Sawmill Prices: Milling, Lumber, Slabs and Mantels

Across the country, custom sawmills typically charge $75 to $125 an hour or 35 to 75 cents a board foot to mill a customer's log, with a minimum charge of around $100 to $150 and a fee if the saw hits metal. Those are national ranges, not our prices. Every job gets its own quote; the estimator at the bottom of this page works out the board feet in your log so you can see roughly what milling it would cost.

Price table at a glance

These are typical prices posted by sawmills around the country. They're here to give you a ballpark. National range, not our price.

Item	National range (not our price)	Notes
Custom milling, hourly	$75–$125 per hour	One Midwest mill posts $100/hr with a $150 minimum
Custom milling, per board foot	$0.35–$0.75 per bf	Small or crooked logs cost more per foot
Blade damage (metal in log)	$25–$50 per blade	Standard for yard trees
Rough-sawn oak, green	$1.50–$3.50 per bf
Rough-sawn walnut	$5–$12 per bf	Price rises with width, grade and dryness
Minimum job	$100–$150

Our prices

Every job gets its own quote before we saw, based on your photos and measurements.

Prices change with the job, so the quote is what counts. Send us your log's measurements for one.

Custom milling: by the hour vs by the board foot

Sawmills price custom milling one of two ways.

By the hour. You pay for the time the log is on the mill, usually from the first cut to the last. Hourly pricing is common for odd jobs: big slabs, beams, crooked or rotten logs, or a mix of cuts where board feet are hard to predict. It rewards a log that's clean, straight and ready to go. A crooked log, a lot of turning, or a fussy cut list costs more.

By the board foot. You pay a set price for each board foot of lumber that comes off the mill, or for each board foot the log is estimated to hold using a log rule. This makes the price easier to predict before you start. Small or crooked logs often cost more per board foot, since they take nearly as much handling as big ones and give much less wood.

Either way, there's usually a minimum charge, because loading, setting up and squaring a log takes time no matter how small it is.

What raises or lowers a milling bill

• Log diameter. Big logs give much more wood per cut and per minute of handling. A 24-inch log holds more than six times the lumber of a 12-inch log of the same length by the Doyle rule.
• Straightness. Straight logs saw fast and give long, clean boards. Crooked logs waste wood and time.
• Number of logs. The setup cost is spread across more wood when you bring several.
• Metal. Yard trees often hide nails, wire and fence staples. Hitting metal ruins or dulls a blade and stops the job while it's changed, so mills add a blade fee. Our guide to nails in yard trees explains how to spot the risk.
• Cut pattern. Plain flat-sawn boards and live-sawn slabs are the fastest cuts. Quarter-sawing takes more turns and more time. Beams are fast to cut but use the most valuable part of the log.
• Condition. Clean logs saw faster. Mud and grit dull blades; rot and deep cracks slow the work and lower the yield.
• Who handles the logs. A log you deliver to our yard ready to saw costs less than one that needs extra handling.

Lumber by the board foot

Lumber is sold by the board foot: thickness in inches × width in inches × length in feet ÷ 12. A board 1 inch thick, 6 inches wide and 8 feet long is 4 board feet.

What moves the price of a board:

• Species. Walnut costs several times as much as red oak.
• Grade. Clear, wide boards cost more than narrow, knotty ones.
• Thickness. Thick stock (8/4 and up) often costs more per board foot.
• Dryness. Green lumber is cheapest. Air-dried costs more because it ties up wood and space for months.

We don't have a kiln today, so we don't sell kiln-dried lumber. Our lumber page explains thicknesses, board feet and what's in the yard.

Slabs and mantels in brief

Every slab and mantel beam is different. Species, width, length, thickness, figure and how dry it is all set the price, so we quote each piece rather than publish a list. Tell us the size and species you want, and we'll send photos, measurements and a price. See live edge slabs and mantel beams and timbers.

Minimums, blade fees and hauling

Minimum charge. Most mills have one. A single small log may come in under the minimum, so it often makes sense to bring two or three logs at once, or to team up with a neighbor.

Blade fees. A fee per blade damaged by metal is standard for yard trees. Tell us about any fence lines, swings, signs or treehouses that were on the tree.

Hauling. Our mill is stationary, so the log comes to our yard. If you haul it yourself or have your tree service drop it off, there's no hauling charge from us.

See custom sawmilling for how to get a log here, and storm-downed trees if a tree just came down.

Estimate your milling cost

You can figure the board feet in a log yourself with the Doyle log rule, one of the two log rules most commonly used in Missouri (the other is the International ¼-inch rule), according to MU Extension:

Board feet = (D − 4)² × L ÷ 16

D is the diameter at the small end of the log, inside the bark, in inches. L is the length in feet.

Worked example. You bring three red oak logs, each 18 inches at the small end and 10 feet long.

1. Subtract 4 from the diameter: 18 − 4 = 14
2. Square it: 14 × 14 = 196
3. Multiply by the length: 196 × 10 = 1,960
4. Divide by 16: 1,960 ÷ 16 = 122.5 board feet per log
5. Three logs: 122.5 × 3 = 367.5 board feet

At the national range of 35 to 75 cents a board foot, that's about $129 to $276 to mill all three. National range, not our price.

A single 14-inch log, 8 feet long, works out to (14 − 4)² × 8 ÷ 16 = 50 board feet. At the same national range that's $17.50 to $37.50, well under a typical $100 to $150 minimum. That's why it pays to bring several logs at once.

Doyle board feet for common log sizes:

Small-end diameter	8 ft log	10 ft log	12 ft log
12 in	32 bf	40 bf	48 bf
16 in	72 bf	90 bf	108 bf
20 in	128 bf	160 bf	192 bf
24 in	200 bf	250 bf	300 bf
28 in	288 bf	360 bf	432 bf

The Doyle rule underestimates small logs. A 12-inch log often gives noticeably more lumber than the 32 or 40 board feet the rule shows, while on large logs the rule comes closer. Your actual yield depends on the cut pattern, defects and the thickness of the boards.

Our guide how much lumber is in a log? has a fuller board-foot chart and explains how the log rules differ. Use the estimator below for your own logs, then send us the numbers for a real quote.

Get a Quote

Send us the species, diameter and length of your logs, with a few photos, and we'll reply with a real price.

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