The Firewood Business

LNG24 · Dec 8, 2007

Ok, I got the wood stove and I'm heating my house with it. I love it, but it brough back a bug I have had for years. I always wanted to process Firewood. Maybe it is because I see these guys on the way to Vermont all the time, or I just want to build a cool "Firewood House" but I love the idea of splitting wood.

So do any of you split wood for resale? I am trying to acquire a Timberwolf TW-5 right now. Just lost out to another bidder on e-bay for another one, but found this one today.

So what do you use and how much do you produce?
Do you cut all your own or do you get it from other tree companies?

daArch · Dec 8, 2007

LNG,

Although I do not sell firewood, I've been on the other side of the equation since 1979. I've been heating my home(s) primarily with wood for the past 28 years. I have run the gamut from buying tree-lengths to pre-split/pre-seasoned. And am now buying cut to length (18") green logs. (I split by hand during the winter prior to the season they will be burned)

Now, why am I telling you this? To give you an idea of the market. My present wood man (and all others in the past) have been in the business of tree removal or land clearing. They literally get paid top dollar to cut the trees down and remove them and then take the wood back to their lot and split, store, and sell. The fire wood end of the business is just gravy.

I got my unsplit, stove length, green wood for $150 a cord this year. I do not know what he sells split/seasoned for. But I do know that with the cost of his commercial splitter and the time it takes to split, stack, store, and deliver wood, he does not make his living off of fire wood. Remember, his supply of firewood is GRAVY. The wood itself is free - no, he is being PAID for it. The wood itself is part of his PROFIT.

If you could get unlimited tree lengths at a real low price, hire some real cheap labor (illegal ?) to cut and split, have some real estate to store at real low tax rate, have a good front end loader and fuel efficient dump truck, and CITY clientele who will pay 400 - 500 a cord (cut, split, seasoned, & stacked), then you could probably turn a profit.

Now, if you want to do this as a "hobby" to reduce the cost of your own personal firewood, then any splitter will do. You could have one of those trucks from VT deliver the tree-lengths. You could spend your weekends cutting the wood (sharpen the chain every hour or so, replace it every two-three cords). You could set aside 1/8 of an acre to store and season, and you could deliver about a 1/4 cord or so at a time in you pick-up.

Yah, it's a LOT of hard work. Think this endeavor through carefully. To make money from processing firewood, you need to be dedicated to it.

Duane1982 · Dec 8, 2007

firewood

wow-My grandfather was a logger(just money end of it now). I can remember cutting up tops and selling them in block form for 25.00 a face cord delivered not 7 or 8 years ago. I guess it's what the market bears. Current prices for seasoned hardwood right now are 50-60 dollars a face cord split and delivered. I'm sure I could get it delivered to anywhere in the Northeast for 150. split and delivered if you bought over 100 face cord. We still own several over the road and log trucks.

dirt diggler · Dec 8, 2007

LNG

there are tons of easier ways to make money ...

but if you have a delinquent teenage son ... there's very few harsher punishments you can assign than a couple of weekends in the woods cuttin firewood :laughing:

Like Duane said ... a cord for about $150

if you can get access to a friend or relatives property with a lot of trees (some will inevitably "fall" themselves each winter).... and a large list of clientele - you just might be able to make money. Not a lot.

But if you're having to make any kind of purchase on the wood before you can even cut & split - you're at a loss and it is a "hobby" at that point.

Seems everyone uses gas now to heat their home - that adds some competition

LNG24 · Dec 8, 2007

Around here it is $170 to $200 for a cord delivered. I would not need to pay for the wood, I can get the tree guys to bring it to me for free. Seems around here, most of the tree guys do not want to bother with firewood.

I use to buy it split for $75 per cord and resell it that winter for $150. Then I went to renting a log splitter as we needed it, but now I want to ...well have another toy :whistlingand have someone else pay for it. :thumbup:

What I do know is that most of the guys selling the stuff do not season it. The ones that do it right get the $200 per cord plus delivery. All I would need is 10 to 15 customers like me and I would be hauling out 30- 45 cords a season, maybe more. With a commercial splitter at $4000k, I could produce that amount in a week! (1 cord per hour) So investment would be $4k machine, 2 men for a week $1,500, annd another $500 for deliver costs, maintenance etc. and my outlay is $6k. Potential income $7,500 for a net of $1,500. I don't think that is bad. Have your equipment paid off the first year? Oh, I alread have the other toys though there will always be more to buy.

