Anyone offer firewood splitting services?

[jeffesonm]

A buddy of mine owns a tree service and mentioned lots of people ask him about getting the wood split. He offered to give my name if I was interested in the work.

Does anyone do this as a side business? How do you price it, per hour or per job? Split by yourself or with a helper? Any advice for someone considering this as a side job?

 

[chazcarr]

There is a guy in CT who rents log splitters and he will also split the wood for you.
He advertises on Craigslist.
I think it was $80 a day for the splitter or $120 for him to split up a cord, with $30 per extra cord.
I do not think he said anything about bucking up wood though.

 

[kennyp2339]

I have seen a few craigs list ad's for this service, I would be leery about offering services, at least in my area. To many times I have seen huge rounds in the most in accessible area's of someone's yard, usually in a place that you cant get a splitter to.

 

[Paulywalnut]

This has to be one of those aggravating thankless jobs, that is hard to price and you end up on the bad end. Actually the firewood isn't worth that much unless it's C/S and stacked. So you're doing all the labor.

 

[beatlefan]

Always price it by the job...never by the hour. As you go along, you're going to become more efficient with your splitting. You'll eventually get faster and make less money per job. Also, when you price it by the job, it forces you to go look at it first. This will help you ensure you don't under bid.

 

[jtaves85mcss]

Price by the job, process steps, include a trip charge, include a helper and a minimum of $500. Estimates should be $20, refunded in a paid job.

Plan on many customers being the same as CL advertisers who expect you to pay for a scrounge. I suspect you will likely quickly learn when you start on a service like this your equipment and help are frequently broken down. Then you have customers that have no idea where to put the c/s/s wood, nor do they have any idea how much wood they have.

Most of the tree service shops around here refer interested customers to the local farms that buck and mechanically split the 8ft lengths the tree cutters put on trailers and haul away. "Get it delivered to your driveway".

 

[xman23]

I don't want to process and more than my own wood. Way to much work.

 

[claydogg84]

I'd haul my splitter to someone's pile of rounds for $50/hour if they were relatively close. Figure I can split a cord by myself in around 2 - 2.5 hours with no huge rounds.

 

[jeffesonm]

Thanks for the input all.

Not looking to make a career out of this, just figured I've got the equipment and I enjoy the work, so if I can make an extra hundred or two working a little here or there, then why not. At this point I'm probably 4-5+ years ahead on wood so it's almost pointless to split for myself.

For now I told him $50/hr, but once I get a few jobs under my belt, I'd rather price by the job. On straight grained stuff I can split with the fiskars faster than the splitter, but no incentive when getting paid by the hour.

 

[barmstrong2]

A painter friend used to say "I will work for $5 an hour or $100 an hour. It all depends how fast you want the job done."

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

You can make more with a part-time burger flipping job, or delivering pizza.

 

[Frank625]

I think you are safe at $150/cord to split it with your own splitter. Charge an extra $50 to stack each cord too.Don't just do the jobs because you want them, make sure you can make good money doing it. If the rounds are really big don't do it or charge more. You want good paying customers not cheap ones.

 

[claydogg84]

You can make more with a part-time burger flipping job, or delivering pizza.

Show me a burger flipping job that pays $50/hour and I'll sign up immediately.

 

[jeffesonm]

hahaha I was thinking the same thing... I don't think there'd be so many people protesting for a $15/hr minimum wage if that was the case

 

[Bad LP]

Sure!! Sign me right up to have you work on my property with a piece of equipment capable of causing severe bodily injury and not be insured or covered by workers comp.

 

[BigFir]

What Bad LP said. Look at all angles before proceeding.

 

[claydogg84]

Sure!! Sign me right up to have you work on my property with a piece of equipment capable of causing severe bodily injury and not be insured or covered by workers comp.

While you may not be interested in having him provide his service, there are many people who are - So what exactly is your point? Liability can easily be put onto the man providing the service by signing an agreement which states such. Just a guess, but you're a liberal, aren't you?

