how much $ per hour should you be making doing firewood?

[KiwiBro]

Yes you are correct about many aspect of this business. Equipment and space in many cases is the key. I have been in California for over 40 years and I am starting to see a reasonable amount of profit available with prices doubling in the last few years. It will not be long before bulk wood is well over a $1000 a cord. Bundles is and has been an important part of many operations to be able to survive. We have a unique situation here where most people do not maintain generators. We have had at least 50 power outages this year when it has not been cold. Electricity goes out heat goes off. Most generators can operate a few days then issues arise. When cold weather persists people will pay any price like last spring when a 1/4 cord brought $400 with out hesitation. There is a lot to be said for being at the right place at the right time. Thanks

At those prices, and the port so close, why isn't anyone importing oak firewood from Europe, for example? There are some absolutely massive producers that are used to exporting and dealing with all the bio/phyto-sanitary requirements.

 

[woodshax]

As has been mentioned repeatedly ....the smaller the quantity sold the bigger the profit....but you gotta find your niche..... I pay $240 for a true cord of seasoned, small and medium split hardwood, cut at 18" and bag it and sell at State parks 24/7 for $1200 a cord......about a 175 cords a years

 

[sirbuildalot]

As has been mentioned repeatedly ....the smaller the quantity sold the bigger the profit....but you gotta find your niche..... I pay $240 for a true cord of seasoned, small and medium split hardwood, cut at 18" and bag it and sell at State parks 24/7 for $1200 a cord......about a 175 cords a years

Do you own Woodshax, and sell the vending machines, or did you buy machines and sell wood, or both?

 

[Ted Jenkins]

At those prices, and the port so close, why isn't anyone importing oak firewood from Europe, for example? There are some absolutely massive producers that are used to exporting and dealing with all the bio/phyto-sanitary requirements.

Being at the right place at the right time really matters. Two years ago we did not have any winter thus companies that sold wood went out of business by the truckloads. Then last spring we had a tremendous cold spring with demand going crazy along with prices. To import wood in California it must be certified to cross agriculture inspections. Or it must be kilned for a couple of days at 160 F or more which is not cheap. In two years we could have a drought or very warm winter so people are not so anxious in loosing their farm. There were several years ago where I went to northern California to harvest and haul hardwood and Oak to Southern which worked well at the time. Thanks

 

[svk]

The market around here has gone south in the past 10 years. Prevailing rate of $200 a cord for hardwood hasn't changed in the whole time. As of this fall we have guys around here selling hardwood for $160 a cord delivered and delivering OVER a cord of wood per cord purchased just to get the business. Tough to make much $ when you have to compete with that.

If seller A is delivering 1.25 cords of hardwood for $160 that comes out to $128 a cord. No way I am going to cut split and deliver hardwood for that price.

Propane is cheap as well right now....$1.29 retail but you can get it as low as 89 cents on your first fill if you do tank rental (which is technically free as long as you fill once a year).

 

[woodshax]

Do you own Woodshax, and sell the vending machines, or did you buy machines and sell wood, or both?

Both.
We make these machines, a 20Lb propane bottle exchange machine, are beta testing a Kayak rental machine at a local State park and working on a tool rental machine for a big company. Woodshax is more of a passion project, I fill the machines in the DFW area but have others in the business who take care of east and west Texas and 1 machine in Corpus Christi. I am working with a young couple in Austin, Dan is a fellow Service disabled Veteran and I really want to expand the model to other vets as I believe they have a great work ethic, know what it is to work hard and could really benefit from this niche market.....but from the posts I read here there are others who share our mindset as well. My operation with wood just pays the bills and funds all the other crazy ideas and keeps me busy.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

SVK I really understand where you are coming from. The winter of 17-18 did not exist because it was rather dry and mild. Pretty much no one sold any wood. Every one came out of the wood work trying to give wood away beyond cheap. I had a hand full of customers that were regular so I managed to keep oil and gas in my vehicles, but for sure did not make a dime. Then 18-19 came along with a very mild fall and December. I received one or two calls a day with most wanting to know if I would meet some one else's price. Right after Christmas we averaged 20 to 30 F until the end of May. With prices hitting a %400 increase. However in the 80's I bought the rights to USFS contract for fuel reduction. The first year was great with a nice standard winter then the next was unseasonably warm. That experience nearly broke me. So I got on my horse to do market research with in a five hundred mile radius. After a year I started understanding certain communities needed and wanted wood products. Here no body really has to have wood, but they are willing to pay. So I set up a older truck capable of 50,000 lbs and delivered to those areas with a 20,000 lb trailer. The first couple of years were not great, but managed. Then with weather and economy being favorable orders started pouring in with huge profits. This went on for almost ten years. I relate this to those interested because there might be areas that relate to your experience. Thanks

 

[KiwiBro]

Woodshax, I have friends here who had to mothball a wee venture selling raw milk from their farmgate. It was on an honesty system and there wasn't enough honesty to go around.

