Residential Logging

SouthSoundTree-

SouthSoundTree-

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Some of my storm damage work came from a spot with root disease, so they want to log it. They approached me about it, when I did the emergency felling.

It would be excavator logging. I could wedge most of them over without setting lines. Tall and slender in the 20" x 100' ball park, on average.

Urban growth zone-- no burning, so debris would have to be hauled or chipped on site.

Around here, small parcel logging away from structures is often around a 50/50 split, after hauling. Burning is common.

What kind of compensation have you gotten on this type of job?

I don't like speculating on log value for making a living, really. But, steady work builds things. I can fell a bunch of fir next to houses. Gary has logging experience.



Just (tired and) tumbling thoughts around in my head.



Any thoughts from real loggers, and anybody else?
 
We are in two different worlds you and I. I have to permit the trees so they can go to market. I get paid to slay, chip, cleanup.
Best we can hope for is logs moved for free by the mills. If no permit, the wood can be given away. Just can not be traded or sold. ANY hailing of debris or wood is billable. I have the HO set aside an estimated budget for the hailing and material handling for the hauling subs or for my own hauling. Paid separately from the tree frlling, clean up and chipping.
 
Same here.
My methods won't really work for you.
I'd bring in my usual trusty forwarder, stack EVEYTHING that is not prime logs by roadside and have the big biofuel company come in with their truck mounted chipper and take care of it.
The value of the chips usually pays for the forwarder and the chipping and gets me another grand per 100 cubic meters.

Forwarder would then bring the logs out and you have very little impact. With a good driver, you can leave a very good clean up job that way.
 
To whom would you be marketing the logs? Almost all logs go to the auction yard here, it's rather easy to learn what the approximate compensation is going to be for them, based on the current interest and going rates. Paying a forwarder to haul can really cut into the profit margin from the wood, if logs aren't of much value. A larger excavator with a grapple is a heck of a good thing to have for moving and stacking, and dealing with the brush. A great device for keeping the area arranged as work progresses.
 
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  • #5
Holbrook, Inc resides in the Port Of Olympia. They are a log buyer/ reseller. They are within 5 miles of the job. 16 minutes driving time on Google maps. Regular scaling by board-foot.

Manke is a mill that will buy them, but they're 23 minutes away. I sent logs their way from the preschool. They have an easy to deal with guy who runs a self-loader, in house. Grade and weigh by the ton.

This is straight up clear-cutting for the root disease and some new septic on the other side of the house. There is already an excavator track from 16 trees removed before. Possibly just a mini-x. Didn't pay much attention to the width. Its on a slope, maybe not too bad. Seems like needing the X on site to forward as we limb and buck would be necessary.



Long-butting to cut the rot out of the butt can take some extra time. Not just fell, cut hinge whiskers, and start measuring. Then that wood needs to be forwarded out.

Boxer will do it, or move them. What would be an effective way to get the X to carry out a bunch of 6' butt pieces in one shot? Multiple chokers hung on the bucket teeth? Less trips, faster machine. Don't need to be heavy chokers. Maybe even just old rigging rope.



Does a self-loader care about loading from a pretty flat (slight downhill cross-slope following the hillside) cul de sac, from a deck that runs uphill/ downhill 15-20*?
 
I would work the job at your normal rate, either hourly or bid. And then offer the 50/50 as a discount off their bill.

As in the work is going to cost x amount and you will arrange to have the logs sold off. When the dollar amount for the logs is determined half of the profit on the logs(if there is any after processing/hauling/permits/whatnot) is your 'bonus' for dealing with getting the logs sold, the other half will be credited towards their bill, or pay you in full upfront and then their half of the 'profit' would be there's.

This is roughly what I've done. If they aren't cool with it, no problem. I can price it to leave all the logs and they deal with selling/transporting them and whatnot. Often homeowners/property owners think their 'timber' is worth much more than it actually is.
 
Also sometimes they don't think it's worth anything or are afraid to ask, so cutters unscrupulously take advantage of them.
 
There were times during the crazy economy when you could get so much money for trees that there was no need to get payed for the job other than getting rights to the logs. Sit back and wait for the big numbers to come to your home in the announcement from the auction yard. If it was Zelkova that you were cutting, take a month off, no problem at all. Construction people weren't cutting trees then either because sometimes their saws would start, they had their own bonanza going on.
 
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  • #11
Good input. Keep it coming.

