Customer Wanted Big Rounds

[Wood Doctor]

.. and that's all. No splits or small logs for firewood. He bought a log splitter for himself but ran out of dry rounds to split. So, he called me for a truckload of my rounds, all dry and cut to length, random diameters, but nothing over 18" dia.

It's a first time for me. How do you go about pricing that delivery, dropped off at his splitter, compared to your truckloads of dry splits, same species, all stacked and ready to be carried in and burned? Please advise.

 

[thor97]

I charge the same price as a split face cord of wood for the same amount of unsplit rounds. I have 4-6 customers that want their wood big-half and quarter rounds. I charge the exact same price for the same amount of wood split, but then I throw in some extra for the work it's saving me. I give them a good heaping measurement.

 

[unclemoustache]

Yes, the splitting takes a bit of time, so knock off a proportional bit of the profit (or a bit less). But inform him that the wood needs to dry AFTER it's been split.

I heard of one guy who sells firewood for (let's say) $200 a cord, split and dried. But he sells 8' logs for customers to cut, split, and dry for $100 a cord, but it saves him more than 50% of labor, so it's more profitable to sell the logs. It might be a smaller market, but they will be glad to save money and get some exercise to boot.

 

[Cody]

I don't see it as saving anything more than your time, so what's an hour or so of splitting worth to you? I think I'd knock off $20-25.

 

[Jere39]

I'd sell it for the same as your split and seasoned wood as it is basically a special order. More of a pain to load your delivery vehicle, and not something I would typically have lying around. And, I'm not sure how your customer came to the opinion it would be seasoned in the round, it won't. Finally, your title: "Big Rounds" and the customer request for "nothing over 18" diameter" seems to be counter intuitive.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

When I was cutting by hand 6-7 years ago I would do rounds for $25 a cord less. I don't think I sold maybe 2 or 3 cords that way, granted I might have been selling 40 or 50 cords a year then too (was doing it part time)

Now, I don't do it, it's more work for me to deal with rounds than splits on the processor. I did it once 5 years ago, a 5 or 6 cord order and that's the last time I've done it. Was a real pain to pull the blocks out of the splitter trough, put them on the conveyor (hard on the conveyor and truck floor!) and try to stack.
Not too bad if it was small 6-8" stuff, but still a pain.

I have a few that like bigger pieces so I just won't resplit anything that would otherwise be too big.


One of those people has a little splitter and he basically makes several cords worth of popsicle sticks for something to do. Whatever I guess, but even if I was out of stuff to do (yeah right!) I sure as hell wouldn't be doing that!

 

[Wood Doctor]

Interesting responses. I think he wanted 18" dia, or less only because he knows how much they weigh when they get bigger than that. My rounds are also 18" in length because most of customers are using fireplaces rather than stoves. Also, he's not a very big or strong man. It's also not much fun for me to throw rounds bigger than that back onto the truck.

Cody, there is more than just a time savings. There is gasoline for the splitter plus the wear and tear on the hydraulics. That could become a significant savings if I picked up several customers this way. However, I believe you and VF are right on the nose for the discount. For now, I'll drop the price $25 a truckload. He just wants a simple drop next to the splitter -- no stacking involved.

He did say that he had no idea how much wood it takes to keep his fireplace going. It was a huge underestimation on his part. I warned him of that, but he couldn't pass up the "sale price" at the store. Regardless, for what he paid for the splitter and the new chainsaw he bought, I could have supplied him with dry, split firewood for 10 years delivered and stacked.

Jere19 is also correct. That wood he splits has to sit out in the sun for awhile after it's split, even though I cut the rounds over a year ago, and several trees were standing dead.

 

[Cody]

I don't know what you have for a splitter but I bet I don't use more than a dollar of gasoline per load. As far as wear and tear go, you never know when something might fail, but that also includes your own body, so if it saves me possibly getting injured then may be a fair trade. Not that loading rounds in a truck is easier. In the end you're the best judge in this, which is why we've really stepped back in selling firewood these past couple years.

 

[jrider]

I do this from time to time and sell for $20-$30 less than a split cord. I would sell it all that way if I could.

 

[Big_Al]

I'd sell all rounds if I could. Save a lot of time & handling. Load up rounds in the woods & go straight to customers. Usually charge 25 less, well worth it for me.

 

[Wood Doctor]

I do this from time to time and sell for $20-$30 less than a split cord. I would sell it all that way if I could.

Gasp! I must admit it was easy to do it that way, but I think the market is just plain too small. Most people agree with my last sentence in post #7: "... for what he paid for the splitter and the new chainsaw he bought, I could have supplied him with dry, split firewood for 10 years delivered and stacked."

Splitter prices seem to keep going down as more and more come in from China. I have to wonder if I may be seeing the tip of the ice berg. Cody is right on the loading ease. Heck, it only took me 20 minutes to load the truck with rounds. I avoided the really big ones, of course. And I used my log hook gripper several times:
Lockhart's Firewood Gripper 18" - 21" Logs

 

[svk]

Provided I didn't have any $ into getting the rounds to my place, I would knock off about a third of the price. It is pretty easy to buck, load, and unload a cord of rounds that are at 18" diameter or less.

