Find places to purchase logs for firewood in New England.

[burnwood]

Hello,

Myself and a couple friends run a small firewood business and we're trying to find multiple sources of log-lengths to split, stack and sell. We currently purchase them in 7-8 "cord" truck loads from local landscaping companies for varying amounts but it's not consistent wood and it's not always available. We're located in northeast Massachusetts and we're hoping to find some more sources of log-lengths.  Any help on where to find sources would be greatly appreciated.

[beenthere]

Welcome to the Forum
Tell us about your firewood business, in general.
We like pics of equipment and such...as you can tell by some of the firewood threads already on this site.

Are you into any logging yourselves, or strictly depending on purchasing firewood quality logs?

And, we like pics  (you can set up your own gallery and add pics sized right, by going to the Help button, or "Behind the Forum" board)

[burnwood]

Well, this will be our third year. The first year we sold around 9 cords. We had a TW-1 Splitter and a pickup truck. This year(2007) we sold around 30 cords. We upgraded at the end of the season to a TW-5 splitter and we purchased a dump trailer to do deliveries with(MUCH easier!!)   Our goal for this year is 50-60 cords.  Our main issue is space, we're currently using land that one of my partners owns but we are having trouble finding the space to store and wood to season while leaving space for us to work.  This year(before it snowed) we split about 6 cords and tried a new stacking method(to fit more wood) putting our stacks about six feet tall just to have it topple over three times so it appears this will not work. We're learning as we go...one issue too is mold which we lost a cord to last year.

We depend on outside wood, like I said we have a couple landscaping companies we can call for wood but it seems expensive and it usually comes when they can't get rid of another more convenient way.

I only have a couple photos of our wood from last year....

[woodmills1]

Hello

I am in Hudson NH just over the border north of lowell Mass and east of Nashua NH send me a PM as I get lots of firewood during the year.

James

[stonebroke]

Boy do you do a neat job of stacking that wood.  I am so tired of fire wood that I just kind of throw it in a stack. But you are pretty new to the game and your neatness will wear off. Hopefully, cause you make the rest of us firewood cutters look sloppy.

Stonebroke

[burnwood]

Boy do you do a neat job of stacking that wood.  I am so tired of fire wood that I just kind of throw it in a stack. But you are pretty new to the game and your neatness will wear off. Hopefully, cause you make the rest of us firewood cutters look sloppy.

Stonebroke

Yeah, we stack it that neat because it gives us more room. IF we pile it we lose a lot and it has a tendency to get moldy on the bottom.  We still need to figure out the best method for this, stacking is a huge pain in the butt.

[farmerdoug]

Burnwood,

Have you checked with your DNR.  Ours has a website to look up wood related businesses.  It is quite large too.

[burnwood]

Anyone have tips on stacking?  We currently stack in rows(as you can see above) but it's so time consuming.  We do this because it allows for the wood to try and it allows us to fix the most wood in our small storage area.  We thought about just doing a pile but we're worried about mold and the bottom layer not drying. Also, piling would probably take up 30-40% more room than stacking in rows. Any thoughts, suggestions?

Why I'm at it...anyone have any tips on where to lease land? We would like to rent some land around us to store the wood, this will allow us to produce more and continue to grow the business. As it stands we can't afford to purchase land around us so we're thinking of leasing to start. Should we just visit some local farms and see what they would offer us?

[johncinquo]

Definetly nice stacks.  I have been debating on doing the same thing.  Do you move it again all by hand?  The reason I wanted to do it like that, was to be able to drive the tractor over and pick it up and carry it close to the house or load it onto a trailer or back of the truck.  I wanted to stack it away from the house for the summer and then have it close to the house for winter.  I found a place that will give me all the pallets I want, and they are 4x6' ones. 

I think you have the system down pretty good.  I usually find some dead limbs or trees and lay them down, then stack the rows on top of that, but I only do 1 row.  Stacking like what you have limits the air to the wood, nothing is getting at the center, maybe thats adding to your mold problem.  Plus no sunshine can get to it. 