About 15kms from me is another farm with a milk bottle vending machine. It only takes a certain bottle, and coins, and IIRC was extremely expensive to set up.

If you come up with a refrigerated vending machine that can take any electronic form of payment and not be hacked, please let me know and I'll pass it on.

 

[woodshax]

Woodshax, I have friends here who had to mothball a wee venture selling raw milk from their farmgate. It was on an honesty system and there wasn't enough honesty to go around.

About 15kms from me is another farm with a milk bottle vending machine. It only takes a certain bottle, and coins, and IIRC was extremely expensive to set up.

If you come up with a refrigerated vending machine that can take any electronic form of payment and not be hacked, please let me know and I'll pass it on.

Will do.... we have everything but the refrigeration done already....."honesty boxes" don't do real well here even in the State parks where people know the money mad goes right back to the park. The darker it gets at night the less honest people are. Our best park came to us because their monthly shrinkage was about 23% and then on a holiday wekend someone cut the locks off the honesty boxes and made off with about $2000....now they have no theft

 

[Hinerman]

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We switched over to the bags a couple of years ago. Once it is split we never touch the wood again. I couldn't imagine hand loading 150 cord of wood.

If you never touch the wood again after splitting, how do you deliver? Do you load and unload with fork lift and leave pallet and bag? Do you have a way to dump the wood and keep the pallet and bag? Do your customers unload their own wood? I am curious. If I could never touch the wood after splitting I would consider the investment. As it is, I split, then stack, then load for delivery, then unload, then stack again for the customer most of the time.

Also, how long are you leaving the splits in the bag to season? 1-2 years?

 

[cantoo]

I think clean wood is easier to sell. The splits come off my splitter and fall onto a conveyor. They go up and drop onto a large pile. After they season my son and I hand load the splits onto another smaller conveyor which drops it into the dump trailer. We leave the junk and anything that touches to ground on the ground and use it for ourselves or sell it to a buddy who doesn't care about some mud. This means the load is clean, no splitter trash, very very little punky ( only if we miss seeing it while splitting or hand loading) pieces. I also mark my logs that I hand saw cut to length so that each piece is very close to 15" long. Processor is setup for 15" splits too. We do not stack wood at any customers place. The only wood we stack is for our own boiler and it's 32" long splits. I sometimes pay my help with McDonalds Happy meals to save on labor costs. Our firewood sales are hobby mostly because we are just trying to get rid of the dead ash because it's just going to rot before we can use it up for heat.

 

[Blue Oaks]

I sometimes pay my help with McDonalds Happy meals to save on labor costs.

OMG, how young is the slave labor, haha? JK. But you made me laugh. I'll just assume you meant Value Meal and not call the cops.

 

[Big Red Oaks 4 me]

Anyone that cuts, splits, and sells wood has a few things to be happy about. They are in good health, don’t mind hard work, and are most likely honest. With those traits alone, they could be making a lot more money doing something else.

 

[KiwiBro]

Anyone that cuts, splits, and sells wood has a few things to be happy about. They are in good health, don’t mind hard work, and are most likely honest. With those traits alone, they could be making a lot more money doing something else.

Well said ;-)

 

[T. Mainus]

If you never touch the wood again after splitting, how do you deliver? Do you load and unload with fork lift and leave pallet and bag? Do you have a way to dump the wood and keep the pallet and bag? Do your customers unload their own wood? I am curious. If I could never touch the wood after splitting I would consider the investment. As it is, I split, then stack, then load for delivery, then unload, then stack again for the customer most of the time.

Also, how long are you leaving the splits in the bag to season? 1-2 years?

We season our wood for 8 months before delivering. Wood gets delivered in a dump trailer, we just dump and go, no stacking. We have a set of rotating forks with a side arm that we had custom built for unloading the bags into the trailer. That is mounted on our JCB Teletruk. The bags and the pallets never leave the shop. The labor saved by not handling the wood more than makes up for the cost of all the equipment we have invested in with the bag system. Were doing between 100-150 cord a year now and I could easily sell more if I had more time to process. We only process wood Jan, Feb, and March.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

As has been mentioned repeatedly ....the smaller the quantity sold the bigger the profit....but you gotta find your niche..... I pay $240 for a true cord of seasoned, small and medium split hardwood, cut at 18" and bag it and sell at State parks 24/7 for $1200 a cord......about a 175 cords a years

For sure the market greatly varies. I'd get laughed at if I tried charging ~$11 for a bundle of wood.
We sell them at $5, $20 for 5.

 

[Cowboy254]

For sure the market greatly varies. I'd get laughed at if I tried charging ~$11 for a bundle of wood.
We sell them at $5, $20 for 5.

You're in the wrong country. Come here and you could be rich, Rich, RICH



The guy behind the counter at the servo asked me why I was taking pics of his wood .