For what its worth, its about 50-70 doug-fir in the 24" x 100' range.
 
Rob came up with an old fashioned way of moving larger logs while waiting on the iron. Get one end up and put something round, like a firewood sized branch. Roll the log over those while pulling with the mini. Walk like an Egyptian kept playing in my head :lol:
 
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  • #13
I did some of that where I could lift one end in place, then the other, and pull, rolling short log sections 4' wide, or just skidding across. You can move a lot when you significantly reduce friction.

For something too heavy to lift at one end, you can lift the light end, put a fulcrum/ roller in place, then push down and lever the heavy end up onto skid logs.





Forgetten Technologies
won't embed https://youtu.be/bsoYkGb7p28
 
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  • #14
https://www.google.com/maps/place/2...6656!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0xb41fa84fdbd4770e!6m1!1e1


to give more info...

the stand of trees is between two houses. All fell and skid. There are some trees around the right of the house with the realty sign that would be accessible around the back. Some trees are gone next to the realty sign (cottonwood and at least 6 fir, two which fell in the wind, 4 that I knocked over). There are three green duplexes in this cul de sac. Its the trees surrounding this area.

I don't think that there is need for being gentle on the landscape, its going to be a clear cut around the houses.
 
SouthSoundTree- said:
I did some of that where I could lift one end in place, then the other, and pull, rolling short log sections 4' wide, or just skidding across. You can move a lot when you significantly reduce friction.

For something too heavy to lift at one end, you can lift the light end, put a fulcrum/ roller in place, then push down and lever the heavy end up onto skid logs.





Forgetten Technologies
won't embed https://youtu.be/bsoYkGb7p28
Click to expand...

Yup!
 
Sean... if you pull this off... you're the man. I've got a pet theory that, in a relatively short period of time, a great deal more scaleable logs that are processed in the PNW, will have been brought in by arbs. Just a pet theory, mind you. Or maybe I was just meant to be a logger? :/:
 
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  • #17
Jed, I'm not sure what you mean by pull it off. This will be a clearcut, rather than the selective logging that I did at D's preschool. Fell, forward, brush in a grapple truck. High impact logging, so I figure it would be easier in some ways than the preschool job. The work is do-able, really not too big of a deal. The thing is doing it profitably.

I'm not really sure how to price this. Its different than I am used to, and requires outside rental excavator, and grapple truck disposal, I'm thinking.


Since this is not climbing, but rather felling, I'm feeling like LnI/ Worker's Comp could become an issue. Logging is about triple the residential arborist rate.

I feel like I can make more money doing homeowner tree care and low-impact removal.

Rolling the idea around in my head.
 
Good point Sean, here in Oregon, you'd have to classify that job under logging. No way to argue otherwise really. You'd be hard pressed to send logs to a mill with a log truck, clear cutting, using a forwarder etc and call it arb classification
 
I did a job like this a few years back in our cottage country. Home owner was building a 4 season cottage and needed the lot cleared.
250+ large white spruce needed to be removed, I felled them all all perfectly straight (no crossing ) for $50 a tree. A buddy of mine brought in his cable skidder and skidded it all to road side, sold it as firewood and took care of the limbs and tops.

I gotta get myself a skidder. ......665 Clark Ranger with Cummins ;)
And as a matter of a fact I will own one before I die.....even if it just sits in my back yard. Ultimate piece of logging equipment :)
 
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  • #20
sotc said:
Good point Sean, here in Oregon, you'd have to classify that job under logging. No way to argue otherwise really. You'd be hard pressed to send logs to a mill with a log truck, clear cutting, using a forwarder etc and call it arb classification
Click to expand...

Worker's comp doesn't apply to me, as the owner. I think that the clean-up portion, if done after the logs are out, might be different. Problem is, too hard to do one part separate from another.
 
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  • #22
I've got to invoice them for the emergency work, I'll fish around a bit.

If I'm getting paid for the clearing and a split on the wood, knowing the place will be wrecked, it takes pressure off. If I break some logs, dumping them all in together, to one lead, it will be less pressure.

I can't knock one tree into another and domino it because of bad root.

Might have to lay some N to S, and others at the other end of the lot, S to N. With an excavator, I think that would work.

Have I mentioned, I can use advice from real loggers.

When I was felling them next to the house the other day, breakage was not an issue, and I broke at least one, but it was pulled from leaning toward the house, across the other logs. No choice.
 
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