When a tree comes down in the west GTA, most of the wood ends up hauled away and paid for twice, once to remove it and once to dispose of it. If you have a fireplace, a wood stove, or a fire pit, there is a better answer sitting on your lawn. Our firewood processing service bucks and splits logs from removals into usable firewood, right on your property, in Milton, Halton Hills, Oakville, Burlington, and across our service area. We handle everything from a single trunk to a full removal's worth of wood, cutting rounds to your stove length, usually 14 to 16 inches, splitting them with a hydraulic splitter, and stacking wherever you want it. The starting price of $100 covers a small pile with easy access, and bigger jobs get a free written on-site quote. It pairs naturally with a removal we are already doing, since the wood goes straight from felling to the splitter and you skip disposal costs on wood you might otherwise buy back as firewood next fall. But we also process piles other companies left behind, and logs that have been sitting in the yard since the last storm.
What's included
- A look through the pile with you first, sorting wood worth keeping, ash, maple, oak, and other hardwoods, from punky or rotten wood that will never burn well.
- Bucking trunks and limbs to your length, usually 14 to 16 inches for stoves and fireplaces, or whatever your firebox actually takes, measured rather than guessed.
- Splitting the rounds with a hydraulic splitter into the sizes you want, from smaller kindling-friendly splits up to larger overnight logs.
- Quartering oversized trunk rounds with the saw first, since big silver maple or oak rounds are far too heavy to lift onto a splitter whole.
- Stacking the split wood where you want it, in rows off the ground where possible, or leaving it in a pile if you would rather stack it yourself.
- Hauling away the rejects, rotten wood, dirt-caked pieces, and anything not worth your shed space, if you want them gone.
- A rake-down of sawdust, bark, and chips from the work area so the lawn is not left looking like a mill floor.
- Straight advice on seasoning, including which species in your pile will be ready to burn first and how to stack for airflow.
How it works
- Call or text photos of the log pile with something in the shot for scale. Small piles can often be priced from photos alone.
- Larger piles or mixed jobs get a free written on-site quote, so the price is on paper before you commit.
- No permit is involved in processing wood that is already down. If the tree is still standing, the removal side may need one, and we sort that out first.
- We buck, split, and stack in a single visit for most residential piles.
- We rake down the work area and walk it with you before we leave.
What moves the price above starting at $100
- Volume drives the price. Starting at $100 covers bucking and splitting a small pile with easy access. A full mature-tree removal can produce a serious quantity of wood, and that is a longer day.
- Round size matters. Trunk rounds from a big silver maple or oak are too heavy to lift whole, so they get quartered with the saw first, which adds cutting time to every piece.
- Species changes the work. Straight-grained ash splits almost politely. Elm and crotch wood from big maples is stringy and fights the splitter, so a pile heavy in those takes longer.
- Access counts. If the wood sits where the splitter can park beside it, the job moves fast. Carrying rounds from a backyard to a front-yard splitter adds handling time on every single piece.
- Stacking is optional labour. Leaving splits in a pile is fastest. Stacking in neat rows, or carrying wood to a shed or side yard, adds time that we price honestly up front.
- Metal in yard trees is real. Old clothesline hooks, fence nails, and wire grown into trunk wood slow the cutting and can wreck a chain, so wood we know is suspect gets handled more carefully.
- Hauling the rejects is its own line. If we take away rotten and unusable wood, disposal weight gets added to the quote, and if you keep everything on site, it does not.
Starting at $100, quoted in writing before any work starts.
On-site visit, written quote, no obligation. Usually within 24 hours of your call.
When you need this
- We are removing a tree for you anyway and you burn wood. Having the same crew split the trunk instead of hauling it turns a disposal cost into next winter's heat.
- An EAB-killed ash came down or is coming down. Ash is some of the best firewood in Ontario, it splits easily and seasons faster than most hardwoods, and the GTA has no shortage of it right now.
- A storm dropped a silver maple trunk or major limbs on your lawn, and rather than pay to have decent hardwood hauled off, you want it cut and split where it lies.
- A previous contractor removed the tree cheap and left the logs, and after a year of mowing around the pile you want it turned into something useful.
- You bought a place in Milton or Halton Hills with a wood stove and an inherited log pile of unknown vintage, and you want it sorted, split, and stacked before winter.
