scrounge leads

Seems like there are a lot of folks who scrounge quite a bit of wood. Sounds like a great idea to me, but I have yet to have much luck locating anything. I was just wondering where do you get most of your leads for these scrounges, CL, local businesses, etc? Just trying to put my radar out, looking for hints.

Craigslist

I have had good luck placing a wanted ad on CL. Something to the effect I heat my home with a woodstove and coould use more firewood. Have fallen trees? or excess firewood ?etc. Also, let people know at work your a woodburner. Word travels fast when people want something cleaned up or removed.

Myself.....I watch Craigs List, and hit the streets for a week after storms....listen for Chainsaws, or wood chippers in the nieghborhood....word of mouth is the biggest for me, I tell everybody I know.

I get mine from the local compost sites, construction sites where new homes are being built, and mostly just by keeping my eyes open for it while driving around and finding out who owns the property and asking them if I can have the wood or at least some of it-I'd say the answer is "yes" about 90 % of the time as they say "one man's garbage is another man's treasure"...

Good luck-just keep your eyes open when driving especially in the wooded areas and ask for permission!

Oh, just come down to PA. and you'll have wood from Sandy for the next 6 years....

Craglist is the first place to start. Depending on your equiment. I have not look for tree work in over 5 years. People find me after they figure out how much it is to move a monster tree. Heck far as that goes I have done just trunks is the last 2 years. All with mini trucks too!

I've made great scores just by asking, especially in my neighborhood which is heavily wooded. See a tree down, or being downed, pull over and ask.

Also, keep your eyes open. Scored a spitload of hickory after seeing a crew clearing the access road for overhead power lines.

Around our area all one has to do is drive around. There are thousands of cord of wood going to waste. I've seen this in most areas, just not quite to the extreme we have it here right now. So one spots some dead trees and you simply stop to ask.

Craigslist, listening for chainsaws/chippers in the neighborhood,even the pre-internet way of watching for stuff stacked at curbside when driving to & fro different places.I still get an occasional call from someone wanting one removed also.

Once you put the word out,you'll be set for a long time.It can be hit or miss though,only wood I wont cut or bring home is that effing nasty Ailanthus.

Never rule out Social Media. My first scrounge was from a post on Facebook.

There are a bunch around here to but half the people think they are sitting on a gold mine! One guy wanted to charge me $100 to cut a cherry tree up that had fallen in his front yard, his reasoning for that was that it saved me money not having to pay to heat my house. I told him it didn't work that way and he called me a few weeks later and said he rethought it and I could just have it if I wanted. My guess is no one wanted to pay for firewood and then have to process it...lol

Nice to see you're sticking to the small & medium sized stuff there Jay. Guys our age shouldn't be working those big suckers any more. A C

This is my first year with the new woodstove, so no real supply of firewood. After hurricane sandy there was a oak that fell on my street, i saw the property owner out cutting it up. I asked him if he was going to keep it and sadly he was. But he said that there was a lady up the street that had a big pine blow down and he was going to cut it up for her along with 8 oak trees in her yard, he said if i took the pine, that i could also take the oak for free!! Well, i now have at least a cord of pine waiting to be split, and i am looking for a place to put all that oak, and the black locust from a blowdown during hurricane irene. I just wish i had seasoned firewood for this year.

How on Earth did you keep a straight face?

I started out talking to all the tree services I could find. Hooked up with one and now they keep me in all the wood I want. Pat

Just drive around here back in the mountain road.

That doesn't happen much around here....The few tree service companies that there are usually burn wood themselves then split and sell the rest of it.

I had a tree company want to hire me. They wanted me to move all the weight to there place stack and split it all. In return it was a 50/50 split on the money!

All good comments. I'll add, word of mouth - let it be known to all that you want wood. Then when an opportunity presents itself, act fast and never say NO (well I'll rephrase that to be "I'm always interested, whats the deal?"). Its amazing how opportunities present themselves.

+1

I have had some luck with Ebay especially during the warmer months when no-one looks for firewood - (unless you are a member on here .)