I was talking to a tree surgeon the other day and he was telling me there has been a sharp fall in the amount of wood he has suitable for selling on as firewood, on most of the felling jobs he does nowadays the customer wants to keep the wood for themselves and apart from Leylandii and various softwood trees he doesn't get much to sell on anymore.
So this got me thinking, i usually just dump or burn all our waste wood from fencing/decking jobs (old panels, boards, posts, bits of 4x2, etc.) but im now considering the possibility of selling it as firewood or kindling. What do you think?, do you think there would be a demand for this and would it be a worthwile investment in my time and resources? Obviously it would take some time cutting it all up and bagging it but seeing as petrol stations or selling small bags of kindling for £3 to £4 nowadays im thinking it might be worthwile. Another advantage would be that i wouldn't have to dump it saving time and money.
Any thoughts or comments you have would be much appreciated.
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treated timber used to have all sorts of nasties in it including arsenic so burning it was a big no no. The vac vac stuff from sites is ok nowadays i think but some pressure treated stuff can be toxic when burned so you'd really need to check specifically with your timber supplier. I can imagine what they would say though.
no pallets aren't treated. The hardwood crates indian and chinese stone comes in are great for burning. It also kills off the dengue fever lurking in them.....
This is a response left on Twitter:
You cant even use pressure treated wood? i didn't think it would be harmful.
Firewood is a valuable resource these days. I know a stove installer and he is putting in a stove per day round these parts. They got so many call backs from customers complaining the stove did'nt work right because people were buying wet wood not seasoned properly. So he decided to set up a sideline business selling firewood - £130 for 1.2 m3 of ash, beech and birch. Bags of softwood kindling are £4. If you can season softwood for long enough it is a good firewood in my experience. I often burn small bits of tree prunings that nobody wants (smaller than 2"). They are ideal for the stove i have and i find them to be every bit as good as larger logs. Its a shame the wood buying public only want ash, beech, birch etc in large chunks. There must be a market for the smaller bits and unfashionable wood types. Maybe people would buy bags of twigs as kindling?
BandQ sell 1kg bags of kindling for £3 each, thats only about the equivalent of a 6' fence board. Just think of how many old boards we dump every year, in my case its probably over 3000! You could just cut it up quickly with a mitre saw into about 15 or so pieces, stick it in a net bag which costs about 10p and sell it for around £2.
i burn any wood in my stove at home, old post, panels, pallets, tree waste, it doesnt matter what it is seasoned or not once the burner gets hot enough any bit of wood will burn, the only trouble trying to sell kindling wood to garages is that they then need to make a profit on it so if they sell it for £3 a bag then you are only going to get £1.50p, and to cut 1kg of timber into small enough bits take about 5-10 mins, i guess if theres nothing else to do then you could make a bit of money but just about minimum wage, i use to know a bloke who use to cut the leather soles off of shoes and burn them in his log burner, when he died his son told me he had about 200 pairs of leather soles stacked up
a saw mill near me sells a very large (a guess about 2 black bags worth) of softwood offcuts as fire wood for £4 i suppose its an ok sideline for them as they will be producing the offcuts naturally as part of their everyday work. when i had my open fire i would burn anything and everything in sight that would burn i had a paper log maker aswell. my view was every little helps. about 2 months before christmas i'd go to my local coal wholesale coal yard and buy 20 or 30 x 25kg sacks of proper coal none of this smokeless rubbish and stack it in the cupboard under the stairs so i didnt have to go outside to the coal house lovely and toasty winters
Saw one of my builders/agricultural merchants selling a dumpy bag of off cuts of all sorts for £20 inc vat the other day! If I had the space i would consider doing something similar!
I considered this a while back, other than the fact I couldnot compete with the merchants in my area (Mostly country estates with plenty of timber to sell cheaply), I was also informed by the local transfer station that to prevent cancer causing gases, the only way to burn pre Arsenic (tanalised) timber safely was to Gasifiy it, so certainly not safe for home use. Modern Tanalith E stuff aparently is safe (er) in small amounts. But it is copper azole so will produce noxious Copper fumes.
From the file in the next post:
Post treatment processing wastes,
such as sawdust and off-cuts, must not
be used for animal litter or bedding.
TANALITH® E treated wood should not
be used for fuel in barbecues, cooking
stoves or grates. Small quantities (less
than 0.5 tonnes) can be burnt in the
open with due care and attention to
your neighbours.
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