Firewood Expensive in Vermont

[Simonkenton]

vtdigger.org

While home-heating fuel prices surge, demand for firewood causes new challenges​

By Juliet Schulman-Hall
Oct 23 2022

Logs for firewood are sawed and split before being kiln-dried at the Clifford Lumber Company yard in Hinesburg on Wednesday, Oct. 19. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
As home-heating fuel prices surge, the state’s firewood sellers and wood stove installers say they’re struggling to keep up as more Vermonters turn to wood heat.
The demand for wood began to increase at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a state official and business owners. But the latest challenges have been compounded by staffing problems and rising costs associated with logging and kiln-drying, they said.
Some are reporting backorders of wood stoves and shortages of firewood.
“The oil prices are so high and everybody's worried about them going higher, you know?” said Bernie Lantagne, a partner at P&L Loggers. “And … usually there's a good strong supply of wood but right now, it's hard because I've had a lot of different companies call and want wood and we can only produce so much.”

A load of dry firewood sits in a truck for delivery at the Clifford Lumber Company yard.
P&L Loggers increased its price for a tractor-trailer load of firewood by about $700 since last year — up to $2,200 based on delivery distance, Lantagne said.
Similarly, Sam Desrochers from Crosscut Firewood, a seller based in Danville, said that the company has had to increase the price of a cord of kiln-dried wood — generally about 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet — from $420 to $495. Desrochers said rising fuel prices and worker shortages in the logging industry have driven the increase.
Plus, he said, paper mills are paying more for wood, which further drives up the price.
“We haven’t seen the supply increasing, so that just creates supply versus demand issues — a shortage,” Desrochers said.
Desrochers added that he has heard that other firewood companies are turning away new customers because of the wood shortage.

Lynn Gardner, a partner at Hinesburg-based Clifford Lumber, which sells lumber, firewood, boxes and crates, said that 85% of firewood sales are to repeat customers, whom he prioritizes. Gardner said that at around this time of year, it is “very hard” to take any new customers.

Lynn Gardner gives a tour of the Clifford Lumber Company yard in Hinesburg. Gardner said that Clifford increased its firewood and delivery prices in October from about $450 to $500 for a cord of kiln-dried wood due to the surge in propane prices, which fuels the kiln.
The increased demand for firewood began in 2020, according to Gardner, who characterized this year’s sales as “steady” and “consistent” but not overwhelmingly high.
Paul Frederick, the program manager for Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, agreed.

A load of sawn and split firewood heads for the drying kiln.
“The demand piece has been strong ever since the beginning of the pandemic,” he said. “And it really hasn't let up from what I'm hearing from folks.”
Gardner said that Clifford increased its firewood and delivery prices in October from about $450 to $500 for a cord of kiln-dried wood due to the surge in propane prices, which fuels the kiln.
Lantagne at P&L Loggers said he has struggled to hire workers to keep pace with increased firewood sales. He said that demand has been increasing for the past four years.
At the same time that firewood and fuel prices are increasing, some wood stove sellers say they are having to schedule far in advance to install stoves due to supply chain issues, labor shortages and increased demand.

 

[zak77]

Wow, $4-500 for a cord of wood in Vermont?? It's about $250 here in Mass, give or take. Granted i suppose kiln dried wood will obviously be more expensive than air dried but still.

 

[qwee]

I sold firewood in southern Idaho this year after no sales for 5 years. I put my ad up on craigslist - $265/cord, $10-$20 fuel charge, dry pine/hardwood (elm, locust, ash, r. olive). I had 10 calls in the ad's first 24 hours so I stopped the ad - hey this was only suppose to be a few side sales. In 3 weeks, I sold and transported 22 cords (everything dry in the front of property).

I got short-handed once, a woman with a $550 bill handed me a wad of cash - five $100s and a pile of $1s. She was $40 short. I feel weird counting money so just assume the person is honest and pocket it. I complained after the fact and she coughed up the remaining $40.

But, I short wooded a guy living in a school bus who ordered a cord. He said he would take my shorts. The problem: shorts/odds don't stack so I had trouble figuring out what a cord of loose wood was. A day after delivery, I realized I had shorted him by observing how much space unstacked firewood takes up. I brought another full pickup bed load over. Unstacked wood looks like mucho firewood but isn't compared to stacked wood - oops.

 

[GrumpyDad]

Wow, $4-500 for a cord of wood in Vermont?? It's about $250 here in Mass, give or take. Granted i suppose kiln dried wood will obviously be more expensive than air dried but still.

It's 800 for kiln dried here.

