Fair Price for rounds

A fair price would be free. You'd be doing your neighbor a favor by taking it off his hands and not charging him. The wood is worth nothing, the value lies in the labor of making it into firewood, and all the hard work is yet to be done. Cutting it into rounds is the easy part. Until its split, stacked, seasoned, and ready to burn, it's nothing more than yard waste.

Zero value. Even less if they are downhill and wont roll with a simple kick into your yard. I grew up a few towns away from you, my parents and sister are still there and have tree guys that drop wood off in their yards. I would imagine the situation is similar in your town. Have you tried local tree guys?

rudysmallfry said:

neighbor has a pile of rounds for sale. Each is about 12" across.

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According to a University of New Hampshire extension office publication on estimating firewood based on the diameter of trees, a 12" dbh tree is likely to have about 0.3 cords worth of firewood in it, including the larger branches.

I like Pen' answer, not because it's worth $30-$50 per cord but because he makes the point that its value depends on your alternatives. It also depends your neighbor's alternatives, i.e. other potential buyers/takers. Unless there are few trees or many woodburners in your area, he may have a hard time finding anyone but you willing to pay him a dime because there will be free wood available elsewhere. But if none of your other immediate neighbors burns wood then you're uniquely positioned to benefit by getting this particular wood, so it may be worth it to you to pay something for it even if nobody else would.

How much? Well, if you pay your neighbor as much as would cost you in gas, etc. to go fetch some free wood somewhere else then he gets all the benefit and you lose any reason to want this particular wood. But if you pay nothing, you get all the benefit and your neighbor may as well just offer it for free to anyone who wants it. In the abstract I want to say that you and your neighbor should split the difference, and you should pay half of what it would cost you to fetch wood from somewhere else, e.g. $15-$25 per cord based on Pen's numbers.

The problem is more complicated, though, because your neighbor probably wouldn't have bothered to put up a sign if he thought it was worth so little. Rather than alienating him with what he may perceive to be a lowball offer, it might be better to let it sit there for a little while and then casually offer to get it out of his way if he can't find a buyer. If he takes you up on it, buy him a six-pack or bake him a tray of cookies. That's about all it's worth anyhow.

I paid $75 for 3 pickups full of red oak rounds last year. It was from my neighbor a few hundred yards down the road. The rounds were almost all cut to the correct length and just needed to be loaded from his driveway to my truck. After it was split and stacked it is around 1.5-1.75 cord. I thought that price was fair and it's what I offered him, not what he wanted.

I won't chip in on value because I have no idea, but as far as amount of wood you could estimate it roughly by the volume of a cone (V= pi*(r^2)*(h/3)). I have never done this to see how close it works out but it seems that a cone is the closest shape to a heaped pile. If I had to place a bet I would bet it would underestimate the amount.

KD0AXS said:

A fair price would be free. You'd be doing your neighbor a favor by taking it off his hands and not charging him. The wood is worth nothing, the value lies in the labor of making it into firewood, and all the hard work is yet to be done. Cutting it into rounds is the easy part. Until its split, stacked, seasoned, and ready to burn, it's nothing more than yard waste.

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Yeah, what he said......

Why do you all think it should be free? Do you go out and cut trees up for everybody,,,for free? Gas and chainsaws are expensive.

You wouldn't get a cord of ash out of my yard that was already sawed for less then 50 bucks,,,,,and I have sold a few cords.

razerface said:

Why do you all think it should be free? Do you go out and cut trees up for everybody,,,for free? Gas and chainsaws are expensive.

You wouldn't get a cord of ash out of my yard that was already sawed for less then 50 bucks,,,,,and I have sold a few cords.

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No, I don't cut other peoples wood for free. I let those other people pay the tree guys to cut and haul their trees and the tree guys then deliver the wood to me for free. Granted I have it pretty good, factors such as supply and demand for wood will vary depending on where you live. In the case of the OP, my parents live 4 towns over from him and my sister lives there also. They get tree guys to drop load of wood in their yards for free just like I get here. No cost to them. Being within 15 miles I assume the supply/demand situation is similar in his town. I realize that in many other places that isn't the case but I think it is there. If the OP does more the roll those pieces down hill into his yard with one easy kick the neighbor should be paying him for his removal services.

To the op, find out what type of wood it is, if you want it, wait it out, if it is still there in a week or two, tell the guy you will help him out and take it away for him ( for free of course ) if he wants......

I responded to a craigslist add last week. Guy had live trees he wanted cut and removed from his lawn. It was all hardwood so I responded to the add. He told me he was looking for someone to pay him to cut the trees down and take the wood. I laughed and told him he had it backwards.

Some people..sheesh

Hard to tell for sure. Looks like beech is holding up the for sale sign, I see some carvings in it. And there is some cherry in the pile.

I had a neighbor that had a pile of oak in her yard from a tree she had taken down. I was sitting for almost two years when I first started burning and found this forum. I knew I needed to get ahead and this stuff was staring to rot so I asked her if I could take it off her hands. She told me she wanted to put a wood stove in, so no was the answer. Well about two years later when I was almost three years ahead and it was just a pile of rotten mush she asked me if I still wanted it. At that point it wasn't even worth it. The stuff sat another year or more until she paid someone to take it away. Some times people just don't make smart decisions.

And she still doesn't have a wood stove.

Unless you really need it I wouldn't offer anything.

rudysmallfry said:

What would you offer for that pile?

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The pile doesn't look very big and the rounds look quite a bit like pine. If it is pine I wouldn't offer anything but I'd take it for free. If it is actually hardwood, maybe $15-$20.

rudysmallfry said:

What would you offer for that pile?

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Less than zero, tree guys deliver for free here. I think you can probably get the same deal where you live. Have you called around?

I would never pay for rounds. 90% of the labor is still left to be done. That pile looks like an odd mix with some weird lengths. I'd take it for free, but not buy it

If you have to make an offer, nothing over 10 or 20 bucks

Give em your name and number, tell em if you want to get rid of it to call you.......