[beenthere]

I now stack the firewood on pallets, right off the splitter. After a year or two of drying, stage the pallets of wood near the house where they are easy to get to with the forks on the 3pt, and easily move them into the garage.

[burnwood]

What amazes us is we see HUGE(40+ ft) piles of firewood all the time and it makes us wonder how they don't get rot and moldy bottoms, could it be because it's on pavement?   We currently stack on pallets but the issue we noticed was leaves were getting under and it's hard to get them out therefor the whole "air underneath" idea is kind of out the window. I was thinking of maybe putting the pallets up no cindar blocks to give it move room underneath and to keep it away from the dirt and bugs.  If we went this route we might try building small sides and then just trying to pile it instead of stacking. It would save us a huge amount of time....I think we need a conveyor belt too...loading a cord into a truck  by hand sure stinks!

[beenthere]

.....................   We currently stack on pallets but the issue we noticed was leaves were getting under and it's hard to get them out therefor the whole "air underneath" idea is kind of out the window. I was thinking of maybe putting the pallets up no cindar blocks to give it move room underneath and to keep it away from the dirt and bugs. ...................loading a cord into a truck  by hand sure stinks!

Maybe stack the wood on a pallet, then set the pallet on another pallet for more air space.  Then lift the pallets onto the truck with pallet forks and either send the pallet with the wood, or dump the wood off the pallet into the truck.

Currently, I'm mentally trying to come up with some handy covers to keep rain/snow off the wood. Thinking of a pallet with a rubber roofing material stapled to it. Have advantage of weight to keep it from blowing off, and maybe some overhang to better cover the wood below. At one time was considering making "umbrellas" using two ash saplings lashed to four corners of a tarp, spring loaded to get some slope for rain run-off. Thought they would blow away. 

[woodmills1]

I have a friend who stacks in single rows so air gets all around, he sells after one season.

burnwood where are you, I ahve both firewood long and land close to mass

[Corley5]

Do you burn wood ???  If so mold doesn't hurt wood a bit just makes it look less desirable.  Keep the moldy stuff for yourself 8)  The whole key to the  firewood business is minimizing labor as much as possible.  The more you handle it the less $$$$ you're making and the more Motrin you'll need to buy  ;) ;D  I don't stack a stick.  It's wasted effort   I let it season in the log which takes about two years for 8" maple.  Smaller pieces will season in a year.  I process it out of the pile into the dump truck or trailer for immediate delivery.  I prefer to sell green wood for people to season themselves ;) ;D but do sell seasoned wood during the winter   

[burnwood]

I have a friend who stacks in single rows so air gets all around, he sells after one season.

burnwood where are you, I ahve both firewood long and land close to mass

Groveland Ma, Right next to Haverhill Ma...or about 20 minutes to Plaistow or Salem NH.  Do you purchase log-lenghts from someone or get them youself?

[burnwood]

Do you burn wood ???  If so mold doesn't hurt wood a bit just makes it look less desirable.  Keep the moldy stuff for yourself 8)  The whole key to the  firewood business is minimizing labor as much as possible.  The more you handle it the less $$$$ you're making and the more Motrin you'll need to buy  ;) ;D  I don't stack a stick.  It's wasted effort   I let it season in the log which takes about two years for 8" maple.  Smaller pieces will season in a year.  I process it out of the pile into the dump truck or trailer for immediate delivery.  I prefer to sell green wood for people to season themselves ;) ;D but do sell seasoned wood during the winter   

One of the guys I work with burns wood so he takes it...it's still lost profit though.  We can only leave it in log form for so long, it takes up a lot of space so we can maybe fit 16-20 cords in log form where can can fit 50-60 cut and split.  There is also the fact we're working with a TW-5 so we can only process maybe a cord an hour or so..cutting and delivery would not work when the busy season hits.

