Firewood price

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ruggedindoorsman21

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Washington
I need to pay someone down the road for 4 trees for firewood. He had the trees cut down and said i could buy the for firewoood. He dint give me a price. He said come up with an amount and then halve it. Its hard wood. Maple and then some wood with a grey looking smoothish bark , The inside ring of the bark is reddish.i cut all the wood into rounds, i cant tell how many cords its going to turn out to be. How much should i pay him?
 
The only way I would pay for firewood is if after I paid, it was stacked in my back yard and all I had to do was put it in my stove.

If I have to cut, split, move, and stack the firewood, it better be free or they better be paying ME to take away their mess. No way am I going to pay someone else to clean up their trees for them. lol what a joke.
 
Welcome to the site ruggedindoorsman21.
I buy 20 cord loads of 8' logs.
They are delivered, and unloaded, stacked in a row 8' high with a grapple.
I get 16-17 cord after cutting and splitting.
The present cost is $2,100.
You do the math per cord.
However, it is delivered, so no time, no fuel, no energy on my part.
Another consideration is you are on the west coast, I assume, and pricing to buy a cord of wood delivered may be very different.
I sell Oak for $300./cord plus a delivery fee. Which has become pretty average for this area.
 
The only time in 15 yrs I paid for firewood for my house was when I was going to be cutting it close on having enough for the next winter. I found a guy just a couple miles away that had his woods logged a year earlier. It was all red oak and he was selling it for $20 a pickup load. Being I have always had 8' beds on my trucks and F350's and I could pile it as high as I wanted and I was able to get by with 3 loads. Gave me enough to get through the following winter and I was only out $60. Would have just used the furnace more but that was in 2008 and fuel oil was over $4 a gallon at the time, so the $60 was cheaper than the oil to turn on the furnace. For my garage I pay for all of my wood. I can buy 8' truck beds full of cut to length all hardwood slabs for $5 a load. Being 4-5 loads gets me through an entire winter I can't cut wood for that money, it's just not worth my time when I can heat the garage an entire winter for $20-$25 a year. Not that any of this really applies to your situation but it gives you an idea of what I have paid in the past.
 
You are actually performing a service to that owner of the property. The “free” wood is his payment to you for removal. I chainsaw mill waste logs on people’s property and keep all of the wood. I don’t pay them. It’s more of a win-win and a precious resource isn’t wasted. But, if you agreed on some type of payment, you can’t go back on your word. Should be $50 or less though. Ask him if he takes American Express!!
 
Welcome to the site ruggedindoorsman21.
I buy 20 cord loads of 8' logs.
They are delivered, and unloaded, stacked in a row 8' high with a grapple.
I get 16-17 cord after cutting and splitting.
The present cost is $2,100.
You do the math per cord.
However, it is delivered, so no time, no fuel, no energy on my part.
Another consideration is you are on the west coast, I assume, and pricing to buy a cord of wood delivered may be very different.
I sell Oak for $300./cord plus a delivery fee. Which has become pretty average for this area.
But there IS energy exerted on your part. You have to cut and split 16-17 cords of wood. $2100 cost for the wood divided by the end result of 16 cords is about $130 a cord. Sell it for $300 means your labor cost/profit is around $170 per cord. How long to cut to length and split a cord?
 
I need to pay someone down the road for 4 trees for firewood. He had the trees cut down and said i could buy the for firewoood. He dint give me a price. He said come up with an amount and then halve it. Its hard wood. Maple and then some wood with a grey looking smoothish bark , The inside ring of the bark is reddish.i cut all the wood into rounds, i cant tell how many cords its going to turn out to be. How much should i pay him?
and BTW, he didn't give you a price but suggested you figure a price and the halve it means he wants almost nothing for it. See if you can just get it for nothing and if he agrees, make sure you take what you said you would and by the time you said you would and stay out of the guys way while you do it. Big help. :cheers:
 
Very good suggestions so far. Two things that are important where you are. One hardwood is more scarce on your part of Westcoast so being a little generous would not hurt. The other is fifty bucks to make or break a relationship from a neighbor should not be a big deal. You will have more experience in the future to profit from latter on. As we all do is give it our best shot as there will be more chances latter on. Thanks
 
I fixed it for you.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

How long to cut to length and split a cord?
But there IS energy exerted on your part.
First I'm not sure what was "fixed" because I don't always dump it where customers want it.
Some customers are weekly vacationers/renters and have no clue where septic tanks are.
Some people have pop up lawn sprinklers that they haven't considered when pointing to the fire pit.
Some people have low tree limbs or overhead wires where they would like firewood dump.
Most but not all, get it dumped where they would like it.

Second quote. From log pile, forklifted to log deck, cut, split, palletized with Posch PackFix (1/4 cord/pallet) and staged to season is about 4 hours per cord. Add to that, clean up around the cutting area, loading the dump trailer, and delivery time...total approaches six hours, maybe more.

Third quote. I was referring to the purchase and delivery of the 20 cord load of logs. I greet the driver, get out of his way, and pay him 20 minutes later when he is done sweeping of his truck and ready to drive off.

The question is... am I making money doing this? The answer is... after expenses, no.
The next question is... what are your expenses?
 
First I'm not sure what was "fixed" because I don't always dump it where customers want it.
Some customers are weekly vacationers/renters and have no clue where septic tanks are.
Some people have pop up lawn sprinklers that they haven't considered when pointing to the fire pit.
Some people have low tree limbs or overhead wires where they would like firewood dump.
Most but not all, get it dumped where they would like it.

Second quote. From log pile, forklifted to log deck, cut, split, palletized with Posch PackFix (1/4 cord/pallet) and staged to season is about 4 hours per cord. Add to that, clean up around the cutting area, loading the dump trailer, and delivery time...total approaches six hours, maybe more.

Third quote. I was referring to the purchase and delivery of the 20 cord load of logs. I greet the driver, get out of his way, and pay him 20 minutes later when he is done sweeping of his truck and ready to drive off.

The question is... am I making money doing this? The answer is... after expenses, no.
The next question is... what are your expenses?
I get my wood from customers that have me remove the trees so I'm actually paid to take the wood to my home. From there, cut to firewood length and the split to a pile about 2 hours per cord. From there, load it by hand onto the truck and local deliver. I sell it for different prices, two or more cords, $250/cord, single cord 300, 1/2 cord 175.

I don't do a lot of firewood yearly, maybe around 10 cords?
 
More than half of my customers do not want to touch the wood as they want it stacked nice and pretty. I pretty much do not deal with clients that ask about price. Most people are not concerned about prices. What I am seeing around the country amazes me. People delivering nice wood for under cost. At this moment premium Oak is going to exceed a thousand bucks. I have already delivered several loads of Pine at more than four hundred dollars a load and it is not even cold. However if an OP in this area were to hire all work done with insurance including Workman's Comp the price would be fifteen hundred a cord. Last year with snow on the ground I was getting forty calls a day for delivery. Most of those people just went to CL or some one that knew some one with a pickup to buy what ever that had in their back yard. Thanks
 
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