how may of you guys sell fire wood?

[Stumper]

Absolutely right Xander! I know 1 guy who makes money in firewood. He has a bunch of automated equipment (much of it built by himself) and processes huge quantities of wood. (His spitter will split 3' diameter blocks into 24 pieces in 1 pass and then runs it up a conveyer!) He also is an extremely hard worker ----and single. He also knows where the time gets eaten-he dump delivers only. Carrying and stacking is extra$ and he subs it out.

 

[Gopher]

I enjoy splitting wood myself, but the only way I would sell it if someone came to get it. My time is worth more as a dad and husband to deliver the wood. I did burn wood in my outdoor unit (sold house), and will do so again, but that doesn't involve any splitting or stacking.

The only one around here that does sell would consistently has gone bankrupt once and is in line to do it again, so maybe more time should be steered away from the firewood portion.

Gopher

 

[Mr. Firewood]

Originally posted by Greg
I thought I was going to be in the firewood business, but a day in the hot sun with a 28ton splitter cured me of that.

My best buddy and I used to split 1 and a half cords of wood a day by hand when we were 16, boy has that changed.

Yesterday I bought a 50 ton splitter 5" x 30" ram, 30gpm 2 stage pump 6 way wedge,12 hp briggs engine. Now I have 3 large splitters and I pay my lawn employees $7.00 an hour to run them. By noon tomorrow I should knock out 5-6 full cord (18 face).
I hope to break 100 full cords this year

Will take some pics of us stacking some @ the house.

~Nate~

 

[Nickrosis]

You should talk to Xander's employee - he can do those 100 cords in his spare time without the fancy equipment. He's in Ohio - you should look into hiring him.

Nickrosis

 

[Mr. Firewood]

I too am doin it in my spare time, but right now grass is dormant, so we split wood. If I had enough logs I could make as much as I want, all of the local tree guys will only give you logs if you will take the hole load chips and all. I dont have the room or time to deal with all of that schwagg.

~Nate~

 

[Toddppm]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn
Now start paletizing it so you can jut trop it off at the clients door

Man now I'm obsessed with this idea! Read somewhere about a guy who sells hundreds of cords/yr. won't stack it only dumps because it takes too long, If you're selling that much wood it would be worth it to palletize it . People would pay for the convenience of it, good extra money. Imagine a premium packaged pallet of firewood, I think you could get away with only selling like this and getting premium $$$ Lease the spyder loader for the 4/5 months or so. Even 1/4 cords !

????, I won't get this off my mind for a while now

 

[WillyStDruid]

I've been delivering firewood in Madison, WI for 3 years now. We charge by the face cord and full cord. The going rate is $65-$75 a face cord for mixed hardwoods and $85-$95 for specialty woods: all oak, hickory, cherry, and apple. Full cords are $175-$195 to $225 for the good stuff. We charge an extra $10 a face to stack provided its not over the hill and through the woods. Costs: I pay by piece work, $15 a face cord for someone to split(our slowest person can do about a face an hour). $10 to deliver + any tips and extra stacking charges. Other costs are bar oil, saw and splitter gas, and gas for the delivery truck. I pay $200 a month for wood, brush, and equipment storage so that factors in. It is pretty much a slight profit margin except for one consideration: What better way to solicit a tree job, stump job or line up a grass, snow plow or other job. I've sold numerous jobs through delivering firewood that I probably would never had a call for. This last week I delivered a face cord to a guy and noticed his next door neighbor had a dying green ash in his back yard. One face cord sold and a $500.00 tree removal on top. In my opinion selling firewood makes your business a complete service and if you keep your eyes in the trees along the way it can be very profitable.

-The Willy Street Druid

 

[Jumper]

Firewood

My second boss was obsessed with his woodpile......none of us on the ground could possibly cut it into lengths properly to move it out of the way, so you had to leave it all over the ground and trip over it while trying to lower more, until he got out of the tree and could cut it up correctly. What a pain in the %$#@! not to mention safety hazard, one of the reasons I quit. Stacking this crap in the middle of an open field on a hot day was not my idea of fun either. though he did have a real HD splitter that ran off the PTO of his tractor. Believe he charged $90 a face cord for mixed hardwood, regardless of the amount delivered which is a little pricey around here.

