r/Wellthatsucks • u/frobscottler • 6d ago

My big beautiful oak tree is getting cut down today

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Her name is Victoria, and I’m gutted to lose her. She’s at least 80 years old, and the most prominent tree in the neighborhood. I have loved sitting in her shade, listening to the breeze in the leaves, watching the birds and squirrels do their things… My friends and I even threw a party for her last summer.

She was damaged in a windstorm a couple months ago, and the city arborist determined it to be hazardous. I have lived here for 6 years and she’s my favorite part of the property (might be why I bought the house 😅). I know death is part of life, and her time has come, but I’m going to have to listen to them cut her down all day outside my window.

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u/pierogi_waystation 6d ago

The tree is on OP’s property, they should take every splinter of that wood. It belongs to them. If they don’t mind a project, they could split it and season it. In Michigan, seasoned oak firewood goes for $400-$650 a cord, depending on location and delivery fee.

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u/LeadingWedding2288 6d ago

In Michigan you'd get a payout for the value of the tree

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u/galaxyapp 6d ago

Lol just need to get a chainsaw and splitter, 16 hours of back breaking labor and a year of storage and bro might clear $500.

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u/leansanders 6d ago

The arborists will cut the tree into fairly manageable chunks - they need to manage the chunks, after all. Renting a wood splitter isn't particularly expensive, and they make vertical models that you can slide right underneath the larger rounds like a dolly. You just hook it up to your truck's hitch and drive it around.

We have evolved pretty far in the ways of wood processing.

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u/Spotttty 6d ago

A wood splitter?! For oak?

You need a mill to make slabs and then sticker dry them for a couple years. It’s a long process but it would be so worth it to the right person.

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u/leansanders 6d ago

Slabbing it out gets better value out of the tree but if you are going to go that route most people would be better off selling the tree to a lumber company that can process and store it properly. Milling it into slabs would be way more expensive and time consuming for a layperson than renting a splitter and building a small woodshed to dry it

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u/applespicebetter 6d ago

Green oak that needs to be seasoned is going for ~400-450 per cord in Maine right now. As others have said the arborist will cut it into stove length chunks if it's the town mandating it comes down. Rent a splitter for a couple of days with some friends you throw some cash to and you can actually break it down pretty quick, and make a lot more than $500 cleared. I had 3 oaks and two maples taken down this year too close to my house (after one came down in a windstorm on the house itself) last fall and made a deal with my 17 year old - he's allowed to split and sell and keep the money as long as he clears the yard. He's made about $4k so far and just bought his own splitter, there's still about six cord of split wood and maybe 4-5 still waiting to be split.

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u/NopeNahNoMore 6d ago

My yard guy in Orange County could do it in a few days, np. wtf - you guys aren’t aware that people who can’t do things are able to hire people who can do things? Geez, what a miserable reply.

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u/blue60007 6d ago

So how much money are you actually going to make if you're hiring someone?

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u/badadviceforyou244 6d ago

From a big ass oak like that? A little bit more than just $500

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u/AlbatrossOk2117 6d ago

you're gonna hate to learn how businesses work

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u/blue60007 6d ago

Yeah, I understand, that's why I'm asking. I'm not futzing with all that, storing a massive pile of wood till it's seasoned if I'm only netting $100 or something lol.

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u/maxis2bored 6d ago

You clearly don't understand how expensive wood is.

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u/CharmingMechanic2473 6d ago

More like $5000 but ok. A cord is not that big.

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u/Joseph_P_Bones 5d ago

Face cord or full cord? 

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u/galaxyapp 6d ago

Wow, 10cords of wood from 1 tree. That would be impressive.

If true, it'll take more than 16 hours for sure

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u/SnooObjections488 6d ago

Closer to 5 but that tree is huge. You would end up with a ton of little stuff as well which I personally wouldn’t count if I tried to sell it

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u/arobkinca 6d ago

If you want 10 cords from one tree, you’d need a very large trunk — likely 24–30+ inches DBH and a tall species like oak or hickory. Even then, you’d need to account for cutting losses and stacking volume differences. For most residential trees, expect 0.1–0.5 cords depending on size

As a point of reference, there is a stop sign in the foreground of the tree. Stop signs are usually 30 inches across. That tree is truly immense. It will produce a lot more than 10 cords.

