Increasing unseasoned timber sales discussion

[Big J]

9 minutes ago, Woodworks said:

I think this might be an angle. Had many friends come here and comment on how nice the log stacks look. So don't just sell green logs but sell an attractive garden feature that happens to heat them come the winter.

Agreed. Additionally, who wants to be dealing with a log delivery in the dark months of winter, hurrying to try to get it put away before it starts raining. I much prefer doing all that in spring. 

[skyhuck]

Who wants to clean their house? who wants to cook their food? who wants to cut their grass? who wants to drive their own car, shop for their own food, etc, etc, etc,....................................

 

Some do, some don't.

 

Smart people make money from doing things for people that those people don't want to do.

[Big J]

4 minutes ago, skyhuck said:

Who wants to clean their house? who wants to cook their food? who wants to cut their grass? who wants to drive their own car, shop for their own food, etc, etc, etc,....................................

 

Some do, some don't.

 

Smart people make money from doing things for people that those people don't want to do.

True enough, but what I'm proposing isn't actually creating any extra work for the customers. As a former supplier of firewood, all I was asking is that they take delivery of logs as they would normally, stack them as they would normally, but do so a little earlier and perhaps accommodate a little more than they would have done previously. 

 

The benefit of that is that they save a significant chunk of cash, they have total security of firewood supply in the coldest months, they get logs cut to the specification that they want and when putting them away, they can do so on a pleasant spring evening as opposed to the pissing rain in the middle of winter.

 

From the firewood retailers point of view, they save loads of handling and storage, get to deliver logs when inclement weather is a non-issue, don't have to worry about logs getting wet when delivering and demand is spread out across the year. You also completely eliminate any issues with regards to specifying moisture content. It's just fresh, you season it yourself. Simple.

 

I don't think that unseasoned timber sales would ever exceed dry log sales, but I can't understand why it's such a small market segment.

[Bob_z_l]

Just seen this and read it.

 

The way I see it.

@Big J you are right. Saves a load of effort. I am small scale but this last year have moved several loads of green to people with the foresight to buy cheaper when I have offered it as split and ready to deliver.

 

@Skyhuck and others are also correct. Despite education and even maybe inclination....some people just can't do it.

 

Same reason people were going mad at the shops in the last few days of Christmas....lack of planning, foresight....or just the way they've always done it!

 

Change is often a slow process. Good Luck and all the best in 2019

[felixthelogchopper]

Long live the people who don't want to season their own timber. Thanks to them, my logs sit in the yard through the summer increasing in value without my input. Gawd bless 'em!

[westphalian]

My wet dream would be customers who don’t mind green waste from milling

[Rob_the_Sparky]

As a small consumer: I process my own logs.  I get arb waste dropped off at the door when the local friendly tree surgeon has stuff he doesn't want for his own use (mostly softwood out of garden hedges).  I then chop and dry it.

 

I think it depends on the consumer.  If they are only using 1 or 2 cube a year then the price of a commercial log store will out weigh the cost saving on the logs and many of joe public are just not interested in learning how to dry wood any more than they are interested on how their car works.  Those of us that are interested may want to process as well rather than buy green logs, I know I do.

[Ratman]

Happy new year to you all, at last something of interest to me that i can comment on, been selling firewood for over 30 years now, some years only small volumes and other years much larger amounts, there is one thing i have found is that you will never educate joe public in to buying either green/part seasoned timber in lengths for them to self process in to logs or in logs all ready processed outside the log buying season, the summer just gone i have adds out since April selling dead dry softwood in 8ft lengths for self processing, on average i have sold one load per month from April - October and then after the first cold snap about one every 2 week and then when the second cold snap came 2 or 3 load per week after that we come to silly season the 3 week run up to christmas when i am here there and every where delivering seasoned split logs every day up to christmas eve, i have tried my best over the years to sell part seasoned split logs to no great success as of yet whether that will change i dont know ? it may do as timber demand is rising, tried discounting it to tempt sales but it still dont work, i will try and push it much harder this year as i have a lot of hardwood to process this year and have not got the room to store the amount i have, the way i see it is the average log buyer will hang on to there cash until they really need the logs and just pay the going rate for split logs,

I’ll buzz ya when i’m ready, i’ll come collect it too [emoji106]

[openspaceman]

43 minutes ago, Rob_the_Sparky said:

If they are only using 1 or 2 cube a year then the price of a commercial log store will out weigh the cost saving on the logs

If you are delivering a load of wood they will will still require a covered space to store it prior to burning.

 

With my experiments this year it's plain that uptake of water if exposed to rain is  significant and much more so with softwood.

[Rob_the_Sparky]

My neighbour stores the dried logs he buys in the garage, in a heap where they are delivered.  They have a huge double garage full of crap and two cars out on the drive...