Pricing on Slab vs Split

[dspoon19]

Hello everyone. As usual I’m running behind in my wood collecting adventures and to make up for lost time I found a local guy that sells green wood in bulk. I was wondering everyone’s opinion on the subject based on the fact that I run a conventional OWB. His options are as follows:
15 yard dumpster of split hardwood for $550
30 yard dumpster of cut slab wood for $400

Which do you think is the better route?

 

[showrguy]

If I still had my OWB, it would be the slab wood deal, no question..

 

[Garbanzo62]

I am going to try to pickup some slabwood tomorrow. They sell in cord bundles for $75, but the bundles are 4000 - 5000 lbs, which means you need a HD truck.. However, when a bundle breaks, they sell that as a Hand Load. $40 for as much as you can fit. Going to rent a flatbed from Home Depot and get what I can. They also sell end cut chunks when available for the same $40. Apparently this stuff is aged at least 8 months.. We will see.

 

[mark cline]

Slab wood would seem like the better deal, but slab wood is the hardest wood to season. If dumped in a pile , it will never dry /season, it needs to be stacked or some way to turn over the pile ( almost impossible). Slab wood coming off my bandsaw mill
is about 36-40%, that’s with the logs sitting after being cut during the winter . I cut my slabs and stack it to dry, I’m dealing with small amounts at a time so it is manageable.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Slab wood would seem like the better deal, but slab wood is the hardest wood to season. If dumped in a pile , it will never dry /season, it needs to be stacked or some way to turn over the pile ( almost impossible). Slab wood coming off my bandsaw mill
is about 36-40%, that’s with the logs sitting after being cut during the winter . I cut my slabs and stack it to dry, I’m dealing with small amounts at a time so it is manageable.

This place bundles them in approx 1 cord rolls held together with steal banding. On occasion, the bands break, That wood is moved to a pile that is available to hand load. What you don't know is A) what species, B) When it was cut, C) how long it was stacked before the band broke D) how long it was in the pile.
So far I have cut 60% of the boards. Not ideal conditions to test moisture content. Best I can do is cut a piece off and test the end cut it the current temp. Yeah it will be off a bit. Got two piles going, ready to burn and needs more time. Probably should have 3, as some of the needs more time is over 30% and some is 23 - 25%. Same board could have both as the thickness varies along the length. Just wich I had access to bigger truck. Rented flatbed from Home Depot but it has 3000 max payload. I am going to weigh one of these boards so if I need to do this again, I can figure out the max I can take. I thought 45 was probably close. The wood cost 40, the truck ended up being 26 and 16 for gas, so 45 boards of slabwood for approx $80.. comes out to a little under $2 a board

 

[mark cline]

Looks like those boards have some meat on them. Anything that comes off my saw mill , might be 3/4” thick . I can see the full length boards would be easier to deal with. Around me , all the Amish saw the slab wood into 16-18 lengths and up a conveyor into a truck or trailer. So when it’s dumped, it needs to be stacked or it will never dry. The Amish guy across the street from me could supply all my wood for the winter for about $300 but it’s a pain to deal with.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Looks like those boards have some meat on them. Anything that comes off my saw mill , might be 3/4” thick . I can see the full length boards would be easier to deal with. Around me , all the Amish saw the slab wood into 16-18 lengths and up a conveyor into a truck or trailer. So when it’s dumped, it needs to be stacked or it will never dry. The Amish guy across the street from me could supply all my wood for the winter for about $300 but it’s a pain to deal with.

yeah I am going to say the average is about 2.5 Inches at the thickest, but some have 5 to six inch sections.. This mill makes a lot of RR and construction ties. So a lot of this is just the remnants of squaring off a tree.

 

[j7art2]

Fairly good deal.

Our bundles from the Amish saw mills run $45 a bundle for hardwood or $10 a bundle for softwood. Generally close to 1 full cord per slab. I wouldn't expect prices to be this low from anywhere else other than the Amish. I grabbed a slab of pine this year for $10 for shoulder season and built a multi position saw horse with positions every 15.5" to buck 25 pieces of slab stacked on top of each other at once. If you haven't made one, do yourself a favor and build one ASAP.

