what is a beam worth

[camastown]

I just cut a beam today with my turner band sawmill today. It is 6"x16"x31ft long. What is this beam worth? I cut it out of doug fir. Does custom length of this beam make it worth more?

[Carl Middleton]

I dont know what doug fir gos for but when I saw oak beams for people out here I charge .20 a bf extra  248 bf x .50 = 124.00  If its my logs price gos to 1.50 bf making it 372.00 I have sawn 26' with my woodmizer  IMO the longer the beam the more value

[Stevem]

I just cut a beam today with my turner band sawmill today. It is 6"x16"x31ft long. What is this beam worth? I cut it out of Doug fir. Does custom length of this beam make it worth more?

Somewhat depends on your local market.

Anything over 16' is a premium, over 20' another premium.  Anything over 8" wide is a premium.  Anything over 12" wide is another premium.  Custom lengths are always a premium unless your trying to get rid of shorts.
I charge double sawing price for any cut over 8" but then I have a Lucas and it takes twice the work to do it.

Current prices being paid at the mill are around $550/m for D.fir (which means for dimension lumber the mill is paying about $275/m for raw material)

Try this and see what you think:  Check with Lows or Home Depot for a base price for commodity lumber.  Double that price and then start adding 10% for each premium less one item,

Maybe we can get Frank in on this, he smells  more of this stuff than I do

[camastown]

i have a customer from my glass biz that wanted me to fix a broken window in a window. This was a custom cabin on vacation property and had large doug fir beams.He has a covered driveway area.  The length was just under 30' x 20 wide. I think he had 8x8 posts and 8x16 beams. he had just under 15  beams total. he paid 11,000 bucks. man I wish he knew I had a sawmill, he knows now!

[Kirk Allen]

I get a premium for anything over 16' and a LOT more for over 20' just like Steve mentioned.

The key for me is availability!  Not many people in this area with a mill that can cut the long stuff, and cut it right!

I have sold 10x10x20' white oaks for $2.75bf my log or $.75 bf their log, which is $.40 more than my normal cut rate but I charge more for the handling and the extra time it takes moving them on and off the mill. 

For a couple timber framers to get the same piece they are paying $4.00bf from a mill in northern Ohio, so they also have to add trucking fees so I am a steel in their minds!

[camastown]

I may have got lucky, but it came out nice and straight. I can do 32 feet now with my newly acquired 5' extension . I wanted to try to cut this beam 32ft but the we rolled this monster onto the deck by hand and it landed a little off so I just sawed a foot off the log instead of trying to scoot it down, the customer only needed it to be 30'. I really wanted the challenge.Oh well

[Kirk Allen]

So did you make some good money on it?

[camastown]

bartering a air handeler( electric heater) for one of my rentals