Future cost of firewood

So as spring starts to roll in, I assume everyone will be looking to buy firewood for next heating season. Last year I paid $165 per a cord for 4 cords delivered to my house. I say with the economy in the crapper, and gas and oil prices becoming lower the cost per a cord of wood will drop by 15-20%

What's your predictions on the cost per a cord of wood in the New England area? Up or down?

Frank

On the surface, you'd think the cost of wood should come down a bit to more closely align with gas/oil, etc. Though there is also the possibility the tanking economy may drive more people to look for cheap ways to heat - thus turning to firewood which may create more demand and drive prices back up. Of course the counterpoint to that is if more people are out of work, they may look at cutting/selling firewood as a means for extra income - the extra supply should drive prices down. So in the end, who knows?!?

My cost of firewood has dropped a bit...used to cost ~20 bucks in gas and other consumables + a couple days of my time to cut, load, split and stack. With the cost of gas going down, it's more like ~12-14 bucks of gas and other consumables + a couple days of time for C/L/S/S.

in my 40 years of being in the wood business,all i can say is " ITS ALWAYS AGAINST THE GRAIN" :gulp:

I think the economy is getting worse and the wood price will stay about the same ,you gotta figure yes theres record number of people out of work .many rural folk will be cutting their own no doubt ,but also most non woodstove owner people are still lazy about heat sources and the others who are thinking about it wont have the inital investment of all that comes along with woodburning like the SS chimney pipe ,stove, wood ,available space ,the equipmnet etc... think of al l the people who live in areas that cant burn wood due to their local enironmnetal wacko nutcase laws ,i think all in all it will equal out and price will hoover around the same as this winter.theres very few things in life that actualy get cheaper

LD, an interesting question that I've thought a lot about. I paid 160 last year C/S/D, and the same guy is advertising 185 today. Gas is cheaper, economy in the can, not sure what gives. Could be the larger wood market, could be demand from so many people buying new stoves the last couple years, could be a lot of things. If I were a betting man I'd say he'll be closer to 160 come March / April. To keep my costs closer to 160 I've bought in 16" pieces and 4' lengths and done some of the work myself. Good exercise, and helps me rationalize buring wood instead of oil.

one thing seems for sure oil demand will not be going away and the price of oil probably wont be getting a whole lot cheaper than it is now ,it can only go up from here ... so keep lighting those stoves boys

I know my cost will be about the same number of hours and sweat

I probably already have plenty cut for next year since it looks like I'll have 2-1/2 to 3 cord left over and I've got a couple of more cord ready to be split.

If unemployment runs high, there may be more people trying to pick up some cash by cutting firewood. That would increase the supply and hold down the price.

Ken

I bet prices stay semi-stable. Hovering just under $200/cord CSD locally for very burnable semi-seasoned hard maple.

The going rate is around $165/cord CSD for locust/cherry/oak/hickory/maple around here. I've seen as low as $115/cord and $125/cord for mostly locust (pickup). I think those prices are very reasonable and don't see them changing much in the next few years. There still seems to be a decent amount of people selling firewood nearby. Also, a guy has had a sign out at his house for a few months now, and it doesn't look like he's sold anything. <shrug>

I think wood will stay about the same . 200 a cord may be 250 when its close to winter . I'm thinking about selling some wood this year . In 2 weeks i may be out of work . I had a customer call me this morning to tell me they just don't have the money to remodel the kitchen &bathrooms;we planed and would like to cancel the job ! The work has been planed since July It would force me to lay off my guys. With all the wind, we've been cutting tree like mad and i have a ton of wood on hand . I would like to sell 50 cord this year @ 200 a cord 10,000 bucks ? I would like to try it out and see how it gos . I don't think i will get rich . I really need a faster splitter . John

If you need a faster splitter for production work, strongly consider getting a Super Split. A processor would be ideal, but too costly for this limited amount of wood.
http://www.supersplit.com/

That's a lot of work unless you have all the right equipment, e.g. wood processor, skid steer, dump truck.....

Good luck with your efforts!

I've thought about maybe trying to sell something like 10 cord, but then I thought about all the work that would mean! I'm supposed to be retired!

Ken

greenwood (parltyseasoned) in this part of the state was 175-220 2 months ago.. now green is 150-175... with one guy still at 220 but prices are falling as wood guys are realizing its cheaper/easier to burn oil... its 1.59-1.89 a gallon ... i burn a cd a month when its real cold out...... or about 100 gallons of oil .. at this point its cheaper to burn oil as it does my whole house and my stove does about 3/4 of my house... BUT the wood in the backyard was cheaper than 150-175 so i will stay burning wood!!

Fire wood is a labor intensive commodity based on supply and demand....anything can happen. Sure it could go down but I wouldn't bet on that. Around here scroungers use to get tops for nothing but with a co-energy plant 50m away harvesters are chipping the tops now.

