break even price of a cord?

A local logger, is select harvesting neighboring farmers land about 2 miles down road. I have bought cords from him in past and he delivers in a 20 foot box dump truck. His cords have always stacked out to 140 to 150 cubic feet. 3 cord deliveries of 65% sugar maple 20% white oak rest would be black ash. 200 a cord or 600 a truck. Even if my labor if free... with gas chains bar oil and hauling (I don't have a truck yet. I haul logs to 2 flat acres out back and process there.) What do you figure real costs are per cord? I know I am getting at least 3 cord just think in should I buy my way up a hoarding ladder

 

Even if my labor is free is a big if since processing firewood is labor intensive. I don't buy cord wood at this point but I can get cords of split firewood around here for $140-180 on avg. They're probably short but at that price it make little sense financially to process my own wood. I say I get my wood for free, but if you figure how long it takes me to collect, cut, split, and stack a cord... I do it because I like to but I'm probably working for less than minimum wage. Depending upon how many cords you use per year you'll get any equipment you buy to reduce your labor paid back, sooner or later but processing firewood clearly does not pay well per hour. If you need some of the equipment anyway then it tends to make much more sense.

If you're trying to get a jump on getting ahead, buy some wood as it sounds like he gives heavy cords and is pretty fair. Since you already have saws and a tractor (splitter?) maybe you can also buy some logs from him at a deeper discount per cord so you can exercise your saws? If he's got a wood processor he may may not want to do that though, he's gotta pay get his equipment paid back too.

 

Yeah I got saws and an old splitter lafont. But he has a wood processor so does firewood. I am calling for a truck of logs which may help make choice. Right now cords are selling 350 and up. Coldest February on record. I burn about 10 cord a year but praying that goes down with ideal steel next winter. If not I got to be a hoarder to be on 3 year plan. I only put non ethanol in all small engines that's currently 3.09 a galloon. It surprises me you get a cord in city cheaper than in northern Vermont. I just trying to figure how much it costs per cord for gas, bar oil, transport. In my experience a chain wears out about every 5 cord.

 

Oh that's $200 a cord unsplit? That seems high to me but wood is much cheaper around here. Most of the wood here is from tree trimming services who have few places to sell to and a lot of it isn't good for commercial use since they're yard or roadside trees. So they end up paying to dispose of most of the wood they cut. In you're area I guess wood is more of a commodity and there are mills and other wood buyers you're competing with.

Sounds like a truck and a trailer would be worth it to you for sure since payback would be pretty quick with the amount you're using at those prices. I can't get non-ethanol fuel as cheap as you though. I don't think it matters much if you're running it through soon after you buy it. For little used stuff and storage I think it makes sense. I use 93+ octane and Stabil in my small engines and everything starts. Have replaced a couple fuel lines though.

*My part of LI (Suffolk County) isn't city at all. In fact it's a mix of suburban and rural and leads the state in agricultural production (actually I think we just finished second for the first time in many years). There's ton's of wooded properties and land but relatively few wood burners. I've actually called it a scroungers paradise for that reason, tons of wood of many varieties and not too much competition.

 

Oh no that's cut split and delivered. Normally I get enough of blow downs ice storms etc. On my land and neighbors but town and a lot of companies are using outside boilers for garages etc. I give them my pine. Yeah a lot of people up here use wood to supplement so it's funny easier to get wood cut and split then log length. Reading cl and kids thing to buy log lengths for 120. I would not cut and split and deliver for 80 a cord. Friends needed help so let a few cord go lookin to get 25 css before hip replacement

 

$120 a cord log length sounds closer to what I've heard others who are buying that way end up paying. You're right it's not like it's a no brainer. Between fuel, chains and labor you'll eat up that $80 difference pretty quick. Somebody will chime in with a real estimate rather than my shot from the hip but it's gotta be 5 gallon of gas a day between the saw and the splitter. Forgetting about the satisfaction part of doing it yourself I guess it depends on what you would do with the time if you do buy it processed.

Oh, keep the pine. I would anyway.

