I recently cut split and am now in the process of stacking firewood. It’s probably roughly a chord of wood, maybe a little more. I’m using my tractor, a good Stihl saw and a hydraulic splitter. I’d say in total I’ve spent 40 hours doing this, maybe more. If I paid myself $10 and hour that would be $400 a chord. If I had a big stack of split wood I wouldn’t throw it in my pickup or a dump trailer and dump it for you to stack for $150. I’m not saying what you are paying isn’t or is fair, it’s just I don’t see selling firewood being a money making affair unless you charge more than the going rate.
I also realize some people are much faster, more efficient or have better equipment than me.
I use a "low end" processor that costs $13k. I buy logs for $2100-2250 for 20 logger cords and get just over 16 cords of wood out of them. I deliver 2/3 of cord at a time in my pickup loose stacked in bags or loose stacked in the bed (extended sides). The cost of wood in a load is about $94 and I add $6 for supplies for a cost of $100...for a total cost of $50/face cord.
I sell wood for $80/face cord. Netting a return $30/face cord or $60 per load. I charge $20 for delivery within 15 miles.
By running splits into the bed of the pickup, I produce 2 face cords in 1.5 hours. Comes to an hourly rate of $40/hr. If I use bags, the bag cost of $2/bag/use, and drops my profit from $60/load to $54/load. It also takes more time using bags - 2 hours to produce 2 face cords. Using bags, my hourly rate is $27/hr. I expect the mix of bags vs bed loads to be 50/50 for an average hourly rate of $33.50
Amortizing the processor, and other odds and ends, over 5 years, adds a cost of $3000 per year. I plan to sell 100 cords a year. That works out to $30/cord or just over $10/face cord. That drops the average hourly rate to about $22.50 for the first five years.
This is a side business. Figure 300 hours to produce 100 cords and deliver a net return of over $6500. As profits increase, it may be advantageous to transfer the pickup and tractor to the business to take advantage of tax write offs.
Using a processor is a game changer. But, it requires an epiphany... "free" wood only works for personal use. There is a lot of work, time and effort into getting "free" wood. And most folks end up dealing with large and/or twisted logs which further reduce productivity.
Successful firewood businesses in my area are based on buying logs. Reducing the work required to process firewood, and increasing the number of cords sold is what works. I could never sell 100 cords of firewood using the traditional ways.
Dodgeman hit the nail on the head. The work most people put into "free" firewood is not factored in.
