your thoughts please

[THE88MAN]

i logged up a local guys pile last week,mostly conifer,sycamore and cherry,8-15",took me 3 hours,left it all in rings for him to split/stack and clear up sawdust,i reckon he had 8 cube,£560 at my price delivered,charged him £90,he did ok outta that one!

[Hodge]

Thats my point mate, they get £560 worth of wood for 90 quid, that aint right really, 150 - 250 then they save half of what the 8 cube would have cost if they bought it in.

[davetaz]

I do mobile firewood processing (sawing/splitting service)

Firewood processing equipment for hire. Rent log splitters, saws, firewood processing machines and kindlett machines

did 5 jobs last winter (min Half day)

2 jobs to do next week

one job was to split some very large rings of "Ekki" (think that's right), the guys that owned them were thinking of transporting them over 50 miles to some one with a tractor run splitter!

[widmere]

I think a major point is being missed - Practically every delivery I make I see a sample of the house holders stash - usually a couple of lumps of leylandi and some twigs. Leave them the wood let them find out how much skill and work it takes to produce a great product. Even had one lady who had a fantastic pile of split and dry Ash. She insisted on deriding her husbands efforts claiming that the 'log man' had a far better product.

[Marko]

I think a major point is being missed - Practically every delivery I make I see a sample of the house holders stash - usually a couple of lumps of leylandi and some twigs. Leave them the wood let them find out how much skill and work it takes to produce a great product. Even had one lady who had a fantastic pile of split and dry Ash. She insisted on deriding her husbands efforts claiming that the 'log man' had a far better product.

 

So true. The people who call on a mobile splitting service have probably already had a go and know how hard it is. It is more often than not a one off hit for wood that they "own" so I see a splitting service as a way to get a long term new customer who, through their own efforts, appreciates that firewood does not grow on trees.

[Andy Collins]

Thats my point mate, they get £560 worth of wood for 90 quid, that aint right really, 150 - 250 then they save half of what the 8 cube would have cost if they bought it in.

 

Dont quite follow this, 30 quid an hour for a bit of splitting of their own wood isnt too bad, no mulitple handling of the same piece of wood, no chuckng it on the truck, trundling around the countryside. Ideal little fill-in job on a slack day, or a wet day.

BTW I can get a tractor with splitter and operator in for 22 per hr, so why would someone with their own timber want to pay for you to take it away, then sell them logs for top dollar?

Edited September 15, 2010 by Andy Collins

[harvey b davison]

TBH i think £30 ph is a good deal, nice steady work. If your a one man band, its an ideal way of extra income.

[Danny Boy]

I have a trailer mounted log splitter & will be offering an on site splitting service. If I was a punter I wouldn't pay £150-250 for someone to do 3 hours splitting. But maybe I'm just tight...

 

Got to look at as extra income where there wouldn't have been any in the 1st place.

 

£30 an hour for a decent machine brought to your door to do a good job is pretty decent I think & should get you some repeat business too especially in them winter months when we could be twidling numb thumbs!

[firewoodman]

i used to offer this service, and one day i turned up at a punters house to give a quote, saw the log pile, which was told was all uniform rings....they were not

 

told him £25 per hour to cut and split them where they are

 

him... sorry how much??

 

me... £25 per hour, covers my travel, fuel machinery and time

 

him... look mate i pay my computer engineer £30 per hour to fix my computer, he has a skill, you do not!! That is a ridiculous amount to charge for someone who just breaks up wood!!

 

me... do it your self then mate with an axe, when your back is broken in two give me a ring and i'll come back and give you another quote.

 

never heard off him again the "richard head"

 

that was 3 yrs ago, times may have changed and i have thought about doing it again, but have not yet found a quick and easy towable macine which is comfortable on my back.....little or no bending over whilst using machine

Edited October 3, 2010 by firewoodman

[firewood]

i used to offer this service, and one day i turned up at a punters house to give a quote, saw the log pile, which was told was all uniform rings....they were not

 

told him £25 per hour to cut and split them where they are

 

him... sorry how much??

 

me... £25 per hour, covers my travel, fuel machinery and time

 

him... look mate i pay my computer engineer £30 per hour to fix my computer, he has a skill, you do not!! That is a ridiculous amount to charge for someone who just breaks up wood!!

 

me... do it your self then mate with an axe, when your back is broken in two give me a ring and i'll come back and give you another quote.

 

never heard off him again the "richard head"

 

that was 3 yrs ago, times may have changed and i have thought about doing it again, but have not yet found a quick and easy towable macine which is comfortable on my back.....little or no bending over whilst using machine

 

so it's not just me that gets enquiries like that:lol:

 

Last year I quoted £600 lump sum to cut, split and stack up a good half artic load of larch on the basis that i could use it as a "hospital job". Customer then informed me that "old Tom" could do it for £150. I said use "old Tom"!

 

One year later the wood is still sitting there uncut.

 

More generally, the problem is that against processed firewood, stuff split on site appears expensive to the householder even though they own the wood. The exception being when there is at least one or two artic loads to process and you can take your processor and loader to site. Then it can work for both parties. Scale is the thing that can make a mobile service into a real business proposition.