One of the most frequently asked questions from sawyers in the Woodland Mills community is how to price your lumber.

While many sawyers mill for recreation or to build their dream projects, some use their Portable Sawmill to make a bit of money on the side or will sell live-edge slabs or excess lumber they no longer need.  

And in those cases, it can be tricky to find an exact price to charge for your wares. It’s not as easy as going to your local hardware store and comparing it to the retail price per board foot, because those are manufactured on commercial scale very different from what’s reasonable to produce on a portable sawmill, and will often charge the same price per board regardless of the quality.

So, the prices of lumber can change depending on many things, and here we will go over some of the ones you want to consider when you're pricing it.

Some species of rough-cut softwood could sell for roughly $1 per board foot. Meanwhile Ebony, one of the rarest and most expensive species in the world, sells for $100 per foot or more. Walnut is a highly desirable species, with some owners of live Walnut trees selling them for hundreds or thousands of dollars.

With that in mind, you should think about what is a reasonable cost for the wood you have and what someone is willing to pay for it.

Charging per board foot is the most typical way sawyers assess the value of a board, using a standard size like a 2x4 or 2x8. But some customers may need atypical sizes like 4x8s, making board feet a harder unit of measurement.

For example, if you’re selling pine, to fully compensate you for the time and effort of felling a tree, milling it up and finding a buyer, the price you put on it may exceed what that same wood might fetch at the local lumber yard. And while some people will support local sawyers and businesses, many are also cost-oriented and will pick the cheapest option.

For that reason, you may want to consider setting your prices below the retail price for lumber. Some sawyers forgo trying to sell commonly used lumber like rough-cut pine that is easily and cheapy acquired in other ways and prefer to sell more lucrative species.

Most people can go to the hardware store and pick up lumber, but not everyone has access to the versatility of a sawmill. It allows you to create unique cuts of wood, from gorgeous live-edge slabs to cookies which could be used for crafts projects.

Just being able to mill up lumber in any dimensions you want can be desirable for people looking for uncommon sizes. There may not be a lot of money in milling up 2x4s but there may be more for 2x6s or 2x8s or square posts.  

And the benefit of owning your own sawmill is you can cut lumber to meet your customers’ needs, so maybe try selling your wood before its milled so you can get them exactly what they want.

Another benefit of having a sawyer mill up your lumber for you is that your customers will know exactly what they need for their projects, meaning they can get the exact amount of lumber they need and nothing will go to waste, making it cheaper for them. Chat with your customers and estimate what they need and they'll walk away with a stack of exactly what they require.

Depending on where you live, there may be organizations which can help to set the price of lumber. For example, if you live in Ontario there is the Ontario Woodlot Association, which has a page where members of the community can post products, services, timber or lumber for sale. Your local construction industry may also have an association you may be able to lean on as an informational resource.

You can use resources like this to gauge the demand for local lumber and set your own prices.  

Facebook groups, like the Woodland Mills Product Owners and Community page, may also be extremely helpful in finding how much you should charge. When asking for help, be specific about what you’re trying to sell, so others can get enough details to help try and find a price that makes sense for you, whether it’s a general price per piece or an amount-per board inch.

Another factor to consider when pricing anything, lumber especially, is how much you paid for it.  

In many cases, members of the Woodland Mills community will be cutting down trees on their own property, so the actual cost of acquiring the wood may be zero, but there are other things to factor in.  

The time you spent cutting down the tree, then milling it up and storing/drying the lumber is part of your “costs” you should consider. Plus, you should consider the cost of purchasing your mill and setting it up in the first place.

Retail prices for lumber at the hardware store are designed around the manufacturing costs that go into them, and you should have the same mindset when selling your lumber.

With that in mind, you should think about what amount compensates you for all of that work, and how much of a profit you want to make on top of that, if any.

Here’s a question you can ask yourself too, does it really matter how much I sell this lumber for?

For some people, the answer is going to be yes because in the long run, they need cash from selling lumber to put into other projects, their business or anything else. In those cases, you’ll want to research and find what is a fair price on the market for selling your lumber to get the maximum value.

But for other sawyers who are doing this casually and may not need the money, maybe it’s worthwhile to exchange your lumber with people who need it for less than its market value?  

There may be a friend you know who could use it for a project on a budget, or you may have connections in the woodworking community who would repay a favour of free wood?

At the end of the day, not everyone is interested in making a profit off their mill, and if you’re able to trade or barter your lumber with others for things you need, or even just for the sake of being a good friend, then maybe that’s more worthwhile than cash?