I’m buying tulip tree Poplar and haven’t worked out a bd/ft cost yet….what are people paying for Poplar?
What is too much do you think?
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Replies
$1.80 /FT Phoenix 4/4 s2s
Edited 1/9/2007 11:47 am ET by rjones69
I think the price can vary rather widely depending upon a lot of factors like:
- how dry is it
- where are you in the country (someplace with plenty of competitors with poplar to sell or someplace where there poplar does not grow on trees so to speak)
- how finished/rough cut is it
- how wide is it (wide boards can sometimes command a premium)
- who are you getting it from - private individual with a portable mill saw, a commercial mill, a lumber yard, Home Depot (overhead and middlemen will up the prices and what you should reasonably expect to pay)
So you may get better answers with some more details
If I answer all of your questions, will you give me an answer? :)
The logs are on an associates property and we have hired a sawyer to cut the logs for us. The logs have been laying for a year and are in good shape, but clearly not dried.
The logs are in a tulip tree forest, there are plenty more. In SE PA, where there is plenty of this wood.
The cut will be 8/4 and 4/5, possibly some 5/4---plainsawn.
The yield will be approximately 600 bd/ft.
The widths will vary from about 6" to around 22".
I don't know how much my answer will help, but in the DC metropolitan area, the contractors' lumber yard I go to in Kensington, MD asks around $2.75 for 4/4 S2S and $3 for 5/4 and 8/4. I'm sure if I searched out a mill or bought a large quantity, I could do much better, but as I have little lumber storage, I haven't so far.
I live in Alexandria VA and buy wood From Northland Forest Products in Manassas. Yellow poplar goes for - 4/4 $2.05
4/4 10"+ $2.25
5/4 $2.15
6/4 $2.35
8/4 $2.45
10/4 $2.75
12/4 $3.15
16/4 $3.55
7/8 S2SR1E $2.40I have a copy of their price sheet if you're interested.
Edited 1/9/2007 10:46 pm ET by wyo
Let's see..., mill run green poplar,No more than $.50 a board foot.Lee
Thanks to everyone for all the responses...I think I did pretty good.The logs were cut 1 1/2 years ago and were left laying on the ground so we were definitely concerned that the wood was no good any longer.
We had been told by some that it was probably no good.
The sawyer came and looked at it prior to me agreeing to go for it and he said it looked fine.
I trusted him and it was well worth it.From one Tulip Poplar tree we had six logs; two 12 footers and four 8 footers.The average log diameter was 20".
The waste was incredibly low.We netted 600 bd/ft +/- 20 bd/ft.
Our cost was 30 cents a foot.We cut it in various thicknesses, some 16/4, some 8/4, some 5/4 and most 4/4.
The 4/4 was the best of the bunch, extremely straight-grain, no knots, and 16" wide down to 12" wide.We counted at least 60 boards of 4/4, 8 footers.It is all stickered and stacked in dry storage for now.Not a bad deal at all, I'd definitely do it again, the sawyer was great and the Wood mizer worked flawlessly.Next I think we may try some Hickory and/or Beech.Good luck and thanks,
Erik.
Edited 1/10/2007 8:09 pm ET by mowog77
That is interesting to know. My brother has a large walnut tree next to his house that he wants to cut down as it is doing bad things to his house and roof. The thing is old and has to be 30" or more in dia. Someone said they would cut it down for $500 if they could have all the wood. That seamed a little nuts to me as I had a tree cut down a couple years back that was almost as big and just as close to a building and only paid about 200 and I did not give the guy the wood (fire wood only in that case).
So how do you know if you have a tree worth turning into lumber? If the tree has to come down I would rather it became lumber then fire wood and I would rather not see my brother pay someone to take down a tree that they then turned around and sold off.
So any advise would be nice. I have never really thought about this until I read this thread.
