How is there any money in firewood sales?

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Know what your saying , often think the same thing .

Perhaps this is good income for people who have limited job skills and cutting wood offsets living costs but on average it's not a huge profit area for most.....like to think of heating with wood more of a lifestyle with many benefits , factor in money and profit and then this whole process becomes less attractive to me .
 
For a tree service, its and add on, get paid twice for the same product, although there is still the processing. For an individual buying log length cords, processing,selling & delivering,very slim profit. Mulch is another good area for tree service,just have to offset cost of tub grinder ( contracted , rent/lease, purchase). Also has a wider application without as much concern on bug transport or the inevitable quantity/quality complaints of firewood sales. Personally I do not sell firewood except for a occasional face cord, and I can count those on one hand over a 10 year span.
 
There are a number of factors to keep in mind though. Location is one. Around me, the going rate is $350/cord. Temperature is another. Last year, warm winter meant not a lot of burning so not a lot of sales. That may play ionto this year. The way I figure is if you get the wood for free from jobs, cutting and splitting is simply labor and every dime is another dime in your pocket. I don't think I would want to make my living based on it.
 
Selling bulk is tough unless, as previously stated, you are a tree service/logging company. If it is your main source of income, you have to either be a large bulk seller, or get all your wood delivered to your lot for free to turn a decent profit.

On the other hand, if you bundle the wood, you can make a decent buck on a smaller amount. :rolleyes2:
 
Depends on supply and demand somewhat too. Around here you can't hardly sell a cord of wood for 150.00. Most people that sells it here sells by the rick/face cord.....about 50 bucks delivered will get you a 16'' rick.

I tried selling some seasoned wood one winter. I decided I could go broke setting on the beach drinking beer a lot easier than selling firewood, So I just do it for myself now :laugh:.
 
I cut wood for a hobby. It's just something I completely enjoy, and would still do even if there was no market for firewood . Lucky for me it is a hobby I can make some money doing. Some people race stock cars or mud trucks for a hobby. Spend spend and more spend, with little to no return, certainly not enough to pay for their hobby.

I would not want to try to live on my firewood sales money alone, but it sure comes in handy in the winter months! I move around 100 full cords of red oak in the winter and 3,000 bundles of campfire wood in the summer.

I work full time as a heavy equipment operator in the summer, laid off in the winter. So, NOT an unskilled person at all as someone earlier posted.:msp_angry:

Ted
 
Perhaps this is good income for people who have limited job skills


Oh? Limited job skills? Would you like to rephrase that a little?

Every firewood cutter that I know who makes a living at it, even as a side job, has considerably more than "limited job skills".
 
I'd call it limited employability. I think you all know the type. They're usually the "truck and a saw" guys selling green wood as seasoned, trying to make money for the next bag of weed or bottle of hooch.

Not referring to the side job guys like Ted, at least that's how I took it.
 
I'd call it limited employability. I think you all know the type. They're usually the "truck and a saw" guys selling green wood as seasoned, trying to make money for the next bag of weed or bottle of hooch.

Not referring to the side job guys like Ted, at least that's how I took it.


Whew! Thought I was gonna hafta let ya have it, there, Steve! lol

Ted
 
I'd call it limited employability. I think you all know the type. They're usually the "truck and a saw" guys selling green wood as seasoned, trying to make money for the next bag of weed or bottle of hooch.

Not referring to the side job guys like Ted, at least that's how I took it.

We're lucky in this area that there just aren't a lot of guys like the ones you describe. The Weights and Measures guys ran a series of stings on firewood sellers, concentrating on the scam artists. They really cleaned out the questionable ones.
 
Supply and demand is a big part of it but one can sell quite a bit with a good marketing plan. Getting and keeping a good costumer base is one key to making better money.
Quality of your product and costumer service is also a factor in keeping costumers coming back.
Small sales make more money but you need more of them. I sell a cord for $150 to $250 depending on type of wood. The same cord bagged up in 10 dollar bags turns into around 400 dollars.

