Just curious

[florida]

We had a job recently replacing the 75 year old heart pine pilings on a house at the beach. My engineer specced 10" on the large end pine pressure treated plies set in massive concrete filled holes. What amazed me was the price of the pilings.  12' long and I paid $80.00 each delivered.  I just don't see how anybody made any money on them. What's a 10" pine log worth to the sawyer?

[starmac]

We do not have pine here, but the mill will pay somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 bucks for a 10 in top 12 foot long spruce log. Since they will not buy anything less than 16 feet and dock you 20% for anything less than 32 foot, it would actually be less.

[woodmills1]

Not to hijack, but you got me thinking.  If the log is worth say 10 bucks delivered and the treatment is worth 10 bucks and the delivery to the company that buys it is 10 bucks and the delivery to the job is 10 bucks seems like each step could have 10 bucks to add on.  Does there come a point where the handling is way more expensive than the value of the product?  I think the 80 each is cheap, a 12 foot 10 by 10 is a hundred board feet, untreated it is 50 to 100 bucks.

[starmac]

A spruce log here big enough to make a 10x10 out of would run closer to 29 bucks, then rough sawn into a 12 ft 10x10 it turns into 134 bucks at the local mill, which is the only real market for logs.

[Brucer]

If I'm reading Florida's post correctly, he's talking about a round, pressure treated log that's 10" diameter at the big end. That would have about half the volume of what you'd need to make a wane-free 10x10.

If I were to supply the raw material from a top quality Douglas-Fir log, it would cost me about $30. No sawing involved except to buck it to length, so I'd mark the log up 50%, about $45 total. That's Canadian dollars, so make it around $36 US. On top of that you've got your pressure treating and shipping.

Of course, my pricing is for a one-off purchase. Someone in the pile-manufacturing business could buy the logs directly from my supplier for my cost, which in US dollars is $24.

I'm guessing a high grade pine log would cost less than a high grade D-Fir log. Probably no more. So at $80 there is a bit of room for profit for a well-run business.

[Ron Wenrich]

I can go down to the local farm store and buy a 6"x7' round fence post for about $10.  It has 2.4 cu ft of volume.  The piling has about 6.5 cu ft.    The size of cant that the piling can produce is about a 7x7.  A 12' treated 6x6 costs $33 at Lowe's.

For an individual to go through all the steps necessary to deliver a treated piling, it would be expensive.  But, the commercial units get the job done a whole lot cheaper. 

[florida]

Wow. I can't imagine how an individual makes money in the wood business. Even at the $35 that brucer quoted I can't see how it's possible to cut down a tree, cut it into pieces, haul it out, pay the landowner and still make money. Looks like pretty low margins all the way.  I suppose there must be money in it or I couldn't by studs and other lumber I need but I'm glad it's  not me doing the supplying.

I really do appreciate all the hard work you guys do so guys like me can build houses, etc.