Doug Meyer
However you decide, it is imperative that the person dropping the tree for you is insured. It is not uncommon to have a tree spin as it's felled, and there are many a homeowner out there that were stuck with a significant home repair because their homeowner's insurance would not cover the damage from a tree felled by their uninsured brother/brother-in-law, etc.
As well, I wouldn't make any deal where the logger gets to keep the wood for a reduced price. It is doubtful that he would take if for firewood, since a walnut tree that size is worth thousands as lumber (provided it is straight with not heart rot).
Get a good, insured logger, and keep the wood yourself, whatever his fee schedule. Even if you have to pay to have it milled into useable lumber, you will be many dollars ahead than if you bought the same from a lumber yard.
Michael
Capitalism is a great thing!
Kiln-dried Walnut sells for between $3-$7 a bd/ft around here (PA).I've bought Wlanut that has been air-dried for many years at a $1 a foot.
I will make some assumptions on your brother's Walnut tree, since it is near the house, it has grown without the need to reach through a forest canopy for sunlight and hence, it is fairly well crowned and a low crown at that.I'd assume that you have the first major branches at about 20 feet off the ground and so you have the potential for 20-25 feet of clear straight grain wood.
Remember, with Walnut, you want the heartwood, not the sapwood, so if the tree is old and thick your yield is much greater, but waste will be higher than a Poplar that has no clear distinction between heart and sap to speak of.
So figure 30" diameter minus 5" for sapwood gives us a block of 25"x25"x240"(20 feet) = 1041 bd/ft * $1 = $1041 or 1041 bd/ft *$3 = $3123 or 1041 bd/ft * 7 = $7287.
Most tree surgeons around here charge about $100-$200 to take a tree of this size down and would be more than happy to leave it as a log and not have to cut it up and haul it away.The going rate for a sawyer with a mobile outfit is around $50-$60 an hour.It would take about an hour or less to cut that tree up into lumber, plus your brothers time to stack, sticker, and tarp it.
So for total outlay of a maximum of $250-$300, you can potentially get between $741 and $7987 for the lumber....or use it yourself knowing that you paid 28 cents a bd/ft.
$500 to take the tree down is giving it away, in my capitalist opinion.
Edited 1/11/2007 10:19 am ET by mowog77
Yeah these were insured people. That is something we already looked into.
The tree is about the last survivor of those around the house. The house was built in the late 1800s (it has round trees as its beams in the basement) so I have no idea how old the tree is. It is most likely closer to 30' to the first branches (the tree is on the side of the hill and is a bit lower then the house to start off) It has a good canopy but it is not as wide as I would have expect. I think that the other trees that used to be near it may have effect that. Most of the other trees were cut down before my brother bought the house. But you can still see the stumps. They were big also.
As for the trees health, Well you never really know unless you cut it down, but it looks to be ok. Personally I would not even take it down, I would get someone in to trim it up a bit and I would put something on the roof to deal with the mold on the shingles. It is way to nice to just cut down to get more sun on the roof and the rear patio. But being as it is going to come down this spring I would like to make the most of it. Even if I don't get the wood (and my brother has no interest in it as he is not a wood worker) it would be better to make sure someone gets it.
Well I guess I will look into this a bit more. Any suggestions on where to learn more about this?
Doug Meyer
DougMeyer,
In the for what it's worth columm.
If you saw it down yourself and it should land on your house your homeowners insuurance hs to pay for your stupidity, at least that's what my agent told me..
I wouldn't dare suggest that it land on the portion of the house you'd want to remodel anyway because such thoughts are probably illegal. Don't do anything wrong.. ignore my advice. wear your helmet, close cover before striking.. objects in mirror are closer than they appear, your milegae may vary. <G>
Where are your brother and his tree located?Andy
My brother and his tree are located west of Howell MI.
The tree looks pretty nice if I recall (it has been a while since I looked at it) As for how straight it is. Well I really don't know. But I think it is pretty good. Also I think from looking at the rest of the place that this was one tree in a group of about a half dozen trees at least. May have been more at one time. It is like the guy that built this place planted a bunch of trees near the farm house. They are all on the side of a hill so maybe this was not a good place to grow crops or something.
