Logs,Chips and Saw-Dust

TREE-SURFER · 25th February 2007, 11:02 AM

What do you do with yours' ?

What do the rest of us guy's (or Gals) do with it all.
Good when you can leave it all for the customer.
Tipping charges are going through the roof over here and no storage space in yard for it.

What do you do?

Eric Frei · 25th February 2007, 11:09 AM

Chip is always easy to get rid of.

Hardwood logs I can get rid off for free but have to transport them.

Crap logs like ficus, poincianca, umbrella tree etc ... dump or skip bin.

No-one comes get it any more and no-one mills it free either. I have been caught too many times with wood left on jobsites due to the firewood or milling man not showing up.

TreeCo · 25th February 2007, 01:37 PM

We bring it all back to the farm. We are on 21 acres and dump shit wood back in the woods, firewood on the firewood hill and wood chips in the compost pile. We compost all of our chips and right now we are sitting on a real pile of them. There is a timber lot a mile down the road and some logs we sell but not many.

Eric Frei · 25th February 2007, 07:38 PM

What's the shit wood over there Dan?

How about oaks, they'd be good for the mill, you get any $'s for them? Maybe considered milling yourself?

TreeCo · 25th February 2007, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ekka

What's the shit wood over there Dan?

How about oaks, they'd be good for the mill, you get any $'s for them? Maybe considered milling yourself?

Shit wood is rotten wood, non firewood species like pine, huge chunks, ugly crotchs, etc. I have a damp spot on the edge of a thick woods that never gets sunlight. I dump the shit wood there and call it our 'slow compost pile'. It doesn't take long at all for the wood to get spongy. We also have a large bonfire every few weeks on Saturday nights and sit around and BS until all hours of the night.

The best money I get for logs is $30 per ton for plywood logs which can be poplar or pine. Must be cut to 17ft. 8inches and be at least 10inches at the small end and no limbs or defects of any kind. Not a lot of my logs make the grade due to being cut out of people's yards.

The wife has given me the go ahead to buy a mill, it's just me that is the hold up(she claims she has no influence, Ha!). I want to get a LumberMate 2000 and just may do it. Usually I talk about something a few years before making a move so thankfully lots of ideas get dropped.LOL

Notahacker · 26th February 2007, 03:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreeCo

Usually I talk about something a few years before making a move so thankfully lots of ideas get dropped.LOL

LMAO! I'm the same way!

yooper · 26th February 2007, 11:30 AM

Juat as Tree co im fortnate to own a plot of land to dump, i have 89 acres of hunting land i bought a few yrs back just 2 miles from my home, this year was my first year running my own business and we had a big...im talken big o'll bon fire the first week end of deer season which attracted quite a few local hunters ...

what a party it was, this year i dont think ill burn it during hunting season tho damm thing smolderd and smooked for 5 days, my chips i just pile up and let em rot but i do have an area of chips i grow potatos in works well ,took some advise from treeco last year on a.s. and started an area to grow different veges in chips this year. I supply an unfortinate family(whom there father got crippled in a car accident)that live down the road from me with enough firewood to heat there house in the winter and also a home that takes care of mentaly retarded adults...i do that free of charge and did befor i started my business, the rest of the fire wood goes to my two little ones which are 9 and 11 they split it all by hand and sell it to the campers in small bundals for a pretty good profit...half that money goes into a fund for college the other half they keep for them selvs they brought me on vacation last yrar to see there uncle

and it teaches them good work ethic. All my logs so far go to my buddys dad whom has a mill he saws them up and we split the wood fifty\fifty and he also pickes em up for me.

Just a Question about chip piles. I try to keep them spread out but is there a point that they may catch fire? i know that they would get pretty hot in the chipboxes on the asplundh trucks i worked with.

Sean Freeman · 26th February 2007, 01:47 PM

Steve has quite a pile of chip, and we've had a few close calls

, been lucky so far, we have to rely on help turning the chip since we don't have either a backhoe or frontend loader. Anyway here's a great little doc from up your neck of the woods yooper.

The storage of woodchips.doc

SF

TreeCo · 26th February 2007, 02:31 PM

Thanks Boa. That is great information on wood chip storage. I never get my piles much over 12ft. high and I've never had a fire......but I see it is a great concern. I had heard years ago that if piles don't get over 25ft. high they are usually safe. There was a large fire in Delaware USA some years ago at a mulch processing plant where huge piles of mulch burst into flames.