 

[turnkey4099]

I'd sell it for the same as your split and seasoned wood as it is basically a special order. More of a pain to load your delivery vehicle, and not something I would typically have lying around. And, I'm not sure how your customer came to the opinion it would be seasoned in the round, it won't. Finally, your title: "Big Rounds" and the customer request for "nothing over 18" diameter" seems to be counter intuitive.

Just eyeballing my stacks of rounds, I would charge extra. Would not be fun trying to unstack and sort rounds to come up with a load of 18" minus ones.

 

[sb47]

My splitter runs 4 hours on 2 gallons of fuel. (= 5 bucks) in fuel. He's basically having you do all the work finding and cutting the trees and hauling the wood to your lot. He's getting the easy part of just splitting and stacking. I'd charge the same as I would split wood. I get people wanting rounds un split and I charge the same as split wood.
Your finding the wood, cutting the trees, loading and hauling it to your lot, and then your loading dry rounds that you have seasoned so that he can split as he unloads. Charge the same as split wood. Your doing 90% and he's doing 10% work. Charge the same. He knows how much work he is saving and he may turn around and compete for sales?
Every year I get someone that low balls me for every stick of wood I split if they buy it all. There just gonna turn around and sell it. Then I would have no inventory for my regulars.
I do sell logs to a guy that has a mill and I charge the same as if it was split wood.

 

[Iaff113]

Why not try to offer him log length if you have the ability to haul it? I can’t figure out why anyone would pay the same amount as a spit cord. Unless they just want to throw money away.


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[Wood Doctor]

My splitter runs 4 hours on 2 gallons of fuel. (= 5 bucks) in fuel. He's basically having you do all the work finding and cutting the trees and hauling the wood to your lot. He's getting the easy part of just splitting and stacking. I'd charge the same as I would split wood. I get people wanting rounds to split and I charge the same as split wood.

You're finding the wood, cutting the trees, loading and hauling it to your lot, and then your loading dry rounds that you have seasoned so that he can split as he unloads. Charge the same as split wood. Your doing 90% and he's doing 10% work. Charge the same. He knows how much work he is saving and he may turn around and compete for sales?

Every year I get someone that low balls me for every stick of wood I split if they buy it all. There just gonna turn around and sell it. Then I would have no inventory for my regulars. I do sell logs to a guy that has a mill and I charge the same as if it was split wood.

Good read for me, SB47. First, I doubt that splitting, loading splits, and stacking them is only 10% of the work. There are at least three hours of work there per truckload. I did all that in 20 minutes with rounds that I loaded and then dropped in a random pile, helped by the customer. Most of my work was loading the rounds back into he truck from where they were stacked for drying.

The customer pays, therefore, for my finding the wood, bucking to length, loading rounds, unloadingand stacking them, and then loading them onto the truck once again. No splitting in involved and no stacking lots of splits. That's where the discount comes in. So, to take care of him. I do not half to own or operate a log splitter, load 400 splits onto the truck, nor do I have to stack the splits upon arrival.

He reaps a benefit that a packed load of rounds produces more wood than a packed load of splits. I have a feeling that he knows that. So, the discount is only about 15%, but I believe some discount has to be offered. This man is a homeowner, not a seller of what I supply. Otherwise, my doors are closed.

 

[cantoo]

I sell logs to a couple of people and could sell more if I wanted to. Pretty simple for me to load them off my stacks onto my dump trailer, drive to their place and push the dump button. I haul 13'4" logs in a 12' dump trailer, the doors are already tied back, back in the driveway step out and hit the button, drive ahead , step back out and hit the down button, close the doors and drive away. I also sell logs for pick up. Even less work. I've never sold cut rounds but it also would be easy for me, I have several buckets that I could load the rounds with, no hand work there. With my setup it's pretty easy for me to split wood so I would prefer to sell splits though. Selling the logs are quick turn around though and are usually springs sales whereas split wood are fall sales when I'm already busy.

 

[c5rulz]

The title kills me, Wanted LARGE ROUNDS and the dimensions are for pecker poles.

 

[sirbuildalot]

What kind of splitter and saw does he have Wood doctor? The reason I ask, is because post #7 doesn't mathematically make sense to me. Lets say his splitter is pretty nice and was $2,000 and he bought a pro grade saw for $700 which would be on the high end for what 95% of homeowners would buy. I think we can all agree on that. So your saying you can supply him enough wood to heat his house for $270/year??? What is he burning a cord a year??? Around here wood is around $225-$250 a cord delivered

For me personally if I figured the $2,500 I spent on my Supersplit, and I picked my Dolmar 7900 as my only saw which I paid $650 for, I total $3,150. At 5-6 full cords a year, in 10 years I'd spend at least $14,000 in wood if I bought it. Certainly couldn't get it for anywhere near $3,150 delivered to me, even in log length.

Of course there are other expenses like chaps, helmets, cant hooks, extra chains, a trailer, etc, etc. Most people who cut their own wood aren't doing it for a huge cost savings, they do it because they enjoy the exercise, the experience and knowing what wood they are getting.

 

[c5rulz]

Sirbuildalot

Can you give your economic analysis to some of us having over a dozen saws.