Firewood You Cut, How Much$$$

[forcedintoit]

I have a neighbor that has had his woods logged off and he wants to sell the tops. how much do you pay for good hardwood tops. by the top or the cord and how much?

 

[maplemeister]

I would take a good look at the tops before jumping in. Around here, what is left for tops after a log job consists of a little bit of 3" to 6" limb wood and a lot of brush to work around. Usually you end up doing a whole lot of tops before you come up with a cord of wood because it's mostly small stuff, and not very straight. I would try to find a deal on log length delivered to my house before I'd pay someone to cut up and clean up their tops. Just one man's opinion but I think it's one off the hardest routes out there to get a cord of wood.

Maplemeister.

 

[LAH]

Since selling the farm and moving I can understand how hard it could be to find firewood. Still the cutting of tops can be a lot of work. I've cut them on the hillsides so I know. The only advantage, the tops are normally clean and you can cut all day without sharping the chain. But it's slow work to fill a pickup.

 

[bore_pig]

He should just be happy to find someone willing to do the cleanup for free.

 

[TreePointer]

It's difficult to pay for treetops because there's usually a lot of labor involved. As others have stated, it also depends on the species and ease of access to the wood.

Consider what you would pay for a load of unsplit, unseasoned rounds delivered to your home. Now deduct from that price what you would provide in labor, saw time, fuel, oil, and other equipment if you harvested and transported those treetops yourself.

It's not uncommon for some owners around here to grant the treetops if you provide them with a small portion of the firewood.

 

[epicklein22]

Go like 3 truck loads for you compared to one for him. If he doesn't burn, tell him he can sell the rounds as is.

As others have said, working a ex-logging site is good and bad. Lots of wood to be had, but the big stuff is mostly likely gone or a muddy mess.

 

[SWI Don]

I cut tops for free. When I have cleaned up behind loggers it's always been walnut so they are pretty picky. Lots of 12" plus wood because of defects. One place I cleaned up the landing after they hauled off the logs. Trims off of the ends and logs that didn't look as good when they were loading as they did in the bush.

How about 5-10% of going seasoned cord price depending on how big the stuff is.

Don

 

[windthrown]

He should just be happy to find someone willing to do the cleanup for free.

:agree2:

Yep. I get that kind of stuff here for free. That stuff is in slash piles.

Funny thing around here is that people want to do what I call seasoned cordwood math. They reflect the price of seasoned cordwood that they see advertized in the paper back to what they have in slash and greenwood. Cordwood is already cut, seasoned, and typically delivered, stacked and ready to burn. So say wood is going for $150 a cord, Joe small woodlot owner thinks that he can get $150 a cord for slash and trashwood. Just ain't the same.

 

[indiansprings]

I cut and keep 10 full cords and give the landowner a cord. In my area
tops consist of excellent firewood, oak ranging from 26" down, and there's usually a huge butt pile and cull log pile. So far on the place we are cutting on now we have cut 40+ rick (20 cords) and haven't got through the cull logs and butts. It's been very easy cutting. We use a tractor and loader to pull tops to a
central location to cut and split. It keeps the mess in one place and keeps us from cutting on steep terrain.

 

[super3]

He should just be happy to find someone willing to do the cleanup for free.

Yep!

 

[BryanSchamber]

Around here most property owners are willing to let you go in and clean up tops as long as you respect their property. It is a lot of work cleaning up tops. The logging trail usually consists of a few hundred saplings that get run over by the skidder. They make good tire busters. Talk obout ruining your hauling. I would try to steer away from paying unless your wood picking is getting real slim. Just my thoughts for what it's worth.

 

[STLfirewood]

My supplier pays $2 a rank($6 a cord) for tops he cuts. I usually get them for free. I wouldn't pay much.

Scott

 

[thejdman04]

I wouldnt pay much at all, and Id take what I could (practical) and agree to pile the real small stuff, twigs in a pile.

 

[Brushwacker]

Its not economicle to pay for wood that way. If you get it free and sell it after processing it you make McDonalds wages (give or take a little) ifall goes well. Have an accident or mishap with your chainsaw or truck and you might be cutting wood for penny's a day for a while figuring in expenses.
If wood is hard to come by and your cutting for your own use you may have to offer something if you want the wood. I wouldn't go more then 10 to $20 a cord depending how easy it was to work up if I couldn;t find free wood, or the shares deal 1 of 10 loads for the owner or something similar.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

The lot near my house was "logged"...they went in looking for 1st growth trees and were dissapointed, bailded out. Lots of nice trees, we have been dragging them off the hill, workin' 'em up...lots of nice wood.But, landowner didn't charge me..just asked me not to make a mess.

 

[savageactor7]

Tops are OK when they're free...and they usually are or were. Mostly cause landowners appreciated the land being cleaned up after logging. Tops are labor intensive per PU load.

But that's changing too. Up here we have a co energy plant that'll buy wood chips so now there are less tops left over.