Ruff sawn lumber prices

[longtime lurker]

True, but the OP's Reply #18 indicated that he was planning to harvest his own trees.  That is much different from sawing and selling free logs. 

Remember that drying and even planned lumber adds much value.  On another note, diluting the market with sawn free logs hurts those such as the OP with his efforts to saw and market his own timber.

Yah, means hes got to run chainsaws and a skidder - or an axe and a horse team - skidder is cheaper to run then horses anyway.

And hes got to pay taxes on the land, and think about sivicultural management, and the hundred other unseen costs that go with harvesting your own logs. And when hes harvesting logs whos running the sawmill? I know there are scale things involved with it - you do one job today and the other tomorrow - but I also know that a lot of those costs are there.

Sometimes its cheaper just to buy truckloads of trees.

[Magicman]

My full intention when I bought my sawmill was to harvest my own trees and sell lumber.  Within 6 months I realized that my intentions would not be met, and within a year I was out of the lumber business and offering a portable sawing service only.  For me, it was a wise choice.

[longtime lurker]

I was the opposite. I'd been a sawmiller before, but had sold out and built an earthmoving business. Me going back into milling was more a reaction to the waste of good logs that we were pushing up into heaps to burn. It was just going to be  for a bit of beer money on the side.... :D
I had the dozers and loaders etc required so that shifting back into harvesting was the easy part.

[thecfarm]

I'm the odd one out here. I sell my logs. BUT I keep a few for me to saw too. I was just asked to saw enough lumber for a garage. Real easy for me to say no now.

[drobertson]

It really is pretty easy in one sense.  You clean up your land, improve your timber stand, and make some cash on the side.  The only other thing I might add is to learn some of the lumber grading for the timber in your area,  learn how to sticker stack your lumber properly, and sort the fancy separate from the run of the mill stock.  It can be very rewarding, and it can be very frustrating, as earlier stated, find out your cost for doing it, be willing to be flexible on how you price, at least at the POS,  I still believe a bird in the hand is better than two in the bush,  there will be learning curves for quite some time.

[bandmiller2]

Didn't mean to stir up a hornets nest, I gave the short dirty answer as I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Prices vary a lot depending on location, the prices I gave are basically what I charge to cut. In my yuppie stroon area 25 miles west of Boston we don't have many loggers just land clearers and tree service guys. All the smaller pine is chipped. The big pine  ends up ground up, colored and spread as mulch. The tree guys especially the smaller operators have to pay to dispose of large logs. They make their money cutting and are more than glad to deliver to me. Usually I cut stuff for them in return. David, as the guys said if your logging your own trees you must charge more. Its good form to have you prices close to what others in your area are charging, good friendly service helps you float to the top like fresh cream. Good luck mate. Frank C.

[dsgsr]

Didn't mean to stir up a hornets nest, I gave the short dirty answer as I was falling asleep at the keyboard. Prices vary a lot depending on location, the prices I gave are basically what I charge to cut. In my yuppie stroon area 25 miles west of Boston we don't have many loggers just land clearers and tree service guys. All the smaller pine is chipped. The big pine  ends up ground up, colored and spread as mulch. The tree guys especially the smaller operators have to pay to dispose of large logs. They make their money cutting and are more than glad to deliver to me. Usually I cut stuff for them in return. David, as the guys said if your logging your own trees you must charge more. Its good form to have you prices close to what others in your area are charging, good friendly service helps you float to the top like fresh cream. Good luck mate. Frank C.

I was kinda hopen everyone would chime in with this type of info. It's helpful to newbies. I'm not lookin to take over the world of sawing and under cut everyone. Just starting out, wasn't going to go commercial. Just needed to know what to charge the occasional customer. Think of it this way, If I know what everyone in may area is charging then I will charge that amount. I may not be doing this everyday but don't want to give the stuff away, That will keep the price where it should be and we all are happy.

David

[bandmiller2]

David, you asked about ash, myself it gets lumped in with hardwoods. I have found oak and white pine are what I sell. I have trouble moving other woods like ash you need someone that wants it specifically. The ideal thing is if you make something with the wood you cut that can be sold at higher profit like adirondak chairs or wood lobster traps for the flat landers lawn orniments. Frank C.

[ely]

I sell more like frank c does than anyone else...it works for me so far.
I have noticed several people lately calling for mantle pieces...? I generally charge by the piece they buy and cut to order. it usually winds up being the price of whatever lumber I could have sold out of that log I used to get the mantle piece. imo. you basically sacrifice the whole log to get a couple mantle pieces. I have sold mantle pieces for 75 bucks before,but a lot of folks that call to get prices are scared off by the seemingly low prices because I am assuming they equate price with quality.
I make the most money from builders that show up to buy the mantle pieces, because they usually buy all the mantle pieces I have laying around at those prices...and when I know they are coming I saw a lot of the mantle pieces to place around the mill area. helps the bottom line  when I start with a couple 25 dollar logs and sell several hundred bucks works of product at once.

[Stuart Caruk]

I'll admit that I haven't been doing this very long, but I already knew it was a waste of time to saw dimensional lumber. The mills make it so cheap you can buy it finished and planed for .36 a BF. I'm not even going to try to buy a tree, or use one of mine off one of our properties for that. To me the market is in larger beams and timbers cut free of heart or big boxed heart timbers. I typically get $3 BF for these, which makes it worth the time to cut.

Even then, making a free of heart beam will use up a lot of the log, and I end up with a fair bit of side lumber (or firewood) depending on mine or my wifes mood. I think the real market is in the longer than 20' stuff that everyone can make. I've got orders for 28 10" x 18" timbers 30' in length. They have no problems with the $3 BF price as it turns out that while there are a lot of mills around here, there are very few that can cut over 20'.

I figure I need to recoup the cost of my larger equipment that is used to feed the mill. I hope to get my slab poured in the next week or so so I can extend my mill and get a decent cover on it.

[snowshoveler]

I have been sawing in 1 form or another for about 10 years.
Never was much interested in sawing 2x4s.
Always ended up with a few and folks were always after them right away.
An 8 footer from a local big mill goes for about $3.15 cdn. and that's not planed either.
A friend had a truck full and he was quite proud of them...yikes, they were not very good in my opinion.
In my area I think I could sell dressed 2x4s for about 4 bucks each. I can sure make good on that.
It's just because anything built to code now is supposed to be 2x6 so the mills don't saw much for 2x4.
Took me a while to figure that out. People still want to build smaller non code buildings and 2x4s are fine for that here.
I guess you have to do a bit of homework and see what will sell in your area.
Regards Chris

[crowhill]

Pricing, wow! I'm all over the board, no pun intended! I do own woodlots and have spent 35 years working them pulling firewood and logs using worst first method. The past few years have been pulling and sending the prime logs out. The lesser quality pine including pulp to some degree, I saw, some gets left in the woods on the ground, other dead stuff remains standing all to create habitat. The hardwoods of poor quality goes to firewood. Pine I saw goes for .35 to .75 per bdft. depending on grade. Doesn't put a lot of cash into my pocket sawing but it's a better price than pulp, gives material for my and family projects, helps some folks working on their home projects and teaches responsibility to the grand kids. I also do some sawing for other land owners. When I got my mill in 2002 and called around for ideas on fees an old timer told me to charge $1.00 per horse power of the mill plus my time by the hour and follow the cost of living for increases. Has worked well for me.