 

[Simonkenton]

Here is the fact sheet from cliffordlumber.com, the company featured in this news article. This is interesting to me, up in Yankeeland, y'all have a sawmill that, among other things, specializes in firewood and it is kiln dried. I have never heard of such a thing down here in Dixie.

Commonly Asked Firewood Questions and Answers​

---

Q: What types of wood is your firewood made from?
A: All of our firewood is produced from hardwood logs—generally maple, birch, beech, ash and oak but also sometimes other forms of hardwood will be included in the mix.

Q: Where do your firewood logs come from?
A: We use low grade logs that aren’t good enough quality to make lumber, and most come from woodlots that are cut through management programs overseen by foresters. These logs are delivered to us from within a 50 mile radius of our sawmill.

Q: How do you dry your firewood?
A: We operate three kilns by burning waste wood that is a by-product from operating our sawmill.

Q: How long do you dry your firewood?
A: Our kiln-dried firewood is dried until the average moisture content is 25%.

Q: What sizes are your firewood pieces?
A: The kiln-dried firewood that we sell is approximately 16” in length though the last cut off the log in the production process can sometimes produce a shorter piece of firewood.
We can make custom lengths of green firewood if requested.

Q: Do you deliver firewood?
A: Yes, we deliver firewood to surrounding towns within a 25-mile radius.

Q: How much firewood can you deliver at a time?
A: We can deliver one cord to as many as three cords at one time.

Q: What forms of payment do you accept?
A: We accept cash, check or credit card (Visa, MasterCard, Discover).
All deliveries must be paid for at the time of or prior to the arranged delivery.

 

[peakbagger]

Prices near me

The ad on the bottom is from campfire wood supplier with kilns, they reject the shorts and "uglies" and then drop them in bag on pallet. If someone has the capability to pick it up its almost match dry but they do would not be great for someone who packs to pack a stove tight. Great to get a hot fire going in my boiler.

The ad for the 4' $ 100 to 150 a cord "very dry wood" is always in the paper. I have not checked it out but my guess is its too good to be true.

 

[Eman85]

People really buy kiln dried firewood! , what a world. You can't give wood away around here. Most around here don't want old dry wood, it burns too fast.

 

[GrumpyDad]

People really buy kiln dried firewood! , what a world. You can't give wood away around here. Most around here don't want old dry wood, it burns too fast.

I didnt even know there was such a thing until last year. When I bought my stove I called and was shocked what they were asking. I have probably enough wood this year but it will be close.

 

[shortys7777]

I'd be curious how much you are saving burning wood with those prices. I assume people in Vermont are over 4-5 cords a winter. I guess there are a lot of factors and each persons savings will vary. Just seems like a lot of $$$ I have natural gas and generally heat 80-90% with wood, but I've only bought 1 cord in my life and that was the first year I installed my stove.

 

[Ashful]

Fire wood is free to anyone with a saw, truck, and some time. If I had to buy wood, it wouldn't make sense to use it for more than ambience.

People really buy kiln dried firewood! , what a world. You can't give wood away around here. Most around here don't want old dry wood, it burns too fast.

Yes, because it is required to kiln in before transporting, in most states, and even between many or most counties within a state. The kiln is not for the purpose of drying, but for the purpose of killing invasive or harmful insects and/or fungi, and eliminating their spread.

 

[ozarkoak]

We pay $210/cord for all hardwood mostly oak and hickory. We live on 30 wooded acres and don't cut anything thats not dead. We burn around 3 cord. Spending $600 or so to heat all winter as warm as we want is worth it to us to keep our trees. Our land has not been logged in 100 years or so which is becoming more and more rare around here. We see a lot of land for sale which has been logged within the last 10-20 years and IMO ruined. In the Ozarks the top soil is so thin that great care needs to be taken while skidding or erosion becomes an issue. If wood becomes too expensive would I cut my trees? In a freaking heartbeat but as of now this is working well for us.

 

[Stelcom66]

But, I short wooded a guy living in a school bus who ordered a cord. He said he would take my shorts. The problem: shorts/odds don't stack so I had trouble figuring out what a cord of loose wood was. A day after delivery, I realized I had shorted him by observing how much space unstacked firewood takes up. I brought another full pickup bed load over. Unstacked wood looks like mucho firewood but isn't compared to stacked wood - oops.

Good deal - I would have done the same. As for shorts /odds - I have a small fenced in area for those. Like you said, they don't stack. But,
if seasoned enough burn fine. Every bit helps, and IMO is necessary, especially now.

 

[DonTee]

Re the FAQ for the Vermont seller. If I was buying kiln dried wood, I’d want it dryer than the 25% Mc they’re saying their wood is.

