Tips on burning unseasoned wood

[ChoppyChoppy]

At those prices, if you had to buy your wood, I don't know why you would heat with wood, with the current price, I beleive you could easily heat cheaper with LP, or fuel oil, without a doubt with Natural.

Wood is much cheaper.

A cord f birch is about 170 gals hho. At 3/gal t hats about $500.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

It must be a good market too if you can get 375 for a cord of wood. Around here a face cord is 75 so 225 for a cord of dried hard wood. A lot of people deliver for free if you buy 2 face cord.

It's winter 6+ months.

 

[lknchoppers]

Not sure how it'd be the same amount of work?

Logs, processor, truck

Logs, processor, vented FIBC bags, 6+ months, truck.

For me to sell green wood I go over to my piles that have been split for next year and load it, I do not have time to split anything at the moment. I'm a one man operation doing this nights and weekends, with that kind of restriction on my time I load one evening 2 cords then deliver the next evening and then repeat. When the weekend comes, I load up and head out, unload, dump, stack and head back, by 4pm I'm back cracking a beer hopefully or working on something that needs maintenance or is broken. I sell a little less firewood this way but I have no people to pay, to wait on, get hurt, don't show up, etc. I keep it simple. When I retire and can go more fulltime things may change. We have entirely two different operations where yours is much bigger.

 

[lknchoppers]

It must be a good market too if you can get 375 for a cord of wood. Around here a face cord is 75 so 225 for a cord of dried hard wood. A lot of people deliver for free if you buy 2 face cord.

I'm surprised the prices in NY on firewood are so low really. I do know where people depend on firewood for heat the prices are lower, the people that want it for looks and atmosphere the prices are much higher especially in an urban area. All markets are a bit different as you look around the country, if you are in an area where you can get a premium for your firewood the more power to you. I see ads on craigslist here that advertise a full cord of seasoned firewood from $100 to $400, that spread is just crazy, I also see a guy selling a half a face cord stacked for $150. I advertise $300/cord & $175/half cord and it's a challenge keeping up with the demand. 60%-75% are repeat customers every year, it varies a little bit because sometimes people get a cord and it lasts two years or they just go by price and get burned and come back the next year. I just continue to do what I do, business as usual, treat people as good as I can and always try to make things right within reason if a problem occurs.

 

[Sandhill Crane]

If someone wants to buy green wood and knows its green then sell it to them. That's their problem.

Some people don't know any better. So I try to explain the difference, and possible hazards of burning green wood. When they say that's okay, I'll take a cord of green (because I'm sold out of seasoned). My reply is that I don't sell green wood. I'm the seller, it's my choice.

Tips on burning green wood. Guess I don't have any, because the person that burns it may be putting others in danger as well as him/her self, and others may not realize how that choice effects them.

Call me a pessimist, but say your kid is babysitting for some clown burning green wood and there is a chimney fire that gets out of control. Now it effects you directly...

What's the quote? Your lack of planning is not my emergency. Doesn't sound right, but close.

 

[lknchoppers]

ChoppyChoppy, you may want to reconsider actually putting pen to paper with tips on burning green firewood. Seems like a liability with an accident waiting to happen that may tie responsibility to you.

 

[Jakers]

Some people don't know any better. So I try to explain the difference, and possible hazards of burning green wood. When they say that's okay, I'll take a cord of green (because I'm sold out of seasoned). My reply is that I don't sell green wood. I'm the seller, it's my choice.

Tips on burning green wood. Guess I don't have any, because the person that burns it may be putting others in danger as well as him/her self, and others may not realize how that choice effects them.

Call me a pessimist, but say your kid is babysitting for some clown burning green wood and there is a chimney fire that gets out of control. Now it effects you directly...

What's the quote? Your lack of planning is not my emergency. Doesn't sound right, but close.