Eric Frei · 26th February 2007, 03:32 PM

Crikey Boa, where do you get all those docs from?

Ha, did ya read this bit.

Quote:

The maximum height of the wood pile should be 7.5 m. The OFC allows a pile height of 18 m but Factory Mutual 1 recommends that the height be limited to 7.5 m due to the inclusion of tree bark and other impurities in the wood chips. If the storage period is expected to exceed 3 months, then the overall dimensions of the pile should be decreased. In such cases, the maximum height at the peak of the pile should be 4 m and the width at the base should be no more 8 m. These piles should be limited to a maximum bulk volume of 1,000 m3 . A pile with a height of 4 m, a base width of 8 m and a volume of 1,000 m3 should have a length of 67 m. It is recommended that these piles be formed in a triangular shape with 45? side slopes.

Imagine having a pile 18m high? Need a flamin climbing expedition to get to the top. lol Plant ya flag, we claims this one!

yooper · 27th February 2007, 01:29 AM

Thanks Boa, great info. i feel alot less concerned now. i have more than enough room to keep my piles at a low hight.

TREE-SURFER · 27th February 2007, 09:52 AM

A friend of mine ,(another Surgeon) , runs a depot. at the local amenity site for mulching. Their piles are turned regular during the day by excavator and are dowsed with water. The Temp. is registered also, proper steam cooker...LOL, but have never heard of them going on fire. Max height is about 4Mtrs.
The tests for them here have E.coli and salmonella involved in them. There is also a test for a dust microbe that can cause Emphasaema like symptoms.

Brother Colin · 27th February 2007, 03:46 PM

There was a giant chap pile at a company near where i worked that caught fire. Smouldered for days. The local fire station was right next door. They visited often. The pile was turned over and watered till it went out.

Drouin Tree Service · 27th February 2007, 09:01 PM

Ive decided to up the price on my gum/hardwood chip loads to $17.50p/m ive just caught up on my mulch deliverys and really try hard marketing and delivering,its icing on the cake done right it can add around $300 a day,i have done big jobs and brought in another chipping crew and offsetted there fee with mulch sales.

TREE-SURFER · 28th February 2007, 04:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brother Colin

There was a giant chap pile at a company near where i worked that caught fire. Smouldered for days. The local fire station was right next door. They visited often. The pile was turned over and watered till it went out.

(Pretty Ironic that it was next to a fire depot.)

I know this has got sweet FA to do with the tree world, but, Local police in Suffolk (UK), were chasing a pair of druggies through a small village. When they lost 1, they brought in the chopper coppers with heat sensing camera. They didn't find the druggie, but what they did find was a very warn house roof. When they investigated it, it was a bloke growing cannabis with the use of hydroponics; right next door to the local police station.........

Eric Frei · 28th February 2007, 05:39 AM

lol that's funny.

Oldtimer · 28th February 2007, 07:52 AM

There is a pile of wood (70 feet tall by 400 ft long and about 200 ft wide) and wood chips and stuff like that that "somehow" caught on fire in Central Texas near a small town of Helotes. It has been burning for over one month now. The local Environmental agency contracted a company to put it off and so far it have cost over 3 million dollars to stop the fire. Also some of the water they dumped on the fire now showed up in the nearby water wells and aquifer so they have to hire another company to build a compacted clay liner on the pit were all the water run off goes. The price tag keeps going up and the fire is still smoldering and driving people nearby insane. Keep and eye on those piles of wood!

TREE-SURFER · 28th February 2007, 09:16 AM

Thats a pretty big fire.............

Eric Frei · 28th February 2007, 07:18 PM

What on earth is a pile of wood and chip that big doing there in the first place?

TREE-SURFER · 28th February 2007, 10:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ekka

What on earth is a pile of wood and chip that big doing there in the first place?

I did wonder that myself. Nearly posted a reply about using copious amounts of salt to smother the thing and then I re-read the post. That is one big MOTHER*****
I know in UK we use a thing called Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF), which has pockets of inert gas to smother and extinguish the fire. (What they use at Airports.) But I'm no expert on that matter...

Eric Frei · 2nd March 2007, 08:21 PM

Problem is that the decomposing chips make their own gas and oxygen and heat etc, maybe that's why it's cost so much trying to put it out. Keeps re-igniting a few days later I bet.