And yes up here it’s very common for a sawmill to also sell firewood on the side.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

Im selling wood now.. Iv been selling for a couple years. Im selling for 500 per cord kiln dry and will deliver it with my dump trailer. I dont advertise. I just deliver to people I know and I take orders
in the spring, split, dry it and off it goes in the fall. Iv turned my mini kiln test into a small business.. It gets stacked on pallets dried the the machine lifts it into the trailer, halld to destination then dumped. Its paying for the saws fuel splitters chains.. At 500 per cord deliver I think that this is a good price for what they are getting. Its on a pallet, no guess work on amount, Its all hardwoods either 100% oak or a mix of oak and copper Beach (this year) The wood is tested at 8 to 12 % MC at delivery. Its dry.. real dry.. The people that I deliver to dont even have to be home.. They leave me an envelope with money and where to dump.. I send a picture of the wood prior to dumping.. My sons loving this.. Hes getting paid for his work out back.. he stacks at his leisure and makes money.. I delivered the last of my wood yesterday..

 

[Ashful]

Re the FAQ for the Vermont seller. If I was buying kiln dried wood, I’d want it dryer than the 25% Mc they’re saying their wood is.

You may have already seen this after posting, forgive me for repeating myself. But most are using the kiln for the purpose of making it legal to transport, not for the sake of providing dry wood. Woodsplitter67 is playing to the niche market, actually supplying dry wood. But this is not the reason most are using a kiln for firewood, despite advertising it as a benefit.

 

[DonTee]

You may have already seen this after posting, forgive me for repeating myself. But most are using the kiln for the purpose of making it legal to transport, not for the sake of providing dry wood. Woodsplitter67 is playing to the niche market, actually supplying dry wood. But this is not the reason most are using a kiln for firewood, despite advertising it as a benefit.

Oh for sure. They can transport firewood all over the state if it’s kiln dried. But many times I hear of people talking about kiln dried wood like it’s so dry they don’t even have to test it. And what they don’t know is it might not even be that dry. Just dry enough to transport.

I’ve heard people on this forum mention that. They buy kiln dried wood at the last minute thinking it’s dry enough to burn.

I think that most sellers of kiln dried wood (especially the bigger sellers) are kiln drying the wood for transport. And most buyers of kiln dried wood are buying it because they think it’s already dry enough to burn.

In my area you can’t transport ash outside of the county even. Unless it’s kiln dried.

I think it’s great what woodsplitter67 is doing. I’d like to have a side business like that myself. For now I’ll have to season wood to sell the slow way

 

[peakbagger]

Kiln dried is a very generic term. I referred to the local campfire wood supplier of Kiln Dried wood as being match dry. Its an integrated logging operation, they own a lot of woodlands and I think have their own crew, the veneer logs get set aside to head to a veneer mil, the remaining logs get separated for saw logs and the rest goes to the firewood line. The saw logs get cut on site and kiln dried along with the campfire wood in the same kilns. The firewood is in big cages made out of chain link with a solid bottom with forklift pockets. It big loade they use to move them around and my bet there are couple of cords in the cage. The shorts and uglies they sell are just the rejects from the campfire wood production line as the campfire wood is in perfect bundles with uniform splits that they sell all over to various campgrounds and stores. Retail is usually $6 to $10 for 8 or 9 splits. My guess is 1 cubic foot of wood.

They are doing legit kiln drying. There is also kiln drying for export wood like pallets and finally kiln drying for products like wood. Normal kiln drying is slow with schedules of heating cooling and humidification, fast kiln drying is just pour on the heat and practically boil out the water. The wood gets cracks, checks and warps but no one cares they just want it in and out for the minimum time to meet the schedule.

 

[Ashful]

They are doing legit kiln drying. There is also kiln drying for export wood like pallets and finally kiln drying for products like wood. Normal kiln drying is slow with schedules of heating cooling and humidification, fast kiln drying is just pour on the heat and practically boil out the water. The wood gets cracks, checks and warps but no one cares they just want it in and out for the minimum time to meet the schedule.

I guess that would also explain some of the differences noticeable in dimensional lumber from better lumber yards, versus the twisty and split prone stuff you can buy at Lowes Depot. I remember some past lumber purchases at Home Depot in which it seemed the natural resins in the wood had been heat cured so hard it was impossible to drive a nail without causing a split.

 

[coal and wood man]

Just purchased 4 cords of logs and they were delivered for $400. I have to cut, split, and stack but it gives me something to keep me out of trouble. This is in SE Pennsylvania near the Lehigh Valley. I have seen prices here as high as $350 for cord of seasoned wood delivered. I also sort my wood according to species/BTU output to make my burning more efficient.

 

[GerryM]

$1360 for a load of logs, get 7 1/2 bush cords cut.... $1360 canadian is like $1000 US...