 

[Toddppm]

http://community.webshots.com/photo/53152242/53152280MCwzVW
There it is! Palletized firewood! half cord each. The nursery I deal with bought a bunch like this from a pulp mill going out of biz.
They're getting $125 /half and $225 /full +++delivery! I think deliv. is $50

 

[DDM]

I found a Great way to Deal with my Firewood operation!!!! I found a Fellow and his son that have Free time Extra property and a Pickup! I delivered my splitter and 12 Dumptruck loads of un split wood and we agreed upon a 1/3 Split on my part for them to split store and deliver the wood. I have about 4 more loads to get out of my yard and probably 20 loads out of the pasture and
i'll be firewood free because Now i'll stop by and dump the days load there.

 

[treeclimber165]

Dave,
Sounds like a GREAT deal! If they ever get to the point of balking about the agreement, you can just 'rent' them the splitter in exchange for dumping rights. Sounds like you got rid of a bunch of nasty work AND your wood too!

 

[Nickrosis]

Todd and Dave seem to have struck sweet deals.

Dave, hold onto your twenty loads until they have established that they do follow-up on their word. I would hate to have them sitting on a stack of your wood on their property, saying it's all their wood. Something in writing could be really handy down the road.

Nickrosis

**I need to stop posting on every thread I read tonight.

 

[treeman82]

I had been somewhere a couple of weekends ago and saw a lawn guy that I just know by sight. I had asked him if he was busy to which he replied he was making great money selling firewood He had 200 cords of wood split at his house which he was selling for $125 per cord. He thought that was great money as he has $24,000 worth of firewood sitting at his house now Normal around me is $140 - $190 a cord

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Dave, now you need to find someone to pickup and haul the wood for you so you dont have to bother at all.

A buddy I do some work for has a couple landscrapers who he just has to call and they come and take all the big wood. He bucks it down to arouns 200# chunks and they come pick it up.

 

[DDM]

John...... That would be too easy Plus I need to get the wood gone as Quick as possible so i get my check i'm sure i could find someone to haul the wood out but.....it might take them a few days plus i wouldnt want anyone Tearing up a customers lawn it wouldnt look good for me.

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

I sell cordwood here in NH for $165 a cord cut and split seasoned and 140 a cord for cut split green,and I also sell it by the grapple load of my log truck for $400 a load which is usually about 6-7 cord log length,as of right now I have close to 400 cord of wood in my log yard it keeps my girlfriend busy during the winter and me too when I'm not logging..

Later Rob..

 

[Ryan Willock]

rob, does she cut and split it for you???

 

[StIhL MaGnUm]

Ryan,

Yes most of the time she does I usually help her out though she uses the 029 while I split most of the time or I'll use my 044 and she'll do the splitting...

Later Rob..

 

[Tree Machine]

Firewood

My way of dealing with the firewood is to cut up EXCEPTIONAL QUALITY firewood.... consistent in length (16" to 18") and free of stubs. My little powerhouse 6" capacity chipper takes on all the brush with rapid authority. I use the chipper's onboard winch, and a log arch to get the BIG limbs and logs to streetside for dice-up adjacent to the chipper. My chipper also has an onboard 24 ton splitter. I place any wood from 6" to 16" diameter at streetside. I split anything 20" diameter and bigger into 4 or 6 split pieces and it gets put on streetside also. Then comes my secret weapon; the cardboard sign that says FREE.

This is a back-saving, effort-saving tool of efficiency, this piece of cardboard, and it costs you literally nothing. This may sound Huck Finn, but if you're a Tree Care Professional with other jobs on the books, it pays most to move on to the next tree care job. Invest your time and effort into performing world-class tree care, not wasting your talent and wrists on the moving of chunks of wood, multiple times. If someone else is willing to do what I consider the hard work (hauling away the wood), and all I have to do is write four letters with a fat marker, it seems like a dream come true, and it is. In areas where there isn't much passerby traffic, I have a list of people who want the firewood who I can call. Though seemingly ironic, I make much more money giving the wood away FREE, than if I were to try to sell it. I've tried it both ways. But that's just me.

 

[Newfie]

FREE???

It's a great idea from your perspective but what about the customer who just paid good money for your professional world class tree work to have you then leave a pile of wood in front of their house? Do you give them a substantial professional world class discount for having only done half the job?

Just my perspective.