starting a firewood business?

[turn_n_burn]

Hey all! I have been scrounging and scrounging for months now, and I have to admit I'm addicted to cutting and splitting wood somethin' fierce. I live in an area where there are not a lot of firewood dealers (nearest ones are 30 to 40 miles away), and I want to get in on the market. I plan to start small and build up, not throw all my eggs in one basket off the line.

Specifically, what kinds of permits and licenses are needed? I know it requires a business license, and I don't want to be one of those shady guys on CL that "has access" to wood. I have looked into acquiring the wood, and the best I can find is to pay a logging company $1300 for a truck load of green logs and then have to wait a year for it to dry properly. Is there any way to get a private cutting permit for the forest service or BLM? We have lots of forest land within an hour of me in Idaho, but I have only been able to find how to buy it from someone else. Or is it just a matter of being at the mercy of the regulated timber sales? There is also a lot of BLM land (separate from the F.S.) with a ton of Juniper, which is getting to be very popular around here for the BTU content. Do they allow you to resell on a standard civilian cutting permit? Also, it it legal to sell wood that was cut from private land (like those people on CL that have a bunch of wood they want rid of or a tree that they want cut down without paying thousands to a tree service company)?

I've done my market research, and I know that I would be able to move the wood fairly quickly at the right price, but all the little legal loopholes are still fuzzy to me. Anybody have experience with this kind of thing?

 

[DanTheCanadian]

I can't comment for this area but here if you pull permit for cutting trees, licence your vehicle commercial, and claim on taxes that you made an extra income and how, your legal. Simply put, if the government gets their money they're happy!

 

[blades]

I would say that at minimum 50% of firewood suppliers are operating under the radar. The rest are operating as true legal businesses. Maybe 2% actually sell properly dried wood regardless of any ad hype they might be pushing. The word "seasoned" has no practical application around here any more as it seems that to some it means it was cut and split last week sold this. Or the classic seasoned in the round for x amount time but split just to your size spec. just before delivery to your door. 80% of the tree services use firewood as a add on profit center some go a step further and shred the undesirables into mulch for a 3 revenue source. One of the largest wholesale mulch suppliers in the area is all ground up pallets or pallet refuse from pallet recyclers in what ever color you would like.

 

[Mike Van]

You don't have to be a "shady guy" or even use craigslist to have a good wood business. A lot of the questions you ask are going to be specific to Idaho, can't help you there. I do know if you pull & pay for every license, permit, etc plus have to buy logs, you'll be working for about 1.00/hr. Word of mouth is the best advertising there is, don't try to sell a product you wouldn't want to buy - Like wet wood, short loads, etc.

 

[Circle B MN]

I buy logs, process, resell, and burn all the junk in my own boiler. On occasion I will cut my own if the right opportunity presents itself. I will say, unless you are mechanized to some degree, the profit from cutting your own "free" wood can be quickly lost. Talk to the mills in you area that are buying logs and see if they have any old stock or cull logs they will sell. It doesn't hurt either to ask every log truck you see at the fuel station if they know of anything for sale or any cutting in the area.

Whether you buy or cut your own, the seasoned wood will sell better but green wood can sell just as well as long as you advertise it as what it truly is. Don't devalue the wood for being green rather add value to the wood that has been seasoned. You have the same expense in both products, yet one has more time invested.

When making firewood quits being fun, you best find something else to do.....

 

[flotek]

Easiest way to make a thousand dollars selling wood is to start with two thousand dollars

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Making firewood fun?

I don't think I've ever thought that!


Anyhow the key is volume or a niche market. I sell on average about 10 cords a week if that gives an idea.
I'm not eating steak dinners too often either.

 

[Jere39]

I have no specific knowledge about Idaho, so I've got no answers to your legal and permit questions. But, that won't stop me from making a couple observations. I don't think you mentioned how much time you intend to apply to this business venture. Are you going to operate weekends and evenings? Do you have daylight time during the week to apply? Are you intending to do all the cutting, splitting, hauling yourself, or do you have partners, buddies, teen sons (or daughters) who can safely operate in a firewood zone? Do you need to buy additional equipment: saws, splitters, tractors, trucks, trailers to get into the business?

And, as another observation, you mentioned buying green logs at $1300 per load and waiting a year for them to dry. Well, my observations suggest a green log will not be seasoned in a year. You would need to process the green logs, buck them, split them and stack them where they are exposed to wind, sun, and drying humidity for them to approach seasoned for burning. Even a dead log, like oak, will hold near 40% moisture until it is cut and split before it starts drying. The dead Red oak I cut will dry about 2%/month once it is cut and split, putting it around 20% on my cheapo MM after a year.

 

[Dogsout]

I have no specific knowledge about Idaho, so I've got no answers to your legal and permit questions. But, that won't stop me from making a couple observations. I don't think you mentioned how much time you intend to apply to this business venture. Are you going to operate weekends and evenings? Do you have daylight time during the week to apply? Are you intending to do all the cutting, splitting, hauling yourself, or do you have partners, buddies, teen sons (or daughters) who can safely operate in a firewood zone? Do you need to buy additional equipment: saws, splitters, tractors, trucks, trailers to get into the business?

