firewood processing business?

[Jon E]

I've been having some thoughts about a small part-time business plan and thought I would run it by some of you.

Basically, my idea would be to process firewood. But not in the way you'd expect - I'm not planning on buying or selling wood, just the processing service. I don't have the cash or financing ability to look for a small portable processor yet, so it would be me, my TW splitter, a chainsaw or two, and some decent gloves. I would try to offer just splitting and piling for starters. Basically, if you have a large pile of rounds, or a tree you just took down, I will come to you, split the wood, pile it up and leave. I think I would also be willing to offer stacking, pile moving, and maybe even cutting tree-length or truck-length logs into rounds and then split them for you.

The idea would be to charge around $20 to $30 an hour for this. Basically, someone who either would have to rent a splitter, can't swing a maul anymore, or otherwise doesn't have the time or ability to process their own firewood.

Any thoughts? I don't want to turn this into a full-time business but was wondering if this concept might be marketable at all? This time of year it seems impossible to rent a splitter unless you plan it well in advance.

 

[1harlowr]

$20-$30/hr wouldn't pay the cost of wear and tear on your equipment. Then you have fuel, chains (yard trees = metal), travel time etc. Won't be any money left over to pay yourself.
If you would increase your hourly rate and find several hours of work at one site, might be able to justify it. If you were splitting an hour here and an hour next place, wouldn't be profitable. Most homeowners will have a cord or so to split and they won't pay travel time.

 

[Butch(OH)]

I dunno? Around here a person can have a full cord delivered and dumped for 1 C-note. Now am I going to pay someone to cut up my trees and have the same amount in a cord? prolly not. Of course $200 cords delivered will make for different calculations as will $3.50 fuel oil as people to look for wood that otherwise would not fool with a fire. Any way you go at it manualy you are going to be working very hard for a small margin. But remember one thing about all processors except for maybe the very top of the heap. They are not designed to process the knots, crotches etc found in your every day fence row and yard tree. They will slam out cords when fed "processor grade" logs but but watch them burp, belch and fart when they get to a crotch or an Elm stem to play with. A steady supply of raw stock of quality to keep a processor banging out cords is a problem for most who take a dive in that direction. Good luck with however you choose to go.

 

[Streblerm]

I would be more inclined to pay someone to split a set amount of wood for a price, rather than pay someone by the hour.

A person who gets paid by the hour is an "employee" and the "employer" is then responsible to oversee and make sure they are getting their money's worth.

Somebody who is paid to do one job is a "contractor". The onus is on the contractor to provide the agreed service at the agreed price.

I am wary of any "contractor" wanting to be paid by the hour. I have had some bad experiences with painters who wanted more money for a second coat after the first coat didn't hide, carpenters who had to make a trip to home depot because they didn't have the right tools/materials and electricians who didn't understand code resulting in rework. I didn't pay any of those people extra money to complete the jobs. I actually refused to pay until the jobs were complete.

In your position, should your saw or splitter develop a problem, I would be reluctant to pay you to go and fix it. That is a risk is yours as the business owner.

To arrive at what you should charge I would take into account how long it would take you to split and stack a set amount of wood. Let's say you can split and stack one "rick" per hour. I think a rick would be an appropriate unit of measurement for splitting as it takes the same time to split wood whether it is 16" or 24" long. Then you factor what you want to make per hour. Let's say $20 per hour. You could easily burn up a gallon of fuel per hour so let's add $3 there. This gets a little tricky but you should try and figure out how hours your splitter will run before it wears out. Let's assume your splitter was $2000 and it will run for 500hrs before it is worn out. That works out to $4 per hour. You want to pay for the splitter before it wears out, so let's double that.

So, using my example, I would charge a minimum of $30 per rick if it didn't involve any cutting. If you had to cut and move the wood any significant distance, I would apply the same logic to that aspect.

My numbers could be off, but some sort of analysis of any sort of business venture is absolutely necessary. If you bid too low, both you and your customer will be unsatisfied in the end. Personally I would rather sit at home and drink beer than work my ass of just to piss someone off.

 

[branchbuzzer]

I would be more inclined to pay someone to split a set amount of wood for a price, rather than pay someone by the hour.

Yep, it's gotta be done flat rate, and it has to work out that it's going to cost your customer substantially less than your area's market price. Remember, that market price is for seasoned wood, not the green stuff that you are processing for them. I wouldn't expect anyone to pay more than half what the going rate is for high grade hardwood per cord. Remember, it's their wood, not something you brought them.

I would think the only way you could make it work is by having low overhead, i.e. splitting by hand. I can usually split a face cord in either side of a half-hour depending on the type of wood, so that would eliminate the splitter costs, but one certainly couldn't do that all day. Most I've ever done in a day was about 4 full cords or so. If someone was going to pay for a splitter ( i.e. YOU with a splitter ) they'd probably rather rent one ( which they could do for a flat rate and use it the whole day ). Your potential customer is probably going to look at these options before blindly hiring you at $20 per hour, so you have to be a much better alternative.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

I posted an ad in Craigslist a month or so ago advertising firewood processing and got no takers. My price was $25/hr. I figured I ended up in a "craigslist laughs" thread on some firewood forum someplace.

Ian

 

[branchbuzzer]

I posted an ad in Craigslist a month or so ago advertising firewood processing and got no takers. My price was $25/hr. I figured I ended up in a "craigslist laughs" thread on some firewood forum someplace.