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Show me somebody who is making $50 an hour selling his services splitting wood and I'll show you somebody who doesn't know how to do simple arithmetic.

 

[Bad LP]

While you may not be interested in having him provide his service, there are many people who are - So what exactly is your point? Liability can easily be put onto the man providing the service by signing an agreement which states such. Just a guess, but you're a liberal, aren't you?

Struck a nerve did I? Clearly I did.

People may be interested in such a service however my point is if the guy gets hurt on their property some ambulance chasing scum sucking lawyer is going to own the homeowner's ass. Anybody who allows this type of activity without a certificate of insurance is a fool. When people are crippled, in pain or disfigured for life somehow hand shake agreements fly out the window. One does not need to only watch daytime soap operas in order to see the injury lawyer ads.

The signing of an agreement that overlooks the requirements set forth by state and federal law is worth about the same as used toilet paper.

Lastly I'm furthest thing a liberal ever wants to meet. I'm a card carrying member of the National Rifle Asso. Gun Owners Action League (MA) , Sportsman Alliance of Maine, Maine Snowmobile Asso, just to get a list started. I own a 27 foot boat with twin engines that holds 150 gallons of gas and drive a 2015 3/4 ton truck that averages 12.8 MPG last I looked. I've never voted for a Dumbocrat in my over 50 years and never missed a state or federal election from the age of 18. I despise illegals and giving away free chit to people healthy enough to work but to effin lazy to do so. Not every person deserves a collage education because they are too stupid to know how to hold a screwdriver never mind giving them a free education by the people who do work for a living... the world needs ditch diggers too.

BTW I've never collected a single dime of unemployment and I block the view of Prius owners with my pick up in intersections if I see an Obama bumper sticker while laughing at them for saving gas for me to burn.

Ya, I'm a liberal alright and the above is no lie.

 

[claydogg84]

Show me somebody who is making $50 an hour selling his services splitting wood and I'll show you somebody who doesn't know how to do simple arithmetic.

Explain. I'm assuming you're considering the cost of the splitter and gasoline, right? The same splitter that most of us have already owned, and paid for 10 fold by splitting our own wood. Wear and tear on the splitter? It's a cheap gas engine, simple pump, some hydraulic lines, and a ram... Go flip burgers.

 

[Bad LP]

Explain. I'm assuming you're considering the cost of the splitter and gasoline, right? The same splitter that most of us have already owned, and paid for 10 fold by splitting our own wood. Wear and tear on the splitter? It's a cheap gas engine, simple pump, some hydraulic lines, and a ram... Go flip burgers.

Do you make it a habit of picking internet fight jabs and moving on when confronted? You clearly skipped over my reply to attack someone else.

Man up or run biatch. Don't make accusations without a firm foothold on all of the issues.

 

[jeffesonm]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand thanks to those who offered advice.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand thanks to those who offered advice.

Moral of this story... As my jets are losing badly,......
Do you really need to split someone else's wood? I hear people splitting a cord in such low amounts of time, but when a friend and I try, it's not even close in the time that people say in here.......
Don't bite off more than you can chew......
Let us know what you decide.....

 

[drz1050]

I think you'd be better off buying a log load, then selling the wood split..

Splitting is my favorite part of the whole process.. I hate stacking

 

[claydogg84]

Do you make it a habit of picking internet fight jabs and moving on when confronted? You clearly skipped over my reply to attack someone else.

Man up or run biatch. Don't make accusations without a firm foothold on all of the issues.

Because I didn't agree with your point you took it as an attempt to start an Internet fight? There was nothing to argue about. You went on a long winded speech about how you're not a liberal and I left it at that. So you may not be a liberal, but you're clearly a douchebag who likes to brag about his possessions on an Internet forum to prove he's not. Biatch? Are you 12? Go back to whatever forum you came from, I'm sure they miss hearing about your boat.