 

No that's cut split and dumped outback. I am luck in that neighbors let me drag storm damaged to my flat spot out back it's 2 of my 22 acres that I process wood in. I have only been burning for 5 years but at 10 cord a year I am learning. Yeah truck and trailer are on the list to get probably next year. Wife got her new subaru forester this year. I love it I can wait until day light to blow 1/4 mile driveway. Probably like everyone else I got house I love perfect spot 5 minutes to interstate great schools but most of my money's go to mortgage and taxes. Burning wood keeps fuel bills down me in shape and wife happy. When she moved in I kept heat at 55 deg. Now living room is as close to 80 as an nc13 can get it. Where most say ideal steel is ugly she says hey we live in vermont I want it to function. But she is deciding on designs for it.
Kubota was a great deal now it's paid off, her car came first then I get my truck! Trucks and tractors here in vt are crazy prices, a truck 10 years old over 100k miles and still 14 grand so will probably go new for 26k

 

I got a wife and a 10 year old daughter and dog all female. What time. I do wood cut stack split and shoot guns to stay in shape and hopefully scare her future boyfriends and for "man time..

 

Hey Eric I'm in Stony Brook. Never said anything about seasoned and as I said I don't buy but a quick look at CL indicates that's still about right. I wouldn't be surprised if the cords came up a bit short and I would say for sure it would be green no matter what the seller said.

$300 for truly seasoned wood mid-season maybe when they got people over a barrel. This guys about a mile from me.

 

200/cord is probably less than your cost. Even with $120 log length, just factoring in cost of the truck/trailer that you don't own, your time acquiring the wood and the avoidance of the inherent danger of felling trees will put you ahead.

And how are you killing a chain every 5 cords? You need to keep that tip off the ground. A chain should go a lot longer than 5 cords.

 

free, wood is free, everyone on here says I heat for free.

 

Paul bunion, sorry I haven't quite figured out how to quote on this yet. I am a new learner. Both to forums and wood. How long should a chain last. My experience, I cut mostly hard woods. With elm, I had a bunch of dead 8 inch trees, seems to dull chains 2x as fast as other woods just gut here but probably sharpen every 40 rounds. With sugar maple I keep hitting taps buried a foot into trunk. And it bends a link so I throw it away trying to be safe not cheap. I am often accused of being tighter than bark to a tree. In past 5 years improved a lot almost never hit ground now. I guess I can do 15 cord in pine with a chain. But I was always told myth not burn soft woods in woodstove. So I always gave it away. I got lots to learn so thanks to all great members of FHC.

 

I have very little money invested in a cord of "free" wood, but lots of labor. $10/cord maybe? I wait for very good deals on used equipment and most of it I need anyway (everything but the splitter). I cut on my own place, no transportation cost. The trees I css need something done with them anyway. I can css them or let them rot. Wood is cheap here, $120-140 full cord of green oak. I'd be money ahead to spend the time working overtime and buying my wood, but I enjoy it, good exercise, and the trees need something done with them anyway.

 

Still like it here as it's a pretty and historic area. Could live w/o the traffic to and from work since I commute to Nassau. Kristi M's your cousin? No kidding! Actually I don't know any Kristi's .

Keep the pine, I wish I had more right now that the temps are moderating. For my needs (2 cords/yr) I can scrounge with my Jeep and a single saw. Shoot, half my wood has come from my back yard so far. Have PPE and I split by hand so aside from the stove, my investment isn't much. So I'm not a good comparison to folks heating full time and needing 5+ cords a year or more. At that rate it makes sense to invest more in equipment. Still considering the labor or the investment into equipment to reduce labor, I don't see how anyone makes any real money on firewood. If you can get heavy cords at $200 it's not a bad way to get a jump on getting ahead.

 

Impossible to tell you real cost per cord as the ability & "taste" of the burner come into play too much.

Are you a competent mechanic? Can you just run a beater of a truck or pull a trailer and be satisfied or do you need a $10k+ setup?

I think 2 saws are a minimum if you cut anywhere besides home (you want a dead saw and a half cut fell left standing?) You can find 2 decent saws for $300 or $2k, depends on your tastes and desire to go new vs. used.

Chains & bars are consumables, but really a drop in the bucket as they should last for a while. Gas for a saw is again a drop in the bucket. Gas for the vehicle you don't have... that could add up depending on where you cut. The real cost is in maintenance and insurance for vehicle.