"A lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine"

at least that's how I grew up hearing it

 

[Mustang71]

I'm surprised the prices in NY on firewood are so low really. I do know where people depend on firewood for heat the prices are lower, the people that want it for looks and atmosphere the prices are much higher especially in an urban area. All markets are a bit different as you look around the country, if you are in an area where you can get a premium for your firewood the more power to you. I see ads on craigslist here that advertise a full cord of seasoned firewood from $100 to $400, that spread is just crazy, I also see a guy selling a half a face cord stacked for $150. I advertise $300/cord & $175/half cord and it's a challenge keeping up with the demand. 60%-75% are repeat customers every year, it varies a little bit because sometimes people get a cord and it lasts two years or they just go by price and get burned and come back the next year. I just continue to do what I do, business as usual, treat people as good as I can and always try to make things right within reason if a problem occurs.

That's y I'm having a hard time believing that it's worth it to sell green wood for a discount. If you can make money at 75 a face cord for seasoned then idk how you would make money selling it for 55 a face cord green. These fire wood places around here cut it stack it and let it sit there no extra cost in the drying process. I dont sell wood but I do cut it for my own use and at 75 dollars a face cord there's probably not a ton of money to be made. And a lot of people want pretty wood so half the stuff I cut and burn would be garbage.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

That's y I'm having a hard time believing that it's worth it to sell green wood for a discount. If you can make money at 75 a face cord for seasoned then idk how you would make money selling it for 55 a face cord green. These fire wood places around here cut it stack it and let it sit there no extra cost in the drying process. I dont sell wood but I do cut it for my own use and at 75 dollars a face cord there's probably not a ton of money to be made. And a lot of people want pretty wood so half the stuff I cut and burn would be garbage.

Green wood could go from the splitter onto a conveyor, into a dump truck. Subtracting the stacking and waiting from the process might work for some guys.

 

[JeffHK454]

At those prices, if you had to buy your wood, I don't know why you would heat with wood, with the current price, I beleive you could easily heat cheaper with LP, or fuel oil, without a doubt with Natural.

My exact thoughts...I don’t get why anybody would pay $350+ a cord and still have to hassle with wood , on a bad month my Ng furnace would cost me half that!

In my book the only way burning is feasible is if the wood is free and my “costs” are time, gas and the depreciation on the machinery I’m using to process the wood.

 

[sawjunky23]

My exact thoughts...I don’t get why anybody would pay $350+ a cord and still have to hassle with wood , on a bad month my Ng furnace would cost me half that!

In my book the only way burning is feasible is if the wood is free and my “costs” are time, gas and the depreciation on the machinery I’m using to process the wood.

Not many people in my area use fuel oil for heat. Most are LP and Nat gas . Current LP I believe is around 1.60 a gal. Most people can get by on 1000 gal a year for LP. I figure the average on here is 7 to 10 cords of wood a winter. figure 7 cords at 350.00 a cord is $2450. That’s a lot of jack to babysit a wood stove. I have never heated solely with wood it’s always been supplementary heat because I enjoy cutting and working wood and the ambiance.

 

[JeffHK454]

Not many people in my area use fuel oil for heat. Most are LP and Nat gas . Current LP I believe is around 1.60 a gal. Most people can get by on 1000 gal a year for LP. I figure the average on here is 7 to 10 cords of wood a winter. figure 7 cords at 350.00 a cord is $2450. That’s a lot of jack to babysit a wood stove. I have never heated solely with wood it’s always been supplementary heat because I enjoy cutting and working wood and the ambiance.

Me and you are on the same page... wouldn’t take long at all spending $2,500 a year for wood before I could justify adding a gas/oil furnace.

 

[Cowboy254]

Well I'm not sure how cutting it now and selling it vs cutting it now and selling it next fall aren't the same amount of work.

Actually, if you are selling by a set volume there is a difference. Cut a cord of green wood and let it season and you end up with 0.85 cord, give or take. I stack green wood in my shed to 2.3m and when I go to burn it, it is down to 2m high. From a purely financial perspective, if you can get the same price for green wood as seasoned that is a bonus, but it is important to note that they are not the same in terms of the amount of work.

