Hi, this will seem like sacrilege to some, but I have too many trees in my yard, an unusual number that is - 20+ full size trees in a 0.4 acre backyard. One is a big oak tree (3 foot trunk) but the arborist says the base of the trunk is partly eaten away. Another medium sized oak in back is stronger but half of it extends over my house. Got some others, a pin oak, maple, a beech.
Am I delusional or would someone offer me money for these, either for veneer or lumber or firewood ? I'm in the midwest US.
Thge other thought is to put a wood stove into the fireplace and offset the natural gas bills next year after the wood dries.
Possible, but unlikely, that anyone would pay you for them. Most lumber mills, even custom veneer houses, won't touch yard or fencerow trees for fear of embedded metal from old nails from fences and treehouses and such. Not to mention, of course, the cost of removal is usually much higher in a yard, due to no place to drop it, and the need to clean up the stump. But what the hey, it is worth a few phone calls to whatever veneer guys are in your local phone book. They may pay a token amount, or take it down for free in exchange for the logs. They may also know the guys on the next step down the food chain- the firewood guys. They are much more likely to barter cutting service for all or part of the wood.
If you have never felled a big tree, especially peice-by-piece to avoid dropping it on a house, I would not recommend DIY. I did a few, as a much stronger and more immortal kid, and would now pay to get it done. It is hard frigging (and dangerous) work. And that bucket truck with the air-powered chainsaw-on-a-stick makes it SO muuch faster...
Thank you, I fell (felled ?) a decent - size maple in an earlier life and I still don't know what I was thinking. Lot of hard work with a statistically significant probability of cutting part of your body off ? No, thanks.
I get this question about 3 times a week. They aren't worth much of anything to a tree buyer. Metal is the obvious but it's also not worth a loggers' time to leave a job he's cutting to come for a morning and cut 20 trees he has to work for (ie..the hanger over the house). Your best bet is to go onto woodmizer.com. You should be able to find someone who can take them down and saw them up for you. Then you have the lumber to do whatever you like with. jana
I get this question about 3 times a week. They aren't worth much of anything to a tree buyer. Metal is the obvious but it's also not worth a loggers' time to leave a job he's cutting to come for a morning and cut 20 trees he has to work for (ie..the hanger over the house). Your best bet is to go onto woodmizer.com. You should be able to find someone who can take them down and saw them up for you. Then you have the lumber to do whatever you like with. jana
By the time you buy or rent tools to cut it up (or pay to have it done), pay for the stove/chimney/hearth etc. You will lose money big time to use it as firewood. Wood heat only saves money if you do it over a several year span. My wood stove (installed 1981) has paid for itself, several chainsaws and 3 hi-mileage used pickups. The health benefits of the excercise I get are a bonus.
The Maple might be worth something. Oak burns hot for firewood. The embedded nails/screws can be found with a metal detector, and modern mills X-ray the log anyway for the best cutting strategy. The beech can be used for marine grade plywood, not real good on the looks department. Like any business, costs go down with volume, and you don't have much by lumber standards. There are also access and safety problems not found in a forest. But if you have to pay for cutting, have them cut it to your firewood needs.-Jitney
Well said. You hit on two of the three key problems:
1) Possible embedded metal in the trees. Obviously, chainsaw chains are expensive. But even more expensive are milling blades and veneer blades. Imagine the economic loss from a 16 foot veneer blade which hits a nail.
2) The extra cost of dropping and removing a few trees from a homeowner's property versus the relative ease of harvesting trees in a forest area.
3) The fact that trees on a homeowner's property are almost never properly grown for lumber use. Hardwood trees on commercial sites will have their lower limbs pruned up beyond an 8 foot height as soon as reasonable. Similarly, lower limbs up to 16 foot high are removed as soon as possible. This optimizes the amount of knot-free veneer which can be harvested.
I spend 20 years trying to convince a neighbor that she shouldn't plan on sending her sons to college using the income from the 16 American Maples growing close to her house and her utility lines. Estimates that she eventually got ranged around $10,000 - that is her cost of removal, not her income from removal.
Gideon
====================
Possible, but unlikely, that anyone would pay you for them. Most lumber mills, even custom veneer houses, won't touch yard or fencerow trees for fear of embedded metal from old nails from fences and treehouses and such. Not to mention, of course, the cost of removal is usually much higher in a yard, due to no place to drop it, and the need to clean up the stump. But what the hey, it is worth a few phone calls to whatever veneer guys are in your local phone book. They may pay a token amount, or take it down for free in exchange for the logs. They may also know the guys on the next step down the food chain- the firewood guys. They are much more likely to barter cutting service for all or part of the wood.
If you have never felled a big tree, especially peice-by-piece to avoid dropping it on a house, I would not recommend DIY. I did a few, as a much stronger and more immortal kid, and would now pay to get it done. It is hard frigging (and dangerous) work. And that bucket truck with the air-powered chainsaw-on-a-stick makes it SO muuch faster...
Then she's clearly talking to the wrong people. Absolute worst case for hardwood trees that that aren't half rotted is "Free if you come get it yourself".
You're not reading. The trees are near habitations and utilities. That's liability time, where professionals have to bring 'em down in pieces. One branch into the side of the neighbor's place is worth the price of removal. Homeowners' won't cover that stuff.
She won't find anyone to take down 16 trees growing in the power lines in exchange for the logs. I don't know of any tree romover that desperate.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.