Yard tree pricing

[fenris]

I haven't bought any logs in a long time. I Remember getting some good advice on here a few years ago about buying yard trees. 

I'm trying to work a deal with a tree service That's near my house. I have a few places that I'm getting prices from. 

The first offer I got I tossed out. He wants $100 a load for yard trees from his jobs. Probably little to no hickory or oak mostly junk trees no pine. He's saying each load should make 3 to 4 ricks. 

My math is putting this price at 170 per MBF assuming his estimate is right. Millable timber is in that range around here delivered to the yard.

We are talking about yard trees some of which contain nails and fencing. A lot of them are big logs which will be very slow to process and then again  they are junk trees. 

Am I out of touch with the prices or is he not charging five times what these are worth? We used to get trees like this given to us. 

[sawguy21]

I think they should be paying YOU to take them off their hands, yard trees are little more than firewood imo.

[mudfarmer]

$100 for a load that will only make a full cord wouldn't leave much meat on the bone here! Possible that they already process their "waste" from tree jobs into firewood and just don't really want to actually sell it to you?

[Southside]

They get paid to remove them from peoples yard and most places charge a tipping fee to dispose of them.  From the description of what you would get it sounds like the juice isn't worth the squeeze. 

[thecfarm]

I sure am no expert on yard trees. 
But the ones I see on lawns don't look like sawlogs to me.
Yes, maybe the first 8-10 feet. But metal in that first 8-10 feet?
Then I wonder if there was a good saw log, would you get it?

[Old Greenhorn]

How many cubic feet in a  rick?
Are these for firewood, or lumber? If Lumber, they will be expensive logs to mill.

 I would tell the guy that just because you need firewood, that doesn't make you stupid. Buying/taking wood from a tree service is something of a symbiotic relationship. They need to get rid of it and you can use it for your use. Trying to make the best money on both ends after they have been paid once is a little over the top. That dog won't hunt. Walk away.

[beenthere]

A rick of wood is a non-standard measure. Can have any number of definitions. 

[stavebuyer]

If you are going to buy logs for firewood run as fast you can from tree service wood. Pallet and pulp markets are weak to non-existent. What you need are small diameter logs from loggers or cut your own. Only people who can come out on tree service logs are tree service operators who dabble in firewood. They otherwise pay to dump them and have employees to keep busy on rainy days.

[Ianab]

4 thoughts here. 

What can you make from that $100 of logs?  If it's $100 of processed firewood, then it's no deal. If you can turn it into $400 of firewood after you process it? Then maybe it's not such a bad deal. 


2nd - If you are buying, then YOU can set the requirements. Like hardwoods, 8"+ but less than 30", no obvious metal" etc.  If they deliver you junk, then just reject it. If you are taking free logs, then you may have to accept some of the junk and just deal with it.

3rd, What can you buy "firewood / pulp" logs from a local logger for? Locally it might be ~$50 ton. That basically covers logging and trucking as it's a byproduct at the forest landing. Maybe the landowner gets $10? But they got $100 ton for the good logs, so a few extra $ from the scraps is just a bonus. But every tree has some scrappy low value top logs, that are fine for firewood. 

4th, Negotiate.  "Well I can get good firewood logs off another guy for $100, how about $50 for a load of random yard logs, and we will see what they are like".

[nativewolf]

If you are going to buy logs for firewood run as fast you can from tree service wood. Pallet and pulp markets are weak to non-existent. What you need are small diameter logs from loggers or cut your own. Only people who can come out on tree service logs are tree service operators who dabble in firewood. They otherwise pay to dump them and have employees to keep busy on rainy days.

can't agree enough.  Loggers out there would arrive with a tractor trailer of good hardwood on you faster than you can spit.  Can you unload them?  If you can't than this what I would suggest, rent an excavator for a day, not that expensive (or hire a friend with one), arrange for 2 - X loads to show up the same day.  Whatever you do don't pay a tree service to help them solve a problem they have.  That wood is terrible, knotty, maple, pine, rot, box elder, etc.  It's crap.  If they want to pay you $500 a truck to dispose of it fine but sure as heck no money the other way.

[KEC]

And you may never know how many decent logs they get and they end up going elsewhere.  It is sometimes OK to take the sour with the sweet, as long as you are getting the sweet with the sour.

[barbender]

Yard tree and pricing are words I don't put together in a sentence, unless it is how much I'm getting paid to take them.

[fenris]

Thanks guys. This is in line before I was thinking. The guy is either looking for suckers or just really doesn’t know the prices.

I’ve watched him burn these leftover logs in 8 foot tall piles. When I first reach out to him, I was expecting to maybe cover his costs to drive them to my house, which is not far. We have a group dumping chips for free on our land already and I’m going to ask them. It’s like some people have said they get a free dumping site for the chips and throwing in the logs wouldn’t be a bad deal.

Maybe I didn’t clarify above, but I’m just a Burning these in my stove and I’d be taking some ricks to family so they don’t have to buy them.

I’d love to be able to process some and sell them if I had a surplus but it doesn’t sound very efficient with these big trees, and there’s not much market for certain species.

[Spike60]

If he's dropping them off, then the $100 could be more if a delivery charge than paying for the wood. Not necessarily unreasonable. But another question I'd be curious about is: how is he otherwise getting rid of this wood? If it's costing him to unload it some other way, then he should be more than happy to drop it off for free, rather than bang you for $100.

But beyond the money issue, one point you made in your 1st post is HUGE. There is a LOT more work in processing the big logs and butts that will be on that truck into firewood. Wrestling big pieces of wood, ripping them down to sizes you can lift to a splitter, knots and crotches. And you really need a big cube saw for this work. Probably fair to say that there's twice as much work and time required to get that stuff down to firewood size than humming through 8" to 10" logs with just a fraction of the exertion involved.