 

[Marshy]

Wood is selling for $55-65 a face around my area so $165-195 a cord. They all claim its seasoned but that could mean anything. Likely what it means is the tree was cut last winter or this past spring and was left in log form right up until about a month or so ago. If your lucky it was split and piled through the summer. You get closer to the cities the price per face goes up to $75-85. Cheapest tri-axle load of log length hard wood is going to cost you about $90/cord. Maybe you can do better if you are taking multiple loads from the guy but if yours a home owner getting a load, anything less mostly going to be red maple and some ash mix.

 

[Mustang71]

But seasoned means it will burn green wood wont burn. Idc if you let it sit or take some process to dry it it all burns. Your part of NY is cheaper than where I live and idk how you could sell green wood cheaper than 55 a face cord.

 

[DSW]

Not many people in my area use fuel oil for heat. Most are LP and Nat gas . Current LP I believe is around 1.60 a gal. Most people can get by on 1000 gal a year for LP. I figure the average on here is 7 to 10 cords of wood a winter. figure 7 cords at 350.00 a cord is $2450. That’s a lot of jack to babysit a wood stove. I have never heated solely with wood it’s always been supplementary heat because I enjoy cutting and working wood and the ambiance.

Just to bring this back to reality, I burn 4-5 cords a year. This ain't Florida, that's five months of burning. I live in a hardwood state but I don't burn solely oak and maple, there's plenty of poplar, sassafras, and soft maple mixed in my stacks. I don't have the biggest house but it's a relatively inefficient ranch. I know there's plenty of others on here that are around the 5 cord mark. $350 is most definitely on the high side, most states you could find wood for $240 a cord, there's always more expensive and there's always less but $240 in most of the world could get you an honest cord. $240 x 5 = $1200. I absolutely agree it's more work, but many find it more enjoyable as well. So that's a personal decision.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

My exact thoughts...I don’t get why anybody would pay $350+ a cord and still have to hassle with wood , on a bad month my Ng furnace would cost me half that!

In my book the only way burning is feasible is if the wood is free and my “costs” are time, gas and the depreciation on the machinery I’m using to process the wood.

Lots of places don't have gas. It's either wood or diesel. Wood is by far cheaper. Diesel would have to be under about 1.60/gal to be cheaper. Right now it's around double that.

And there's plenty of folks that just want wood heat either way.

I heat my place for about $700 if I paid for the wood. The first couple years I used gas, cost me 3x that.
It was such a drop that the gas company came out and replaced the meter after the 1st winter burning wood, they thought the meter quit working.

 

[NSMaple1]

That's y I'm having a hard time believing that it's worth it to sell green wood for a discount. If you can make money at 75 a face cord for seasoned then idk how you would make money selling it for 55 a face cord green. These fire wood places around here cut it stack it and let it sit there no extra cost in the drying process. I dont sell wood but I do cut it for my own use and at 75 dollars a face cord there's probably not a ton of money to be made. And a lot of people want pretty wood so half the stuff I cut and burn would be garbage.

You don't (or shouldn't) sell green wood for a discount. You should sell seasoned wood for a premium.

There is a fair amount of work & cost savings for somebody doing this full time, in loading their truck up with a conveyor right off the splitter. I would call that unseasoned. Then going to seasoned means an extra handling step - the wood has to sit & dry after its split. Then you have to get it off the ground & into the truck.

 

[md1486]

Just curious, you guys dont seem to use electricity for heating ? Costs are too high ? Here in Canada (quebec) this is mostly what people use. Around 0,08$ per kWh. I burn about 5-6 face cords a year, but I get my wood mostly for free. Here a face cord is around 100-110$, and I'm pretty sure electricity is cheaper if you have to pay for your wood.

 

[Marshy]

Price per kw is cheap, it's all the handling fees that makes it unreasonable for heating.