Mike Poor · 3rd March 2007, 06:12 AM

all the tree services in my area had a list a mile long of people waiting in line to buy chips! Then our local city government started a yard waste recycle center and we had to compete with them for chip sales. Well they won! We now have to pay them to dump them or drive long distances to dump them for free! They sell firewood too! They even deliver! (Sorry, getting a little fumed thinking about.)

Eric Frei · 4th March 2007, 11:11 AM

How much are they selling the chips for? They're not giving them away free are they?

You know, I'm of the opinion that governments should govern and business should do business. Over here many tips are on contract with the chipping and the chips get sold commercially. So from a consumers point of view why get tip chips where any old rubbish is in there vs good tree chips?

Also, a recent turn of events here in Brisbane, the fire ant, has made councils shy off chip sales and their chips go to the Rocky Point eco electric generator to be burnt for making electricity.

Drouin Tree Service · 4th March 2007, 12:36 PM

I always make a point of telling people the reycle centres chips are full of weeds and noxious plant matter.

Eric Frei · 4th March 2007, 01:07 PM

How do you like this guys stash

Mangoes · 5th March 2007, 12:42 AM

Maybe a climate thing, but my previous employer had an old Hugh payloader that we used to push/aerate/load chips and composted chips. With a machine that large we were able to get stacks 15-20 feet high. Never once had an indication of combustion.

Interesting note; mid January/February temps as low as -35C and after breaking a crust 16-18 inches thick that pile would steam like a massive sauna. If you sat in the middle you couldn't see out (or breath).

JohN Dee · 21st April 2007, 08:11 PM

Ekka, is that your chip pile? Tip or private (council) land?

We usually donate our chip to the schools in our area, some only want the hardwood chip and the others don't care what they get (Including palm mulch!). When you drop loads of at around 9 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon you get some parents coming upto and thanking you for the "donation" and alot of them want some chip for themselves.

It's great, what is our rubbish, is like gold to the public - they love it

Eric Frei · 21st April 2007, 11:18 PM

That's the guys stack who chips for me, I aint got a chipper.

There's no trouble getting rid of chip that's for sure.

Treeman587 · 7th June 2007, 05:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TreeCo

Shit wood is rotten wood, non firewood species like pine, huge chunks, ugly crotchs, etc. I have a damp spot on the edge of a thick woods that never gets sunlight. I dump the shit wood there and call it our 'slow compost pile'. It doesn't take long at all for the wood to get spongy. We also have a large bonfire every few weeks on Saturday nights and sit around and BS until all hours of the night.

I used to do that. But then the City of Chesapeake showed up with citation for " Operating an Illegal Waste Handling Facility". And twice the fire department showed up to put my fires out. I had em under control and safely away from structures, but they did it anyways. In short, I was told I get a free police car ride if they have to come out again.

Next time you are gettting the fire going, try using your handheld blower. Wait for it to be a glowing pile then let off and you will have a nice clean burning fire then.

Oldtimer · 7th June 2007, 06:54 AM

Quote:

What on earth is a pile of wood and chip that big doing there in the first place?

It is long story but.... the local construction of new subdivision housing creates a lot of brush and debris from their initial land clearing. A local guy decided to store the stuff on his land ( charging for the service) and he was supossed to 'compost' the material and sell it later. Well, he never composted anything or sold it either and the pile has grown too large for its own good. Now he is paying to cover all the expenses of putting out the fire plus a few fines from my state agency for creating groundwater pollution and operating and illegal landfill!
So, keep an eye on those piles of chips they can make a big costly mess!

25th February 2007, 11:02 AM	#1
TREE-SURFER Mature tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Isle of Man,UK. Posts: 332	Logs,Chips and Saw-Dust What do you do with yours' ? What do the rest of us guy's (or Gals) do with it all. Good when you can leave it all for the customer. Tipping charges are going through the roof over here and no storage space in yard for it. What do you do? __________________ The Aerial Arborist Isle of Man Tree Surgeon\| All Aspects of Tree Work What experts say about TOPPING

25th February 2007, 11:09 AM	#2
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	Chip is always easy to get rid of. Hardwood logs I can get rid off for free but have to transport them. Crap logs like ficus, poincianca, umbrella tree etc ... dump or skip bin. No-one comes get it any more and no-one mills it free either. I have been caught too many times with wood left on jobsites due to the firewood or milling man not showing up. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

