pile of tossed wood vs. a stack- guess the amount

[cptoneleg]

Them Woodchucks are the only ones that know how much wood is in a tossed woodpile :zip:

 

[Battenkiller]

When people make promises like that hurry and stack it . A couple of weeks go by and you had time to move the wood... A day or 2 they really can't say anything.... Trust me learned the hard way ....
And move the wood means you moved it , or someone could have possibly been stealing it or anything the wood guy wants to think of...

I was told 225 for a load of wood , which would be at least 1.5 but closer to .1.75 a load .. this was when seasoned wood was 175 -
So $675 later looking for at least 4.5 cords but according to him at least 5 cord turned out 3 ....
He left it on the outside of my fence claimed someone must have stolen some wood . Then questioned me about taking 2.5 weeks to question him....
Then gave me the dimensions of his truck to justify his calculations....

I stacked it, took photos with a steel tape showing the shortage, he agrees he owes me more but has a million excuses why he won't bring it. You'd think that a guy sitting on a few hundred acres of cherry would just cut a pickup load to get me off his back. It's not like I'm asking for money back, just some wood that is his to get off his property for a couple hours work. People sometimes seem to go way out of their way to cause themselves trouble.

Last year I started deviating from my standard practice of buying c/s/d wood from pros that I've been using for years. I wanted to run my saws a bit, so I was originally looking for logs. I got real excited when a guy advertised he had 8' x 12' x 3' high trailer loads of black locust logs for $100. I waited weeks and then the guy calls out of nowhere and says he's all loaded up, can he come over now. He shows up with the trailer and it ain't half full, mostly empty space, with crooked locust logs sticking out everywhere, but still probably close to a cord. He says he was afraid to pull more with his truck, but he'll come back with a small load of cherry logs for me, so I pay him in full. 20 phone calls later and I could never get hold of the guy, so I gave up on that one as well. Yeah, ripped off, but $100/cord ain't so bad, and at least I got to cut it with the new saw. BL splits like butter anyway, so that was a nice little workout for the new Fiskars.

Then, there were three separate occasions dealing with a jerk who I sent away twice after getting him to acknowledge that his load piled in the middle of his big dump truck wasn't close to a cord. He said he really wanted my business and if i could show him exactly where to stack the wood to make a cord, he promised to give me a mix of half locust and the rest cherry and hickory. I figured out it would take exactly four rows of 16" long splits stacked to the top of his bed rails (32"), did the math on the calculator for him and he agreed I was right. Two days later he sends two flunkies over with the truck with only three rows. I refused it once again and the two guys (a lot bigger and younger than me) started to get very agitated and almost menacing. I'm a pretty good bluffer, so I went up to the bigger one and got right in his face and told him to get the hell out if he knew what was good for him.

Whew! He backed right down, got in his truck and left. Thought I was gonna get my arse handed to me there, let me tell you. :coolcheese:

 

[dafattkidd]

Listen worst case scenario I get a c/s/d cord and a half of all hardwood for $200. That's still $133/cord. Which the lowest price I've seen on Long Island. But we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll have this stuff stacked by Monday and we can figure out what's what. I'll posts pics of the stacks.

 

[iceman]

Listen worst case scenario I get a c/s/d cord and a half of all hardwood for $200. That's still $133/cord. Which the lowest price I've seen on Long Island. But we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll have this stuff stacked by Monday and we can figure out what's what. I'll posts pics of the stacks.

Which is a good deal... Suspense is killing me! Please post pics
How big is your stove?

 

[dafattkidd]

Listen worst case scenario I get a c/s/d cord and a half of all hardwood for $200. That's still $133/cord. Which the lowest price I've seen on Long Island. But we'll see what happens. Hopefully I'll have this stuff stacked by Monday and we can figure out what's what. I'll posts pics of the stacks.

Which is a good deal... Suspense is killing me! Please post pics
How big is your stove?

Firebox is 3.2 cf. It takes 19" NS, and 23 EW.

 

[snowleopard]

Funny cause I bought wood this weekend and as soon as he unloaded truck I knew it was short. He said it was a heavy cord (as in over). Well after I stacked it, I only had 3/4 of a cord.

Silly! BTUs are a product of wood density, so he figured if the wood was really heavy, he didn't need to deliver as much of it to give you a cord. Sheesh--I thought everybody knew that!

