starting a firewood business?

[turn_n_burn]

Hey all! I have been scrounging and scrounging for months now, and I have to admit I'm addicted to cutting and splitting wood somethin' fierce. I live in an area where there are not a lot of firewood dealers (nearest ones are 30 to 40 miles away), and I want to get in on the market. I plan to start small and build up, not throw all my eggs in one basket off the line.

Specifically, what kinds of permits and licenses are needed? I know it requires a business license, and I don't want to be one of those shady guys on CL that "has access" to wood. I have looked into acquiring the wood, and the best I can find is to pay a logging company $1300 for a truck load of green logs and then have to wait a year for it to dry properly. Is there any way to get a private cutting permit for the forest service or BLM? We have lots of forest land within an hour of me in Idaho, but I have only been able to find how to buy it from someone else. Or is it just a matter of being at the mercy of the regulated timber sales? There is also a lot of BLM land (separate from the F.S.) with a ton of Juniper, which is getting to be very popular around here for the BTU content. Do they allow you to resell on a standard civilian cutting permit? Also, it it legal to sell wood that was cut from private land (like those people on CL that have a bunch of wood they want rid of or a tree that they want cut down without paying thousands to a tree service company)?

I've done my market research, and I know that I would be able to move the wood fairly quickly at the right price, but all the little legal loopholes are still fuzzy to me. Anybody have experience with this kind of thing?

 

[blacktail]

Google your nearest national forest + firewood to see the rules.
The NF permits I've seen specify that it's for personal use and they limit how many permits you can buy per year. The national forest near me has a limit of 6 cords a year. I've seen some that allow up to 12 cords.

 

[barmstrong2]

Different part of the country, but, a friend started selling firewood 3 years ago here in central Maine. This year, he sold 330 cord of processed hardwood. It can grow quickly. Good luck!

Edit to add... He buys tree length, too. He told me he pays $110/cord for tree length and sells at $300/cord. C/S/D.
His "seasoned" firewood has been stacked tree length for 1 year, cut, split and thrown in a pile 1 year. Still, not what we consider seasoned in here, but, better than his competition.

 

[AmbDrvr253]

330 CORDS! YIKES! Hope he has help!

 

[D8Chumley]

That's like $62,000/yr minus his expenses, not too shabby

 

[bholler]

None of us can tell you what local regs are. But generally if you are trying to supply firewood comercially you get log lengths delivered. And if you want to sell dry wood do you have enough property to stack and season several hundred cords?

 

[Lumber-Jack]

Just remember it often happens that the fastest way to take the joy out of doing something you enjoy doing is by turning it into a business.

 

[gerry100]

I've dealt with a few dealers here in upstate NY over the last 38 yrs

My impression is that Firewood is NOT a stand alone business.

Most dealers are loggers that sell the 'culls ( logs not big enough or straight enough for the saw mill) as log lengths or to others who process into cords as a part time business. I've heard of a few that sell firewood in volume but In believe they have a big capital investment in processing equipment.

 

[DougA]

the fastest way to take the joy out of doing something you enjoy doing is by turning it into a business.

My thoughts too. I did some thinking about selling modest amounts of firewood since I have far more than I can use. These are the problems I identified:
- Most people have no idea that normal 'seasoned' wood is not dry enough to burn well. Trying to educate consumers is a tough job as most are surprisingly not wanting to learn and will argue with you endlessly.
- Having a lot of dry wood on your property invites thieves, vandals and insurance agents and other noxious critters.
- I enjoy running the chainsaw the odd weekend when the weather is good. Too hot, too cold, too buggy, too windy, too wet and it's just NOT FUN. Frostbitten hands are not safe running a saw. I wanted to cut today but it's far too windy to be safe.
- The local arborist gets paid $100/hr (or more) to cut trees and he gets all the wood he can sell for free. It's pure profit minus the time to split. How do you compete against that?
- By the time you add everything up, you can make more money being a greeter at Wallymart. Of course, you've got to have a friendly face - that may disqualify you, as per your avatar.
- If you are still keen, go back and re-read Lumber-Jack's post.

Good luck man.

 

[barmstrong2]

That's like $62,000/yr minus his expenses, not too shabby

That's $99,000, less expenses.

As one other comment suggested, his is not a stand alone business. His primary business is an excavation company. He has the land to process, the money to invest and employees who need something to do sometimes.

 

[D8Chumley]

That's $99,000, less expenses.

As one other comment suggested, his is not a stand alone business. His primary business is an excavation company. He has the land to process, the money to invest and employees who need something to do sometimes.

I subtracted the price of the log loads right off the top. By expenses I meant saws, chains, gas, time splitting maintenance etc. I can add and subtract

 

[iluvjazznjava]

In my opinion, selling firewood is a good part time business, but tough to make a go of it full time. I worked for a firewood business back in high school, but it was one of three things we did. In the spring we ran a garden centre, winter time was snowmobile rentals and the in between times we split and delivered wood. We sold about 100 cords of wood a year (we split more than that usually), and it was the smallest part of the business overall for sure. The most reliable firewood supplier I have now is a guy who operates a pole mill for creating structural beams. He cuts up and sells his odd ball and scrap logs for firewood. Firewood is just a small fraction of his business.

You can make a few bucks selling the odd load as a hobby, but if you want to make decent money you need to go big and invest in a fair amount of equipment.

 

[BenTN]

Just remember it often happens that the fastest way to take the joy out of doing something you enjoy doing is by turning it into a business.

Exactly... I have pondered selling all the ash I have processed the past 2 yrs, as it is way more than I can burn down here. But I have settled on giving away any extra I have to family and friends who need it. I have also got involved with a local mission that provides firewood to the needy or disabled. This has more than filled my desire to cut and split and filled my heart as I am giving my time to those in need. Win Win. More than likely there is a similar organization in your area and may be a way for you to sLing that saw and fill your craving.

Ben

 

[scooby074]

You could sell every log you got your hands on here. Supply, thanks to some stupid government decisions (massive biomass plant burning "good" wood for power and several pulp mills and chipping operations for overseas) is getting harder and harder to get. This year I waited since February for my load of logs. Most of the woods contractors are under contract to the above mentioned operations, leaving only a few independent contractors to provide for firewood logs and hardwood for other uses. Even if you wanted to get into the firewood business, you couldnt, if you relied on someone other than yourself to get your logs.

Right now, being a source of logs would be a better source of income but youd need both a source of trees (ie a woodlot) and a truck to haul them, however it would be money in the bank.

Logs went from around $110/cd to well over $160/cd depending on supplier, and you cant even get wood at that $160/cd rate unless you were on the wait list for months. Im a regular with my guy, so Im paying on the low end of that scale, but Ive been told to expect a significant increase unless something is done to free up some supply for firewood.

Cut and split is now going for something like $350/cd in the city, but the raw material costs have driven it there. If you had a cheap, reliable source of logs, then at that price, there is some profit to be had.