Wanting to start a splitting business

[Eagle90301]

if this is not the right area to post please tell me.
I am wanting to start a Log/ Firewood splitting business for a little extra income. I am about 45minutes southwest of Chicago I do not have the ability to sell firewood( the wife would kill me) I live in a residential area with not enough room for wood storage and no real way to get logs. Most tree companies around me either sell firewood themselves or process the logs into mulch. prepared firewood by me sells for aprox. 100 per face or 300/ cord.

I purchased a 25 ton splitter a few years ago for my own use but it sits unused most of the time. I have advertised on and off a few times and did some splitting for a few people they were happy. Want to turn this into something I can do but do not know where to start with advertising or pricing. I think I can realistically do around a face an hour by myself depending on size and how straight the wood is. I am not looking to make a killing but I also don't want to work for next to nothing.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

[farmer steve]

I see ads on Facebook marketplace here for people doing it. I don't recall what the are charging . Some also offer stacking. Good luck.

 

[SweetMK]

The FIRST thing you gotta do is get rid of the hydraulic splitter,, for two reasons, and both reasons are speed.
1) you need to split F A S T so that you can make some $$$,, Spend all day doing one job for $40,, I would rather stay home.
2) you need to split F A S T so that the customer is impressed, and will ask you back.
No one will be willing to have you spend hours at their place doing a job.
Put yourself in their place,, who wants a stranger hanging around for hours??
As far as breaks,, there will be PLENTY of time for resting when you are dead, get the job done NOW!

Return business is your gravy. Almost no business can survive on single sale per customer results.
You will find it will be harder to track down a customer than splitting their wood.

Get a flywheel splitter, go to the gym to get you ready,, and go at it!!

 

[esshup]

Or get a bigger Hydraulic unit that can split whole rounds at once.

Good luck! I'd say start advertising on Facebook. I have a customer that had roughly 50 cords of Oak and Maple all 10'-15' long. He was looking for someone to cut and split it, couldn't find anybody. He has a tractor with a grapple bucket, so the logs could be easily moved from the pile to wherever they needed to be to split. There was one Red Oak that is rotting in the woods because he/I couldn't get it out. A big wind came and tipped it over. 60" dia at the base, about 38" at the first branch, and the first branch was 45' up in the air. It was a shame that all that wood went to waste. I cut the trunk at the root flare to let the roots flop back in the hole, there was no rot. No steel in it, it's in the middle of a woods, BUT I was able to drive the tractor to it. Maybe 150 feet off of a trail, and if someone got permission from the farmer next door, a semi could have driven within 200 feet of it.

I ended up putting 90% on a big pile and burned them when they started to get punky on the outside. The logs were anywhere from 12" dia to 24" dia.

 

[Eagle90301]

The FIRST thing you gotta do is get rid of the hydraulic splitter,, for two reasons, and both reasons are speed.
1) you need to split F A S T so that you can make some $$$,, Spend all day doing one job for $40,, I would rather stay home.
2) you need to split F A S T so that the customer is impressed, and will ask you back.
No one will be willing to have you spend hours at their place doing a job.
Put yourself in their place,, who wants a stranger hanging around for hours??
As far as breaks,, there will be PLENTY of time for resting when you are dead, get the job done NOW!

Return business is your gravy. Almost no business can survive on single sale per customer results.
You will find it will be harder to track down a customer than splitting their wood.

Get a flywheel splitter, go to the gym to get you ready,, and go at it!!

I make god money at my full time job. I'm only wanting to do this because I already have the splitter for my own use, and I want to fill some of my spare time and possibly make some extra money do it. I do not want to invest in a different splitter to maybe make some money, Knowing that I can only split as fast as I can move the logs. I am only about $700 invested into my log splitter.

 

[Eagle90301]

I see ads on Facebook marketplace here for people doing it. I don't recall what the are charging . Some also offer stacking. Good luck.

thank you

 

[Jed1124]

What is the minimum per hour that you are willing to work for?
Between bucking, hauling, moving wood, splitting, stacking, space for drying, possibly delivering………
About the most a guy can make in your situation is $5 bucks an hour.
Is that worth your time?
If it is, go for it.
With more equipment a guy can make more money. But more equipment costs more money.
It’s a tough business.

 

[GenXer]

I think going rate here is 25$ a chord for bucking it.

 

[farmer steve]

thank you

I looked at prices on facebook and they seem to run $50-100 an hour.

 

[Oletrapper]

What is the minimum per hour that you are willing to work for?
Between bucking, hauling, moving wood, splitting, stacking, space for drying, possibly delivering………
About the most a guy can make in your situation is $5 bucks an hour.
Is that worth your time?
If it is, go for it.
With more equipment a guy can make more money. But more equipment costs more money.
It’s a tough business.

Here is a good example of more equipment. lol
But it does get the job done. jmho OT

 

[dave_dj1]

rent the splitter out?

 

[farmer steve]

rent the splitter out?

I thought of mentioning that but I know how I am with loaning things out. Even to friends.

 

[Bearcreek]

I think you probably need to come in at about half that what people in your area can buy wood delivered for, on average. That being said, definitely don't charge by the cord. If you do you'll end up screwed when somebody wants you to cut and split a pile of nasty, twisted, half rotten garbage wood.

 

[Del_]

I've been doing tree work for 40 years and it's hard to imagine just doing wood splitting as a profitable venture.

 

[Bearcreek]

I've been doing tree work for 40 years and it's hard to imagine just doing wood splitting as a profitable venture.

The challenge would be convincing customers that it's worth the price that a person would need to charge. I've got a buddy who built a splitter that's basically the equivalent of commercial unit in the $10-$15K range. With the right two people and the right logs, it's normal for him to output up to around 2 cords an hour. If someone is willing to pay half of what they could buy the wood for, it's pretty good money. He can show up with one helper, towing his "homemade" splitter with his Subaru and make $100-$150/hr.

 

[Eagle90301]

rent the splitter out?

I thought about that but I worry about liability and damage to my splitter.

 

[Eagle90301]

I think you probably need to come in at about half that what people in your area can buy wood delivered for, on average. That being said, definitely don't charge by the cord. If you do you'll end up screwed when somebody wants you to cut and split a pile of nasty, twisted, half rotten garbage wood.

I agree. I am nervous about by the cord never know the issues you can run into with knots and splits in the wood. I’m thinking of charging by the hour. I work my but off when I am splitting.

 

[Eagle90301]

I've been doing tree work for 40 years and it's hard to imagine just doing wood splitting as a profitable venture.

thank you for the input. It is appreciated. I am testing the waters.

 

[Eagle90301]

The challenge would be convincing customers that it's worth the price that a person would need to charge. I've got a buddy who built a splitter that's basically the equivalent of commercial unit in the $10-$15K range. With the right two people and the right logs, it's normal for him to output up to around 2 cords an hour. If someone is willing to pay half of what they could buy the wood for, it's pretty good money. He can show up with one helper, towing his "homemade" splitter with his Subaru and make $100-$150/hr

You said 2 cords. Not face cords. 2 cords is a lot of wood. Here a cord of wood is around $300. I was going to charge $45/hr for myself. I can split about a FC AN hour.

 

[Bearcreek]

You said 2 cords. Not face cords. 2 cords is a lot of wood. Here a cord of wood is around $300. I was going to charge $45/hr for myself. I can split about a FC AN hour.

Yes it is. That's what's nice about a splitter like his. For a small splitter like yours, I think $45/hr is fair, assuming you can make a cord in 3 hrs. "Face cord" isn't a legally defined term, it's use and definition varies regionally, so I wasn't sure exactly what you meant by that.