Standing White Oak Trees Price HELP!

[Scott Vigder]

My neighbor is felling some trees and claims to have a couple white oaks ready to come down. I want to make an offer for his trees but don't have a clue how much to offer him. Any suggestions?

[Mike Parzych]

Maybe someone here can give you an idea, or you could try contacting local sawyers. But you should probably post some details about the trees such as circumfrence of the trunk at about 5 feet, and how far up the straight trunk extends before branching out. This is the most useful part of the tree for lumber and is a good criteria for estimating bf yeild. Large limbs are a secondary consideration only as the yeild there usually isn't much and it tends to be reaction wood that will react more severly to sawing or planing. And how accesible are they for loading out the logs.

[Larry Fox]

Unless he himself is considering it for lumber I would say that you should not have to pay anyting for them as you are rendering a service taking them away. Now, you will likely have to take everything (branches, leaves, logs, etc) in order to make it worth it to him.

I just got an estimate for some tree work on Friday and a non-trivial chunk of the estimate was removal.

[Scott Taylor]

I agree with Larry. That's how I get almost all of my wood. And what I don't use, the small stuff, I give to the neighbors for firewood. I wouldn't pay anything.

As I put in another post, check with a local tree service. Many of them would love to give away logs.

Scott

[Richard M. Wolfe]

You didn't say what size the trees are. Unless they are really big nice trees they are not going to be worth a commercial operation's time and he would likely not be able to find a market for them.

If you do consider getting them consider all the other factors that go into getting lumber out of a tree....hauling, sawing, and drying. If you have the wood kiln dried there is that expense and if you air dry it prepare to have a place tied up for a year for one inch lumber.

If they are large trees if possible don't commit to taking them until they are lying on the ground and you can get an idea how sound the wood is. The larger the tree the greater the possibility the heart is punky or rotted. I have seen an oak (not white oak) about three feet across the butt that had about the middle eighteen inches hollow.

[Pete Bradley]

Just to add to the comments above, white oak is somewhat difficult to dry and pretty cheap at your local supplier too.

Pete

[Tim Malyszko]

If they are large trees if possible don't commit to taking them until they are lying on the ground and you can get an idea how sound the wood is. The larger the tree the greater the possibility the heart is punky or rotted. I have seen an oak (not white oak) about three feet across the butt that had about the middle eighteen inches hollow.

I second that. Our local muncipality recently had a huge white oak downed over the last few weeks. I was shocked that they were taking it down because it looked very healthy. After removing all the limbs, the only thing left on Friday was the trunk - 30+ inches in diameter at the bottom and every bit of 60' tall. Based on the location, I'm guessing it was 100+ years old. When I saw that, all I could think about was how great it would be to take the wood because this tree was very straight and old growth.

Saturday morning, it was down and there was about a 12" hole in the middle of the tree running from the bottom and tapering off almost nearly to the top. After seeing that, I understand why it was taken down. If I tried claiming the wood before it was cut up into smaller pieces, I would have been stuck with a bunch of rotted junk.

[thomas prevost]

Where are the trees? Yard trees are worthless to a commercial sawyer. Even most band guys are hestitant about cutting yard trees. Risk of iron in trees is too high. How are they getting to road side for a log truck to pick them up? Does he/you have a tractor to pull them to road side? Even an onsite bandsaw needs a way to get them to the saw. As previously stated, compare the cost of "mill run" white oak at a local sawyer and compare what you would be spending to get the logs to the mill and cut.

Now if the guy has a wood lot and is removing other logs to a mill, that may be another story. The it is wise to contact the sawyer he is taking the logs to for pricing.