Now what kind of machine makes those????
There's no money in selling firewood
- Thread starter dhamblet
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I have a day job, but we heat exclusively with wood. I get my logs free from a friend with a tree company. He get's 20%. I sell enough farwood to pay for all my equipment and equipment maintenance. Over the last ten years farwood sales have bought three splitters, two MAXX chain grinders, ten or so saws, and all the chains, bar oil & non-ethanol gas I need. Cash gets a 10% discount and I stack for the elderly no charge. Other than my time, the wood I burn is truly free. I don't go to the gym...I go to the log yard.
I sell a half a dozen cords a year. I own 40 acres of oak, maple, and hickory. I also have access to family owned 270 acres as well.Typically in a years time I have enough blown down trees to supply me with the wood I need and sell the extra. A good business practice is to offer something that nobody else is, create a niche for yourself. I live in the poorest county in Ohio, but that doesn't mean that everybody is poor. I get $200 cash for half a chord, and $350 for a full chord. My wood is all split and seasoned for 2 years. I show up in a presentable delivery truck, wearing clean and presentable clothing. We hand stack the wood and clean up any mess when we are done. Most of my clients are doctors, lawyers, professors and such. They don't want bubba down the road in his old crusty pickup wearing his grease covered overalls in their homes. They don't want green freshly split wood either, they want well seasoned wood that is easy to light and burns clean. I keep my client list small as I'm not in it for business, but it works out well for me. So there are two ways to go about making money in anything, quantity, or quality, but not both, you have to choose your battle.
Hard to believe that you can season maple for two years before selling it. Silver maple in this area will get punky after the first year that it dries. I agree that the others will last longer but most of the time they will season in a year if split. I sure wish I could sell wood for your prices. Mine are about half of that--$100 for a half cord and $180 for a full cord. If I raise it higher, they will walk away.
Wood is stacked on pallets and covered from fall to spring. I'm burning some 3 year old maple tonight. Most of my firewood is oak, just the occasional maple and hickory. Normal Bubba in a truck prices are anywhere from $65 to $125 a pickup truck here. But they don't stack and who knows what kind of wood your getting.
Hard maple is much different than soft, silver maple. I've collected some hard maple that stalls out a 22-ton splitter until after it's seasoned in the round for eight months or more. The difference between soft maple and hard maple is huge. I imagine you are processing hard maple, which is really a premium firewood and makes excellent lathe turning stock, furniture, etc.
I have been burning some red maple since the start of burn season. The tree was about 4ft in dia before I got it worked up. Tree was dead. Anyways, I dont consider red maple a very good quality of firewood. My stove eats it. It does burn clean and hot, but it doesnt leave hardly any coals. As a firewood, I use it because it was a freebe and it burns, but I would rate it pretty low, about the same as popular and sourwood on my firewood chart. If I had a chart. I like locust best, with hickory next, then red oaks and white oaks about equal. Equal because red oak is easier to split than white oak, but white oak will burn a little longer. I even have some yellow pine and white pine in my stacks. It all burns
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
I sell about 500 cords a year. I sell quality wood in quantity. 6 cords is a slow week.
I've delivered to everything from shacks to million dollar homes... or as the owners called.. their summer "cottage"!
I don't dress like a hobo, but there's no way I'm getting all dressed up to bring firewood somewhere!
I wear blue jeans, an orange outer coat, work boots, and my Stihl cap. Sometimes I bring along my MS660 Mag, a saw that most homeowners have never seen. They often ask what I paid for it, to which I respond, "Well, if I had to buy it new today, it would run about $1,100 plus sales tax. I need to deliver ten of these firewood loads just to pay for the saw."
One guy's jaw dropped about a foot after I said that.
No need to get puffy there Mr, and I'm not wearing a three piece suit either. A pair of clean every day jeans and a coat or flannel works fine, no holes and clean. What your doing must work for you. The OP was that there is no money in firewood. I cut wood to save myself a couple thousand dollars a winter in heating costs, and sell my excess wood for a couple thousand dollars which is pure profit to high end clients. My point was that there is money in firewood, but you have to figure out what works for you and you area/customer base.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
I think your reading into my post wrong. I just wrote how I do things, nothing more, nothing less.
I don't want to know what I have into it. When I went full time in 2013 I put about 150k into the business.
