What is timber really costing you?
Three numbers from your last timber order. We'll show you the next ten years.
Fine-tune freight, disposal & discount rate
Timber will cost you .
A recycled HDPE fleet comes out ahead at anything under a mat.That price already counts the timing: you pay for HDPE once, up front, and for timber over ten years.
See the breakdown
| Timber | Recycled HDPE | |
|---|---|---|
| Mats you buy | ||
| Mat spend | On your quoteone purchase, priced to your fleet | |
| Truckloads | ||
| Freight | ||
| Disposal | $0buy-back offer instead | |
| Total cash over 10 years | ||
| Worth todayhow a finance team values it, 8% a year |
Fewer trucks also means about 0 gallons of diesel and 0 lb of CO₂ avoided.
Weighing composite instead?
| For 1,500 mats | New composite | Recycled HDPE |
|---|---|---|
| Buy the fleet | Below new compositequoted to your fleet | |
| Or rent it for a year | Own it insteadfinance in-house, buy-back offer at the end | |
| Thickness | 4" | 5", 8" or 12" |
Composite: published list prices for 7.5'–8' × 14' × 4" panels ($3,250–$4,200 each, more for custom builds) and indicative rental of $50–$120 per mat per month before freight, handling and cleaning, October 2026.
Want the reasons behind the numbers? Why HDPE · Plan your job · Own the fleet
How we calculate this
Ten-year comparison. Timber is bought at the start and again each time it wears out at the life you enter; a recycled HDPE fleet is bought once. HDPE mat pricing is quoted per fleet and is not in the HDPE total, so the break-even is the most an HDPE mat could cost before timber comes out cheaper. It counts the timing of payments: HDPE is paid once up front, timber over ten years, and money spent later is valued at the rate you set (8% by default, the way a finance team would). Set it to 0 to compare straight cash. If your timber price includes delivery (the default), timber freight is not added again; uncheck it to add freight on top. Hauling back out counts one trip out for every worn timber mat and one buy-back pickup for the HDPE fleet at year ten. Enter your own freight rate or discount rate if you know them.
How we calculate: weights and mats per truck are GroundUp's own shipping figures, for our recycled HDPE mats and for regular mixed-hardwood timber mats of the same size: 3-ply 8' × 14' timber at 2,400 lb (20 per truck), 8' × 16' at 2,600 lb (17–18 per truck; we use 18), and 8" × 4' digging mats at 2,600 lb (16') and 2,700 lb (18'), 18 per truck. HDPE digging figures are for notched mats; chains add about 30 lb per mat. Timber is bought at the start and again each time it wears out, counted in whole purchases over ten years. Freight is estimated road miles from our Winnie, TX yard at $3.64 per mile (DAT national flatbed average, Oct 16, 2026), 500 miles without a ZIP, and assumes timber travels the same distance. Dollar figures are cash over ten years. Run the Numbers also shows what that spending is worth today, the way a finance team would value it (8% a year). CO₂ counts the round trip at 6 mpg and EPA's 22.4 lb per gallon; a typical car emits about 10,140 lb a year. Excludes any HDPE buy-back offer and used-timber resale. Planning estimates, not a quote.