Looking for logs/felled trees/thinnings

BogBoy84

Hi guys,

I'm looking to buy a load of unsplit logs, eg thinnings or whatever people have.

I've seen some people here saying they were selling some or knew somebody that was selling some, but then I looked and the post was from 6 years ago lol.
I am near Edenderry, Co. Offaly and have a tractor and trailer to draw if close enough, or I can take an arctic load.
If anybody has any or knows of anybody that is currently harvesting, doing thinnings etc and could let me know that'd be fantastic thanks!

What sort of prices should I expect to pay? Coillte quoted me e1400 for an arctic load of softwood, and worrell harvesting 2500 for an arctic load of hardwood.

T.I.A

Track9

Thats about right with Colllte .
Its usually 1200 -1400 .
If its for firewood , the C stuff can be Spruce . Burns well , but not the hi output heat one gets from some of our Native Trees .The simple Holly ,or Hazel & Alder is far superior.
Suggest you might advertise , perhaps land Owner wishing to remove overhanging trees or where theres some Land Reclamation , usually yields much better quality wood .

BogBoy84

To be honest I wasn’t looking for wood for home use, I was planning on bagging it and selling it.

At 1400 for roughly 30m3, how many tonne bags do you think that would fill? I’ve never bought wood by the lorry load before so I honestly have no idea how much is actually in a load.

I know there’s probably not much money to be made in it, I’m just looking for something that’ll give me a few extra hundred quid over a few months.

Thanks!

ford2600

BogBoy84 wrote: »

To be honest I wasn’t looking for wood for home use, I was planning on bagging it and selling it.

At 1400 for roughly 30m3, how many tonne bags do you think that would fill? I’ve never bought wood by the lorry load before so I honestly have no idea how much is actually in a load.

I know there’s probably not much money to be made in it, I’m just looking for something that’ll give me a few extra hundred quid over a few months.

Thanks!

There is ready reckoners on various sites (which I'm too lazy to check) but 30m in logs would probably bulk out to 35m split at least.

The bags you normally see are not 1m3 but about half; 800mm is the measurement on typical bag which is about 0.512m3.

70 bags is what you might get. Depending on area you might get €50-60 per bag after a lot of work. Bags also cost a few quid each.

I have my own forestry and sell a little(I primarily use it to heat 3 family houses), for me the worst part is the marketing. It's a pain in the hole. Give people dry wood and you'll only have to do it once though. All the people I sell to have come back AND they collect

Sell them wet/semi dry and you'll need new fools next year

BogBoy84

Thanks for all the info.

I didn't realise I would actually get so many bags out of it, 70 bags @ e60 is e4200.
Do you think it'd be better to sell the firewood cut up and split in trailer loads to fuel depots and let them bag it? I would get less per tonne, but i would get rid of all of it in one go and I could actually buy and sell more firewood and I wouldn't have to bother with buying bags, delivering it etc and waiting around for people to come buy it.

ford2600

BogBoy84 wrote: »

Thanks for all the info.

I didn't realise I would actually get so many bags out of it, 70 bags @ e60 is e4200.
Do you think it'd be better to sell the firewood cut up and split in trailer loads to fuel depots and let them bag it? I would get less per tonne, but i would get rid of all of it in one go and I could actually buy and sell more firewood and I wouldn't have to bother with buying bags, delivering it etc and waiting around for people to come buy it.

€60 would be to homeowner.

In bulk bags you might get 40 from a fuel depot but probably less.

Hardship for a small return is my opinion.

Nearly all of mine, probably 200m3 was done by processor and filled into trailers. Even then I just look at it as paying for forestry management to maximise long term output from wood

BogBoy84

Does anybody know what demand is like over the summer? I know some people burn wood/turf in ranges for hot water etc, but would id still be viable to keep buying timber and splitting it?

I'm not looking to get rich from it, but I'm currently going to college and just looking for an extra bit of spending money and to cover travel costs, save up for a car.

wayoutwest

Bogboy - are you aware that it will take a couple of summers air drying to properly season the split logs - so you will need a large,well ventilated shed and thousands of euro tied up in 'stock'. Its hard work with a especially with a saw + axe, plus a lot of double, if not quadruple, handling by the time the product is on the customers doorstep.....However, if you LOVE very hard work then buy a lorry load and give it ago (+ keep a record of your hours/fuel/oil/chainsaw parts,chiropractor fees etc).

enricoh

Mate of mine does it, he hired out a processor for a couple of weeks n then got one made up. Gets an article load of 12'lengths
Takes all the work out of it, e80 a ton bag delivered and is flying with it. 4 months in the shed after chopping.

