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sawing by the foot prices

Started by beav39, February 14, 2008, 06:23:25 AM

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beav39

im up in the northeast and wandering what everyone is charging to saw by thebdft.i charge 23ct bdft.
sawdust in the blood

Captain

Here in Norton, MA we're a bit more if on the road, a bit less if here on property.

Currently on the road:
2x an larger .32
less than 2x .37
mix of the two is somewhere in the middle

On my property is always less than the above, as we use the slabs and sawdust.  I typically charge for hauling the logs in as well.

Captain

Brad_S.

I'm the opposite. I charge less on the road because I don't have to do near as much work nor clean up the mess. I charge 30¢ bdft at home and $55 hr. on the road. I charge by the bdft. at home because I have the equipment to move the logs and lumber efficiently there and am in control of the operation to assure I will be able to make a profit. I charge hourly on the road because it can be a crappola shoot on what I'll run into. I sometimes spend more time moving logs around than sawing. It also compensates me for the times when the client wants me to turn small firewood logs into lumber.
When a capable client helps and/or provides help, his cost to me usually works out to about 20¢ bdft., which is still higher than my competitor charges ( ::)) but I'm more dependable. I've had clients who are content to drink beer and watch me work, and their costs have worked out to about 50¢ foot. Most of the time, I just stand there and run the machine, only occasionally having to assist with moving lumber. I have one client who treats me as the guest of honor and the main attraction for a neighborhood get together. The client provides a great lunch, soda, etc. to anyone who wants to join in and usually has a dozen guys show up. The saw is barely out of the cut and the board is gone and is stickered on the stack before the saw completes it's gigback. His cost to me is usually under 15¢, I don't know what the lunch adds to his cost. :D
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

Cedarman

Having a bunch of people over to help and enjoy life is priceless.
I am in the pink when sawing cedar.

Captain

Brad I understand you philosophy on pricing, but I end up working WAY HARDER on the road than I do at home with the machines around.  Also when I saw at home, they are paying trucking costs at least 1 way, sometimes 2.

Captain

Skip

I charge .25 on the road or at home , on the road i charge a set up fee . If I have to sticker ,buck  drag, clean overly dirty logs i charge by the hr while doing it. Most of the time i dead stack on a wagon or trailer and they take care of the rest.

ErikC

  I get .30¢ and charge a hauling and setup fee. The price may go up to about about 25$ a thousand this year. I have lowered the price on occasion, such as sawing all beams, but not usually. Heavy timbers are hard to move, so I figure it makes up for the faster sawing. My price about average here in N. CA

Erik
Peterson 8" with 33' tracks, JCB 1550 4x4 loader backhoe, several stihl chainsaws

beav39

i to charge a setup fee if i sticker i add extra
sawdust in the blood

cantcutter

I am not in the NE anymore, but its all by the hr for me. that way no mater what I am doing I am getting payed. And it is not as confusing for the customer when we talk price.... a hour is 60 minutes and this is what I charge.... plain and simple 8)

solodan

$.65/bf + hourly moving logs cleaning up ect. or $85/hr.

fencerowphil (Phil L.)

Solodan's price makes me wanna put on the the Beachboy's "Wish They All Could Be California Girls"
and dream of that big money.

8)

I just quoted .25/bd.ft. on a job which is primarily 2X6X22',  BUT...
I will be going to see the set-up beforehand.  They supposedly have
about 100 logs ready and stacked.  The catch for me is that, to cut
by the foot,  there have to be simple log-based decks set up which
will hold a day's worth of logs or more per fill-up.  That way a couple
of peaveys and we can just roll 'em in.

We are used to having logs stacked up to three tiers high with chocks on
the two front and two back logs of the bottom layer. 
That way no log gets out of control when you don't want it to. 
I carry a pair of tongs which open up to handle logs up to 24".  Also,
we have a single pair which will go 32".  These tongs are for the customer's
machines, since mine are too small to handle logs over about 1500 lbs.
With a deck set up like this, we can often stay busy for two days, with no
help to reload the logs onto the deck.  If WE have to do such things, the
hourly clock starts at $45 per hour for me, plus the cost of whatever help
I may have brought to the job.  Big skid steers do a
great job at precision stacking, and my little one will do fine with logs up
to 18" by 16', but not the ones these guys have waiting on us (22'-28').

Our set-up fee applies to smaller jobs.   Often I will go see the situation
so as to decide whether to go with an hourly quote or a board ft. quote.

I tried to go up to .30 recently and could hear a cold chill over the telephone. Lost those!
There are plenty of bandmillers around who are below .25, if you can get them
to work, that is.  I think that some of the other sawyers are fading out, so maybe
a higher rate is possible soon.