For me, equipment cost aside, I pay myself about $25/hour based on the going rate of a cord that is cut/ split and delivered.

Add in equipment that is necessary, I have a $2500 truck, a $1300 splitter, and too much $ into saws because I have CAD. Saws could be $300. I would consider my needs very basic, but that is just under $5k for firewood hustle related equipment. Add in insurance, tags, maintenance, and it doesn't make sense. I could hand split everything and just pull a small trailer and get by.

I heat with wood to save some cash, but mostly for the love of it. I love being able to justify a truck, and it gets used for more than just the wood hustle. I love playing with chainsaws. This has turned into a hobby that actually pays for itself albeit time consuming and labor intensive. If you don't enjoy that end of it, buy the wood and burn it, I don't think you'll save anything investing in the equipment in the long run.

 

There is no break even point on a cord of wood in this household.

Just putting the man back into manliness.

 

I think you are looking for ROI. From reading the forums daily over the past 9 months, I don't anyone here truly worries about ROI. Many do it differently. For instance, many have plenty of land there are able to harvest their logs, and then process them. Others like myself purchase log lengths. My price for log lengths is $250 and that is equivalent to three cords. That covers it for the most part. Some will purchase wood off of CL or get free from CL.

For me, I don't look at what my time or the cost of the tools are in order to process my firewood. It's not a chore for me. I enjoy it. If I were to look at the time it takes me to get things up and going for wood hoarding, the cost would far exceed what it would cost me to simply purchase cut and split cords. Once you've established your three year plan, it's all about maintaining it. At that point your cost should drop. At $120/cord of unseasoned wood, you are looking at $1200 to maintain 10 cords per year. If you were getting the same three cords of logs at $250, you are looking at 750 for nine cords and another 250 to give you an extra 2 cords. In the end you are looking at a difference of $200. Minus the two extra cords for next year. In my area I pay $200-250 for unseasoned wood, and I use 4-5 cords per year. So between 800-1000 for me to purchase 4-5 cords of wood. Purchasing 3 cord of log length at $250 gets me to $500 per year with a cord or two left over. That is a significant difference in price for me.

Now if you are getting free wood, then the numbers go way down. My assumptions above is if you are paying for wood.

 

I used to go through 1000 gallons of fuel oil annually at my old house, which was a 1970's ranch, average insulation, 1200 square feet of finished space. I built a new home with 4300 square feet of finished space, but insulated to at least R26 everywhere and in some places close to R50. It's structural insulated panels and insulated concrete forms. Big foam Coleman cooler. So I figured that I would be using an equivalent amount of fuel in the new house, given the differences between the construction and the size. Turns out I burn 12-15 cords of wood a year, for both heat and domestic hot water. If I were to buy that wood, it would cost me as much as $4000 per year, cut, split and delivered. Minimum around here is probably $180 a cord and that's lucky. If I were to buy log length it runs about $120 a cord but I would still need saw, splitter and means of getting it from pile to wood shed. Could cheap out and use $99 Walmart saw, old splitting maul and wheelbarrow I guess. Still gonna cost me a couple thousand $$$$, plus my time and fuel for saw.

I often wonder if it would be cheaper to use a high-efficiency propane or oil burner, spend the money and have lots more time on my hands. However, in ten years of burning wood I have only once paid for wood, and that was to pay a log truck driver $250 to truck 16 cords of wood from a job site five miles away, to my house. It was either that or move 16 cords by pickup truck, one load at a time.

I enjoy cutting wood, enjoy using saws, enjoy driving my tractor around, getting out in the woods, and getting exercise. Maybe when I'm 80 I'll quit. I can't even imagine dealing with wood pellets. Let's say I've saved $2500 per year not buying fuel. That's paid for my outdoor wood boiler, all of my saws, tools and equipment, and the first tractor I owned. My current tractor will have paid for itself in five more years.

If you don't have the time to spend harvesting your own firewood, then by all means buy your way into a three-year plan, or more. All of the charts I've ever seen say that firewood is the best BTU value for the dollar, unless the price of fossil fuels drops to 1970's levels again.