25th February 2007, 07:38 PM	#4
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	What's the shit wood over there Dan? How about oaks, they'd be good for the mill, you get any $'s for them? Maybe considered milling yourself? __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

27th February 2007, 09:52 AM	#12
TREE-SURFER Mature tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Isle of Man,UK. Posts: 332	A friend of mine ,(another Surgeon) , runs a depot. at the local amenity site for mulching. Their piles are turned regular during the day by excavator and are dowsed with water. The Temp. is registered also, proper steam cooker...LOL, but have never heard of them going on fire. Max height is about 4Mtrs. The tests for them here have E.coli and salmonella involved in them. There is also a test for a dust microbe that can cause Emphasaema like symptoms. __________________ The Aerial Arborist Isle of Man Tree Surgeon\| All Aspects of Tree Work What experts say about TOPPING

27th February 2007, 03:46 PM	#13
Brother Colin Sappling Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 40	There was a giant chap pile at a company near where i worked that caught fire. Smouldered for days. The local fire station was right next door. They visited often. The pile was turned over and watered till it went out. __________________ A new site for digital madia storage goto : http://brothercolin.pictureyourbusiness.com/

25th February 2007, 01:37 PM	#3
TreeCo Mature tree Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 307	We bring it all back to the farm. We are on 21 acres and dump shit wood back in the woods, firewood on the firewood hill and wood chips in the compost pile. We compost all of our chips and right now we are sitting on a real pile of them. There is a timber lot a mile down the road and some logs we sell but not many.

26th February 2007, 11:30 AM	#7
yooper Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Upper Michigan U.S.A. Posts: 128	Juat as Tree co im fortnate to own a plot of land to dump, i have 89 acres of hunting land i bought a few yrs back just 2 miles from my home, this year was my first year running my own business and we had a big...im talken big o'll bon fire the first week end of deer season which attracted quite a few local hunters ... what a party it was, this year i dont think ill burn it during hunting season tho damm thing smolderd and smooked for 5 days, my chips i just pile up and let em rot but i do have an area of chips i grow potatos in works well ,took some advise from treeco last year on a.s. and started an area to grow different veges in chips this year. I supply an unfortinate family(whom there father got crippled in a car accident)that live down the road from me with enough firewood to heat there house in the winter and also a home that takes care of mentaly retarded adults...i do that free of charge and did befor i started my business, the rest of the fire wood goes to my two little ones which are 9 and 11 they split it all by hand and sell it to the campers in small bundals for a pretty good profit...half that money goes into a fund for college the other half they keep for them selvs they brought me on vacation last yrar to see there uncle and it teaches them good work ethic. All my logs so far go to my buddys dad whom has a mill he saws them up and we split the wood fifty\fifty and he also pickes em up for me. Just a Question about chip piles. I try to keep them spread out but is there a point that they may catch fire? i know that they would get pretty hot in the chipboxes on the asplundh trucks i worked with.

26th February 2007, 01:47 PM	#8
Sean Freeman Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Townsville Nth Queensland & Gold Coast Sth Queensland Posts: 1,981	Steve has quite a pile of chip, and we've had a few close calls , been lucky so far, we have to rely on help turning the chip since we don't have either a backhoe or frontend loader. Anyway here's a great little doc from up your neck of the woods yooper. The storage of woodchips.doc SF

26th February 2007, 02:31 PM	#9
TreeCo Mature tree Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Georgia, USA Posts: 307	Thanks Boa. That is great information on wood chip storage. I never get my piles much over 12ft. high and I've never had a fire......but I see it is a great concern. I had heard years ago that if piles don't get over 25ft. high they are usually safe. There was a large fire in Delaware USA some years ago at a mulch processing plant where huge piles of mulch burst into flames.

27th February 2007, 01:29 AM	#11
yooper Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Upper Michigan U.S.A. Posts: 128	Thanks Boa, great info. i feel alot less concerned now. i have more than enough room to keep my piles at a low hight.

