Fire wood

Hedgecutter

I heard today of someone who bought a truck load of timber from coillte for 1300 euro for fire wood, now it was in full logs and would have to be cut,split, stored and dried before it could be used in the fire.

Anyone know if you can buy smaller loads, 1/2 or 1/4 loads. Who in coillte would I contact. I'm in the Limerick area.

lakill Farm

they sell 1/2 loads but it works out expensive as they charge the same cost for haulage for full or 1/2 load

reilig

Best option is to go direct to the harvesters working on a site near you. i did that before christmas. Bought the equivalent of 2 lorry loads and drew it myself with a dump trailer. They wanted €1000 for it all. I offered them €900 cash and they took it. They loaded the trailer for me with the forwarder and I tipped it in front of my shed. I had 14 trailer load in all. Dealing with Coillte for firewood is very expensive. There are loads of independent harvesters out there who are only too glad to sell to private buyers. It saves them having to organise transport and they see it as a way of keeping local people on their side.

lakill Farm

Where would you get there names Reilig? did you get softwood or hardwood?

Do u know anyone in Mullingar area?

reilig wrote: »

Best option is to go direct to the harvesters working on a site near you. i did that before christmas. Bought the equivalent of 2 lorry loads and drew it myself with a dump trailer. They wanted €1000 for it all. I offered them €900 cash and they took it. They loaded the trailer for me with the forwarder and I tipped it in front of my shed. I had 14 trailer load in all. Dealing with Coillte for firewood is very expensive. There are loads of independent harvesters out there who are only too glad to sell to private buyers. It saves them having to organise transport and they see it as a way of keeping local people on their side.

Hedgecutter

reilig wrote: »

Best option is to go direct to the harvesters working on a site near you. i did that before christmas. Bought the equivalent of 2 lorry loads and drew it myself with a dump trailer. They wanted €1000 for it all. I offered them €900 cash and they took it. They loaded the trailer for me with the forwarder and I tipped it in front of my shed. I had 14 trailer load in all. Dealing with Coillte for firewood is very expensive. There are loads of independent harvesters out there who are only too glad to sell to private buyers. It saves them having to organise transport and they see it as a way of keeping local people on their side.

Ya I'm buying from a local guy at the moment.
8'x4' trailer load for 100 euros cut and dried.
Thought if I bought in bulk might work out cheaper.

reilig

Hedgecutter wrote: »

Ya I'm buying from a local guy at the moment.
8'x4' trailer load for 100 euros cut and dried.
Thought if I bought in bulk might work out cheaper.

Buy in bulk from a harvester as i did. You will have to saw and split yourself.

reilig

lakill Farm wrote: »

Where would you get there names Reilig? did you get softwood or hardwood?

Do u know anyone in Mullingar area?

I bought from inishfree harvesting. They are based in Roscommon but harvest in the North West and Midlands. Will try and get you a number for them - I have a business card somewhere.

reilig

For anyone in the Clare direction, it might be worth contacting this guy for small loads:

http://www.donedeal.ie/for-sale/otherfarming/3488204

Hedgecutter

Is there private harvesters you can buy in bulk from? Any ideas the going prices are?

Western Pomise

Not totally related but had several trees felled professionally as was building a house,they left the wood cut into around 4 ft lengths and left the trunk of tree in manageable cuts.
I plan to spend a few good evenings cutting them up to use in a stove in the house.They are seasoned for a year now outside.Would rather know what I am at safely as plan to use wood in stove for years to come.
How much is it to do a saw cutting course?,who runs them and would people on here who saw up wood regularly have the proper chainsaw trousers etc.

Muckit

Western Pomise wrote: »

would people on here who saw up wood regularly have the proper chainsaw trousers etc.

Don't saw regularly, but I don't think it matters, as easy to have an accident (God forbid) using it for a few hours every year as using it everyday.

I priced a pair of husquarna trousers at ~€100 mark the other day. STIHL do a set, trousers AND top for €68 I think. But I thought myself that the husquarna were a more padded trousers and would have a better chance of choking the saw. I will be buying a pair asap

mf690

Best money you can spend after a good chainsaw is good safety gear.I cut my own fire wood. Before a trip to A+E with a sprained ankle during
my visit a chap was brought in with a chain saw cut to his leg .It could't
be stiched and had to be stuck back together. It was one of the roughest sights I have ever seen. From then on I put on the safety trousers helmet with face guard gloves etc. every time I use the saw.

Oldtree

Agree totally, a chainsaw dosnt so much cut as gouge out. very nasty wounds.

Western Pomise

Muckit wrote: »

Don't saw regularly, but I don't think it matters, as easy to have an accident (God forbid) using it for a few hours every year as using it everyday.

I priced a pair of husquarna trousers at ~€100 mark the other day. STIHL do a set, trousers AND top for €68 I think. But I thought myself that the husquarna were a more padded trousers and would have a better chance of choking the saw. I will be buying a pair asap

Do Teagasc run chainsaw safety courses?,decent pair of trousers def on my shopping list too....would decent Qual steel cap boots be good idea as well?...intend sawing up maybe a good sized tree a year for the stove.

O.A.P

Western Pomise wrote: »

Do Teagasc run chainsaw safety courses?,decent pair of trousers def on my shopping list too....would decent Qual steel cap boots be good idea as well?...intend sawing up maybe a good sized tree a year for the stove.

Decent boots are the first thing required after that its up to you. I like my comfort at work and I take liberties sometimes, only puting the stuff on when I think it may be needed. I have two nice scars off the saw though thats because I'm lucky not unlucky.
So wear it from the day you start and make it part of your routine it might be easier that way, definately safer.

greenfingers89

Muckit wrote: »

I priced a pair of husquarna trousers at ~€100 mark the other day. STIHL do a set, trousers AND top for €68 I think.

prices vary due to what the speed of saw the safety gear will stop, so a cheaper pair might only stop 16m/sec saw whilst you may have a 24m/sec saw so i dont see much point in getting cheaper trousers for the "piece of mind".....
even if they do slow down a saw before you get cut i cant imagine a slowed down chainsaw cut would be much better than any other chainsaw cut.

i think chainsaw courses are around €1200 but im not certain, that would be for maintenance and small tree which is all you'd need OP

ppn

Anyone know how to go about getting some large hardwood trees felled and sold off farmland? We have a lot of mature trees that would make great timber but would be difficult to remove from field perimeters without large equipment.