wood questions

[joyfulheart]

If you burn wood -- from where do you get it? How much do you pay for it?

We just bought a cord of wood for $300 from someone who listed on Craig's List. (Please, please don't tell me I paid too much!) Our dc and a couple of neighborhood kids helped us stack it in the wood shed. That was great!

What do you use your wood for?

We used to heat our main living area with a woodstove and that was our only source of heat. Last year, we got a heat pump and boy were we in heaven! We got a cord this year to use for enjoyment and heating and for emergencies, since we kept the woodstove.

[lotus.blossom]

We pay $235 for a cord of seasoned wood but we are on the opposite coast. We solely heat our home with wood (and an occasional blast of a rinnai heater in the early morning)

[mum4vr]

WOWWIE-WOW-WOW!!!

I live in rural OK, and our cordwood is usually sold by the rick (1/2 cord) for $40-$70 per rick (meaning $80-$140 per cord). That is seasoned hardwood. No one can sell soft wood bc any experienced woodburner knows how much more likely pine is to cause a dangerous creosote buildup, and if you sell someone "green" cordwood, you can expect them to demand their money back (and they'll likely keep the wood bc it'll be dry enough by next winter).

Maybe I am in the wrong business--I ought to be hauling and selling cordwood on the coasts!

Most people here who burn wood for heat cut, season and burn their own trimmings and prunings from trees on site. (hence, I assume the bargain basement prices-- somewhat high supply vs lower demand). Those who manage their trees poorly or begin with too few buy from neighbors with plenty. We have NEVER paid for wood, nor cut our own, to date. My children and I help cut and stack "on halves" meaning it's someone else's trees on their land, and we bring a chainsaw and lots of energy, and do most or all of the work to help them harvest their winter's worth in exchange for half the harvest. (Many here harvest hay, peaches, etc "on halves" as well.) Still, no one I know has ever paid more than $50 for a rick of good wood. (Criminy, I sound like a hick )

I to barter bc uhm, the gov't hasn't figured out how to tax us for things we do for each other yet and it builds community!

[Daffodil]

We use wood as our main source of heat. We bought 2 cords this fall for $180/cord, which seems to be pretty typical for dry wood around here. If you buy it green, you can get it for less. Some years we don't have to buy any. We get a lot of it from trees on our property - either ones that blow down, or ones my brother-in-law has cut down for us. Sometimes my BIL, who cuts all his own wood, sells us some (at bargain prices) or gives it to us in exchange for some favor.

[sahmoffour]

We're looking at getting a wood fireplace installed in our new home, and I checked out prices on our kijiji. For Spruce/Pine it's $175/cord. Says it's cut within 24 hours of ordering. Don't you want it to be cut ahead of time to dry out?? Sorry, but I'm a total newbie and don't know what the "best" firewood is. Another ad for birch is $350/cord.

[Chicky2]

We used to get most of ours from our property, but now my dh does work for a man who cut down 5 whole acres of oak trees a couple of years ago. For the last few weeks my dh and his employee and neighbor (they carpool) have been stopping by the guy's house and loading up the pickup at least 4 days a week. My dh estimates that there is about 35 more pickup loads of wood left. I cannot even tell you how much that will amount to, but we are splitting it 50/50 w/the neighbor. Over T-day weekend, we'll rent a log splitter (buying one next year, we hope) and go to town on it. Last year we rented one for a weekend and we must have split at least 6 full cords between the 2 houses. So, for that much wood, we spent $75 each on the splitter plus the energy to work all weekend. No extra gas $ because the wood is on the way home from dh's work. We built a hoop house covered w/billboard vinyl to store it in and we still have 1/4 of it full from last year.

sahmoffour, you do not want to burn green wood because of the creosote buildup. If you do burn any, you want to burn just a bit w/well-seasoned wood. Wood should really be cut in the spring/summer to be ready for winter. My dh sweeps our chimney 2-3 times per burning season.

[Daffodil]

Originally Posted by sahmoffour

We're looking at getting a wood fireplace installed in our new home, and I checked out prices on our kijiji. For Spruce/Pine it's $175/cord. Says it's cut within 24 hours of ordering. Don't you want it to be cut ahead of time to dry out?? Sorry, but I'm a total newbie and don't know what the "best" firewood is. Another ad for birch is $350/cord.

If they have dry log-length wood and they cut it to the length you want and then split it within 24 hours of your order, that's not too bad. It would probably be better if had been cut and split before that so it could dry out more, but as long as the tree was cut down a year earlier, the wood should be pretty dry. If they mean they cut down the tree right after you call, that's not what you want unless you're buying it now to use next year.