[rebocardo]

What I would do.

Buy a large roll of vapor barrier (UV stab. is nice). Get pallets, stack them two high, but, rotate them 90 degrees on the top layer, better support. Then go along the edge and nail pallets standing up around three sides. Then a roll of cheap screening around the three sides to prevent animals and leaves. Then toss it into the bin. Cover the top with a tarp. This is far less labor intensive then stacking and will dry in a year.

The best thing is to have a cement pad above ground level, open on all sides with a black metal roof. Just toss it in, load up the dump trailer with a Bobcat in winter.

There use to be a huge firewood place on the right hand side of Rt 95/128 ? going towards NH. Been 5 years since I was there. Literally piles 60 feet high. I don't think he covered his stacks ...  :D

[burnwood]

What I would do.

Buy a large roll of vapor barrier (UV stab. is nice). Get pallets, stack them two high, but, rotate them 90 degrees on the top layer, better support. Then go along the edge and nail pallets standing up around three sides. Then a roll of cheap screening around the three sides to prevent animals and leaves. Then toss it into the bin. Cover the top with a tarp. This is far less labor intensive then stacking and will dry in a year.

The best thing is to have a cement pad above ground level, open on all sides with a black metal roof. Just toss it in, load up the dump trailer with a Bobcat in winter.

There use to be a huge firewood place on the right hand side of Rt 95/128 ? going towards NH. Been 5 years since I was there. Literally piles 60 feet high. I don't think he covered his stacks ...  :D

We don't have any machine to move pallets...we're small.   It would be nice to have some of this equipment because I'm sure it would be easier but we need solutions for what we own currently(nothing)

[Ed_K]

 I did fire wood for yrs, mine was cut+split 4'. We put two logs down and stacked the split wood on them. Cris cross the ends and stacked till we couldn't throw it up then used to truck to stand on. piles were 10'to14'high and 30'long.When we got an order we have a sawbuck 2'x2'x4' made out of 4x4pine with the floor off the ground 3' so I didn't have to bend over to much to pick up pieces. Had stakes set so I could cut the wood to 16" or 24" for odd sizes we cut the 4'ers at 36"instead to do 18" ect:
Knowing you don't have the equipment,how about buying it all done in bulk and just do the delivering? PM me if this sounds interesting,I have two sources selling in bulk.

[Climber]

I have many jobs arround your area. I'll be happy to supply you with logs.
Climber

603.508.1060
Victor Paliy
Happy Trees LLC
Pelham NH

[burnwood]

I sent you guys both emails, I tried the PM but I couldn't get it to work.   ???

[woodmills1]

didn't see an e-mail

woodmills1@aol.com

[bull]

if you want to increase sales go bulk, quit wasting your time stacking... I just split and through into large heap. 30 to 50 cord in a heap doesn't take alot of space.
if you stack 30 4x4x8 cords you would need an area about 70 x 70... push that up with a loader or stack with an elevator you can fit more than 50 cord in that same space.
Continue cutting and spliting whatever you have been able to get a hold of and grow....

I move about thirty cord of bulk wood a year.....

[burnwood]

if you want to increase sales go bulk, quit wasting your time stacking... I just split and through into large heap. 30 to 50 cord in a heap doesn't take alot of space.
if you stack 30 4x4x8 cords you would need an area about 70 x 70... push that up with a loader or stack with an elevator you can fit more than 50 cord in that same space.
Continue cutting and spliting whatever you have been able to get a hold of and grow....

I move about thirty cord of bulk wood a year.....

The issue we have is the bottom pieces not drying.  As it is some of our wood gets mold and it's stacked, we can't imagine what would happen if we have a huge base on the ground and a huge pile on top.

[woodmills1]

There is a firewood operation at the concentration yard where i sell logs.  They have a huge blower with about 6 large frlexible pipes coming off of it that they run into the bottem of their firewood pile. :D