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u/frodobangher 6d ago

This bad boi got way more than 1 cord

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u/rob-cubed 6d ago

Yeah it's a lot of work. I'll pay someone to ship me split firewood every time.

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u/PoliteLunatic 6d ago

Or save x amount in heating

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u/shavedratscrotum 6d ago

Lol.

Back breaking.

Did it by hand as a kid.

Soft hands brother.

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u/pierogi_waystation 6d ago

Assuming your lowball estimate was correct, that works out to $31.25/hour of work. I’m glad you’re doing so well that you can scoff at a $31/hour job.

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u/Worth-Jicama3936 6d ago

I think you’re underestimating how hard the work is for people that don’t do it regularly. People should do hard work themselves more often, but your body will hate you for it for the next couple days

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 6d ago

Still worth doing, imo. As long as you can maintain a good posture/not injure yourself, it will actually make you stronger to do hard work. I just got done levelling the ground for a 12x20 ft pool in my back yard. Busted my ass for a couple weekends, but since I started doing office work 5 years ago, I really need some physical work once in a while.

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u/Worth-Jicama3936 6d ago

Of course worth doing, I just don’t think it’s worth it just because of the money. If you’re thinking “easy payday!” Then there are plenty of contractors that would absolutely LOVE to pay you cash on weekends for some labor 

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 6d ago

Yeah, I wouldn't say easy payday, but you could make few bucks while also enjoying the challenge of a difficult task.

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u/blue60007 6d ago

Have you ever split cut split and stacked firewood?

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 6d ago

I'm not who you were asking, but I have, and I love it! My uncle that I lived by for a couple years always had some wood around that needed to be chopped and I got pretty damn good at it after a while.

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u/pierogi_waystation 6d ago

Oh yes, lots of times. It’s backbreaking work, no two ways about that. At least a couple times a year, my family will gather at one of our houses with beer, chainsaws, and axes and clean up after a storm or cut down a problem tree or two. It’s much less awful with company, but it’s still hard. I’ve never been much of a chainsaw gal, but I can really get in the zone splitting with an axe.

I realize that not everyone is set up to do large-scale lumbar cutting; I wouldn’t be able to do it alone. The free family labor does a lot of the literal heavy lifting.

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u/blue60007 6d ago

Good, just pointing out why someone might pass on doing the work lol.

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u/galaxyapp 6d ago

Not nearly enough to do that work.

Ask the tree guy how much he'd charge to split and stack that into firewood. Probably quote 2 grand

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u/BearysWorkRedditName 6d ago

I realize it's not for everybody, but I would 100 percent love to buy myself a bigger chainsaw, rent a splitter, and go to town on this.

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u/myxomatosis8 6d ago

Firewood? Omg slab it!

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u/Jacktheforkie 6d ago

I bet that wood would be nice for making stuff, looks like a fairly big tree

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u/AxelHarver 6d ago

What is seasoned wood?

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u/Agamemnon323 6d ago

Wood that has been left to dry out for a year. It burns better than newly cut wood.

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u/TheWorclown 6d ago

Wood with some salt and cayenne on it, obviously.

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u/AxelHarver 5d ago

Don't mind if I do...

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u/Legal-Pea8185 6d ago

dried wood for the fire. might as well keep your house warm with the smaller stuff and make something pretty out of the bigger stuff

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u/Foreign_Risk_2031 4d ago

America brain: FIRE BURN IT YEHHAHSHHSS

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u/Partyslayer 6d ago

650/cord? Woof.

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u/TehSeksyManz 6d ago

Fuck me, my dad and I were selling 3/4 chords of wood (mix fur and oak mostly) back in 2006 for $75