My last three purchases of green wood are shown. I live in a fairly wooded area and this supplier can cut/split and load 12 cords a day with his equipment never touching the wood with his hands. In years past, his prices have been a low of 120 and a high of 160 for green.

June - $140/chord - purchased 1 chord.
Dec - $160/chord - purchased 2 chord.
Feb - $135/chord - purchased 2 chord. I did tell my supplier that I will be purchasing 5 more chord in the spring. Maybe he gave me a discount. ;-)

Wood can fluxuate in price just like anything where there is a supply and demand. I don't think there will be a shortage of wood anytime soon in my neck of the woods. The only thing I can see happening is an increase in demand lessening the supply, driving up the price. Again, this varies by region so there's no future's market price for wood that I know of.

I own all the equipment now , Ive been selling wood for a few years. I just 1/4 the rounds with a skid steer splitter and load the wood in a 12x7x4' dump trailer I can carry 2 cord in the dump truck . I can drop 5 cord at once but its very heavy . A full load of oak is around 19000lbs fresh cut . Most people take a trailer full . 3Cord . Splitting fire wood builds character . I have 2 sons and 2 little girls that could use some charictor. Im hopping i could just deliver the wood . John

Ah yes, it helps if you have free slave labor ;-)

No help here, I'm on my own. Maybe if I run out of things to do after I get 3-4 years of my own wood put up, I'll consider selling some. Yeah, sure...

Ken

Selling it is a nice idea to recoup some of the cost but,
then you cut it, split it and stack it all nice and pretty. then watch it dry, and as you wipe you brough from all you labor you say " there is no way I am selling a stick, I am going to enjoy burning every piece".

I check this site every couple of months......
Hehehehe are ya ready for this............. http://www.mywoodenergy.com/2.html
Check out the special..... :gulp:
Are you f'ing kidding me?
I know it's kiln dried wood but this is ridiculous.........

It is crazy. I think its geared towards fireplace burners in the city. Its stacked on pallets, and they'll probably deliver in places a one-ton dump won't.

From what I have read everyone seems to be in the ballpark of $150-200/ green cord delivered(about the same around here up to $245). Most of the log load prices I have seen of late are around 80-100 per cord. I don't think either will change much when you figure the cost of harvesting, labor, and cost of delivery there is not much margin left for these guys to live on (this is why you see more Kiln dried at higher$ all about increasing profit margin). City wood is another product altogether, it has the PIA cost worked in. Now is no doubt the time to buy as the market is pretty flush with product and some may find real good deals especially if a wood guy is in need of making cash when you call. My eight cords of log length wood are sitting in the yard, I'm 1/4 way to being chunked, all oak and damn heavy! Pulled a muscle in my back sawing last evening -sometimes I wonder why I still do it and I'm sure the cordwood dealers ask themselves the same even if they have a processor.
last note.... cordwood prices usually follows the demand for paper pulp, as mills pay higher prices to get wood in the door to make product so to does the firewood processor to compete with that demand- supply and demand the usual culprit.

I was wondering about the price of wood just before I logged in here. I did a Craigs list search in Eastern Ma. & was amazed that the price was still running $250 > $350 cord for c/s/d. This is mixed hardwoods.
At that price, it is cheaper to burn oil.

I've been lucky so far. The last time I bought wood was in 1991. That was 12 cords, c/s/d. It came all stacked in rows on a tractor/trailer rig that had a conveyor belt for a bed. The driver backed in, pulled the
lever & started pulling away as I watched each stacked row drop off the end. Cost then was $90 cord. Before that back in the 1970s oil crunch I ordered 33 cords delivered. Mixed hardwoods cut into rounds, not split.
After it was all split, I figured I ended up with about 28 cords actual. Other than that, it's all been scrounged.
Al

We have never had to buy wood, luckily, because my husband and sons always got more than enough. But times change. The boys are grown, gone and live far away. My husband has to work out of state and has been for quite some time. So, for the first time, I guess I need to start buying wood for awhile. My other option would be to let some neighbors harvest our wood and share half/half, but frankly this scares me because I don't know anyone offhand who wouldn't be prone to mix chainsaws and beer and drop a tree on himself.

Anyway, a local saw mill quotes $250 for a dump truck load of mixed wood...poplar, oak and maple. I asked the man what that equated to in cord measure, and he just said, "It's a full dump truck." Does anyone know, offhand, how much wood that would be?

Tough call in terms of how much. Dump trucks vary in size. Was this like a Ford F350 with a dump attached or was it more of a large dump truck that is used for paving or hauling sand/gravel? If it's the smaller version, maybe a cord, if the larger version maybe two to three??

I think anything you purchase east of RT-495 and towards RT-128/95, you will tend to pay more. I am in South Central MA near the CT/RI boarder and I pay $135/cord to $160/cord green (all hardwood). I think this is due to regional supply and demand as well as transportation costs to bring that wood into eastern MA because there are only a few large forests to harvest wood in those eastern MA regions.