27th February 2007, 09:01 PM	#14
Drouin Tree Service Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,727	Ive decided to up the price on my gum/hardwood chip loads to $17.50p/m ive just caught up on my mulch deliverys and really try hard marketing and delivering,its icing on the cake done right it can add around $300 a day,i have done big jobs and brought in another chipping crew and offsetted there fee with mulch sales. __________________ Drouin Tree Services \| Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland \| Landclearing Melbourne

28th February 2007, 05:39 AM	#16
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	lol that's funny. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

28th February 2007, 07:52 AM	#17
Oldtimer Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Austin TX Posts: 100	There is a pile of wood (70 feet tall by 400 ft long and about 200 ft wide) and wood chips and stuff like that that "somehow" caught on fire in Central Texas near a small town of Helotes. It has been burning for over one month now. The local Environmental agency contracted a company to put it off and so far it have cost over 3 million dollars to stop the fire. Also some of the water they dumped on the fire now showed up in the nearby water wells and aquifer so they have to hire another company to build a compacted clay liner on the pit were all the water run off goes. The price tag keeps going up and the fire is still smoldering and driving people nearby insane. Keep and eye on those piles of wood!

28th February 2007, 09:16 AM	#18
TREE-SURFER Mature tree Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Isle of Man,UK. Posts: 332	Thats a pretty big fire............. __________________ The Aerial Arborist Isle of Man Tree Surgeon\| All Aspects of Tree Work What experts say about TOPPING

28th February 2007, 07:18 PM	#19
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	What on earth is a pile of wood and chip that big doing there in the first place? __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

2nd March 2007, 08:21 PM	#21
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	Problem is that the decomposing chips make their own gas and oxygen and heat etc, maybe that's why it's cost so much trying to put it out. Keeps re-igniting a few days later I bet. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

3rd March 2007, 06:12 AM	#22
Mike Poor Semi-mature vigorous tree Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Urbana, IL,usa Posts: 69	all the tree services in my area had a list a mile long of people waiting in line to buy chips! Then our local city government started a yard waste recycle center and we had to compete with them for chip sales. Well they won! We now have to pay them to dump them or drive long distances to dump them for free! They sell firewood too! They even deliver! (Sorry, getting a little fumed thinking about.)

4th March 2007, 11:11 AM	#23
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	How much are they selling the chips for? They're not giving them away free are they? You know, I'm of the opinion that governments should govern and business should do business. Over here many tips are on contract with the chipping and the chips get sold commercially. So from a consumers point of view why get tip chips where any old rubbish is in there vs good tree chips? Also, a recent turn of events here in Brisbane, the fire ant, has made councils shy off chip sales and their chips go to the Rocky Point eco electric generator to be burnt for making electricity. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

4th March 2007, 12:36 PM	#24
Drouin Tree Service Veteran Heritage Status Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Australia Posts: 1,727	I always make a point of telling people the reycle centres chips are full of weeds and noxious plant matter. __________________ Drouin Tree Services \| Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland \| Landclearing Melbourne

4th March 2007, 01:07 PM	#25
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	How do you like this guys stash Attached Thumbnails __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

5th March 2007, 12:42 AM	#26
Mangoes Sappling Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: n/a Posts: 23	Maybe a climate thing, but my previous employer had an old Hugh payloader that we used to push/aerate/load chips and composted chips. With a machine that large we were able to get stacks 15-20 feet high. Never once had an indication of combustion. Interesting note; mid January/February temps as low as -35C and after breaking a crust 16-18 inches thick that pile would steam like a massive sauna. If you sat in the middle you couldn't see out (or breath).

21st April 2007, 08:11 PM	#27
JohN Dee Moderator Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Climbing around the world Posts: 848	Ekka, is that your chip pile? Tip or private (council) land? We usually donate our chip to the schools in our area, some only want the hardwood chip and the others don't care what they get (Including palm mulch!). When you drop loads of at around 9 in the morning or 3 in the afternoon you get some parents coming upto and thanking you for the "donation" and alot of them want some chip for themselves. It's great, what is our rubbish, is like gold to the public - they love it __________________ We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT... Red : Green : Blue

21st April 2007, 11:18 PM	#28
Eric Frei Admin - Owner Palm & Tree Services in Brisbane Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Brisbane Posts: 12,983	That's the guys stack who chips for me, I aint got a chipper. There's no trouble getting rid of chip that's for sure. __________________ Protect your rights to work - Join Australian Tree Association My businesses:- Qualified Brisbane Tree Lopping \| Stump Grinding Brisbane \| Brisbane - Gold Coast Consulting Arborist

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