Who's Doing Firewood for Other People?

[DR Buck]

Anybody processing firewood for 'customers'  using your equipment and their wood?     I'm planning on expanding my services when I retire from my day job and will be picking up a processor in the very near future.

Wondering how do you charge?   By volume or hour?    Other than "don't do it"  any pointers I should know about?

[North River Energy]

I do that for two accounts, but it's on a barter basis. 
Both have support equipment, and supply the fuel to run the processor.

You'll want to get a really good feel for what your machine will produce under less than ideal circumstances, including undersized/crooked wood, and then figure out which payment scheme works best for both parties.
For every hour the processor runs, there is additional time spent loading the deck, trimming crooked sections, and depending on volume and product handling, clearing away the splits from the end of the conveyor.
Good luck, and pay attention to effective material handling.

[beenthere]

May just be my area, but I don't know of any of my wood burning acquaintances that would pay for having their wood split.

I'd just pay for the heating gas and forego the felling, limbing, skidding, bucking, splitting, stacking splits, two years drying, and hauling the split wood to the wood burner as the bucking/splitting is just a fraction of the total work.
Also, a lot of equipment would then set idle such as chainsaws and tractor, and then I would have to find something else to do with a fair amount of my time.  ;D

But there may be those who want to get the bucking and splitting done for them. Would sure help pay for a good wood processor tho and a good idea if customers could be signed up on a regular basis.. like portable sawing.

[glassman_48]

DR_Buck
I started doing mobile processing a couple of years ago.  I started out at 500 bucks for 10 pulp cords, now I charge 600 dollars.  Some of the guys around here have a minimum charge of 500 just for showing up.  Another guy charges 400 dollars if the customer loads the log deck with his machine.  I have also charged 55 bucks per hour to another guy that had his own tractor.  My twister firewood processor is rated at 2 pulp cords per hour, but by the time you drive there, get set up, trim logs, move the really crooked or oversize logs, I have a pretty long day in store.  Mine also has an attached conveyor which really makes mobile processing much easier, I dont have to move the machine very often that way.   good luck,,,,,Ed

p.s. 2 years pulp was about 700 bucks for 10 pulp cord, when you added in my 500 bucks and divide that up (I figured 26.5 face cords for every 10 pulp cords)  then you get usually get the wood cheaper if someone did mobile processing than having the wood delivered already cut and split.  If I remember right it was around 45 bucks a face cord processed and wood around here 2 years ago was 55 to 65 bucks a face cord. 

[stumpjumper83]

I did a little this year, most people want to pay around here is 350 for a triaxle load.  That's about 7 full cord.  Its not a lot of money for a lot of work.  I'd rather just leave the machine at my farm and left them come buy the wood already cut split and seasoned.

[DR Buck]

OK.  I did a test run this weekend.   It was pro-bono.  Free!    Did it for my 80 year old aunt and uncle.   No real support equipment needed other than my JR arch and a hand truck.    The wood was already cut to length as the tree was taken down by the power company.   It was the knarlest Sycamore to ever grow.   It gave the Woodinator a real workout.       

I'm thinking more  of a flat rate fee when I start this part of the business.    Something on the order of $350 gets my service for 4 hours following setup at the customer site.  Then an hourly rate for each hour after the first four.     What ever amount gets split is what they end up with.    I will not cut down any trees and only process those that are near where the processor can be set up.    This will be much like my sawmill servce.     I'm thinking everybody that has downed trees don't need or want boards, but most have fireplaces and should be willing to pay to have their downed trees cleaned up and processed into firewood.

I'll just have to wait and see how it works out in the near future.     ;D

[North River Energy]

Based on your experiment with the Sycamore, what kind of volume do you think you can produce in four hours under 'ideal' circumstances?

Good on you for helping out the relatives.

[firemedic589]

I've done a split job for a fixed fee which bit me in the butt because of the type of wood. I am about to start a 2nd split job, I'm charging $150 for setup/first 4 hours, then $25/hr. All the trees have been cut down and cut to size so all I'm doing is splitting. The customer said it's like 10 cords of unsplit wood so we'll see. I can split a cord in 4-5 hrs, hopefully this doesn't bite me in the butt again.