I don't want to know what I have into it. When I went full time in 2013 I put about 150k into the business.
Tooterbug
New Member
Lol I started by trying to get our prices up where they need to be. I advertised seasoned oak and hickory 200.00 per cord. Guy advertised two spaces below me 135.00 per cord what gives? I will keep it and burn it myself anyway the price has been 150.00 per cord here for as long as I remember but everytime I deliver a cord I always hear thats twice as much as the last guy! I have thought of ordering a cord from this clown just to see for myself
Buy the guys cheep wood, ALL of it so he has no more. Up the price and sell it yourself for what you want. Keep doing that and you won't have competitors. Works for other cash based businesses so I'm sure it will work for you.
Buy the saw, buy another as backup, repair saw, replace chain and bar, furnish truck to beat the crap outa, repair truck as necessary, gas and oil for truck and saw, buy wedges, mauls, sledges etc etc. Have tractor to drag logs out of the woods. Then furnish a place to stack and store wood while it drys. Then there's the labor, cut the wood, split the wood, haul it in and stack it, and cover it then when dry, load it up, haul it and unload it. Pay for insurance and property taxes. Bear in mind the unemployed guy down the street needs money so he's out cutting and selling firewood, undercutting your prices. Then your supposed to keep track of your sales and pay the state its share of sales taxes and timber taxes. All this and just hope you don't have an accident and get hurt.
I own 20 acres of alder, ash, maple, fir (which I rarely cut), and hemlock right in my backyard. Dry wood around here goes for around $165/cord in the summer to around $200 in the winter. I cut and split (by hand) around 10 cords a year. I sell 4 or 5 cords but I think I'd be better off paying my customers to buy their wood elsewhere.
If I didn't simply like cutting wood and enjoy the exercise (its cheaper than Golds Gym) I wouldn't do it. Unfortunately I'm hard headed. How the heck do you guys make any money cutting and selling firewood???? My hats off to ya.
Denny
'72 Chevy, 4wd 3/4t truck (beater)
stihl 031
stihl 032
Kubota L2900
Your doing it all wrong. I get tree company's to bring me there wood for free. All thats left is the cutting, splitting, stacking and selling.
One good saw is all you need, no need for a back up. One splitter and one wheelbarrow and a place to stack and season. No delivery, pick up only.
I have two saws but one would be enough, I have one splitter and several wheelbarrows a dolly (hand truck) all of witch I already have because I produce my own wood for my own heating needs. No need for a maul, wedges, tractor, trailer, insurance or any of that other stuff.
Too late, the guy sold it all 3 years ago. Welcome to the site, we're not all wise guys, just some of us.
I am still burning some of that whiteoak I got in 2015. Altho this winter sure put a dent in it.Too late, the guy sold it all 3 years ago. Welcome to the site, we're not all wise guys, just some of us.
You didn't buy out that guy of all his wood for $135 a cord did you?
jrider
Addicted to ArboristSite
I find it most profitable to keep it simple as well. My setup is a little different than yours but it's still well worth my sweat.
I remember this thread when it started 8 years ago. Nothing in life has changed, except I'm older and fatter. Of course there "IS" money to be made. I make enough to go on 3-4 offshore fishing trips and a couple hunting trips a year. But, I'm retired and UPS pays me more to stay home than I could make by myself selling wood. When my Dad was still alive and in business, he would say, "If I'm going to buy a new truck and hire two more men to process wood, and clear a couple hundred dollars a day. Wouldn't I be better off buying the new truck and a chipper, hiring the 2 new ground men, and a new climber, put on a whole new crew, and clear a couple thousand dollars a day". So, it's not "is" there money in it, but how much. I will cut, split, and sell wood as long as I can pick up my saws and drive. I love the sounds and smells of cutting wood. But, I can make more money selling my old Oak fence board bird and squirrel feeders than I do with the wood.
ChoppyChoppy
Tree Freak
I have very few that choose to pickup vs delivery. Maybe 5%.
I suppose if you're already at the point of buying wood it makes sense to go full pull with it. Few people have setups big enough to haul a few cords or want to make multiple trips.
I've had a few order a cord to pickup and then show up with an S-10 or similar and decide to only take 1/4 cord. A bit irritating because I cut to order, so now I either have to do more work and pick it all up or leave it for others, which for some reason hasn't worked well. The pile whither away somehow and I end up with little of the money.
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