Also wood sales comes in spurts, some weeks I sell a lot and some weeks not.

Luckily down here BBQ wood helps, I sell as much or more during the summer as I do in the winter.


Dennis
 
one of the ol timers around here told me once that there is plenty of money in firewood-
trick is to get the money back out of it :hmm3grin2orange:
 
There are a number of factors to keep in mind though. Location is one. Around me, the going rate is $350/cord. Temperature is another. Last year, warm winter meant not a lot of burning so not a lot of sales. That may play ionto this year. The way I figure is if you get the wood for free from jobs, cutting and splitting is simply labor and every dime is another dime in your pocket. I don't think I would want to make my living based on it.

n.s.w australia, top quality split hardwood sells for $ 175 A CUBE delivered locally.some bunnies sell 6x4 level trailer loads=.65 cube,of dubious quality call it a cube,rip off the customer,but you would have your share of weekend woodies ,wood bandits we call em.Serious woodcutters here make a good living and people will pay for top quality firewood.in big cities wood sells for $400 plus per ton tipped at your site.woods sales are weather dependant,some years frantic,some slower.I cut ,split a year in advance and have it available come what may.:rock:
 
Location is a big factor. I usually sell a cord for $275-300 and I live about 40 minutes south of Boston. Last year, I sold a cord to a guy in the city for $325 and he thought that was really cheap. His other quotes were $400 and over.
 
Location is a big factor. I usually sell a cord for $275-300 and I live about 40 minutes south of Boston. Last year, I sold a cord to a guy in the city for $325 and he thought that was really cheap. His other quotes were $400 and over.

I second that. And, around here, it is amazing how quickly the areas change. 15 minutes to the North and West of me, $150 (delivered) is the going rate. 15 minutes South and East, $225 (plus delivery) is the going rate. You can get close to $300 down near the city.
 
$150 split and delivered 1 cord in this area , that's a lot of work for that much money.

Limited jobs skills and limited sense of worth establish prices like that, you hear of even lower prices but could care less , would not want these types around my property .

There are some hard living people around here and selling firewood is about all they can do to make a buck , every year the local papers will have reports of firewood cutters getting killed .

Around a month ago it was reported that a guy was crushed while him and a couple others were pulling down a large red oak with rope ........both legs and hip broke , multiple ribs broken with punctured lung and now recovering in a induced coma.

Well that's part of the grim reality of this area , of course there are established arborists in the area who make a respectable living and operate good equipment and my inital comments was not meant to be directed towards the hard working honest man or women out there.

Several years back we paid a fine young aborist $88.00 per hour to take down a huge silver maple that threatened to flatten our main home .......this young man was worth every cent we paid him and watching him work was amazing . Honestly something I could never do as this was all done by climbing and rigging with just him and his groundman ....who was also a arborist.

So my respects to you hard working and well educated arborists out there ........now to the lame brain's with a wood shark or wild thing who sell firewood for a $150 a cord sober up , fill your station wagon with gas and go apply at mcdonalds .
 
When I was a kid my Dad let me split and sell the firewood. We were a forth generation, licensed and insured operation. Being 16 with a pretty severe Mopar adiction, the firewood kept gas in my 340 Swinger and 440 RT. I still split and sell a few cords to friends, but that's just for my hunting and fishing money. My cousin, also fourth generation, quit selling firewood a couple years ago, too labor intensive. With a four generation clientele list, his men can make so much more money in the tree care, it's just not worth messing with. He has a couple landscapers that wholesale purchase most of his wood, Joe.
 
Producing a few cords of wood does require " limited job skills". Producing hundreds of cords of firewood and making making money does require skill. Part of the problem with our economy today is that no one wants to get their hands dirty to make a living. Most guys who get into firewood don't last too long because they aren't willing to do the work or they haven't invested in equipment that will do tHe work for them.
 
Back
Top