What’s the best deal on firewood in town? I’ve been trying to figure this out for years. If you can beat the deal below, I’d love to hear it (just leave a comment below).
Between The Firehouse sauna stove and the bonfire at Little Box Sauna, I go through a lot of firewood in a month—way too much to fall into the habit of buying it from local hardware stores at $6-$7 for a bundle (usually about 6 pieces). However that’s exactly what happened during the Little Box Sauna residency at 38th and Nicollet, since there was an Ace Hardware just across the street. By the way, the Ace at 38th and Nicollet is a model of what a hardware store should be. Those folks helped me trouble shoot a number of “emergency” fixes at Little Box this winter. I recommend a stop in there after every trip to Menards just to detox and restore your faith in humanity!
But as much as I love my local hardware store, I can’t afford to buy firewood there at the volume I need.
So when my regular hookup fell through a few weeks ago, I was left hanging (and spending way too much). The first place I called was Paul’s Fireplace Wood. I got their contact from my friends and expert event and place-making gurus at The Musicant Group.
Unlike the place I had been getting firewood from, the folks at Paul’s picked up the phone right away and were available to answer any and all of my questions. I spent weeks trying to get ahold of my old guy, which was kind of cute and down-homey for awhile but it actually added up to a lot of wasted time I could have been spending enjoying the heat from my wood-fired sauna!
Paul’s Fireplace Wood is a family-owned business that’s been around for over 30 years. Sharon runs the business with her kids. She’s also the one who picks up the phones, so you’re not talking to some yahoo middle-man.
I talked through a number of options with Sharon and decided that the best deal for me would be to order 2, 1/3 cord deliveries (1/3rd cord delivery is 4’x8′ and 4′ tall).
Here’s the breakdown:
4’x3′ – $193
4’x4′ – $214
4’x6′ – $268
4’x8′ – $298
4’x12′ – $368
Paul also taught me this clever way of stacking the ends of my firewood pile so they stay in place without frames or posts!
Some other useful info:
- The height of all the stacks above are 4′ solid stack (some places will criss-cross their stacks. Solid stacked cords, as shown above, contain roughly twice as much firewood).
- Pieces are 15″ – 16″ in length. You can also request shorter pieces if you have a smaller stove, like me, and don’t want to cut things down. Of course you’re getting less wood for the price but sometimes you just don’t want to mess with another round of cutting, especially when it necessitates a table saw or skill saw.
- Prices include delivery and stacking.
- Their wood is procured from DNR-approved state sales, which means that the DNR approved clearing of whatever land the wood came from.
If you have a better deal for quality firewood on-demand, I’d love to hear it!
P.s. I told Sharon I’d be doing this write-up and she offered to give folks a $10 discount on their orders if they use the code “612saunasociety” when they place their orders.
