A "Hack" just did my Cottonwood removal

[CJ-7]

I have a 42" dbh, 100 foot tall cottonwood smack dab on the property line with my neighbor. There appeared to be some root rot and a lot of exposed roots that I kept trimming with my mower. But his house was more at risk with the tree location and prevailing winds. I offered that if he ever wanted it removed, I would split the cost with him. While I was out of town in November, he texted me that he had two bids for removal, $3500 and $1900. Of course the $1900 was manageable, but not the higher number. So I agreed. My neighbor supposedly checked their insurance, as it was his house that would suffer if they screwed up. They did place some protection over his skylights.

A week ago last Thursday they showed up, a two man crew, a beater F350 box truck that looked like it had been in a fire with an big, old two axle Morbark chipper and an old Jeep Cherokee with a fairly new single axle trailer for the wood, which they were to take away. No stump removal. They had two saws, a Stihl 200 for climbing and a 440 Magnum with a 25" bar. No PPE at all. One day they had a third guy on the crew. It took them at least 5 days to finish the removal. Other than a lot of bomb craters in the lawn, there was no damage to either house. Two days ago they knocked on the door asking for a $100 cash advance to buy gas. Today they asked to borrow a 5 gallon gas can. Must have forgotten to bring theirs. One day I looked and they were feeding the chipper by hanging onto the safety bar (not hooked up) and pushing brush into it with two feet, I couldn't even watch. To make sure they missed the house they hooked their bull rope to the Jeep and pulled the trunk after making almost through cuts. After dark. It turned out the limbs and trunk were solid without any rot whatsoever.

I paid an extra $200 to have them trim up an 18" Silver Maple. I insisted that he not spike the tree, he agreed, but it was obvious that he hadn't climbed without spikes for about 20 years. He did manage to get into the tree with a ladder and free climb most of it (lanyard only) and use a Stihl powered pole saw. He did toss a rope up for some additional stability on some difficult limbs, but you could see he was struggling. Trim job was fine in the end.

I guess these guys were what you call hacks?

I wrote a check to the company name on their card, but I had to rewrite to the owner it when he said they don't have a bank account in the company name. Bottom line, they did the job without any property damage or personal injury and we saved $1600. I have mixed feelings over the whole caper.

 

[Del_]

Thanks for the work, my kids needed shoes!

 

[CJ-7]

I hear you. Like I say, mixed feelings.

 

[gorman]

Take the money you saved and fix the lawn.

 

[Grais]

You get what you pay for.
You wanted a cut rate tree job, and you got a cut rate tree job, thankfully nobody was killed.
It always amazes me what people think this work goes for, I get people almost daily asking if I could just trim this little tree up, you know use the bucket truck thing you have, or just climb up there twenty feet, itll just take five or ten minutes, how about a 6 pack. I dont drink thanks but no thanks.
Ive had people accuse me of trying to rip them off just giiving them a quote,
'I wasnt born yesterday Sonny..."
So I have the number of a tree hack, he is a hack of hacks, when people balk at the price, I give them 'Wayne the hacker' number(hes a very nice guy, just an extremely ****** arborist) Ohhhh you want to save some money I got just the guy for you, no insurance, no nothing, but he'll get the tree down.
LOL.

 

[tidy]

I'm not sure on the accurate situation regarding exchange rates etc (I'm located in Oz) but at the end of the day you had two (sometimes three guys) doing hazardous, difficult and risky work for five days straight- they also used their own equipment,vehicles, fuel and removed a decent amount of debris. You payed them peanuts and thinks that fine because they managed to avoid damaging any property or themselves?

By taking lowball offers customer like yourself are basically creating the environment and conditions where accidents are likely to happen. Jobs priced too low are rushed to get done and in the rush someone has a ****up, its more common than you think but obviously has nothing to do with you because on your job there was no incident. Nice Work

 

[bigremovals]

It took them five days they must not of been in to much of a hurry haha....... i couldn't even imagine a job takin that long

 

[treeseer]

I'd have mixed feelings, too, if I lost the real estate value and the other benefits of a mature tree + $950.

All because of root damage (by your lawnmower) and your wild imagination.

Mycophobia is an all too common disease. Paranoia struck deep, into your wallet.

 

[CJ-7]

