Whew!
The West Coast Lumber Inspection Bureau graded my structural stock today…almost three buildings worth. With one (busy) grader and a crew of 4 family and neighbors we graded over 40,000 BF in three hours flat….every single board flipped and all 4 sides inspected. Cost for the service? $300.00
Lotsa folks in the lumber trade around here will tell you that it doesn’t pay to site mill lumber between the mill value for the logs and what it costs to get them graded. Perhaps that’s so if you have to pay a sawyer to do it for you. The economics for me are that my share of the log value of timber I could have sold was $4100…the grading only $300…plus 35 man-days of free time spread over 4 years…equals between $40-50,000 of value against a $4500-dollar out-of-pocket cost.
The qualifiers are that I also collected dozens of onsey-twosey free logs from many sources that were not enough of a load to take to the mill and not counted against dollar cost…and a high percentage of my product is high-value Structural Select stock that will be used where cheaper No. 2 or STUD grade would suffice for the building inspectors.
That’s just the structural lumber. Add the value (and time) of the additional thousands of BF of cedar trim, shingles and beveled siding…the alder, hemlock, figured maple and madrone for interior trim, cabinets and flooring…all this more than paid for the mill, the backhoe, the dump truck, the ancillary equipment…and much of my time, too.
What a mess my drying yard is….now we get to put it all back together. A bigger, but more relaxed workout. All in all…a much better value than the gym membership no longer needed.
“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think…that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ –John Ruskin.
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I enjoy reading your posts...always fascinating and informative.
When you said your cost of the lumber was only $4500, I think that's misleading. You need to count the fair value of the manhours of the four family and friends during the grading process. And you need to count the cost of the mill, the dump truck, etc, offset by the resale value when they are sold. So the actual savings is far less than the $40,000 less $4100. I don't mean to rain on your parade, and I'm sure there was a significant dollar savings, not to mention the thrill of doing it yourself.
Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell'em "Certainly, I can!" Then get busy and find out how to do it. T. Roosevelt
You are of course correct...but in this drill we count dollars, not free time otherwise spent idling. Plus the equipment is mostly of such an age that the original cost will be recouped. A '62 Pete dump and '73 JD hoe doesn't lose any value with a few extra years of light use.
The objective is to build this 3BR, full-basement house for under $160k on land we already own and have developed...and looks like we're gonna be close:
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“When we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not be for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such work as our descendants will thank us for; and let us think...that a time is to come when those (heirlooms) will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say, as they look upon the labor and wrought substance of them, ‘See! This our father did for us.’ “ --John Ruskin.
Edited 4/21/2004 11:08 pm ET by Bob Smalser
Not sure I agree with using "fair value" of wages. The better measure would be the "opportunity cost". This means that if you could have been working as a skilled carpenter making $25 an hour, then that would be the figure to use. However, if your only alternative activity during those hours would have been watching TV, then the opportunity cost would have approached zero. Thus, you would count what you actually could have made during that time not a hypothetical amount that perhaps could not have been achieved.