Hardwood (like birch) is better firewood than softwood (like spruce or pine.) Around here, no one would buy softwood to burn and a lot of people consider burning softwood totally out of the question even if you can get it for free. Out west, where we used to live, softwood is often the only thing available, so plenty of people burn nothing but softwood all winter long, and it works fine.

[GardenStream]

We buy our wood by the ton. There is a hardwood mill a few miles from us and they sell their scrap wood. Mostly it's the tree bases that are too big for their machines to handle. I think we got 12 tons for $300. DH still has a lot of work to do when it gets here. He spends hours out there with a chainsaw and a maul splitting and stacking it.

ETA: $300 is the price of the wood and delivery via our dump truck guy

[Chicky2]

Originally Posted by atobols

DH still has a lot of work to do when it gets here. He spends hours out there with a chainsaw and a maul splitting and stacking it.

That is alot of work, isn't it? We use to do ours by hand, but we decided it's still plenty of work w/a log splitter, lol. When my oldest dd gets anxious and needs to do something I'll send her out to split by hand.

[Adaline'sMama]

We typically cut all of our own wood from the property, but this year we bought 6 tons of wood as backup (and so we can start next year ahead) The 6 tons of hardwood cost us $75, but then we had to pay someone with a big truck to go pick it up for us another $75. Usually a cord costs about $140 here.

[GardenStream]

Originally Posted by Chicky2

That is alot of work, isn't it? We use to do ours by hand, but we decided it's still plenty of work w/a log splitter, lol. When my oldest dd gets anxious and needs to do something I'll send her out to split by hand.

Yeah it seems to be, I've never tried it. We have an outdoor boiler so it's not like the wood has to be small and neat. It just has to be small enough to fit in the door and light enough to be lifted.

[greenmulberry]

DH collects wood from people who have downed trees locally and want them removed, trees on our property we need cut down, and he has permission to take downed wood from the woods behind our house, although that is a ton of work.

If you look in the "free" section of Craiglist, you can sometimes find people who had a tree fall and want someone to cut it up and take it away.

After we get a bunch of rounds piled up, we rent a splitter and make a weekend out of splitting it all. So we don't pay anything for the wood, but the chainsaw gas and splitter rental.

I actually think using the splitter is fun. I sit on a stool, DH rolls the big rounds over, I feed them in and throw the splits toward the pile where he stacks them. He does do some hand splitting here and there.

[simple living mama]

We usually cut our own either from BLM land or personal properties that are trying to midigate incase of fire. But when we do pay for wood here in the Rockie Mountains, we usually pay $250-$300 a cord.

[grahamsmom98]

We're also in the PNW and mainly use our Quadra-Fire for our main heat source. We also have an electric forced-air furnace.

We paid $160/cord for all larch. It is aged, cut & split, and bought 6 cords for this coming Winter. We still have a couple of cords leftover from last year.

We could buy a log truck load (which equals out to about 10-12 cords for $1000, but dh would have to cut & split it himself, which we did several years ago. Dh will still go out and cut wood himself, if there has been a timber harvest (on the Natinal Forest) and the leftovers are easy to access.

We have an electric log splitter that we love. No noise, no fumes and it will split rounds 20" in diameter.

[sparkygirl74]

We cut our own from our property, but when we don't get enough done we can buy it from a neighbor for $68 for a cord of seasoned hardwood. We just bought and stacked 2 cords and we have 2 cords that we cut this summer. That should get us through the winter. $136 isn't bad for a winters worth of heat, is it?

[joyfulheart]

Wow -- I am jealous of all of you who paid so much less than the $300 I paid!

It's been super windy and rainy here and we lost power today -- so I was glad we had a cord of wood in the woodshed. We won't be cold!!!

[Caneel]

Originally Posted by Daffodil

Hardwood (like birch) is better firewood than softwood (like spruce or pine.) Around here, no one would buy softwood to burn and a lot of people consider burning softwood totally out of the question even if you can get it for free. Out west, where we used to live, softwood is often the only thing available, so plenty of people burn nothing but softwood all winter long, and it works fine.

Same where I live. People might use soft woods for campfires but never in their woodburners.

We just paid $125 a cord, delivered, for cut-to-order dried oak. This was for our fireplace. Junky, green wood goes for $75 a pick-up bed load.

Where I live, it is getting harder and harder to find decent wood for purchase. Most people who burn wood haul (from the state forest, with a permit) and cut their own.

OP - My DH would have gladly paid $200 per cord delivered and we live in a very rural area. I imagine $300 isn't totally crazy in an area where good wood is scarce.