I knew I would get skewered for posting this, you haven't disappointed me. Truth is my neighbor chose the guy. I guess I should have told him that I would rather pay $3500 to remove one tree with easy access. Had I asked here if $1900 were a fair price, given all the particulars of the tree, I would have a few yes answers. So you need a new septic tank, and one guy bids $3500 and the other $1900. Both are insured and licensed (whatever that means) and both have done work in the area, and at the end of the day, both pass inspection. How much more research will you do to choose one guy over the other? Would you ask for a list of equipment and his safety equipment? Would you ask if his workers are drug tested? Heck no. How many of you are going to pay the higher amount when it is coming out of your pocket? None of you. Cottonwoods? I hate them, they are one of the dirtiest trees God ever created. Not the cotton, it is all of the stickies it dumps on the lawn, the car and the deck for at least two months out of the summer. I wish it had been Emerald Cottonwood Borer rather than EAB. We will probably plant another more suitable tree in the same spot in a year or two. By the way, we didn't pay them peanuts, we paid them what they asked for the job, no negotiating it down. And, I have seen plenty of examples posted here where otherwise reputable appearing tree guys f*** up. I'm not defending them, I am just saying don't blame the homeowner when they pay a fair price and a "hack" shows up. As far as the craters in the lawn? Most tree guys I have witnessed, large and small, often bomb pieces to the ground. Not saying it is right, its just how they often do it around here. The minute I go out and start telling them half way through a job how to be safe is the minute I start taking on liability for their safety program, or lack of it.

 

[Zale]

Someone is a little sensitive.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Nothing about this post makes sense.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Nothing about this post makes sense.

 

[TreeAce]

you and your neighbor are just lucky no one got hurt or God forbid,killed. Cuz you both woulda got your nuts sued off. They obv have no workers comp. Even if they do actually have liability insurance doesnt mean **** if someone gets hurt.

 

[Oak Savanna]

Nothing about this post makes sense.

Exactly. So they have no PPE, they pull the peg over with a jeep, need a cash advance, borrow a gas can, feeding a chipper with no working safety bar by using their feet, and then you turn around and hire them to trim up a silver maple on your property!? You have to re-write a cheque to them personally because they don't have a company bank account?! One minute you are saying you can't even watch that performance and the next you hire them on to do extra work on your property. I would say that your neighbour and you rolled the dice and got lucky. You do realize that if they do not have workers comp and you hire them YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM! You are paying them to do a job so now YOU ARE THEIR EMPLOYER! I wonder why they were so much cheaper! Did your neighbour check the date on the insurance certificate (if he even saw one) and make sure it was vaid and up to date, paid in full and says "tree trimming and removal" and not roofing or landscaping! Not sure? Call the insurance company they are with and ask! They likely don't pay into workers comp (ask for a valid certificate for that too) they probably don't have pay roll and make source deductions, have insurance on their vehicles, have a registered licenced business, they have no PPE or safety certifications, the list goes on! Sure they can work for cheaper by avoiding all those costs. $500 less then the other guy is one thing but $1600 less you gotta wonder why and you should have had sirens go off in your head! (You are lucky you didn't hear sirens at you house that week) You aren't even comparing apples to apples with these clowns and a legit tree business! You post something stupid like this and then whine that you are getting ripped apart and then blame it on your neighbour for hiring them. Well since the tree was on the property line and you paid half, you have just as much say in it as he does! You even mentioned that as soon as you start telling them what they should and should not be doing you are responsible for them!! I don't know what kind of response you wanted from people on here with posts like that! I would be embarrassed to post something so stupid myself. You seem to know more about safe tree work then them, how they should be doing it and what PPE they need, you even knew what length of bar they had on their saw, had to tell em not to wear spurs on a trim, so why not do it yourself?! I bet as soon as something went wrong you would have put all the blame on your neighbour for hiring them! I would take that money you saved and buy some lottery tickets with your neighbour while good luck is on your side! Like it was mentioned above, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!! Merry Christmas CJ

 

[Del_]

Don't be so hard on this guy fellows, he and his neighbor were great to work for. Our kids needed shoes, two of us needed money to get our drivers licenses back and all three of us had probation officer fees that were lagging.

We did bid it low but made up some selling the firewood as Quercus trichocarpa (cotton oak).

 

[CJ-7]

Ah, now I remember why I quit visiting this site. Blame the homeowner, not the tree guy. Who is being a little sensitive.

 

[Toddppm]

Haha, you wanted an attaboy and high five for saving some $$$$ hiring a hack?

 

[Zale]

The tree guy is only trying to make a buck. You as the homeowner have the ultimate decision making authority. If you let these guys on your property, whose fault is that?

 

[Oak Savanna]

Ah, now I remember why I quit visiting this site. Blame the homeowner, not the tree guy. Who is being a little sensitive.

THEY WERE ONLY THERE BECAUSE YOU HIRED THEM!!! You saw how they worked and lack of PPE and you still let it go on! A$$holes like that are only around because guys like you keep them going. It's not fair that they don't play by the rules and others do. Do it right or don't do it at all. It's s 100 foot tall tree over 2 properties! Do your homework. You shopped by price and didn't look at it any other way.

 

[Oak Savanna]

Haha, you wanted an attaboy and high five for saving some $$$$ hiring a hack?

Exactly! I don't even know what the point of this post was in the first place?! He's seems happy he saved some money, no one got hurt and no one got sued, then he is carving up the tree guys then blaming his neighbour. He titles it "A hack just did my cottonwood removal" then after telling us how big of cowboys they were he asks if that's what we would call a hack! I don't get it?! I don't even know why this garbage is on here in the first place! It should be in the homeowner forum.