You guys are making me feel better about my situation--I suppose misery loves company. I paid for a delivery of three cords back in March, specifying 18", figuring I could handle up to 20" (21.5" inside measurement). I was looking forward to using that stuff this winter--March cut, before the sap rose, split early, it should have been ready by winter. When the truck came in, the load looked light to me, and I said so. Guy said he had over 400 cf there, and I was more distracted by the length of the wood--a lot of it was coming off the truck too long for my stove.

He said that he'd come back after I stacked it and shorten up the wood that was too long. I went along with it--young guy, trying to get going in the business. Once I started working with it, I realized it wasn't just a few pieces that were too long--that I was going to have to measure every stinkin' piece before I split. I set the project aside because I was crawling over snowpiles to get it sorted and stacked, busy with work and kids' school.

Finally, when the snow melted and I stacked and sorted (measuring each length against a marked stick as I went, and chalking the ones that were too long), I ended up with 1.5 cord that were the right length, and a little over a half cord that was too long for my stove. So I was a full cord short, or 1.5 cord short of useable wood. Paid $545 for 1.5 cords usable, .5 that will need some work before I can burn it.

Called him up, and first he wanted to dither ("Did you measure it before you split it?" yep "Well, the truck holds three cords full." but remember? you only loaded it up to 3 feet, as you said you weren't sure that it would take a whole load of green birch.) He finally admitted that when they were starting out, he made some mistakes, and he'd put this right. I said my preference would be that he just picks up the wood that's too long, and delivers another 1.5 cord. Told him to call me when he was ready to deliver, and haven't heard back from him. Texted him, will be calling today, but I'll believe it when I see the wood. Annoys me that I gave him an extra 20 for gas, since it was a long poke out to my place.

I figured he just thought he could take advantage of a female--what am I going to do about it? I feel a little better about the situation knowing that you guys have been there, too, and a bit more ready to push this issue.

Good news is I found a couple that is selling wood c/s/s for $160 a cord, and their cords exceed dimensions. Bought ten cords from them. It won't do me any good this winter, but after that I'm set for awhile. Mixed with poplar, I figure that's three+ years of warm there.

 

[nate379]

Oh it was heavy allright, the "seasoned" wood was just about dripping sap out of the ends. It's fine cause it's what I expected and it was cheap, but he listed it as seasoned. To me seasoned means its ready to burn.

Silly! BTUs are a product of wood density, so he figured if the wood was really heavy, he didn't need to deliver as much of it to give you a cord. Sheesh--I thought everybody knew that!

 

[cptoneleg]

Most folks that sell wood call everything seasoned

 

[dafattkidd]

So I finally finish stacking the wood I had delivered. It's in two piles.

stack 1 is 10ft long x just over 5 ft high x 3 ft wide (Double stacked and average length split about 18)
stack 2 is 14ft long x just over 4ft high x 19" (averaged length of split)

So it totaled out to almost exactly 2 cords. It is all hardwood. It's pretty darn green so I resplit a lot of it to help season faster.

Here's the pics. I took these at night so they are kinda crappy.

 

[Woody Stover]

So I finally finish stacking the wood I had delivered. It's in two piles.

stack 1 is 10ft long x just over 5 ft high x 3 ft wide (Double stacked and average length split about 18)
stack 2 is 14ft long x just over 4ft high x 19" (averaged length of split)

So it totaled out to almost exactly 2 cords. It is all hardwood.

For $200? Great deal! Keep that guy's number, for sure. Can you ID much of the wood? It looked pretty good in your previous pics. I thought I saw a little Elm, but couldn't really tell on the other stuff...

Oh it was heavy allright, the "seasoned" wood was just about dripping sap out of the ends. It's fine cause it's what I expected and it was cheap, but he listed it as seasoned. To me seasoned means its ready to burn.

I've read here that when they say "seasoned," that means they have just sprinkled a little salt on the pile. You can't see the salt because it dissolves in all the water that's gushing out of the ends of the splits.

 

[dafattkidd]

Mostly white oak. A lot of locust and sugar maple. Maybe 5% wood I couldn't determine, but seemingly no softwoods whatsoever.

 

[mtarbert]

You guys need to get your wood delivered on Saturday and stacked before the banks open on Monday. If you get shorted Stop payment on the check . I bet the seller will call you ASAP.