Phil L.
Bi-VacAtional:  Piano tuner and sawyer.  (Use one to take a vacation from the other.) Have two Stihl 090s, one Stihl 075, Echo CS8000, Echo 346,  two Homely-ite 27AVs, Peterson 10" Swingblade Winch Production Frame, 36" and 54"Alaskan mills, and a sore back.

DWM II

I'm kinda diggin solodan's fee's as well. I had a customer this week complain about .25 on his rotten logs that scaled around 300 bdft but the flitches were so rotten I couldnt edge anything out of them. Wound up loosing almost 100 bdft per log. >:( The pain was he instisted on sawing all flitches 4/4 "trying to save some lumber". I would tell him to junk'em, I couldnt see asking him to pay for scrapola he would talk bad about to someone else.
Stewardship Counts!

solodan

 :D :D Well, I should actually charge more,  considering it costs over $100 bucks to fill up the truck, if your out a few miles off the pavement an acre of land starts around $100k , if ya got power try $300K and if you put a shack on it it's about $500k.  ::) and don't call the plumber cause he'll charge you $110/hour. But us hillbillies up here live real cheap compared to them city folk 3 hours away.  It ain't cheap to live out here, but we sure have nice weather. ;D

Drew b

.50/bdft here on the west coast of O Canada.  Bring me the logs or its a set up fee which will depend on conditions.

brdmkr

I charge .30.  I have yet to have someone walk away, BUT I make it known that I don't cut for a living.  The way I see it, if I do cut for someone at this price, I can make a little.  If I don't cut for them, I can cut for myself.  Even if I am cutting framing lumber for myself, I figure I am making 40+ cents/bdft as that is what it would cost me to buy the lumber.  If I am cutting hardwood or 1x pine, I figure I am making even more.  As I need the wood to build my house, I am fine with just cutting for myself.  I do miss a few jobs, but it is not because of my price.  It is because they need it quicker than I can get to it or the job is too large or they want lumber that is larger than I can cut easily.  I really think that my ideal 'outside' milling job is the guy who wants 500 - 1000 bdft sawn.   
Lucas 618  Mahindra 4110, FEL and pallet forks, some cant hooks, and a dose of want-to

footer

Im with solodan. I charge $75.00 hr. $1.00 pr mile one way to the customers place, and $25.00 pr blade that hits metal. And I still don't think I can hardly justify doing it with the cost of everything today.

cantcutter

I did a resawing job a few weeks ago at 38.00 an hr and when I finnished up and handed the guy the bill he looked at it and said "you don't charge enough" He wrote me a check for 100.00 more than I billed him. Said he was quoted a price of $9.00 a bf by a local guy and he would have had to move the beams to this fella.

I have to say that you guys who are sawing for 15-25 cents a bf, I don't know how you make it with the cost of fuel, bands, and other mill related costs. Fuel alone costs me $60.00 a day now just for the mill.

Tom Sawyer

Quote from: cantcutter on June 13, 2008, 05:48:52 PM
Fuel alone costs me $60.00 a day now just for the mill.

What kind of mill do you have that uses that much fuel?  My 51hp Cat uses less than $25 worth of fuel in a 9-10 hour day.  Now my truck is another story - $170 to fill up which will take me about 800km :(

Tom

John Bartley

I will not cut by the board foot. Period.

I don't have a lot of sawing experience compared to most of you fellers, but I have lots of  business experience dealing with customers and what I thought I knew is matching up pretty close with my sawing experiences so far. What I know is that if you tell a customer up front in plain simple language what the charges will be (don't ask them...tell them...big difference), they will pay. Customers who are paying by the hour work much harder with you than customers who are paying by the board foot result. When customers are paying by the hour, it doesn't matter how crappy their wood is...it's their problem and as long as you're honest to them about what to expect from it, then you have no reason to be embarrassed about giving them a bill for every minute you work...as long as you work hard. Customers are adults and I expect adults to be responsible for their decisions and to have done some thinking about what they are planning.

I charge $75/hr for retail customers (one time cut - not likely any referral or repeat business)
I charge $60/hr (a 20% discount from $75 and I show it on the bill) for trade, farm, commercial customers, or those who will repeat or refer
I don't charge travel within one hour of home base because those are the customers that I want (close to home)
I don't charge setup because I take my own sweet time doing it and I don't start cutting until I'm rested, organised, at peace with myself and my surroundings.

Now... if this all sounds a bit high handed, I guess it is, but I am sort of retired, so I have no plans to finance anybodies bank account but my own with my retirement time work, and as long as I am charging good high rates, nobody else is being forced to cut their rates because of my actions. I hope that when word gets out that some of us are charging and getting $75+/hr, then the lowballers will start to raise their own rates also. After all... if we're all charging high (like lawyers and accountants), then what choice will the customers have but to pay?