And, as another observation, you mentioned buying green logs at $1300 per load and waiting a year for them to dry. Well, my observations suggest a green log will not be seasoned in a year. You would need to process the green logs, buck them, split them and stack them where they are exposed to wind, sun, and drying humidity for them to approach seasoned for burning. Even a dead log, like oak, will hold near 40% moisture until it is cut and split before it starts drying. The dead Red oak I cut will dry about 2%/month once it is cut and split, putting it around 20% on my cheapo MM after a year.

Jere39 you just hit a homerun with this post. They should sticky your post to the top of the forum board for all of the people that want to make some FAST EASY money starting a firewood business.

 

[unclemoustache]

Southern ID is not to plentiful with trees. I'd say that if you want to be in the firewood business, you need regular access to trees, and fairly inexpensive at that. You might be able to make it work getting logs hauled in and if you have a couple Super Splits and kids to help.
Yes, you can sell wood from private land/trees removed for customers. A lot of tree service companies also sell firewood.
I suggest that you start small and build the business slowly, especially in where to get wood cheap.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

When I received orders from Elmendorf AFB to Mountain Home AFB my future supervisor told me "There's a pretty girl behind every tree around here". I didn't think that was too funny when I drove into town and realized his joke.

I lived in that area for a bit over 4 years, moved back to AK about 6 years ago. Unless things have drastically changed, I don't think there'd be a real big demand for bought firewood. It would be mostly for campfires or "boutique" use like in fireplaces.

For regular use of home heating you'd have to compete against pretty darn cheap electricity and natural gas.

 

[flotek]

At 1,300 a truck load ( and you haven't touched the wood yet) I don't see any room for a worthwhile profit after its all said and done unless you like doing back breaking labor for 5 bucks an hour

 

[moondoggie]

Making firewood fun?

I don't think I've ever thought that!


Anyhow the key is volume or a niche market. I sell on average about 10 cords a week if that gives an idea.
I'm not eating steak dinners too often either.

Hot water is nice though!

 

[Del_]

My advice to people wanting to get into the firewood business is to start small.

By that I mean cutting all firewood to six inches long and splitting to about popsicle stick size.

 

[blades]

Around here every mother's son is selling firewood. From the big operations to the guy down the street that had a tree cut down a month or so ago. I sell a bit now and again, maybe a cord in a year. I am not interested in delivering it. Nor do I care to haggel or listen to some whiner about cost. ( just old and grumpy) It is not a profit center or real income for me.

 

[Higs2013]

I briefly entertained the idea a few ayers back and I'm glad I passed. Once I started to look into the profit margin as well as the initial expense it was a losing proposition. Especially since any fool with a chainsaw and a truck sells "Seasoned" wood in my area with a tail light warranty!

 

[mijdirtyjeep]

You said it costs you $1300 a truck load, but did not say how big of a load that is. I will assume it is a 10-cord load like I get in. So you have a $130/per cord into it before even touching it. I figure I have $40 per cord into mine to Cut/split/stack it. So that would put that $130 per cord up to around $170/cord. Now it is going to have to sit in the yard and dry for about a year "unless you can sell it green".

How much do you think you can sell a cord of wood where you are at for?

 

[c5rulz]

Valley Firewood has the true grasp of what this business venture is all about.

You are going to need access to very large quantities of wood, and paying $1300/load has greatly bitten into any potential profit margin. You are paying retail and have elected to take the most time consuming part as your business plan. Loggers can put wood on the landing/truck very quickly efficiently and have proportionately little in the product. They will make out in this arrangement, you will not.

 

[cantoo]

Firewood around here is around $85 a face cord (16") from most guys. Amish put an ad in the local paper last week for $65. Hope no Amish live near you. Slabs are $20 a pickup load already cut to less that 18" and most are decent pieces. Pretty tough competition to beat.
My niece was paying Amish neighbour $55 a face cord for hard maple, 2 little barefoot boys delivered it with horses and a hay wagon and they stacked it in the basement. She gave them ice cream and $10 each for every load ( 2loads) they delivered. That's $175 a full cord and stacked in the basement.
I really like doing firewood but in reality there is just no way it can pay enough to make it worthwhile. For me burning firewood is one of my biggest expenses, if my wife were to ever add up all the money I spend on firewood toys and the time I spend I would be a dead man.

 

[stihlfanboy]

Well I'll throw a little input into this. Now I guess I'm one of the guys with a truck and saw everyone rags on... but I'm a brick layer and do most of my cutting in the winter, when we're layed off. So I have nothing better to do. I heat with wood so the saws are needed anyways, and my truck and tractor I use I'd have anyways so really other then the new quad I bought I had the tools I needed already. I also have lots of room to store wood and 400 acres to gather wood off of. I sell about 30 cords a year if you count the slab wood we sell. Bring in about 100$ a face cord deliverd and 65$ a face cord for slabs. To me it's good money to help out in the winter when times are tough. But I could never make a living off of it. Made some good friends out of new customers and keeps the lights on. Most people around here cut there own wood and everyone is a scavenger.