deliver straight to the customer. Fuel and Taking the time to unload and reload will kill you. I do some totes for wood that’s not sold when cut, works pretty good, but they are a little too small for it to be optimal for me. They aren’t big sellers, but I’m probably going to approach some feed stores about peddling them on consignment next winter. I’d need a big premium for that to work though.
I have about 30 of those toast as well but they are only 48'' wide by 38'' long by 42'' deep so they do not hold a full legal half cord of wood. They would have to be 48''x48''x48'' in order to hold a full legal half cord of wood.
They are very handy for storing chunk wood drop offs that I use in my wood stove though. They can be stacked if you have a fork lift and are galvanized and do allow for great air circulation for drying the wood. But all of the ones I see people using do not hold a legal full half cord of wood but they say they do, so they are lying to the people they sell to if they say it holds a half cord. Because they don't. Not a legal half cord.
I can’t sell anything by the “cord” around here. Customers expect a 4’x16’x18” stack when they order a cord. Heck even the big yards in Lubbock buy it from us by the 4x16 stack. Most folks selling wood here sell a 3.5’x16’x16” if your lucky stack not even 2 face cords.
When I advertise, if needed, I just specify 4x16 by length requested up to 2’. Just sell totes by the tote.
I would probably go all totes if you could get a face cord cut 18-20” in one. I have a few 48 tall ones, but they are rare. I think DEF comes in them. I’ve been thinking about adding a ring to the totes to get them where I can get a face in them.
I don't use the term cord ether. I give the detentions of the stack My stacks are 4 and a half foot tall by 4' long and my splits are 16/18 or 20'' long. Because my wood is free from tree guys just wanting a place to dump for free, it comes in all kinds of size logs and lengths from 4'' long to about 10 or 12 feet long from limb wood to 48'' trunks. I use the baskets for the short drop off odd ball wood that can't be stacked. My baskets of chunk wood will fill most truck beds full up to the top thrown in. I also like the shorter chunk wood for my wood stove. Because they very in sizes I have wood for a small fire or I can fill'er up depending how long of a burn I'm looking for. They let good air circulation to the wood so they dry well and it keeps everything nice and neat.
I like the chunks better anyway. Particularly the knots and forks for longer overnight burns.
For more than twenty years I ran a asphalt business with great success. I always had fifty customers waiting to have work done. It was not uncommon to have a $1000 a day profit. Of course there were days that had rain and had to eat my load. That only occurred about two or three tines a year. Then there were days that people had to have a job done with two feet of snow. Of course I raised the price more than a 100%. During the winter I ran small timber sales mostly to have a different activity and to stay busy. Then we had twelve inches of rain in about thirty hours. As a result several roads to our mountain were washed away. Suddenly since few people could access their property people did not come to our community. I had no customers. So I said goodbye to my workers and started cutting wood full time not realizing there was no money to speak of with firewood. So I struggled several years with very little profit. As of late compared to two years ago prices have doubled which has made it much easier to buy groceries while cutting wood. As with all businesses the more one uses their head the better chance they have at turning a profit. I used to work hard selling wood year round thinking it would be better to sell cheap than to handle wood twice. Not so. I stock pile my inventory and only sell when the price and demand is high. My record sale was eleven hundred bucks. A guy wanted delivery one or two days before Christmas with more than three feet of snow on the ground and snowing. He said money no problem so evidently he was happy. Thanks
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