There's no money in selling firewood

[sawinredneck]

I can make decent money at it and I'm not "big time" by any means!
Oak is going for $100plus a rick/face (we sell three rick a cord) plus a delivery fee, plus a stacking fee. $25 to deliver, $10 to stack it.
For the cheap wood I get that from tree services, they drop it off, I move it in the back then cut, split and stack it. Get it for nothing delivered, sell it for $60 a rick. Thats the money maker for me.
The Oak I have to drive 100 miles each way, cut it, haul it out with a min skid steer, load it, haul it home then cut and split it up. I can easily get four to five rick on the trailer with my mini on the back in three hours by myself. Six hours total, then cut to length split and stack it in the same time.
I'm not getting rich, but I am paying my bills and KS is a "no tax state" on firewood so it's all legit.

 

[blackoak]

FWIW I have looked at power splitters and could afford one if I wanted it but wheres the fun in that. Plus they appear to be almost as much work getting the rounds onto the splitter as simply swinging a maul. I'd bet I could outsplit a power splitter with my splitting maul. after all most of my wood is alder although right now I'm working on some 4 foot daimeter fir rounds between 14" and 20" thick. its all good

I thought the same thing about out splitting a power splitter by hand.......I did it for about 10 minutes. Depending on what condition your in you may out split one for 20 minutes after that the power splitter will win. I can use my power splitter all day, but I sure can't swing a maul all day.

 

[treeman82]

I sell a couple cords of wood each year, but never more than 5 cords.. so I buy it off a friend and re-sell. It's only to my good clients for the most part.

I wouldn't mind selling wood, if I had a good situation. The guy I rent space from would charge me more money each month if I started dropping wood there for myself, plus there's already somebody on the property who is selling wood, so I wouldn't want to have any problems with keeping wood separate.

I'd love to keep about 20 cords for sale, however... if I was to make 20 cords of wood, I'd have to pay at least another $50 - $100 per month for storage. So that would be $600 - $1,000 for the year or 3 - 5 cords. Then there's the money to pay out for the labor just to split it... 20 cords should be roughly 8 man days, or $1,500... there goes another 7 cords, then I have to drop it off with the truck, so fuel will cost me roughly another cord of wood, maybe more... beating on the saws, equipment, so forth, and so on. When I do my jobs, there's almost always a neighbor, or a friend of mine close by who wants the wood. I'd rather give it to them, than haul it back to the yard burning up more fuel. 1 load of wood isn't the end of the world, but 2 or 3 loads when the job is 45 min away from the yard kills a lot of time.

I told some guys this past season who were just getting into the wood business to put about 5 - 10 cords off to the side until after the new year... price goes up because supply goes down. They sold about 20 something cords, but they sold out EVERYTHING before Christmas. Once a year I seem to get a call from a new person... it's February, we need wood, and our normal guy is out... ok, $300 - $500, no problem, we need it and you can get it. That's the type of situation I'd like to get myself set up for, but in the end I'd rather just get rid of the wood close to the job.

 

[dhamblet]

I thought the same thing about out splitting a power splitter by hand.......I did it for about 10 minutes. Depending on what condition your in you may out split one for 20 minutes after that the power splitter will win. I can use my power splitter all day, but I sure can't swing a maul all day.

It all depends on what kind of wood your working with. Out here on the Northwest coast its mostly straight grained alder up to 24 inches which splits like nothing. Many pieces can easily be split on their side by maul with a golf swing or with one hand and a heavy axe. Easier than picking it up to set it on a splitter. I just split it where it lays rather than picking it up and carrying it to the splitter. Then I shove it into a pile with the tractor or scoop it up in the bucket. Now nutwood or fruitwood would be an entirely different situation. I once had some holly that absolutely could not be split without a precut, it was like a block of rubber. ` For it I would have liked a splitter.

 

[23putts]

My grandfather always said it was a poor mans living. $105 a cord for seasoned or green oak here in southern MO.

 

[farm girl]

In the Dayton, OH area a cord of wood is bringing $120 to $150. That is for ash and the other hardwoods.

We thought about selling some of our wood but you have to sell all the good wood and then we would be burning the softer and poorer wood. Have to fire the stove more and get less heat. We might sell a cord or two next year to buy fuel oil for our furnace.

 

[Wood Doctor]

In the Dayton, OH area a cord of wood is bringing $120 to $150. That is for ash and the other hardwoods.

We thought about selling some of our wood but you have to sell all the good wood and then we would be burning the softer and poorer wood. Have to fire the stove more and get less heat. We might sell a cord or two next year to buy fuel oil for our furnace.

+1. $100 a mounded up truckload here, which equates to about the same price. You end up selling the good wood to the customers to keep them happy and burning in your own stove whatever they don't want.

