Sawmill Pricing

Our belief is honesty and transparency in everything we do.  You can view ourPrice guide here.  Additionally, to make sure all parties are “on the same page” when we arrive, please review our Sawmilling Agreement.

In Texas, unless you have a tax exempt certificate, we have to charge sales tax at the rate applicable to your location as rates vary widely throughout the state.  This page references the requirement to collect a sales tax.  This is the excerpt which is applicable.

For example, tax is due on charges for manufacturing, assembling, fabricating or processing products, even when the customer provides the raw materials, tools or equipment.

We often are asked why we charge more per hour than most of the competition.  Our answer is simple, our mill will produce nearly twice as much lumber per hour than smaller mills.  Check out our cost comparison guide here.

First, after the initial setup and minimum charges that are shown under the pricing tab, we only charge by machine time.  You won’t be charged while we eat lunch, take a short break or pack up to go home. Many operators charge from the instant they arrive at your site and stop when the machine is hooked to the truck and ready to leave. 

Next, if we calculate a percentage of total machine output, taken right from the manufacturer, the cost of each board foot is significantly less than mills charging less per hour but subsequently producing a lot less lumber per hour.  I bought my first mill in 1988 and have sawed several million board ft. of lumber.  You will not have “Hobby Mill Jim Bob” cutting your lumber.  As an example, my mill, at just 40% of rated production can produce 420 board/feet per hour, the LT50; 280BF/hr, LT40; 270BF/hr, and the LT35; 200BFhr. 

To present a better visual picture, a standard 2 x 4 x 8’ piece of framing lumber is 5.28 BF.  Our mill will cut the equivalent of 556 2 x 4’s in a 7 hour day at just 40% of rated production.  The LT50 would cut just 371 @ 40%, the LT40 357 @ 40% and the LT35 265 @ 40%. 

The last section of calculations illustrates how charging by the hour is cheaper than charging by the board foot at only 40% of rated sawmill capacity.

Production is closely associated with the quality and size of logs presented to the mill.  Maximum productivity is with straight logs that are a minimum of 20 inches at the small end.  We don’t recommend logs less than 10” on the small end as the lumber received is of poor quality and a lot of squaring cuts are required to produce the lumber.

Lastly, this increase in production will save multiple trips to your property and set up fees.