average cost

[skyhuck]

i agree totally with what your saying huck , but the big problem with buying by the ton is that a load of wet oak , pine , is going to weigh far more than a load of larch , ash ir sycamore that has been harvested and left at road side for a while. however i guess that the other problem is that buying by volume as oppased to weight your going to be more likely to bet smaller diamiter timber to make up the load .

 

The points you make can all be addressed by adjusting the price per tonne for the timber type and moisture content.

[combined tree services]

The points you make can all be addressed by adjusting the price per tonne for the timber type and moisture content.

 

again i agree huck , i know a couple guys who have bought timber from a certain timber merchant - one paid for timber by the ton the other by the cube - the chap buying by the ton got a load of wet timber that was covered in mud and crap , the other guy buying by the cube got a load of "Hardwood" that the majority of it was either that small you could chip it with a bosh garden shredder or if it was of decent size it was half rotten !

 

both guys paid the same price and both guys could ended up with a load of timber that ended up costing more to proces thus making it pointles . so yes either way you buy timber is pretty much gamble in some ways , personally i think if i was to be buying timber i would want to go and see what i was buying before hand .

[gensetsteve]

I think its got to a point unless you can buy in nice straight beech in 4"- 16" diameter you are on to a hiding to nothing. Profit is slim and now due to cost of cord high investment. With the amount of people getting back into logs if we have a mild winter in 2011 I see some tears coming

[likeitorlumpit]

I think its got to a point unless you can buy in nice straight beech in 4"- 16" diameter you are on to a hiding to nothing. Profit is slim and now due to cost of cord high investment. With the amount of people getting back into logs if we have a mild winter in 2011 I see some tears coming

 

Very astute- that was my thinking also

this is 2 hard winters so far- will there be a third?

[Big J]

True true.

 

I think the revolution for firewood production will come when the public starts to consider:

 

a) Wood as a viable alternative to fossil fuels for primary heating

b) Softwood as the primary fuel for the primary heating

 

I don't have much experience with firewood other than my own personal supplies, but in my experience, the time is really consumed by awkward, non-uniform timber. Softwood is by it's very nature uniform, and is the only kind of woodland that Britain has in any quantity. If memory serves there is a chap here on Arbtalk whose entire business on the Isle of Arran utilises Spruce.

 

If everyone installed Agas/Rayburns/Wood boilers and started burning softwoods, we'd have a far less fluctuating market.

 

Jonathan

[slack ma girdle]

Volume is constant, weight is always changing. I can quickly measure the volume, even if it is twisty/ bent wood. Count the number of cord lenghts on the lorry = volume of timber. Saves alot of arguing.

[Ben Ballard]

if selling by the cube cant happen when selling artic loads of fire wood ,could it work if price could made on what the moisture content is, so loss of weight wont affect value?

[18 stoner]

I can see both points of view here, BUT, you guys who are saying volume is constant, in the true sense IT ISN'T!

[Mesterh]

Surely nothing is constant but weight is more accurate.

 

I can see all the above becoming more of an issue with the demand increasing and margins thinning.

[csservices]

Finding it at all round here is a job in itself at the moment, especially at a price that makes it worth while, would be easier to find rocking horse poo