Slab, if you're not familiar, does burn quicker than standard splits imo. Maybe 20-25% if I had to guess. Generally pieces are just smaller. It also seasons significantly faster if stacked, and is BY FAR the easiest thing to stack imo. I'll take stacking slab over stacking anything else any day of the week.

I intend next year to get at LEAST 5 bundles of pine slab and make a very large slab holzhausen or two with it just to see if I can. I've never seen a slabwood holzhausen before, and if you're on hearth.com long enough, it seems to be a rite of passage to make one. I simply didn't get enough this year and it likely won't be ready for this year, so if I get it in the spring or now doesn't matter as they'll be seasoned either way by next burn season.

Around here, everyone wants the hardwood and thus the premium for it that it's just not worth it to me to pursue when I live in the woods and can get my own. The pine is cheap enough and the old wives tale is so thick here in Michigan that $10 for close to a full cord is absolutely a no brainer to me. I may burn twice as much pine (realistically, it's only about 30% more) but if I can cut down on my hardwood usage and save it til the dead of winter, have hotter fires and my slab seasons from green to ready in 4 months. I could get poplar slab for the same price too if I chose to, but pine wins the BTU contest even before you factor in surprise fatwood, doesn't smell like dog shxt when seasoning and smells amazing when burning. My secondary burns gobble up the smoke like it's going outta style and there's not so much as a hint of smoke outta the chimney while staying safely in flue range.

 

[Garbanzo62]

Fairly good deal.

Our bundles from the Amish saw mills run $45 a bundle for hardwood or $10 a bundle for softwood. Generally close to 1 full cord per slab. I wouldn't expect prices to be this low from anywhere else other than the Amish. I grabbed a slab of pine this year for $10 for shoulder season and built a multi position saw horse with positions every 15.5" to buck 25 pieces of slab stacked on top of each other at once. If you haven't made one, do yourself a favor and build one ASAP.

Slab, if you're not familiar, does burn quicker than standard splits imo. Maybe 20-25% if I had to guess. Generally pieces are just smaller. It also seasons significantly faster if stacked, and is BY FAR the easiest thing to stack imo. I'll take stacking slab over stacking anything else any day of the week.

I intend next year to get at LEAST 5 bundles of pine slab and make a very large slab holzhausen or two with it just to see if I can. I've never seen a slabwood holzhausen before, and if you're on hearth.com long enough, it seems to be a rite of passage to make one. I simply didn't get enough this year and it likely won't be ready for this year, so if I get it in the spring or now doesn't matter as they'll be seasoned either way by next burn season.

Around here, everyone wants the hardwood and thus the premium for it that it's just not worth it to me to pursue when I live in the woods and can get my own. The pine is cheap enough and the old wives tale is so thick here in Michigan that $10 for close to a full cord is absolutely a no brainer to me. I may burn twice as much pine (realistically, it's only about 30% more) but if I can cut down on my hardwood usage and save it til the dead of winter, have hotter fires and my slab seasons from green to ready in 4 months. I could get poplar slab for the same price too if I chose to, but pine wins the BTU contest even before you factor in surprise fatwood, doesn't smell like dog shxt when seasoning and smells amazing when burning. My secondary burns gobble up the smoke like it's going outta style and there's not so much as a hint of smoke outta the chimney while staying safely in flue range.

Yes I noticed the Slab wood does burn quicker. There is a lot of surface area to burn at once and the pieces aren't very thick. But burnable slabs is better than non-burnable splits. In mid-Dec I'll see if the mill has more available to hand load. If so I'll make two trips with the rented truck. Unfortuately they dont deliver to my town. The town they do deliver to is literally 200 yards away. But there is a 6 bundle min for delivery, so that would be about $700 for 6 cords. Not sure I'll need that much as the burnable stuff I got should be good next year, but if needed I'll get some slab wood to tie me over.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

I’d rent a Uhaul double axle trailer. A few years ago you could rent the 6x12 for $40. It had 3’ high sides.

 

[Garbanzo62]

I’d rent a Uhaul double axle trailer. A few years ago you could rent the 6x12 for $40. It had 3’ high sides.

If I had a vehicle with a Trailer Hitch, I would consider that.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

They rent pickups too, but that’s greatly increasing your cost per cord. Can you borrow one?

 

[Garbanzo62]

Might be able to, but a bit of a neophyte with towing a trailer. Not sure I want a 5000 lb load as my first go with it.