kiln drying price

[beav39]

i have some hard wood to get kiln dryed and was wandering what guys are getting to dry in there kilns? how do you charge by the bdft or sqare foot?      thanks    scot

[Tom Sawyer]

$.35/bft around here.

[Kelvin]

Howdy,
A couple of things come into play.  First big local kiln charges $.25 a bd ft, but it may take 6 mons, and he uses your stuff for filler, so mostly on top for weight.  If you want it done right away, price goes up for me.  And green vs air dried makes the unit run up to 3-4x's as long so more money.  I say $.35 a bd ft for air dried at 12% MC or 3 months min, and $.50 for green, or wood that hasn't been sawn by me. 
Some things to think about,
kelvin

[OneWithWood]

My current price is .50 bd ft for green.  I hesitate to suggest air drying first because most of the degrade happens while air drying and I would rather not have the discussion of who is responsible for the degrade if I can avoid it.

[scsmith42]

I will say up front that I'm higher than most.

I charge $25.00 per day per 1000 bd ft, plus a setup charge if the wood is in the kiln for less than 14 days.

This works out to around .70 bd ft for oak.

I may not dry as much as others, but at least I'm receiving a fair ROI and wage on my time.

Scott

[David Freed]

I was charging $.25/bd ft when anyone would ask me to dry some lumber, which wasn't very often. I live 40 miles from Jasper, IN, and most people in my area would send their lumber to a big mill down there to get it dried at $.13/bd ft. I finally quit drying lumber, mine as well as other peoples, about 2 or 3 months ago. I was trying to compete in a wholesale market, and was losing money. For now I am buying dry lumber to make flooring. If I get that business going well enough, I might start drying my own again, but no custom drying.

[solidwoods]

$.20 bf. to kiln dry.
Sawmilling $.20bf (some here charge,, sit down now,, $.15bf)
Your logs into T/G flooring $1.25 sf.
Yea yall, try running a business with that competition.
jim

[beav39]

$.20 bf. to kiln dry.
Sawmilling $.20bf (some here charge,, sit down now,, $.15bf)
Your logs into T/G flooring $1.25 sf.
Yea yall, try running a business with that competition.
jim

15   huh wow how can you compete with that   how can they make ends meet?

[Dave Shepard]

Might be a retired guy. I have seen it a lot around here. A guy putters around doing something, charges dirt cheap prices because he's hauling in a fat pension from somewhere, and sets the price for everyone, yet he can only do .005% of the work out there. I don't have anything against someone puttering around at something, but if you are in business, you should consider the guys who are trying to put food on the table doing the same thing.


Dave

[beav39]

i agree dave,alot of us are just trying to make a living and with low prices like that it really hurts ,im working now for as little as i can to make it work      scot

[solidwoods]

Were in a depressed area.
Kids buy a mill and now they sawmill.
They mill for any $ they can get.
I don't know how they do it either, most don't last.  I see the blades come in for sharpen from each owner of the same mill.

I went out to watch on man mill and he was running the mill just above idle.  Been running it that way for the 6mo. he had the mill.

I get lumber to dry/t/g that some kid cut.  He cut it 1" on the mill scale (hey'' yall get more lumber from the log that way right???).  So I have to tell the customer he had the wood cut too thin for a 3/4" product etc.

I'd love to get the average prices others get.
jim

[Dan_Shade]

i compete with some extremely low labor rates in my location as well, but to my advantage, most of them aren't portable, and many don't take many pains while sawing.  I do, if somebody cries about the price, I let them go to the other guy. 

Don't let the other guy set your price, you have to figure out what your costs are and charge accordingly.

[DR_Buck]

You bring the wood to me, you help me stack it in the kiln  = 50¢ per bdft. 

I call you when it's almost dry and tell you when it's coming out of the kiln.
You come and help load it the day it comes out.

Every day you hold up my kiln waiting for you to come pick up your lumber = $100   

If you don't like my price, go find another kiln. 



and ..............When the power company ups their rates this July, my rates go up!   

[Tom]

  But that lucky ole sun,  has nuthin' to do, but hang around heaven all day. 

[OneWithWood]

I am pretty much in the samw ballpark as DR, except I am nicer 

If I mill it, I stack it.  Otherwise you show up at the appointed time and I will help you stack it.  I will give the customer an estimate of when I think it should be done, with the caveat that you cannot rush drying lumber, it will be dry when it is dry.  I then tell them I will call them 2 days before it comes out of the kiln and I appreciate them picking it up that day.  Any wood left in my barn is not my responsibility.  If it gets to be in my way it goes outside, dead stacked.  So far all one of my customers has been right on time to pick up the wood