NOPE, Can't make a living off it, but it will be nice to get my heat for free, my wood split and stacked for free and acquire another toy:thumbsup: for free.

I know this is why most of the tree guys don't want to be bothered. They are already too busy with take downs. However, years ago I met an older gentlemen who had a great wood business going. He made $60k net. His set up was awsome I met him when he was retiring, too busy fighting cancer to run the business anymore. His clientel were all the Restaurants with Wood Fired Ovens. He only split Hickory, Oak and Maple. The logging companies would bring it right to him in huge lenghts.

This was his machine. http://www.timberwolfcorp.com/firewood_processors/video.asp?id=2

LNG24 · Dec 11, 2007

NOW THESE PEOPLE MAKE A LIVING OFF IT:

Click On It: New Frontier Firewood

5.5 cords per hour. Overhead conveyor sorting wood species. Indoor splitter. Similar, but bigger than the guy I had met years ago.

ruskent · Dec 11, 2007

I know a guy who is up to 700 cords a year at 175 a cord. He gets the wood for free and found a cheap 'yard' He picks up the log lengths with the humb o his excavator and the illegals cut it up with the chain saw. While others splits. It gives him something to do in the winter.

LNG24 · Dec 11, 2007

ruskent said:
I know a guy who is up to 700 cords a year at 175 a cord. He gets the wood for free and found a cheap 'yard' He picks up the log lengths with the humb o his excavator and the illegals cut it up with the chain saw. While others splits. It gives him something to do in the winter.

OOPS, they are not Illegals, They are Visitors from another country waiting for their Work Visas to arrive.

700 cords like that! He needs to upgrade. :thumbup: He's probably the one who outbid me on e-bay:furious:

sporter96 · Jan 7, 2008

If you going to make money you have invest money:

multitekinc.com/products/firewood-processors/2020CSC.html

LNG24 · Jan 8, 2008

Not according to the 2am Infomercials:laughing:

I have looked at a few processors, but I don't think they are really needed until you get into the 1000 plus cords.

I can (well not me) my guys can easily split 3 cords a day on a $1,500 splitter. Move that to a $5,000 splitter and we can split 8 cords a day.

The processors take advantage of Buying Tops from the Loggers. It will cut, split and pile with one person operating. With two people, you have one loading logs onto the processor and one doing the rest.

The bigges problem is that split wood needs to be dried a year before it becomes of value. So you can only produce enough for what you have room to store.

I decided to go with the less expensive splitter and two laborors. This way I don't need to sell as much to off set my investment cost, I'll get me wood for free and have it stacked.:clap:

Treeandland · Jan 8, 2008

We do tree work and I give away or most of the time pay to dump at the county recycling center at$40/ton. I gave up on the firewood a while ago, have to handle it too many times even getting paid to take it away.
Even at $225 delivered and dumped it didn't seem to be enough.
My guys probably could have split 3 cords a day too but not for long, that work sucks!
The best I've seen was a guy with a good splitter and conveyor right into the truck delivered green, he did alot of wood by himself and barely touched the wood.

LNG24 · Jan 8, 2008

Treeandland said:
We do tree work and I give away or most of the time pay to dump at the county recycling center at$40/ton.

Treeandland, where you at? I know many guys that would take your trees for free, including me!

Treeandland · Jan 8, 2008

I'm in No.Va., space is at a premium here and unless somebody has a place for us to dump close it's easiest and cheaper in the long run to pay and dump at the county.

LNG24 · Jan 10, 2008

Treeandland said:
I'm in No.Va., space is at a premium here and unless somebody has a place for us to dump close it's easiest and cheaper in the long run to pay and dump at the county.

Take a run over to http://www.ArboristSite.com and post in the Companies with Free Firewood Section. It is under Firewood & Heating With Firewood section.

Here is a link Companies with Free Firewood

Also Search the thread Free Firewood Wanted

If that fails...Search and Post a Message on Craigslist. There is No Need to PAY to get rid of Firewood OR Woodchips. Most Landscape Nursery's Take Wood Chips as well as equipment years to keep the mud under control and prevent erosion. Or you grind it up into mulch!