- A declining Norway maple came out of the backyard, and the trunk wood is dense, decent-burning maple you would rather keep than pay to dispose of.
Local notes for the west GTA
Processing wood that is already down needs no permit anywhere we work. The bylaws in this area regulate removing standing trees, and even there, the two municipalities where wood heat is most common are the lightest touch: Milton has no private-tree permit for most residential lots, and Halton Hills has no private tree bylaw at all, though one is under study. If your wood is coming from a removal that has not happened yet, thresholds like Toronto's 30 cm, Burlington's 20 cm, or Vaughan's 20 cm in Woodbridge apply to the removal, and Vaughan runs a simplified permit stream for dead, hazardous, and EAB-killed trees that does not require an arborist report. One piece of honest advice that applies everywhere: burn your firewood near where the tree grew. Moving firewood long distances is how pests like emerald ash borer got around Ontario in the first place, so wood split in your yard should stay in your neighbourhood.
Where we provide this service
Frequently asked questions
What does the $100 starting price cover? +
Starting at $100 covers a small job: bucking and splitting a modest pile of logs sitting somewhere the splitter can reach easily, with the splits left in a pile. The price climbs with volume, with round size, since big trunk rounds have to be quartered by saw before they fit a splitter, and with handling, like carrying wood out of a backyard or stacking it in rows. If we are already on site doing the removal, adding processing is usually cheaper than booking it as a separate visit, because the wood is staged and the equipment is there. Either way you get a written number before we start, and that number does not move unless the job does.
Which trees make good firewood here? +
The west GTA's most common removals happen to include some of Ontario's better firewood. Ash, and there is a lot of dead ash around because of emerald ash borer, splits cleanly and seasons faster than most hardwoods. Sugar maple and oak burn long and hot once properly dried. Norway maple and silver maple are a step down, lighter wood and a faster burn, but completely fine for fire pits and shoulder-season fires, and they are free wood already on your lawn. Softwoods like spruce and cedar burn fast and spark more, better outdoors than in a stove. When we sort your pile we tell you plainly which wood is worth your shed space and which is not.
When should I have wood split so it is ready for winter? +
Earlier than most people think. Freshly split hardwood needs to season before it burns well, roughly six months to a year for ash and the maples, and up to two years for dense oak. Wood split in spring gets a full summer of drying and is usually ready by the cold season, sometimes the following one for oak. Wood split in October will mostly smoulder in January. So the best time to book this service is spring or early summer, and the second-best time is right now, because the clock only starts once the wood is split and stacked with airflow. Rounds sitting whole in a pile barely dry at all.
Is wood from an EAB-killed ash safe to burn? +
Yes. Emerald ash borer kills the tree, but it does nothing to the wood's value as firewood. The larvae live just under the bark, so the borer damage you see is surface tunneling, not rot through the log. Dead standing ash has often already started seasoning on the stump, which means it can be ready to burn sooner than freshly felled live wood. The one rule that matters: keep the wood local. Moving ash firewood to the cottage is exactly how this beetle spread across Ontario. Burn it in the same neighbourhood it grew in, and it is some of the best stove wood you can get without paying for it.
Do you sell or deliver firewood? +
No. This service processes wood that is already on your property, usually from a removal we are doing or a pile someone left behind. We are an arborist operation, not a firewood yard, and we would rather be straight about that than take an order we cannot fill. What we can do is make sure you never have to buy back your own tree. If we are quoting a removal for you and you heat with wood or run a fire pit, say so at the quote stage. We will price the job with the trunk wood bucked, split, and stacked instead of hauled, and you keep the wood along with the disposal savings.
Can you split wood that has been sitting in a pile for years? +
Usually yes, with a sorting pass first. Hardwood logs kept off wet ground stay solid for years and split fine. Wood in ground contact rots from the bottom of the pile up, so an old pile is typically a mix: sound wood on top, punk on the bottom. We sort as we go, split what is worth keeping, and either leave the rejects or haul them, your call. Two things to know about old piles: they are a favourite home for carpenter ants and other insects, which is a good reason to keep stacked firewood away from the house, and wood that sat in a heap without airflow may still need a summer of proper stacking before it burns really well.