BogBoy84

wayoutwest wrote: »

Bogboy - are you aware that it will take a couple of summers air drying to properly season the split logs - so you will need a large,well ventilated shed and thousands of euro tied up in 'stock'. Its hard work with a especially with a saw + axe, plus a lot of double, if not quadruple, handling by the time the product is on the customers doorstep.....However, if you LOVE very hard work then buy a lorry load and give it ago (+ keep a record of your hours/fuel/oil/chainsaw parts,chiropractor fees etc).

Hi wayoutwest - I appreciate the drying times for the timber and all that, but I have to start somewhere. If I could have a load of seasoned blocks that’d be great, but I have to start somewhere. For the first year I wouldn’t have much, but then next year it will have dried out and I can buy another load to be getting on with for the year after

BogBoy84

enricoh wrote: »

Mate of mine does it, he hired out a processor for a couple of weeks n then got one made up. Gets an article load of 12'lengths
Takes all the work out of it, e80 a ton bag delivered and is flying with it. 4 months in the shed after chopping.

Hi Enricoh - thanks a mill for that info. What sort of timber does he cut and where does he get it? If you could send me on his details that’d be great I’d love to have a chat with him!

Thanks

wayoutwest

There is no way that the logs will be fully seasoned in 4 months unless the timber was dry and not fresh felled before processing. Also, if you are talking about spruce € 80 for a tonne bag (just over half cubic metre) is ridiculous - like ford 2600 said, more like €40.......there is only about 10 feed bags of logs in one of those tonne bags, so at €80 that would make the bags worth €8 which is what you might pay for premium super dry hardwood.

wayoutwest

BogBoy84 wrote: »

Hi wayoutwest - I appreciate the drying times for the timber and all that, but I have to start somewhere. If I could have a load of seasoned blocks that’d be great, but I have to start somewhere. For the first year I wouldn’t have much, but then next year it will have dried out and I can buy another load to be getting on with for the year after

If you've got a tractor + trailer you could clear fallen trees from fields....I have to pay someone to get my logs out of places that are not road accessable. You could also also ask local tree surgeons if they can supply you with arb arisings, especially if you offer to take away wood thats not valuable (willow) as well as the good stuff.
Ash timber has the lowest moisure content and is the quickest to season.
Happy chopping! - wayoutwest.

enricoh

BogBoy84 wrote: »

Hi Enricoh - thanks a mill for that info. What sort of timber does he cut and where does he get it? If you could send me on his details that’d be great I’d love to have a chat with him!

Thanks

Sorry, he wouldn't appreciate me on here mentioning it, never mind phone calls! . He gets from the midlands somewhere, private fella, just spruce. He said coillte are a shower of useless %+&#€!

To the guy saying e80, no way. Theres no way id deliver a bag for e40, busy fool territory there.
Locatiin, location, location if u were in south dublin u could probably charge e120 no bother. In the west possibly e60 tops

wayoutwest

wayoutwest wrote: »

There is no way that the logs will be fully seasoned in 4 months unless the timber was dry and not fresh felled before processing. Also, if you are talking about spruce € 80 for a tonne bag (just over half cubic metre) is ridiculous - like ford 2600 said, more like €40.......there is only about 10 feed bags of logs in one of those tonne bags, so at €80 that would make the bags worth €8 which is what you might pay for premium super dry hardwood.

Should have said 13 to 14 very full 'feed' bags in a 1 tonne (800mm x 800mm × 800mm) bag, depending on how heaped.

To the guy saying he can could sell one tonne bags of softwood for €120 in Dub4 - take a look on dondeal - plenty people in Dublin selling tonne bags softwood at €60, hardwood €80 delivered.

enricoh

Fair enough regarding Done deal. I just know the lad well and hes flat out at e80 a bag. I went into a hire shop a few weeks ago and they had kiln dried square pallets of timber and they were some crazy price. Iirc they were well over e200. Not everyone done deals, i do though!

enricoh

Dried Ash
€239.00

1.17 m3 Kiln Dried Ash Irelands favorite.

^thats a lad in drogheda, good wood, i see the truck on the road quite a bit.
Get a website n úd be surprised how much u'll sell off it, even a one page one to start with.
Gotta be a few quid in that at 240 a pop! Id hope so!

wayoutwest

enricoh wrote: »

Dried Ash
€239.00

1.17 m3 Kiln Dried Ash Irelands favorite.

^thats a lad in drogheda, good wood, i see the truck on the road quite a bit.
Get a website n úd be surprised how much u'll sell off it, even a one page one to start with.
Gotta be a few quid in that at 240 a pop! Id hope so!

You could make loadsamoney by selling only two small silver birch logs for £5 +£13.61 postage, like these ones on ebay -
s-l500.jpg
At a rough estimate, i reckon you could make about £700 out of a dumpy bag o' birch logs....i will gladly supply you the bags for, say, €300 each?:)