You and I agree on ethics
....BUT, I wouldnt have let the guy get away with it...I would have been to his place with a tape measure and we would have "talked" about the wood he was "missing/shorted"....
Have Orders For 17 Cords!
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You and I agree on ethics
....BUT, I wouldnt have let the guy get away with it...I would have been to his place with a tape measure and we would have "talked" about the wood he was "missing/shorted"....ms310
ArboristSite Operative
You and I agree on ethics
Yes, I probably should have, but it was one of those days that i just had a lot going, and wanted to just deal with it and move on..
Cambium
ArboristSite Guru
I stack them for 4 reasons::
1. Just in case I decide to sell them seasoned.
2. Need to make room in my small area of yard
3. In case customer wants to come by and pick up or take a look at what they are buying.
4. To keep things looking neat, keep wood off the ground and clean of rains, muds & bugs
It only takes me 30 minutes to stack 1/2 cord..the time working on the wood at home is not a big factor for me...
I do manual labor full time...and I'd rather be doing it at my home.
Nothing like a midday nap.
1. Just in case I decide to sell them seasoned.
2. Need to make room in my small area of yard
3. In case customer wants to come by and pick up or take a look at what they are buying.
4. To keep things looking neat, keep wood off the ground and clean of rains, muds & bugs
It only takes me 30 minutes to stack 1/2 cord..the time working on the wood at home is not a big factor for me...
I do manual labor full time...and I'd rather be doing it at my home.
Nothing like a midday nap. 
blackdiesel
ArboristSite Operative
If you and another guy are loading 2 cord in 3o minutes (as you stated in earlier post). Are we talking full cords 4x4x8 or are you talking face cord one stack of wood 4x8?
if 2 people cant load 2 FULL cords in 30 minutes....they must be doing alot of drinking in between each throwing motion....remeber its allready split and stacked....
blackdiesel
ArboristSite Operative
Do you know how big of truck it takes to haul 2 cords of unstacked wood? Your going to be throwing wood over 4' side boards. I guess I just needed to hire some of you big o boys from up north to load wood for me and sell my conveyor.
We dont know the detailes...My dump trailer will hold 2 cords if lightly stacked and 2.25 if hand stacked....so yes i know how big of a truck it would take...and what? the back of trucks dont open any more?....
Locust Cutter
Sawing for Sanity
I stack them for 4 reasons::
1. Just in case I decide to sell them seasoned.
2. Need to make room in my small area of yard
3. In case customer wants to come by and pick up or take a look at what they are buying.
4. To keep things looking neat, keep wood off the ground and clean of rains, mud & bugs
:agree2:
I stack here in Kansas for multiple reasons:
1. I stack much better, neater and tighter than a lot of 'city husbands' do and that makes their wive's (financial decision makers) happier with the overall product.
2. There's absolutely NO question on how much was delivered -vs-paid for.
3. The exercise keeps the A.F. happy with me.
However I also have to stack it in my lot after it's split for curing purposes, as it's hard to convince a lot of customers to take delivery of the wood before the first snowflake of the season falls,...
Ramrod48's right about the blood money part and about not quitting your day job; I started with a 1/2 ton truck, delivering a face cord at a time. I'm getting close to buying the goose-neck trailer that I want for deliveries and procurement (and hauling tractors, hay, 4-wheelers, scrap steel, building materials,etc.) Until I buy the trailer, I'm renting a 20' sided/gated 2 axle utility locally. I rent it when I'm making multiple deliveries or picking up large quantities that I've cut an piled for future pickup. Over a weekend the price is $83. Now during that time I will get at least 3 loadings out of the trailer, (about 2.75 full cords ea) doing it that way it is a lot more efficient and costs me a fraction of what it used to cost to acquire and then sell my firewood.
I wont say that I haven't made money, I've paid for some nice equipment, effectively nullified the costs for my personal use wood and gotten out of a few of life's D'oh! moments. I've also had to work my :censored: off, often in weather that I didn't want to be working or driving in. But until I have the trailer, a tractor and eventually a wood processor (when I'm a bit older and retire from Uncle Sam and have to actually declare a business,...) I will still be carrying too' much overhead between inefficient labor, maintenance and fuel to really make any type of 'living' doing it part time. If you wanna get full time money you either have to start slow and build up to it, or do it all-out, full afterburner,straight out of the gate if you want to have any chance of not getting financially (or possibly physically) hurt. Find what you're comfortable with, make sure that the family supports your desired avenue of supporting them and have fun an be safe. One more customer in a pinch isn't worth sawing (or splitting) tired and sloppy and having a serious accident as a result. You just have to know your limitations (whatever yours may be). Best of luck on your decisions and their respective outcome.:greenchainsaw:
Cambium
ArboristSite Guru
Excellent advice all around. Confirmed a delivery of 3 cords today for this week.. Giving my delivery guy just his normal hourly pay (he's a contractor) $35 an hour...Takes us 2 hours I'll throw him $80 bucks.
