What Do You Believe Is The Cost For 1 Cord Of Firewood ?

[cantoo]

If you pay nothing for the trees, no insurance and no taxes then yes you likely could be less than $50 per cord. I get trees from behind my house and don't have to pay for the trees. I have way more equipment than I actually need to get the trees into my stove. Lots of guys here use lawn mowers and I bet their cost of a cord is less than $50.
If I wanted to heat my house as cheaply as possible then I could use a $200 lawnmower, $25 trailer and split it with an axe. But I don't, I like cutting wood so I want to make it as easy as possible and as fun as possible so I have all the toys to do it. I will never save enough heating with wood to pay for half of the toys I have. PS, I don't drink or smoke.

 

[muddstopper]

My free firewood that I am working up now has cost me, so far, $40 in gas for the truck, About $3 gas for the saw, another $10, for the splitter. I also paid my grandkids, $200 for helping me split it and another $30 for helping stack. Thats $283. I got about 6 cords of that free wood. So I guess my cost for my free wood would be 283/6=$47.16 cord. I havent added anything for my truck or trailer or the saw, besides gas, and I havent added anything for my labor. Where my saving comes in is in my heating bill. Heating with Elec would be about$350 month, with wood my elect bill drops about $150 month. I heat for minimum of 4 months with wood, sometimes 5 months. So thats a $600 savings per year. 6 cords will heat my house for almost 2 years so My Free wood, that has actually cost me $283 will save me about $917. I guess if you can save more money than you spend, then the cost of the wood is really free after all. Or,,,,,, would that be considered a ROI.

 

[Jimbo209]

Great thread.
I'm Transitioning from firewood hack to part time tree worker and firewood sales
I'm selling a 6*4 stacked trailer of jarrah that I scrounge/get delivered free cut with circular drop saw $150au.
Costing about including diesel $30-$40 as i get more tools.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

After reading this thread a couple of times it appears that the minimum cost for lower end wood or soft wood is about $125 a cord. The original question was what would it cost if you paid for every step of the operation from tree to customer's fireplace. I conclude that the average cost would be closer to $200 per cord. As several hobbyist have mentioned is that they do it for several personal reasons and not the money. I can easily make 300 percent more dollars per year working construction, but at the cost of my health and body. So I continues to work in harsh environment sometimes, but sometimes have the most beautiful scenery possible with long physical demanding days. However I have had made excellent financial years, but just not always. Thanks

 

[FLRA_Dave]

Just thought I'd add that's it's probably better to look at what your annual costs to operate are and how many cord you would need to sell in order to break even.

For me... My costs (insurance, equipment payments, fuel...) will be about $40,000 for 2016. That's just to operate... forget paying myself. I sell $210/cord delivered which means I would have to sell 190 cord to break even. I will only sell about 100 cord this year

So that comes out to a cost of $210/cord if I could sell 190 cord???

After 190 cord I get to start to put money in my pocket, lol!

 

[Guswhit]

You can only declare a loss so many years in a row, unless you're the guberment.

 

[Ted Jenkins]

Dave I am actually surprised at how your numbers are nearly exact to my numbers. For sure you operate quite a distance from California, but cost are similar. I spend a minimum of $20,000 per year regardless if I sell any wood or not. Last year was pretty awful because of a requirement review with the guberment. So because of past investment it is pretty hard to walk away with out any chance to recover. Thanks

 

[jrider]

You guys must have a lot of equipment

 

[FLRA_Dave]

Most of it is in my signature. Looking into getting a Blockbuster 14-12 as well. I only do this part time/nights/weekends so I need equipment to get it done faster. I also get nearly all of my wood from outside properties.

 

[moondoggie]

I pay on average $50 a cord for logs to be dumped in the wood lot. I then pay a guy $50 to move the logs i cut, split the wood with me on my hydraulic splitter, stack the wood in the trailer, deliver the wood. If we stack at the customers he gets $50. If we throw it out he gets $40. I figure $20 for gas for delivery. $3 for splitter gas. Who knows about chains, mix, bar oil, files, etc etc. I sell a cord for $225 dumped $250 stacked. All hardwood no poplar. I double my money if there are no flats or other trouble. I am paying for hot water but no vacations here.