Anyway I really want to talk him out of it but if he is going to chop it down then I do hope to save it. And what ever happens I do think that he should be paying extra because it is a hard wood and the tree is large, when the guy doing the cutting is going to be a "nice guy" and take the wood off his hand. Heck my brother has a fire place he uses a lot and I would think it makes more since to keep the wood then let someone else walk off with it after he paid to have it cut down. I love that idea. I think you should pay me to dig a hole in the ground then pay me to take all that nasty gold rocks out of the ground for you and let me keep the rocks because I am a nice guy. You have to wonder, what this guy was thinking.
Doug Meyer
No doubt that a 30" diameter walnut tree will have plenty of good lumber in it. The two most important factors are a. How far up the trunk to the first limbs and b. by looking at the bark to see if it all looks vertical. Many times twisting is clearly visible and that is not good for lumber.If the tree has a tall limb-free trunk, which is unlikely in a residential setting (trees grow straight up in the forest reaching to light) and is not twisted the guy who wants both the tree AND $500 to fell it is ripping you off. Sounds like he knows what the tree is worth but still wants you to pay him to fell it.Here in Virginia where there are lots of trees on semi-rural residential lots the price to fell trees is outrageous. They are all hustlers, most are not insured and they want to make a hit on every job.Look around and see if you can find an Asplundh tree crew working for a power company and see if any of the guys moonlight. They are pros and I have used them in the past.pins
Doug,
In addition to what has already been said, I'll add that many sawyers are leery of cutting into a "yard" tree, as they often have metal embedded in them. Nails from steps to the tree fort now gone, clothesline turnbuckles, staples and wire from an old fencerow, around a house as old as your brother's, maybe even a horseshoe tossed up into a crotch. Be prepared to pay for a new blade, not too expensive for one of the portable band mills. Look for dark discoloration at the end of the log, black streaks can indicate iron above.
Not trying to dissuade you, I've gotten some very nice walnut from a yard tree before.
Ray Pine
When asking questions such as this, it's very helpful to responders if you've filled out your profle with geographic info. Click on MY FORUMS above, then My Profile.
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
I think it really depends on where you are and supply and demand. In VA, I paid around $1.20 /bdft. Here in IL, I paid $1.80/bdf that is for 4/4. Only penies more for 5/4 or more. Hope that helps. That is for KD stuff. It ran in VA about 85c /bdft for green at the mills, and the stuff was everywhere.
If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it.
And if it stops moving, subsidize it.
$1.80 bdft, 4/4 rough
Bought 64 bd ft this afternoon for $102 planed 2 faces kiln dried.
Cadiddlehopper
Mow,
There is a huge difference between lumber prices and log prices. I just paid .50 bd.ft. for a standing walnut tree in a woods. I don't know if I would even buy a log that has been lying on the ground for over a year. YP does'nt stand up to decay that well and the whole log could be stained internally. Unless the ends were prepared properly I would be a little leery. Talk to some lumber buyers in your area to find out what yp sells for on the log. You could say that you have some standing trees to sell and their size and could they give you a ballpark figure. There is a lot of work from log to KD lumber and people selling trees usually don't understand that. Unless you have your own sawmill, drying shed, KD stickers(don't use green wood, sticker stain)and your own kiln, there is a lot of work and expense in making furniture lumber.
If you go to http://www.woodweb.com and look on the left side of the page and there you will see "Lumber Buying guide" click on that and pick your section of thr country and get the prices.
Dave
mowog77
Stump prices paid here In Minnesota are around 15cents a bd.ft. sawn it sells retail for around 80 cents unless a whole lot is needed then it sells for as low as 40 cents..
(whole lot = 1000 bd.ft. or so..) size doesn't matter..
Groff and Groff publish their price sheet on their website: http://www.groffslumber.com/
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