LNG24 · Jan 10, 2008

Here is a current ad in your area. They will come and get it too:

FIREWOOD WANTED

Reply to: sale-531227770@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-01-07, 11:46AM EST

Wanted: Free Oak firewood. Seasoned or unseasoned. I have a truck and if the wood is in lengths that I can handle I can haul it away. Looking for free wood.

Please Oak only and nothing that has been sitting for years and is rotted.

Thanks.
Location: Northern Virginia
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Treeandland · Jan 11, 2008

Thanks, I've been on Arboristsite for a while, I actully had a guy taking all the wood he could handle but I'm not at that property anymore.
The problem is a place to drop it, the nurseries cannot take all that is produced in this area.
I wouldn't have somebody show up on my jobsite unless they have all the eqpt. and insurance to do the job quick and clean.
I will post and try again to see if I can find somebody with a lot to drop wood or chips but we're slow now anyhow.
Other problem is it has to be semi close as traffic is a nightmare here and with paying somebody to drive more than a few miles it's cheaper to just pay to dump. It does get recycled though!

Unless I just want to dump wherever I can find a spot like alot of the country boys that drive in do.

WoodenGrassMan · Nov 4, 2010

LNG,

I started selling firewood about 1 year ago. I sold 40 cords between Oct-2009 through Mar-2010. This season I've managed to move 10 cords and have orders for 20 more.

I get the wood out of my 17 acre stand of trees. I figure my woods will give up another 10 cords at best. I need free wood fast.

I intended to go out of the firewood business once my stock was depleted. The demand changed my mind.

I made a few calls today on loggers, land clearers and saw mills. All of them are interested in giving me their tops and bad pieces if I'll pickup and cleanup. I intend to work with one or two on a trial basis. Is the wood I get worth enough to justify the disposal service I render? I'll commit to it if helps me capital up into a land clearing service.

I didn't bother calling on the few loggers selling firewood. daArch hit the nail squarely on the head. Those who do well in my neighborhood selling firewood are, without exception, in the tree removal and/or land clearing business. One guy does 300 to 400 cords yearly. He's a logger with a big wood processor in a big yard. His drops his tops in his yard and loads up the processor with a skidder. Over 2 cords of cut and split firewood end up in his dump trucks for every hour the wood processor is running. The firewood is delivered when a truck is full.

I was going to go get me one of those wood processors. 50K? No way Hosea. I got to thinking. A machine that can eat 3 cords/hour must be feed three cords/hour and be given big tri-axle buckets to catch its 3 cord poop out. I'll bet my logger/firewood friend has close to a megabuck invested.

Let's be totally honest with each other. Anyone that wants to be in the firewood business is sick in the head. I love it. I got to find a good shrink.

queequeg99 · Apr 4, 2011

WoodenGrassMan said:
LNG,

Let's be totally honest with each other. Anyone that wants to be in the firewood business is sick in the head. I love it. I got to find a good shrink.

A great quotation. I made a fair amount of money selling firewood. At least, I made a lot of money for the time I put into the work. Back when I was a full time student, I spent a month or so during the summers splitting wood. The wood was free to me as we had just logged 70 acres of family property for its doug fir and the maple, madrone, and oak were left standing (no market for them). I could split about 40-50 cords during the month or so in the summer I did the firewod routine. I would then season the wood for 18 months and sell it during Christmas break. I figured if people were dumb enough to wait until the middle of winter to stock up on wood, they would be desparate. And I was right. I routinely received $200 a cord. This was back in the mid-1990s in the mid-Willamette Valley in Oregon. But the wood was very dry and it was all hardwood. Oak wasn't fun to split as it is a bit stringy and would like to stay together. Maple and madrone were awesome. The splitter would go in about 1 inch and then the piece would just pop cleanly in two.

The only part I really didn't like was when the splitter would occasionally blow a gasket and bleed all of the hydraulic fluid. That happened twice, both on really hot days after I had been using the splitter all day long. And then there was the time I started bucking up a bunch of trees that had been spiked by some eco-nuts. Wear good protection when working with trees you are not familiar with (i.e. pretty much all of the time).

The Firewood Business

LNG24

daArch

Duane1982

dirt diggler

LNG24

LNG24

ruskent

LNG24

sporter96

LNG24

Treeandland

LNG24

Treeandland

LNG24

LNG24

Treeandland

WoodenGrassMan

queequeg99

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