What is the deal with tree service wood, Free?

[Lightning Performance]

No one should ever hire gypsies that go around knocking on doors looking for tree work. They likely don't have any for a reason. Real tree companies are usually booked out with work; they don't go knocking on doors.

Well said Spike!
Most tree service around here just answer the phone or maybe run an add. You get covered up in work quick... if your good.

Two companies I know laugh if you ask where they advertise. Read the trucks....standard answers.

 

[Al Smith]

I let a guy dump wood which was usually good but cut in 4 foot lengths loaded with a skid loader .It got out of hand because he was supposed to cut it down,split and stack it then sell it .Didn't happened,I'm still dealing with it .I might get it squared away when the weather breaks or not .It's white oak and isn't going to rot away any time soon .The red oak BTW got punky after about 3 years .I burned a mountain of it last spring on my burn pile .

 

[Willard]

Many moons ago when I shut down my sideline firewood business due to mounting DOT regulations and skyrocketing fuel costs.
But main decision came after a light bulb turned on in my head when I removed 1 tree for a family and made more in profit then cutting up 20 of those trees and delivering them for firewood.

Best use for my chips up here in the permafrost great white north is used for landfill.
I get a free maintained dumping site for my chips and I no longer have to worry about it.
Like said earlier a picture on the local buy&sell FB gets rid of my blocked up rounds in a flash.....no unhappy people to whine about wood quality.

 

[Al Smith]

This fire wood stuff a lot of times depends on the price of other alternatives .If propane,natural gas is high it becomes very popular .If cheaper as it is now the popularity drops off very much .Selling the stuff you aren't going to get rich that's for sure . When I did it part time during the late 70's to mid 80's it was just a supplement to my income and that was at $40 a heaped pick up truck or a little over 1/2 cord .

 

[Spike60]

Many moons ago when I shut down my sideline firewood business due to mounting DOT regulations and skyrocketing fuel costs.
But main decision came after a light bulb turned on in my head when I removed 1 tree for a family and made more in profit then cutting up 20 of those trees and delivering them for firewood.

One of my customers told me a long time ago that making money in the tree biz, you move on to the next tree job; you don't mess with firewood. Some have firewood ops as part of what they do, and some just to keep their guys busy and to make use of wood that they had to haul away. They recognize that it's a low profit part of their world, but they handle it in different ways.

One was in to get some supplies and during a couple day lull in tree work complained that he was paying his climber $28 an hour to split wood. Another just lets his guys do the firewood on their own time and sell it themselves. Far better in his mind to just have the wood disappear than paying his guys to do it.

 

[Willard]

Tree service ventures I've found can definitely make a good reliable income if you don't over specialize in services.
When I first got certified and licensed as a arborist 20 years ago I was doing pruning, fertilizing, aeration, cable bracing, lightening protection, stump removal and tree removal.
With my logging experience as a hand faller and later years as a technical climber it didn't take long what services to eliminate. I'm now at tree and stump removal and I couldn't be happier.

I still do think about all those soft lay 7 strand galvanized cables I got strong up all over the country.
No one has sued me yet....

 

[Al Smith]

My bud who is the business probably made more from selling entire dump trucks full of firewood to outside burners .No splitting ,no stacking .Load it up with a skid loader ,down the road.Were it not for the fact I'm up to my hip pockets already with the stuff I'd never need to cut another tree .It would all be freebies but of course I'd have to cut it down split and stack etc .

 

[huskyboy]

We sell the “firewood” as log length. When we do a logging job we cut “firewood” to 20-24ft length and it is a great way to get rid of tops or sections that we cannot make logs out of that would normally just sit and rot in the woods, or waste time slashing up. We scour every little piece lol. Just have to find the right people to sell it to. We sold 100 cords worth in one week one time last winter. They come and pick it up off the landing via a log truck. They use a processor to make the firewood.

 

[dahmer]

My buddy got screwed by a tree service last year, lol. They were cutting back trees and limbs from power lines along his road. Some really nice stuff was laying there. He stopped and told them he lived at the end of the road and they could dump there wood there right by his wood piles, good to go. He comes home from work the next day and there are 4 huge piles of chips there from the chipper. He drives down the road and asks the foreman what’s going on. “Oh, we don’t pick up the wood, that’s the landowner’s responsibility. We just chip up the smaller stuff.”

 

[Al Smith]

Putting the screws to somebody seems to be standard operating practices with a lot of things these days . Best advice is to be vigilant no matter who it is .