That gets old fast. Farm girl has got it right. :agree2:

 

[Coldfront]

Around here anyone who is out of work and has a pickup and a saw is selling firewood, the price is beat down to about $50 for a pickup load of split oak, but it's not seasoned. People with owb's don't care. Like I have always said if you want money you would be better off $ per hour flipping burgers at Mcdonalds.

 

[alderman]

With access to 60 acres of forest there's always something to cut.

I'm not in it for the money, but it does keep me in chainsaw money and the exercise is a plus.

 

[willt1981]

i think if you have to buy all the things to run a firewood business just to sell a few cords a year then its crazy. but for me it seems to work out well. theres not much going on in farming from nov. - mar. except for feeding cattle in the morning and evening. i have a tractor for other farming activities. i have a saw for clearing pasture and logging. i have a truck for general farming. i have 60 acres of land im clearing for cattle pasture so i have all the free wood i want. the only specality item in my operation is the splitter. and to be fair people buy splitters to split less than my dad and i did by hand for our houses before i started selling. selling wood i make enough to pay my bills and house payment in the months that i listed. it works great for me. but.... if i had to buy a $30,000 tractor to skid out my wood, a $1000 saw to cut it, a $1500 splitter to split it and a $5000 truck to haul it (without a dump) to make around $10,000 a year i wouldnt do it. like i said - it falls in with everything else im doing and works well. i think folks should find their scale and try to equip themselves from there.

 

[Patrick62]

Quite right

In all fairness there is little to be gained.

If you like working like a fool, then it is a interesting way to turn time and effort into $. If ya blow a bunch of $$ on equipment then it don't pay so well.

I have sold about 80 cd's this year, and with any luck will do more next year.

The cost of processing and delivering wood, with labor figured at $12 hour, I am clearing around $10 per cord.... which is nothing.

-Pat

 

[CLEARVIEW TREE]

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

I only bring wood home when i am payed to remove it! Then when i sell wood, i get cash. I sell to high end clients who want a good product and i get payed well for it. A friend owns a fireplace store and who do you think he sends his firewood referalls to????

 

[STLfirewood]

It all depends on who you sell to. I deliver once a week to restaurants. They buy almost 1 1/2 to 2 cord a week. I can cut and deliver to them in 2 days total time. I have to drive 115 miles round trip on the delivery. I get $390 a cord for this. So o me that is making money. It's not making me rich but it's steady work that is there every week of the year. Around here you can get $300 a cord delivered and stacked pretty easy.. Some people get more then that. I have another firewood seller that wants to buy some seasoned wood. I told him $270 a cord. He wanted it cheaper but I won't sell it cheaper then that. He is going to buy it anyway. He wants 3 cords this week anyway. He would like more but I have to make sure I have enough to make it through the winter and enough supply for my restaurants. If I had to sell wood for $105-160 a cord I don't think I would do it. There is a lot of time and money in the right equipment.

Scott

 

[fishercat]

i don't think it's worth the money.

i just do it because i have plenty of wood,i burn as well,it relaxes me,it pisses the neighbors off,it's an excuse to buy more equipment,

 

[tomtrees58]

well its a quick $25'000.00 for me tom trees

this is not 1/2 of it

 

[tomtrees58]

 

[Curlycherry1]

Bingo.
I did the math on this a few years ago. It's beer money at best, unless you go big time.

That about sums it up. Go big or go home. Here is a Google Earth image of the family operation that my brother now runs. He is on track to sell well over 1800 face cords. He has over $150K in equipment and that is just to process wood. He buys all his logs from loggers. There is no money to be made fetching it from the woods when there are so many loggers around.

Green roofed shed is where the Timberwolf processor is at. The red thing near it is a 90 Hp Kubota. Those are logs piled parallel with the road that runs by the green roofed shed. Many of those log piles are at ~30' tall. As tall as a loader can get them. The other rectangles in the pictures are piles of processed firewood. The pile near the paved road towards the top left is ~400-450 face cord.

 

[KMB]

Wow. Some of y'all have some pretty impressive firewood operations.

Kevin

 

[dhamblet]

Very impressive operations

Wow. Some of y'all have some pretty impressive firewood operations.
Kevin

Exactly my thought, kinda puts my 10 cord stacks to shame. Very impressive. Must be able to get good prices for it rather than the measily $150-200 we get around here.

I'd be curious how you cure and measure it for sale, up in Minnesota do you stack it and let it dry for a year then measure cords out of the stack?

In New York, where its just piled up how do you delineate a cord or do you simply sell it by the truckload?

 

[gallegosmike]

Wow, that is ALOT of wood! I wish we (New Mexico) got the rain to support that kind of wood growth! Just tiny scrub tree's for most of the state. Ive got to cut 25-30 trees to get about 3/4 of a cord.