Birch Logs

[brendan's dad]

Does anyone have a contact for purchasing birch logs by the truck load?
Looking to start processing my own firewood.

Thanks

[Dean2]

https://www.kijiji.ca/b-edmonton/bir...ood/k0l1700203

Semi loads from Slave Lake, or smaller close by. Depends on whether you are talking pickup size truck or actual tuck loads.

https://www.kijiji.ca/b-alberta/truc...f-logs/k0l9003

[TBark]

Sorry, not meant to derail, regarding the Kijiji ad…
Are they really selling those large IKEA bags of birch for $50?
$18 ea (45lbs) was our price when we had stock, but our season has passed.

TBark

[bezzola]

Nuts what wood goes for.
As long as i have my truck and saw i will not buy wood.

[fordtruckin]

Originally Posted by bezzola

Nuts what wood goes for.
As long as i have my truck and saw i will not buy wood.

You have no idea! A friend of mine here in Montana got out of firewood business when he was selling cords of split lodge pole for around $280/cord. He felt it was way too much but he hardy made anything at that price and gave it up as he also runs a mechanic shop. Was just chatting with him the other day and another one of his friends took up the business in Big Sky Montana and is selling a cord of cleaned (tumbled) firewood to the rich folk in the Yellowstone club for over $800/cord. I couldn’t believe it and he’s backlogged with them number of people wanting firewood at that price. Stupid insane when I can get a permit to cut up to 12 cords on the forest for 6$ cord!!

[Dean2]

So you guys talk about people who pay $800 a cord for wood like they are completely out of their minds. So lets put some numbers to this.

Cord of wood is 128 Cubic Feet or .283 Cubic meters. Stumpage is only 1.90 per Cubic meter so that is a non-issue. Assume the logs such as Birch or small diameter spruce and pine can be bought as out sorts.

Logging truck will carry between 5 and 7 cords of wood, at semi trailer logging truck about 13 cords. That means a semi truck load will be about $1000 to $1,700 to the logging operation to cut and load. So on the bottom cost number and 13 cords in a load that is $77.

For delivery costs, lets take the top number in the load estimate, delivery costs from most logging areas to even Edmonton, at least $900. If you are hauling to Whistler, Canmore etc, at least 50% more than that.
So that is min $100 a cord.

Now the wood has to be bucked, split, stacked and subsequently dried. Even with big equipment that will take 2 guys at least 2 hours, so 4 man hours at $25 and hour, another $100. The wood has to sit at least a year, before it is saleable as dried firewood.

The folks paying 800 a cord aren't coming to get the wood themselves. That means a cord of dried wood has to be loaded, driven to the purchaser, unloaded and stacked where they want it. At least another $100 in manpower costs for that.

So far we are into this for $377 per cord, and we haven't covered benefits, WCB, depreciation on equipment, fuel, yard costs etc.

From the perspective of a guy that has a holiday place at Whistler or Canmore a chord of wood will last 3 to 5 years. They are using it in a fireplace not trying to heat with it. For them, $800 is what they would spend for one day skiing, it is irrelevant money. For those of you with the equipment, time and inclination, like everything else, you can save a lot of money doing this stuff yourself. As far as doing it as a business, I wouldn't do it for less than $800 for a delivered and stacked cord of seasoned wood. It isn't worth the time and effort to do it commercially for less.

[lannie]

Originally Posted by Dean2

So you guys talk about people who pay $800 a cord for wood like they are completely out of their minds. So lets put some numbers to this.

Cord of wood is 128 Cubic Feet or .283 Cubic meters. Stumpage is only 1.90 per Cubic meter so that is a non-issue. Assume the logs such as Birch or small diameter spruce and pine can be bought as out sorts.

Logging truck will carry between 5 and 7 cords of wood. That means a truck load will be about $500 to $700 to the logging operation to cut and load. So on the bottom cost number and 7 cords in a load that is $71.

For delivery costs, lets take the top number in the load estimate, delivery costs from most logging areas to even Edmonton, at least $700. If you are hauling to Whistler, Canmore etc, at least 50% more than that.
So that is min $100 a cord.

Now the wood has to be bucked, split, stacked and subsequently dried. Even with big equipment that will take 2 guys at least 2 hours, so 4 man hours at $25 and hour, another $100. The wood has to sit at least a year, before it is saleable as dried firewood.

The folks paying 800 a cord aren't coming to get the wood themselves. That means a cord of dried wood has to be loaded, driven to the purchaser, unloaded and stacked where they want it. At least another $100 in manpower costs for that.

So far we are into this for $371 per cord, and we haven't covered benefits, WCB, depreciation on equipment, fuel, yard costs etc.

From the perspective of a guy that has a holiday place at Whistler or Canmore a chord of wood will last 3 to 5 years. They are using it in a fireplace not trying to heat with it. For them, $800 is what they would spend for one day skiing, it is irrelevant money. For those of you with the equipment, time and inclination, like everything else, you can save a lot of money doing this stuff yourself. As far as doing it as a business, I wouldn't do it for less than $800 for a delivered and stacked cord of seasoned wood. It isn't worth the time and effort to do it commercially for less.

128 cubic feet is 3.62 cubic meters. Logging truck will carry much more than 5 to 7 cords.

[Dean2]

Originally Posted by lannie

128 cubic feet is 3.62 cubic meters

Had to go back and fix some of my math and clarify a couple of costs after checking current prices and rates. I hit post too soon and before I checked my numbers. Still missed the conversion to metric but even at 4 cubic meters the stumpage is pretty much irrelevant.

There was two points I was trying to make:

1) - Lift Tickets at Whistler are $252 a day. Yellowstone is similar. Renting a two bedroom Chalet with fireplace, $1,500 a night, owning a place in Whistler, outside of the purchase cost, is minimum $40,000 a year. The cost of a cord of wood is relative.

2) - Producing firewood commercially has a lot more costs than most people think about. There is a LOT better money in selling it to recreational users than trying to sell it to those who use wood for heat. Go where the dollars are if you are running a business.

[trapperdodge]

There is no savings burning wood even if you can get wood for nothing close to home. You have to like putting up wood. The labor is significant. If you are going to burn wood exclusively you need a truck, a saw or two, splitter, axes, saw chains, oil/gas, chimney sweep, files or filing system chain saw pants etc.

But, in the end you have the satisfaction of doing it yourself and the glorious feel of wood heat.