Cost of rough milled oak and beech????

[Ian Flatters]

Hi, im looking to start planking the bigger stems of oak, beech etc if fell to use it as a better resource instead of firewood. I was wondering those who do plank timber what the cost you sell it at to carpenters for instance. I asked a few near me who are all interested in fresh cuts of oak mainly. I don't want to undercharge as such. Any ball park figure would be good for me to see whats possible. Per plank, cube weight, meter, etc

 

If you don't want to post costs openly on here PM me.

[tommer9]

A rough average for green oak is £35/cubic foot down here..

[wills-mill]

Yup, I'd say it's gone up to over £30 cu/ft around here for good quality framing Oak fresh sawn in longer lengths (maybe 3m plus). Bit less for sappy and knotty character timber or anything under 2.5m/ 8ft-ish.

 

Maybe 6 to 8 years back it was £16 to £20 and then it crept up to the mid twenties. Then a fair jump up in price as the Euro exchange rate got a bit harsher and the big mills that use continental Oak had to pass on the rise. I suppose we'd been a bit cheaper as there's a lot of Oak/ Hazel woodland around the Surrey/ Sussex Weald and the French Oak has an easy time getting shipped over here.

 

 

 

Beech is a tricky one, it's so easy for anyone in the pukka joinery trades to get flawless kiln dried beech (mainly from nice tidy German forests) really cheaply. They (the pro's) are usually not keen on British wobbly grained air dried timber for furniture and kitchens, there's more wastage and more movement and general uncertainty for them. Beech sadly also has a bit of bad name as a bland characterless utility timber, mainly used on boring school and office furniture....

This does mean that if you've got good air dried Beech (1yr? 2 yrs down the line?) sadly you'll get less than you would for fresh sawn Oak. Crazy really.

 

One of the nice things to do with Beech is to get away from trying to compete with the flawless kiln dried stuff and cut nice chunky slabs and boards, a bit of waney edge goes down well. You have to get people to have a look at them sanded and oiled, when they look really fantastic. It tends to go down well for alcove shelves, mantelpieces, big chunky beds and coffee tables. Maybe a price of £18 to £24 a cube, not sure really, somewhere around there.

[tommer9]

Yup, I'd say it's gone up to over £30 cu/ft around here for good quality framing Oak fresh sawn in longer lengths (maybe 3m plus). Bit less for sappy and knotty character timber or anything under 2.5m/ 8ft-ish.

 

Maybe 6 to 8 years back it was £16 to £20 and then it crept up to the mid twenties. Then a fair jump up in price as the Euro exchange rate got a bit harsher and the big mills that use continental Oak had to pass on the rise. I suppose we'd been a bit cheaper as there's a lot of Oak/ Hazel woodland around the Surrey/ Sussex Weald and the French Oak has an easy time getting shipped over here.

 

 

 

Beech is a tricky one, it's so easy for anyone in the pukka joinery trades to get flawless kiln dried beech (mainly from nice tidy German forests) really cheaply. They (the pro's) are usually not keen on British wobbly grained air dried timber for furniture and kitchens, there's more wastage and more movement and general uncertainty for them. Beech sadly also has a bit of bad name as a bland characterless utility timber, mainly used on boring school and office furniture....

This does mean that if you've got good air dried Beech (1yr? 2 yrs down the line?) sadly you'll get less than you would for fresh sawn Oak. Crazy really.

 

One of the nice things to do with Beech is to get away from trying to compete with the flawless kiln dried stuff and cut nice chunky slabs and boards, a bit of waney edge goes down well. You have to get people to have a look at them sanded and oiled, when they look really fantastic. It tends to go down well for alcove shelves, mantelpieces, big chunky beds and coffee tables. Maybe a price of £18 to £24 a cube, not sure really, somewhere around there.

 

Bang on Will. Cant get rid of beech for love nor money, and now dont even bother milling it, just firewood it. Thing is beech from poor soils and in really large diameter trunks/ mature trees is stunning.

[BigRedDog]

I run a small framing outfit, haven't bought any since last October due to big jobs taking up whole program, but my two main suppliers were at £20 and £22 ex VAT per cube foot sawn, in W.Sussex and Hants. One supplier is a full size outfit (East Brothers, nr Salisbury) the other cheaper one is a pair of lads in the back of a farm yard with a home made trolley bandsaw. Both top quality stuff. Its amazing how much of a difference really well milled timber makes. Really effects speed of whole job. I'm about to order some more so I'd better find out if its gone up!

Edited February 9, 2010 by BigRedDog

[wills-mill]

I run a small framing outfit, haven't bought any since last October due to big jobs taking up whole program, but my two main suppliers were at £20 and £22 ex VAT per cube foot sawn, in W.Sussex and Hants. One supplier is a full size outfit (East Brothers, nr Salisbury) the other cheaper one is a pair of lads in the back of a farm yard with a home made trolley bandsaw. Both top quality stuff. Its amazing how much of a difference really well milled timber makes. Really effects speed of whole job. I'm about to order some more so I'd better find out if its gone up!

 

That's about the price we'd been sat at for a couple of years, and I think it's a pretty fair price. The first time I'd seen over £30 per cube was autumn last year when someone gave me a cutting list for their own estate timber, which was a quote for sawn timber from one of our big local types- £36 a cube for prime structural. Ouch. When you think that buying pressure treated softwood in bulk is about £4.50 to £6 per cube, it makes Oak look like a vulgarly overpriced luxury item.

[wills-mill]

Bang on Will. Cant get rid of beech for love nor money, and now dont even bother milling it, just firewood it. Thing is beech from poor soils and in really large diameter trunks/ mature trees is stunning.

 

The faults that make timber difficult, irritating and 'poor quality' for joiners are what make timber interesting to look at for most people!

 

When you say poor soils, do you mean slow grown and a bit gnarly? A lot of it round here comes off the Chalk downland hills, it seems to grow pretty well up there, but likes to fall over in a 1987 type storm!

[plippy]

im based in the south east and have quite a bit of nice straight oaks to be felled soon, just waiting for the paperwork to come back then we'l be cutting, just not sure who to approach to sell on as good timber for milling and they really big and straight:thumbup1:

[Mark Bolam]

Garth may have a lead for you there Phil.