Ian

Just out of curiosity, how much wood were you thinking you could process per hour?

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Depends on what you mean by "process". Standing tree to stacked firewood or a pile of rounds into a pile of firewood or anything in between. My splitter has an 8 second cycle time but no 4 way.

Ian

 

[branchbuzzer]

Depends on what you mean by "process". Standing tree to stacked firewood or a pile of rounds into a pile of firewood or anything in between. My splitter has an 8 second cycle time but no 4 way.

Ian

Well, lets say your customer had ready to split rounds for starters, and you split and stack.

The fact that we're saying "it depends" is I think why charging by the hour isn't a good idea. Since the customer probably has no idea how long it's going to take, and is going to be standing over your shoulder to see if you're slacking the whole time, makes most people real leery of an hourly rate.

FWIW, I've had a flat rate ad going for a few weeks now ( with no set price, just giving them the option ) and gotten zero hits, but wood is real cheap here now.


and P.S. : Thank a vet today, and use the day to remember that they appreciate those thanks even more when it's just a normal day of the year.

 

[newb]

One of the services I offer is on site wood splitting. I charge $85 the first hour and $65 every hour after payable in half hours, that's my splitter and 2 guys. I usually get 2 or 3 calls a year. We just did a job last week that took 9 hours and we split and stacked 7 cords of wood. There out there Pete

 

[branchbuzzer]

One of the services I offer is on site wood splitting. I charge $85 the first hour and $65 every hour after payable in half hours, that's my splitter and 2 guys. I usually get 2 or 3 calls a year. We just did a job last week that took 9 hours and we split and stacked 7 cords of wood. There out there Pete

So, if my math is correct, it ended up costing $29 per face, or $87 per cord, which is why it's gotta be priced according to your market. I don't think I could charge that here with seasoned oak going for $130 per cord.

 

[Marc]

Not at $20-$30 an hour. I pay my carpenter that much, and he does good work. Firewood processing involves much less skill.

 

[D&B Mack]

Not at $20-$30 an hour. I pay my carpenter that much, and he does good work. Firewood processing involves much less skill.

But he has to pay for a larger piece of equipment operating cost.

 

[branchbuzzer]

I had came up with a figure of $20 per face as a starting point in my head, but with the idea that I'd have to go out, see what they have and then give them a quote. It might be an easy green oak, it might be hickory that's been bucked and sitting for two years.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

Well, lets say your customer had ready to split rounds for starters, and you split and stack.

The fact that we're saying "it depends" is I think why charging by the hour isn't a good idea. Since the customer probably has no idea how long it's going to take, and is going to be standing over your shoulder to see if you're slacking the whole time, makes most people real leery of an hourly rate.

From a pile of rounds that I don't have to noodle down to lift, to a stack of firewood, I'm guessing 90 minutes, but I've never timed myself. My splitter is pretty quick.

I think the fact that we're saying "it depends" is exactly why we should charge by the hour. If you say $40/cord and it's a pile of nice straight rounds at the stacking site, you're good. If the fellow has acreage and tells you that he wants a cord of elm, but don't cut any saw logs, or only cut the dead and you have to go out on his back 40 to find it, you're screwed.

The point I'm getting at is that what it takes to process a cord can be a short couple hours or a full day of hard labor depending on the situation.

Ian

Edit... when I put my ad on craig's list, in my mind, I had a client that had a saw but no splitter and wanted help. I would split and he would stack.

 

[branchbuzzer]

Or, how 'bout this for a plan? I go into the bank, borrow say $10,000 ( I know, it's already looking a bit shaky, isn't it...) then buy out every CL schmo until I've got the market absolutely cornered. Then, in January, I start selling for $100 a face cord....maybe $200! (Evil laugh.....) :biggrinbounce2:

Well, maybe not.

Or , how about this? I go into the bank, steal say $10,000 ....

 

[branchbuzzer]

The point I'm getting at is that what it takes to process a cord can be a short couple hours or a full day of hard labor depending on the situation.

Right, which is why I wanted to do it flat rate but not really give them a firm price, I'd come out and then quote the job. Either way, if the price of delivered seasoned wood in your area is low, you don't have much wiggle room.

I think one way it could be done is, if you have a normal buyer that trusts you, you can offer the option to them during a delivery. They already know you, you can look for trees they might not see on their own property, you're not making an extra trip just to give them a quote, etc.

 

[Jon E]

What I had in mind was working for someone who bought a truckload of tree length wood, or had a couple of trees knocked down in their yard. This person would have a saw and be able to cut the wood into rounds. Ordinarily they would rent a splitter or split by hand, and decided that they'd be better off watching football on TV while someone else did the heavy work.

I'm not interested in running a chainsaw for someone else, unless it was to noodle down something big, or trim a piece too long. I'm definitely not going to cut any trees down or head out in the woods to cut for someone.

Another idea - get calls from a logger who has a bunch of large or irregular pieces on a landing that he can't sell, doesn't want to move them, so process right there.

I'm not looking to make big bucks here - do what I want to do, big or small, put some mad money in my pocket.

 

[branchbuzzer]

I'm not interested in running a chainsaw for someone else

But that's the fun part, isn't it?

You'd probably be able to find some CAD's on here who would pay you to run your 361

 

[woodhounder]

But that's the fun part, isn't it?

You'd probably be able to find some CAD's on here who would pay you to run your 361

Yes, definitly the fun part! :chainsawguy: