Cost of chopped wood?

[Nicos]

Just wondered what peeps are paying this year for their wood?

We've been offered chestnut,oak and beech ( I think) ready cut to 50cm in various thicknesses for E50 delivered
And oak cut to 1m (needing some splitting) for E45 delivered

We buy it in steres- or 1m cubed...seems a bit more than last year- is that cos of the oil crisis last year- or does it sound about right???

( I know each area of the country is different- but just interested to know!)

[TEB]

I buy seasoned wood with a couple of my neighbours and we have 10 ton deliveries at a time but have to cut ourselves and we pay £28.00/ton.

Got a leaflet through the door a couple of days ago from a supplier I used a couple of years ago, it was £95.00 per cubic metre for kiln dried and £75.00 a cubic metre for seasoned, this has gone up by £15.00 from a couple of years ago, this is all hardwood and cut to about 9" lengths.

[Snadger]

About £50 a cubic metre around here!

A fiend of mine goes down to the Tyne forshore and cuts up large trees that have beeen drifting in the Tyne for ages. People with boats sometimes help pull the tre trunks to the shore as they can be a danger to shipping.
The washed timber burns brilliantly with no sparks.

[geoff]

Our's is a modern house, built from the ground up to have central heating only. If we ever move, I will look for a house with a proper fireplace, even if it's been converted to gas or electric, so I can convert it back. And burn all that junk mail, packaging, etc.
My Dad was a builder, and in the 50s, 60s and 70s a lot of his work was converting open fires to gas or electric

He said yes, they are cleaner and easier, but I would always keep one fireplace in a house. If there's a strike, a powercut or other problems, like times getting hard you can always find something to burn: old pallets, wood from derelict buildings, trees, either whole or trimmings. He'd been a boy in The Depression, you see.

One of our local building firms has realised that there is a demand for scrap wood, either old stuff or offcuts, so it leaves that outside a site for people to help themselves, or will deliver a load for a small fee. You have to cut it up yourself. Besides the fact that the owner of the firm is sympathetic, it means he doesn't have to pay for it as commercial waste

[Alice]

I've been paying £80 - £90 per ton for seasoned hardwood logs ready chopped. I think that's about a cubic metre. Looks expensive compared with what others are paying. I'll have a look about at prices although I think I already have enough in for this winter.
I use my gas central heating and burn the stove for effect on miserable days or when it is really cold.

[pigletwillie]

About £45 a trailer load here. I prefer ash or beech and only buy oak as a last resort as its not the best for an open fire.

[Polly Fouracre]

We pay £60 for a large load of hard wood logs (ash, beech, birch, hazel, sycamore as a rule) Four loads usually see us through the winter with what I can gather up out on walks.

[Jardiniere]

E56 this year but we have it cut to half metre lengths to fit the wood burner....all seasoned oak.

[Nicos]

and only buy oak as a last resort as its not the best for an open fire.

Urrmmm- why do you say that Piglet???....just out of interest???


( I'm quite a newbie to wood burning..)

[pigletwillie]

It does not burn with a good flame unless very well seasoned and dry. I tend to mix it in with ash and beech unless its been seasoned for 2-3 years.

Ash
Probably the finest firewood available. Easy to saw and split. Ash has a naturally low moisture content so it seasons quickly and burns beautifully. Ash can even be burnt green.

Oak
It’s important to let oak season for at least a year or more to get the best firewood. It burns slowly and produces masses of heat. One of our hardest woods. Holme oak (evergreen oak) also makes a good firewood.

Fruit woods
Fruit woods -apple, cherry and pear - are excellent for the fire, they burn slowly and produce plenty of heat.

Hawthorn
Large logs of Hawthorn are rare, but a fantastic firewood if you can get it. Burns slowly and very hot.

Holly
A hard, slow burning timber which makes for a good fire.

Beech
Like Hornbeam, Beech is a clean, straight grained wood and will give a good fire.

Sycamore
One of the most frequently felled trees as it self seeds vigorously and is considered a nuisance in some areas. The wood is perfectly suitable for burning and is often sold by log merchants mixed in with Ash.

Birch
A good timber for burning, but does burn more quickly than most other species.

Hazel
An excellent firewood but will spark occasionally. Especially good for kindling and smaller logs.

Elm
Acceptable firewood but not great. Best mixed in with other, better species such as Ash. Because of Dutch Elm disease most elm is dead prior to being felled so it is often hard to split with a maul.

Rowan
Also called mountain ash (but unrelated to the common ash) this tree produces a decent firewood.

Bay
A fast growing tree that produces an acceptable firewood. It does not produce much flame or a great deal of heat so is best mixed with a better burning species. The bark can spit and spark for a few seconds when it first goes on the fire.

Willow
High moisture content so needs plenty of time to season properly. Like poplar, willow burns quite quickly and is best avoided.

[amandaandherveg]

We have multifuel stove in the lounge that runs our radiators. Logs were £50 a trailer in 2007 but went up to £60 last year. We've been burning coal over the last couple of weeks and not ordered logs yet so far - hopefully there will be no huge price hikes.

[Nicos]

Thanks piglet- that's interesting!

[TonyF]

But oak is brillioant for an insert, that's why it's so sought after in France.

We pay nothing because (a) we have chauffage and (b) we have an enormous wood. This autumn/winter we're even having a chain saw party as we want some of the trees felling, the deal is thos wot come and help get to divide up the wood between them. OK, can't use it this year but a few stere of oak ready for winter after next for nothing seems to be attracting a lot of interest