Why is firewood so expensive?

[woodhog73]

I don’t make much selling firewood. But I did calculate my time expenses etc years ago ( way before I even started burning my family and I go through 20 plus cords every spring just to cook down maple syrup I’m a newer wood burner but not new to making firewood )

If I sell a face cord for $100 picked up at my place I’m at or around $30 per hour. Not that bad really. But I own the trees. My chainsaws are long since paid for. My splitter is paid for. My tractor is paid for etc ( ok it’s a 60 year old farmall given to me by family who cares it skids wood just fine )

That said I’m feeling compelled to make this post because 1 hour ago my door bell rang. My nearest neighbor who is over a half mile away apparently told his work buddy that I sell wood. Really I don’t. I just put a CL add up around the holidays to make extra cash. Anyways guy shows up and asks what I can spare for his outdoor wood bolier. We filed his 16 foot dump trailer completely full. My greenest wood cut this past spring. He gave me $300 cash. I didn’t do nothing but watch him and his 2 teenage sons load their trailer.

Easiest $300 I ever made. No idea how much he got. I honestly didn’t care. That $300 more in my wallet. You can make money selling wood. Just not a lot though. It’s hit or miss.

And before anyone says I’m crazy for just guessing at the wood I’m selling I live in the middle of nowhere. I’m in the heartland ( mid west ) where corn fields and dairy farms are all you see for miles. We help each other out around here and honestly I felt a little bad taking that guys $300. He asked how much I wanted I said whatever he thinks is fair. That’s country folk.

 

[Jags]

“That’s country folk”

From one Midwest corn cob to another....that speaks volumes. Thank you.

 

[Hasufel]

So out of curiosity, has your wife ever mentioned what she thinks about Rick’s wood? Or just his face?[emoji6][emoji23]

Hey, don't make fun of Rick. He's a cool dude. Helped people flee the Nazis, and ran a great cafe.

 

[moresnow]

This smells….

Fishy

 

[firefighterjake]

Because . . . just because.

 

[rowerwet]

Currently cords of wood delivered in my town on Craigslist are $ 300-325, I scrounge and processes all my wood, I like the exercise and the heat, I have the time to put into it, but I could easily earn the money to buy it by working an extra day at work a couple times a month.

The firewood dealer isn't getting rich at 240 a cord

 

[maple1]

Just saw this thread.

OP had to be trolling....

 

[hickoryhoarder]

I don't pay $80 for a rick (face cord). More like 60, delivered. But either way, the guy doing it doesn't make much. No one around here makes a living at selling firewood. It's a way they can make an extra $1000 or $3000 per year. If the guy charges me $60, I give him $65.

Here's how most of them seem to do their work around me. They find downed trees on national forest land or their own land. They go in with a pickup truck and chainsaw. Then they take it back and run it through a power splitter. Then they stack it. At some point they fill the truck and take it to a customer, and make a whopping $120-135. Part of which goes to pay for the truck, the chainsaw, the splitter, and the gas.

The wood I buy costs almost the same as natural gas per BTU (I heat mainly with natural gas; I'm in a small city). These days natural gas is super cheap, compared to the price of other things like food or rent.

 

[brenndatomu]

Just saw this thread.

OP had to be trolling....

Yup, stir the pot and leave...

 

[jetsam]

Dropping the trees in the woods, hauling them out, bucking them up, chipping/disposing of the brush, splitting the logs. It's a lot of work, not to mention the equipment, etc. I get asked for some of my wood every year, I think it's crazy someone would think I would just give it away.

I've had several houseguests who saw the stove and wanted to try splitting some wood. Most of them couldn't believe how much work it was to swing a maul and break up a couple little rounds.

After I explain that they are only doing the easy/fun/quick 5% of the job, I get the feeling that they don't all run home to buy a wood stove.

 

[TJ1]

If I had to buy wood to heat our house it would be cheaper to use electricity to power the heat pump which then converts to natural gas at about 35 degrees.
I wouldnt think about selling any wood we have split and stacked. It takes a lot of energy to create these wood piles. All the trees we cut are on our own property. There are plenty of huge white oaks blown over by a tornado 18 months ago that I can't even give away and all are within driving distance of a atv or tractor.

 

[TJ1]

I got quoted for $80 per face cord.
$960 for four full cords.

Im trying to rationalize it and would appreciate clarification.

Our guy has a firewood processor more than likely paid off. He sits in a seat as he cuts the tree, plops it in the processor, and the machine cuts and splits the wood to size. He then sits in a seat in the skid-steer and loads it into a truck. He then sits in a seat and drives it to my house where the truck automatically dumps the wood... he gets paid almost $1,000 just like that.. and drives off.

Am i wrong to assume that the cost of firewood is due to the convenience of it more than the actual product? Yes, i didn't have to cut down the tree or split it... but it seems like firewood should be around $30 a face cord.

I know they have to pay for gas, fuel, maintenance, possibly an employee or two.. but come on now. Almost $1,000 for wood??

Is there anyone out there who sells their own firewood who can clear up for me what I'm missing?

Honest question here.. when you're done dumping the load and you're driving off and have $1,000+ in your pocket.. do you laugh or call your customers 'suckers' for paying for something that cost you much less?

Even more... a lot of these guys have tree removal services. So.. they're getting PAID to cut the tree down, but then are being PAID again for the same product!???

So when the first customer thanks them for removing the tree, the owner knows that the product they just cut down and was paid to do so will be sold for even more profit!

It's almost like its one of those businesses all firewood people DONT want you to know about or think about starting so that you don't take business away from them. I feel I should get into the business.

And whats worse is many of these people spout their wood is seasoned when in reality its not. Ive only found one guy who actually cuts and splits and STACKS his wood (not in piles or cuts the tree the day before delivery).

Why don't you try going out and cutting down a tree, bucking, then splitting a cord. Then load it up and deliver and come back and tell us how you only did $30 worth of work.

 

[jetsam]

If I had to buy wood to heat our house it would be cheaper to use electricity to power the heat pump which then converts to natural gas at about 35 degrees.
I wouldnt think about selling any wood we have split and stacked. It takes a lot of energy to create these wood piles. All the trees we cut are on our own property. There are plenty of huge white oaks blown over by a tornado 18 months ago that I can't even give away and all are within driving distance of a atv or tractor.

Oh jeez, I was just out in the woods scrounging standing dead pine.

I will be right over to your place!

 

[mcstatz5829]

I paid $300/cord. Had them price in stacking in my racks so
1) I wouldn’t have to do it myself
2) I knew I wasn’t being shorted.

Seems pricy to me, but I run a low capital, high labor business. I wouldn’t know how to price something that involved so much capital outlay and bankers asking for their loans to be repaid.

 

[Jags]

Suspecting the OP to be a man of short stature, large nose with warts and a slight green skin tone with large feet and a walking stick - I am gonna stick a fork in this one. Not much else can be said, anyhow.