I have a friend that has lost several 100 year oaks and we have been thinking about having someone come in and saw them up with a Woodmizer or similar saw. Has anyone had this done and can you give some indication of what they may charge to do it? This stands to be a good opportunity to have a good supply of wood or to sell after air drying. Any thoughts on this? CC
Phone Wood-Mizer. They maintain a list (certainly in the UK) of owners local to you who do this sort of work.
Price is enormously variable, because the amount of work is too. Are these fallen trees (sometimes a nightmare to extract) or are they logs already in a neat stack ? Does the woodland owner have a tractor / horse team available to extract the logs ?
Is there anywhere for them to work ? A Wood-Mizer needs a fairly large flat area that's already levelled, ramps to roll the logs up, and adequate stockyard areas for in and outfeed. The amount of prep you can have already done will reduce the labour costs.
What sort of Wood-Mizer ? A little manual one, or one with hydraulic log handling ? Costs more, works faster - but this is only noticeable if you're working from a neat log stack.
A dozen useful oak butts is worth having sawn, so more than this should certainly be worth it.
-- Smert' spamionam
If I recall, we paid about $50/hour plus $25 for each blade that was destroyed. We had the logs cut to length, drug out of the woods and neatly stacked beside the road. We also debarked the logs and stacked the boards after they were cut. If the sawyer had had to do all the work, it would have cost us much more.
montyhp
It is customary in our area to saw the logs for half the lumber OR charge per hr. which varies and I don't have any figures.
Walt Conner, Illinois
Out in Eastern Washington state, mainly cutting softwoods, the price ranges from $125 to $200 per 1000 board feet. Some will cut on shares so you don't have to actually lay out any cash. Almost all will come and give you a bid without any obligation.
Tim Douglass
Thanks for all the comments and information. I contacted Woodmizer and they gave me a couple numbers to contact some of the sawyers in my area. I will try to get one of them and see what it will run and what I need to do to get it ready for them. We have the equipment to pick up and move the logs and the space to have the work done so none of that will be a problem. C Cole
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