 

[Spike60]

We sell the “firewood” as log length. When we do a logging job we cut “firewood” to 20-24ft length and it is a great way to get rid of tops or sections that we cannot make logs out of that would normally just sit and rot in the woods, or waste time slashing up. We scour every little piece lol. Just have to find the right people to sell it to. We sold 100 cords worth in one week one time last winter. They come and pick it up off the landing via a log truck. They use a processor to make the firewood.

Firewood logs from logging ops and wood from tree service companies are both "by products" of the primary job being done, but that's where the similarity ends. Picker loads from loggers are generally just logs that aren't good enough to be sent to the mill as saw logs. Not always prime stuff but generally easy to work with and except for some mud usually pretty clean with little chance of finding metal with your saw.

Tree service stuff can vary widely in size, with some huge butt logs that require a lot more work to break down into firewood size pieces. Often it's punky, which is why it was taken down to begin with. Then there's always those surprises that you find in yard trees. Unless you know the tree guy well enough that he will look after you to some extent, you may end up as nothing more than a dumping ground until they wear out their welcome and find someone else looking for "free wood".

 

[94BULLITT]

I buy tree length firewood. I was having a hard time getting in contact with my supplier which is why started this thread. Things seemed to have worked out. I never contacted a tree service for fear of getting a bunch of trash or huge wood.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

 

[Al Smith]

It's true you can get some gnarly stuff from trimmers .I had a couple of ground cut oak stumps the trunk was over 3 feet in diameter .Try moving that by hand and stuffing it under a splitter .No can doey .Out comes one of the large saws to do some ripping and the steel wedges that like to bounce of my shin bones .That will cause you hop up and down like you have ants in your pants .Plus a good excuse to practice the profane .

 

[Wood Doctor]

You usually have to make two to four buck cuts on every log supplied by a tree service company. Almost nothing is cut the right length for firewood and almost nothing is cut square. Waste will be everywhere and you are usually expected to dispose of those scraps.

Free firewood is never free.

 

[Spike60]

Like 94 said, this is my preferred way to get firewood. So easy to work with. I could do 3/4 of this load with a good 50cc saw. But we've likely all been in the situation where ideal wood isn't available and have to deal with some of the shortcomings that we are pointing out in this tread. I'm like Doc in hating non square cuts and dealing with the waste and extra work with much of this not-so-free wood. But if that's all you can get your hands on, it's better than no wood at all.

 

[Spike60]

Would be fun to have this pile sitting out in the yard, wouldn't it? LOL

 

[Wood Doctor]

Last week a tree service company left behind six full pickup truckloads of logs for me to collect. Most was red elm, ash, and mulberry from a yard located adjacent to a woods. I accepted the challenge because I like burning these species when processed into firewood: split easily, dry fast, rarely get punky.

The pieces were random lengths with buck cuts running every which direction. I expected that and that's one of the prices you pay. Each truckload required no less than two tanks of fuel in my Husky 353. One of the full truckloads was scrap chunks that were all less than a foot long that I had agreed to remove as well.

Six chain sharpenings were required to complete the job because of the numerous cuts in an effort to obtain rounds that averaged 17" in length with square cut ends. I also made several noodle cuts on big rounds to make them light enough to load into the truck. For those, my Husky 257 was put into action.

So that's my latest story with tree-service wood. I could add more, but most of us have BTDT. Years ago tree sevice companies paid by the truckload for this removal service but around here that tradition died.

 

[Philbert]

Some people have limited sources for firewood to cut, so it can be a good deal.

Philbert

 

[OC455]

I used to get my wood from the County DPW. They would do the road work and down mostly silver maples and others. I would get some decent sized stuff I could cut and split easily. Then I started getting huge logs I couldn't get cut easily even with my 660 wearing a 36inch bar/chain. Unfortunately a lot of it went punky before I could get it split...right now a neighbor down the road has been clearing his property and there is a lot of nice downed trees that have been sitting for shy of a year now.

Have almost all of next years firewood done...biggest logs are 18 to 20inches right now. Haven't looked at any of the tree services in this area. Can't reach them at all....won't answer any calls I have made.

 

[Wilhelm]

No tree services here that I know of, no chance of getting loads of sorted nor mixed wood, no free firewood!

I would take everything and anything, I'd even have the required space to get countless dumps - but it is not meant to be.

I envy You guys on Your stories.