hello looking for free wood please

[Clivenovice]

Hello, 

 

I wonder if you can point me in the right direction please, i am looking for free wood , who isn't I hear you saying. i also wanted to know what are the rules in terms of finding wood on the side of the road or that has been cut in the woods etc. do you think it is a good idea to buy an acre of woodland and take what you need. 

 

lots of questions I know but I just wanted to get a few answers many thanks for reading this. 

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

One thing you can do is add yourself to the tip site directory

[trigger_andy]

19 minutes ago, Clivenovice said:

i also wanted to know what are the rules in terms of finding wood on the side of the road or that has been cut in the woods etc.

Thats called stealing.

 

20 minutes ago, Clivenovice said:

do you think it is a good idea to buy an acre of woodland and take what you need. 

 

The cost of the land versus the timber you'd get out is quite prohibitive.

 

Why not just buy in 10 or 20 tons of timber to cut and split yourself? 

[Stere]

Quote

do you think it is a good idea to buy an acre of woodland and take what you need. 

 

1 acre isn't enough you would need at least 5 minimum I think to get enough wood to be self sufficient in firewood etc

 

Good idea if you can afford 5 acres of mature woodland but prices are high. Many companies are buying up larger woods sub-dividing them into small parcels and reselling.

 

Buying woodland 10ys ago was a very good investment probabaly still is but who knows what prices will do in future

[neiln]

As Steve said, the tip site directory can be good.  Also contact all your local tree surgeons and ask if they want to tip wood.  The logs are basically a waste material which they need to dispose of quickly and easily.  So you need to make it easy for them, it helps of you've space for them to tip their truck loads, you need to take it when they've got it and often with little notice, and it really helps if you can take big logs and small (do you have a chainsaw, and a more powerful one to deal with large logs), if you aren't fussy about softwood that also helps.  If you've the space to store lots that is good for you as you'll find it's not a steady supply, feast and famine is the norm.

Don't expect to burn any this coming winter, you need to season it for at least a summer, ideally a year or more (drying varies greatly with wood type, log size and location)

 

 

[spuddog0507]

On 22/08/2022 at 09:59, Clivenovice said:

Hello, 

 

I wonder if you can point me in the right direction please, i am looking for free wood , who isn't I hear you saying. i also wanted to know what are the rules in terms of finding wood on the side of the road or that has been cut in the woods etc. do you think it is a good idea to buy an acre of woodland and take what you need. 

 

lots of questions I know but I just wanted to get a few answers many thanks for reading this. 

 

 

Finding wood on the roadside or what's been cut in the woods !!

That is theft,, every thing in life is owned by some one and some company,  land owners and contractors take the issue of people just helping there self's quite seriously today, so be very very careful, I for one would not be happy if you stole timber from us but would you be happy if I stole your hard earned cash or came and helped myself to your logs out of your log store ? I am sure you would,not be happy, friend of mine has a theft case in progress at present, but when some idiot walk,s in to a wood land on the edge of dark helping his self and is picked up on a night vision sight on a riffle By deer management team !! Land owner asked the said culprit if you had knocked on my door dropped me £50 you could if filled your boots, 

[Steven P]

Always ask permission first, there are a lot of reasons why wood is left 'lying around', could be that where it is is a better store - for now - than taking it back and filling up a yard till it is needed,. could be that there isn't quite enough there to fill some kind of transport and waiting a season more to fill a truck, could be that it is left there for the beasties to eat, or it might be hard to extract and not economic. Most people don't wander in the woods with a saw just to cut a tree down for no reason and no plan what to do with it.

 

In the last cases, if it isn't viable to pay some ones wages to take the wood away then asking the landowner might get you the answer you want. A good option is the local tree surgeons or the tip site, but you have to be patient and accept that you will get wood if it is better to drop it off at yours than their yard (ie a shorter journey), might get 2 loads in weeks and then nothing for a year. Some people might appreciate a contribution to petrol costs, some a beer and some nothing but they get home half an hour early that day. One of mine has a tip that I have permission to go to you might get that arrangement instead,

 

When it comes to 'helping yourself' no one is going to complain if your kids pick up a stick to take home but if you turn up with a car, trailer, van, saws and so on and no permission then you are open to all sorts of landowner complaints and whatever else they want (best case, they make you empty your carefully collected load and then put in in their own vehicle to take home, thanks for doing the hard work for them!)

 

 

 

So rule of thumb, get permission first or ask a local tree surgeon if they can spare any

[Exmoor Chris]

Nothing is free, I do get upset hearing this question after days and weeks of hard work getting it out of the woods.

 

That said, myself and a great many others are always willing to take you on for a days graft where you can earn some!

[pleasant]

On 22/08/2022 at 09:59, Clivenovice said:

Hello, 

 

I wonder if you can point me in the right direction please, i am looking for free wood , who isn't I hear you saying. i also wanted to know what are the rules in terms of finding wood on the side of the road or that has been cut in the woods etc. do you think it is a good idea to buy an acre of woodland and take what you need. 

 

lots of questions I know but I just wanted to get a few answers many thanks for reading this. 

 

 

I've got a load of pallets you can have

[openspaceman]

18 minutes ago, pleasant said:

I've got a load of pallets you can have

Nothing wrong in burning those as long as they are marked HD, KD and DB  but not if painted, stained or marked MB, latter doesn't bother me a lot but...

The ones with plastic or chipboard corner blocks are to be avoided too.

I use a magnet to get the nails out of the ash before they jam the grate.

 

Problem I have nowadays is they won't fit in the vitara and people don't want them cut up on site.

 

Else happy to pick up locally

Edited October 3, 2022 by openspaceman
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