One last thing ... when I bought my mill, I did some serious costing on it. I calculated that it costs $25/hr to turn the key and cut over the life of the mill. So....those who are charging $0.25/bdft have to cut 100bdft/hr just to cover the cost of the mill. To make $25/hr as a wage, they have to do a steady 200bdft/hr. In some wood that might be easy....

Just my $0.02 worth - no offence intended to anyone

cheers eh?
Kioti DK35HSE w/loader & forks
Champion 25hp band mill, 20' bed
Stihl MS361
Stihl 026

maple flats

I charge $.35 BF, by international scale before cutting sometimes and $60/hr at others. I used to tally the lumber and charge by the bf but then guys wanted me to cut all I could and then they rejected inferior stuff and didn't want to pay for it. When I scale it in log form and give a price for the cutting, they get the overrun but I make much better time since they never seem to sort well while tailing the sawmill. These prices are with the customer tailing, if I supply a tailer the price goes up $20/hr or .15 bf. I charge set up and take down time at the same rate and I charge mileage over 10 miles. I do not do this for a living, just in my spare time and I pick and chose my jobs. I require the customer to have the logs stacked where i specify, on poles for rails and I supervise the initial setup free of charge so it is done the way I want it and I have all logs set up or at least a couple of days cutting ready ahead of the job. Then when I saw I just roll the logs into place and cut. I have them stacked 2 high only which has always worked well for me.
logging small time for years but just learning how,  2012 36 HP Mahindra tractor, 3point log arch, 8000# class excavator, lifts 2500# and sets logs on mill precisely where needed, Woodland Mills HM130Max , maple syrup a hobby that consumes my time. looking to learn blacksmithing.

DR_Buck

Customer supplies off bearers and log handling help
Logs must be cut to length and in a single pile that I can park the mill next to.  I do not move or cut logs.

$300 minimum charge to go portable.
35¢ bf for logs over 8" diameter.  Finished lumber is tallied.
$65 hr for logs 8" diameter and under (firewood)  and they have to be at the back of the stack and get done after all the bf rate stuff.

$1 per mile one way travel for every mile over 25.
No set up fees

$25 to move the mill once it's setup on site

$25 band damage by non-wood objects in the logs

No minimum and 35¢ bf if the logs are brought here to me.
Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

amberwood



AU$100/hr
Travel charge starts after first hour on the road at same rate, one way. 3 hour minimum to travel. If the customer helps then it costs them less. Same charge rate for sawing as stickering/ moving logs/ or relocating mill.
Work on my site, no minimum, $100/hr. $71.50/hr for me to take the crane truck out and get the customers logs/redeliver the product if required.

i do some ongoing contract cutting on my site, that is cut at my discretion time wise, so a good time filler if you have a few spare hours. $100/m3..so approx 25c/bf

blades, $50 if it is destroyed in the log, we do metal detect. No charge if the blade is recoverable. I have an allowance of one blade per hour of charged time. Then $7.5 per blade to cover sharpening costs. I do a reasonable amount of recycled material resawing and it is aways full of nails and bolts etc.

DTR
MS460 Magnum
MS250
DAF CF85-430
ASV RC-85 track loader

bandmiller2

We have a stationary mill and always supply the logs [tree service yard]basically 50-60bf pine 90-100bf oak special orders don't upset us.It depends who it is how big a hurry their in and the cut of their jib.Some times theirs the R.H.S.[robin hood syndrom]kids building a tree house don't pay as much as gotbucks with the big stable.Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

cantcutter

How much are you paying for diesel? I am paying 3.99 a gallon for gas and using three five gallon tanks a day when I run all day. I actually started to idle the mill down and turn it off when off loading because the cost is getting crazy. I am running a 25 hp kohler on a timberking 1600. I think it would do better on fuel if it had two seperate power units for the hydraulics and the band, but for now it does not.

Quote from: Tom Sawyer on June 13, 2008, 06:38:55 PM
Quote from: cantcutter on June 13, 2008, 05:48:52 PM
Fuel alone costs me $60.00 a day now just for the mill.

What kind of mill do you have that uses that much fuel?  My 51hp Cat uses less than $25 worth of fuel in a 9-10 hour day.  Now my truck is another story - $170 to fill up which will take me about 800km :(

Tom

DR_Buck

QuoteHow much are you paying for diesel? I am paying 3.99 a gallon for gas and using three five gallon tanks a day when I run all day. I actually started to idle the mill down and turn it off when off loading because the cost is getting crazy. I am running a 25 hp kohler on a timberking 1600. I think it would do better on fuel if it had two seperate power units for the hydraulics and the band, but for now it does not.


I think you need to check that Kohler.     I run the same engine on my LT40 hydraulic and an 8 hr day cutting 1500 -2000 bf only uses 6-7 gal of gas.

Been there, done that.   Never got caught [/b]
Retired and not doing much anymore and still not getting caught

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