Lumber brokering

[SawInIt CA]

I just landed a large sawing contract......1 million BF +  
The customer has some sold and wants me to find buyers for a %. I have no idea what things to consider and what is fair to all. Thanks
Dave

[Tom]

See if we can raise Sawyerkirk.  He's doing some brokering and might have some suggestions.

[sawyerkirk]

What kind of timber? softwoods or hardwoods? good logs or leftovers? What do you intend to saw? where are you? ever worked a project this size? Time span? answer those and I'll fire some more at you!!

[SawInIt CA]

Kirk,

Thanks for the response.

The timber is mostly Doug fir, western red cedar, poderosa pine sugar pine and some maple...with burls . the logs are grade A, most over 100 years old. The fir has 7-10 rings per inch on average with a few old growth trees pushing 20 rings per inch. I am looking for beam buyers for the beams and taking 2x of the outside if the firs and siding off the outside of the cedar. No I have not worked a project this size before. The guy is not in a hurry and does not want to fall too many trees before he/we find buyers.....only 20,000 BF decked now but he has all the equipment and can drop them at will.
Our deal so far is that I charge him by the BF to saw, He supplies all the heavy equpment and at least one helper at all times and he gets the logs to the desk w/o being skidded on all but the really big ones. there are many over 5' across  

Thanks again for your input.

Dave

[SawInIt CA]

PS

He also has a grader to handle that part.

[sawyerkirk]

Sounds like a great partnership. BIG LOGS!! my first shot would be to contact timber frame builders. The timber framers guild has a website out there in cyberspace somewhere. Surely on the west coast is a concentration yard for the redwood. Maybe an exporter? I'll put some more thought into while I'm slopping thru the mud today.

[Ron Wenrich]

Another thought is some of the cabin companies.  There are some using red cedar and they may be using that material for interior framing as well.  

Clear sugar pine is used heavily in pattern shops.  

Do you have access to kilns?

[SawInIt CA]

Thanks for the input! I am calling all the timber framers and upper end contractors and should be able to move the beasts. Thanks for the pattern shop idea Ron. I do not have access to a kiln yet but will build one if I start moving some sticks. I would love to try and export some but have no clue on how to do that. Ron Do you know where  I go to get a fair price on the green beams? Around here $2 a BF seems to be the norm for stuff 8x10x20' I am not sure the rates on the really long or really big.    

Thanks again Kirk, Tom and Ron.

[Ron Wenrich]

Pricing is a tricky question.  Around here, we get less than half that for white pine beams.

You could use your $2 as a starting point.  Then add premium for length and bigger sizes.  How long can you go?

I remember talking to a pattern shop and he complained at $3.75 for sugar pine, several years ago.  That was on the east coast.  He was buying mahogany at that price and that was his alternative.

I wonder if the old growth wouldn't have better uses than for beams.  I was thinking maybe flooring.  They are taking old growth pine beams and resawing them into flooring.  Big bucks.  I would also look at wide plank flooring.  The old growth should be pretty stable.

[mometal77]

I looked in search for pricing on old growth.  Anyone have any suggestions how much they would charge for old growth fir and cedar per board ft?
bob
deming,wa

[oldschoolmiller]

My 2 cents:

1)Make up a contract on any big sale, take pictures, or have the people inspect the material in person.
2)For a job that size it may be worth it to contract out some of the sawing, say get 3 or 4 mills going on the same site, it would cut the time to a fraction. Even if after paying the cost of the other sawyers you only make a few cents per ft, you could be looking at about $30,000 for doing very little yourself.

Just some thoughts, take them with a grain of salt