STLfirewood
Addicted to ArboristSite
If you don't mind me asking what are you getting a cord for wood.
Scott
Scott
Cambium
ArboristSite Guru
April 1 - August 31 - $130 cord delivered. $110 picked up.(unseasoned)
Sept. 1 - March 31 - $190 cord delivered. $170 picked up.(Seasoned)
Locust Cutter
Sawing for Sanity
Thats about right from KS. I'm spliiting the difference there at $180/full cord delivered. At least for mixed seasoned hardwood. Straight premium goes higher. And if I have to deliver when the roads are icy it's 3x face value, (and I've had plenty of takers unfortunately).
Cambium
ArboristSite Guru
Thats about right from KS. I'm spliiting the difference there at $180/full cord delivered. At least for mixed seasoned hardwood. Straight premium goes higher. And if I have to deliver when the roads are icy it's 3x face value, (and I've had plenty of takers unfortunately).
People around here sell it for $250 a cord which is INSANE! And I know a nursery farm whom sell it for $375 a cord! HOW!!! That should be illegal. Wood gauging?
ms310
ArboristSite Operative
I always thought Michigan prices were low, how can you make any money at 37.5 a face cord or 110 a cord, that is really cheap, no wonder you are selling so much. Must be prices are lower out there? I feel bad lowering my price to 165 delivered in the summer for a cord that is a discount of twenty dollars.
svon89
ArboristSite Operative
I am right over the border in RI, and I have seen the state truck police with several trucks hauling firewood recently. Seems like they are cracking down on overloaded trucks. During the flooding my way the CT truck police were sitting on the only way into CT from Westerly, they had lots of business, never saw them without a truck pulled over.
Business will pick up in the trades, it may take time. Oil prices will probably go up, so firewood prices will follow, but do you have a guaranteed place to get wood? How many cord do you already have seasoned? How many will not be ready until next year? Better off to keep the day job unless you can go BIG, but even then you have the equipment outlay...
Plus if we have a good hurricane building will pick up. Most of the coastal homes have insurance and would have the ability to rebuild, unlike many who got caught by the flooding.
Business will pick up in the trades, it may take time. Oil prices will probably go up, so firewood prices will follow, but do you have a guaranteed place to get wood? How many cord do you already have seasoned? How many will not be ready until next year? Better off to keep the day job unless you can go BIG, but even then you have the equipment outlay...
Plus if we have a good hurricane building will pick up. Most of the coastal homes have insurance and would have the ability to rebuild, unlike many who got caught by the flooding.
STLfirewood
Addicted to ArboristSite
You need to increase your price. Wouldn;t you rather sell 20 cords for $250 then 40 cords for $125? I know I would. If you sell out of wood and you have a demand then you are to cheap. My dad is old school. He thinks I'm nuts when I want to increase the price $10 a cord or even a more. But we call sell out every year so I'm still to cheap at $300 a cord. When you don't sell out you know the price is just about out.
Scott
Cambium
ArboristSite Guru
1. Its not seasoned. Nobody is going to pay 200-250 for unseasoned wood.
2. Its summer..nobody thinking about staying warm..
3. I'd rather sell at 130 than collect cans on street..
I have an open mind so all comments welcome and I always consider them.
Of course I rather get 250 a cord.
Locust Cutter
Sawing for Sanity
1. Its not seasoned. Nobody is going to pay 200-250 for unseasoned wood.
2. Its summer..nobody thinking about staying warm..
3. I'd rather sell at 130 than collect cans on street..
I have an open mind so all comments welcome and I always consider them.
Of course I rather get 250 a cord.
$1,000.00/Cord would be awesome, but the price will never reflect the amount of effort required to provide the finished product and the reality of the market is what it is:agree2:.
STLfirewood
Addicted to ArboristSite
Sorry if that came across wrong. You said that some people were getting $250 and a wood nursery was getting $375. That's a big difference between them and you.
Scott
Scott
fireemt799
ArboristSite Member
If you are going to turn this into a full time business i would highly suggest getting a truck and doing your own deliveries. The two biggest advantages to this is you can talk with your customers and develop them into a long term repeat customer and the second is no one is going to care as much as you will about your customers when delivering the wood if you hire someone to deliver its just a check to them. I do 200 plus cords a year and do all the cutting splitting and delivering myself. If you have to hire someone to help with splitting and stacking. You have to think of it as a business and run it as such you never get a second chance to make a first impression and repeat customers is what its all about it is said 20% of your customers will provide 80% of your business. Its alot nicer to have 20 repeat customers that buy 5 cords a year than trying to figure out how to sell the 100 cords you have sitting there. A happy customer might refer you to their friends and family but i can guarantee an unhappy customer will tell everyone they can.