How this goes will certainly drive the way I price the future jobs. I'll let you know.

[Footloose64]

4-5 hours to split a cord, one person, hydraulic or by hand?

[xalexjx]

I sell cut and split firewood, had people ask about mobile processing and i'v done a few jobs on a fixed rate, one went well but the other was a ton of small wood. both jobs were about 12 full cords, one took about 8 hours to move everything untill all split and the other took over 12. The small wood takes a lot longer, now i turn away the mobile processing unless its 30+ full cords, the processor stays set up in one spot and has all the work it could ever ask for. Its a paint to move everything, processor, conveyer and skid steer, time is money and its a pain to move everything.

(if I cant make $70 an hour processing ill let it sit there)

[DR Buck]

If all goes well I should be able to do up to 2 cords per hour.   But for planning I will figure 1 per hour.    And for the record, there is no way I would EVER do anything where I provide a machine to do the work for $25 per hour.

At a fixed hourly fee I really don't care what kind of wood it is.   My $350 fee will be a minimum cost for up to 4 hours.   If I'm done in 2, it's still $350.   If the customer wants to improve my efficiency and get the most for his money, he can step up and provide help in handling the wood.   This is similar  to the way I bill the sawmill service.    I've done 200 bf of sawing for $350 many times.   I will never saw onsite for a "fixed" fee.   The sawmill is normally based on board foot, still with a minimum of $350.  The only time I charge a flat fee is if logs come to me and there is a small amount and I can be sure I won't be bit.

Bottom line is I don't and will not charge a flat fee.   It's always by the hour with a minimum  charge as stated above.  Hours over the initial 4 will be at around $65 to $70 per hour.   

[firemedic589]

Footloose64, I have a hydraulic splitter with a single blade. If the rounds are very large then its the 5 hr mark, the smaller the rounds the faster I work. As for the amount of $25/hr is still more than I make when I break down the total cost for when I sell a cord (gathering, splitting, delivering). There is less hands -on, no gathering / delivery, just spliting.

I'm not out to rip people off, I'm trying to earn a honest days pay. If my splitter was more expensive then the cost would be higher, but I use what I have. I'm not saying that charging people more is a crime, its just not what I do. Most of the people in my area are on fixed incomes, so either I sell my products/services at a fair rate or I go without, again thats just me.

[DR Buck]

Here is about 4 1/2 hours of the worst knarley wood I've ever spilt.   Sycamore.

[redprospector]

I tried processing firewood for other people by the hour before without much success.
My business is based on the fact that my clientele is well satisfied with the service, or product that I provide, and that didn't seem to be the case with a mobile processing operation.
I have a Chomper simplex 14 with the automated option. We have almost exclusively softwoods here, and if the logs are set up right then I can average just over 1 full 128 cubic foot cord per hour. I charged $40 an hour for me and the machine. The results were something I wasn't used to. Mostly complaints about how much it cost to have their own wood processed. I guess that $40 is just too much to pay to have 1 to 1 1/4 cords of wood cut, split, and piled.  ???
Now I only process my own wood, and either give it to those in need, or sell it for $125 a cord plus a delivery fee for those who don't want to pick it up themselves.
What's funny to me is that some of the same people who complained about $40 an hour/cord to process their wood are well satisfied paying $125 plus a $20 to $45 delivery charge per cord.
People....Who can figure them?

[clww]

I started this year advertising to split firewood for $25 per hour, with a $50 minimum. If the customer needs the wood bucked to length, I'll do that, too. Best day I had was once for $300. Thursday, I made $70 and worked for exactly one hour "splitting" some way-past-prime birch that had been laying on the ground for well over a year. The owner wanted it split up, so that's what I did. That kind of wood I refer to as "lipstick on a pig".
I meet with the owner of a tree service that sells firewood later this month. He's offered to pay me $40 a cord to split. All there wood is already bucked to length.