How much wood is in this pile??

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battletross

New Member
Nov 12, 2014
2
Howell, MI
Thinking about purchasing this pile of leftovers and am trying to get an idea of how much wood is here. They said that their best guess was around 20 full cords. That seems way high to me, but i'm not used to seeing piles of logs. Anyone have a good ballpark guess?

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Absolutely no way there is 20 full cord in whats pictured. I think there could be as much as 10 but not any more.

Agreed. Seeing it in person, our best guess was around 10, but even then it's hard to tell. They want $1250 for the pile if we pick it up ourselves. Split wood around here is $75/face cord.
 
So far we are at an 8.67 full cord average.
If he insists it is 20 cord, just say "ok, but I am going to pay you for 20 cords with a stack of bills all crumpled up. Your not allowed to count them until I have left the yard and cut, split and stacked your wood"
 
First agree on a price per cord then split it where it is now then once all done pay for what you get. I know some will be lost to waste etc.
 
They want $1250 for the pile if we pick it up ourselves

Little bit crazy? Right now it is a pile of cut up trees. You still have the majority of work ahead of you to make firewood.

ETA: Even at 10 cords you will have $125 per cord that YOU have to move as well as it appears that much of it needs to be sized up yet. A logging truck load would be a better deal. Or throw 50 bucks a cord extra and have all the work done (cut, split and delivered).
 
I wouldn't touch that with a ten foot pole unless it was free and then I would cherry pick. I want my wood as close to 18" as possible and I am not the biggest fan of cherry. The oak is good but gosh look at those odd sizes........
 
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I'd take it for free, but wouldn't touch it for money. Those 2 to 4 ft pieces are going to be labor intensive and time consuming to cut. That kind of stuff makes me cuss a lot when I have to process it.
 
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I couldn't guess how much is there. All those small pieces don't add up to much in a cord stack but look like a lot on the ground. None of the pieces are cut to a length for a stove. Can you figure up a price after you process it?:)
 
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I'll go more conservative and say probably 6. I'm generally not a good judge but i just split and stacked top 2/3 of a big old maple that broke off and came down in the last big wind - like Pauly said - looked like easy 2 cord on the ground with all the bigger and smaller rounds tossed in a pile, but made just under 1 cord when split and neatly stacked. Picturing my smaller pile against what you see there - no way that's anywhere near 20.
 
I say 7 cord tops and that includes the tires.It would be a PITA to process.
 
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I'd take it for free, but wouldn't touch it for money.
^ THIS

My rule of thumb is a long-box pickup load piled as high as the cab is close enough to call a cord, and I would guess that's 6 or 7 pickup loads. I've hauled dozens of cords of "cut trees" that looked just like that for free.... they're smoking something if they think that's worth $1250 as it sits. Cut it, split it, stack it, measure it (4'x8'x4' == 128 cubic feet == 1 cord ) and then decide on a price.
 
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To me it looks like 7 to 8 cord. Logger cords here for hard Maple and Ash go for $100 a cord delivered in pole lengths. Cherry would be the same but it isn't sold from the loggers up here. I don't think it would be all that bad to cut it and split. Processing it from those piles sure beats gathering it all from a wood lot IMO
 
I'd say <10 cord. I wouldn't pay more than $400, if I needed that wood and I could take it at my leisure. Weeks worth of work there. Your going to end up with a lot of uglies. Do you know the species?
 
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Alot of that looks bad to process, like the large diameter ones that look cut thin. I woundn't pay over $200 for that, as around here 90% of people would just offer that for free to scroungers.
 
7 or 8 cord.
 
My guess is 8, being conservative. Paying for it and doing all the work I think I'd pay $400 tops, and that's only if I was desperate for wood. Like others said, that's free around here, at least during the spring and summer. By December people are trying to make money off scrap wood like that.
 
I still hear people ( not us on here) refer to one stack of wood as a cord:). Maybe that's what the seller means.
It's tough looking at a spread out pile like that and getting close to an estimate in your favor.
 
Could they have tried a little harder to cut that up into more random lengths ?
I'm not so sure I would even want that dumped in my yard.

Course, 30 years ago when I didn't even know where next week's firewood was coming from I wouldn't have been so picky.
 
I'd say 6 cord. Tell him you'll do him the favor of not charging him for the removal :cool:
 
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