Another homeowner special

[Dadatwins]

Received a call from a customer of mine from last year to remove some stumps in her yard. She told me her husband was going to remove the trees and she would need estimate on 4 stumps.
Stopped by on my way home , and found husband in the yard with a blue Makita 18" chain saw wedged into the trunk of a live 18" x 50' red oak leaning towards their house. He had started to make lower cut on notch and tree sat on saw about 1/3 of the way in. Tree was leaning right towards house. Had no rope in the tree. Calmly asked the now cursing husband what was his plan, and he said he was going to "cut pie in tree and push it towards the woods" the tree would have to take a 90 degree right turn against the lean to do this. Asked if he was going to put a rope in it to pull and he said "he did not need it, he was going to push it over when it started to fall" I asked him to step back and look at lean of tree and location of house and how sure he was that his plan would work. Now the wife comes out and asked what was the problem. I showed her same situation and she asked me what would I charge to finish job since she did not want her house damaged. Told them $125.00 to put the tree on the ground and cut it up now. After wife and husband have a few choice words he goes into the house and she tells me to do the job. Took off the motor from the stuck saw and left the bar & chain in the trunk. Spiked up about 30' limbed out on the way up and dropped top into woods. Came down and cut it up, total time spent 1 hour 15 minutes including talk time & reassembling his now unstuck saw. Wife was thrilled with job and husband says that price was kinda high since I did it so quick. Felt like asking him about pricing new roof but I have to go back and do stump tommorow.
Can't help thinking if I had showed up later and found tree on house the good laugh I would have had.

 

[wiley_p]

Your price was very fair, sounds like guarranteed refferals from that customer. Was the husband a little buzzed? I would have paid money to see him try to push it if he got the saw out.

 

[hobby climber]

Had kinda the same situation this past spring. Home owner hired me to grind out about 18 stumps on property and said he would take down last three trees himself. Two are easy but the other was a dead white ash killed by the emerald ash boar (E.A.B.). This ash was 15' higher than the top wires of a high voltage power line and leaning over it quite a bit. I asked the home owner how he planed to do it & he said "just cut a knotch in the direction its to fall and back cut the sucker". I told him about the the lean and the high voltage wires and he said it doesn't matter so long and you make your knotch in the right position! This bothered me quite a bit, I could not be sure if this guy was pulling my leg or if he wanted to get himself Bar-B-Qed. I came back a couple days later to talk to him but he was at work. I explained to his wife about the wires and what could happen. She said that her husban was planning on doing it himself because he didn't want to pay any more money. This guys logic,(or lack of it) scared the hell out of me. He has a wife and two young kids to think of and yet when faced with a potential life or death situation, he only thinks about how he can save a few bucks. . I ended up rigging it myself and pulling it over with my truck to keep it away from the power lines. Came down nice, controled and SAFE. I did it for free because I could not live with guilt if buddy died and I was able to prevent it. Took me about 20 minuts to take it down to the ground ... but its a small price to pay for peace of mind!!!:angel: . You guys have something like this happen to you ??? If so ,I'd like to know what you did in your situation!

 

[Stumper]

I tend to agree with Dan-I don't think I want to climb a tree that was cut enough to pinch a bar.-Time for seting a line and placing a good pull on it.
-Dada-sounds like your price was reasonable but the husband wasn't.

 

[wiley_p]

Was it not some of you fellas that were advocating climbing a dead pine after being hit by lightning, yet you wont climb a green oak that is sitting on around 11" of wood? I'm not disagreeing with you just checking.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

I'm not even going to comment...other than to say...forget it. I'd be wasting my breath.

We need a place to put stupid threads together, so we can look at them when we need a laugh.

 

[treeman82]

I remember a while ago I was at a client's place to prune this white oak. The next door neighbor was in the middle of taking down some dinky, dead elm trees which were leaning towards my client's place. I went over and introduced myself, they weren't interested. So I just sat there in my truck with my helper and watched the guy, cursing myself that I hadn't brought a camera with me that day. Sure enough though, he called me over and paid my price to get it down to the ground after he had given up.

 

[arboromega]

it seems like all these types of stories end with the woman telling the man how stupid he is and letting the pro do it...
i call it the home depot disease. everybody thinks they can do anything for themselves.
heres a good one for you...
i go to visit my parents and my dad,in his mid 60s, is hanging off an aluminum ladder in a 50' oak with a belt under his arpits - and piece of wax covered yellow rope tied to the belt and to the tree. his homelite chainsaw running in his right hand, left one clinging to the ladder. guy knew i was coming over with my gear too. told me he wanted to do it like the pros. glad he didnt die like that, my own pops would have been a darwin award.

 

[Bradley]

I would've lent him my saw and 2 spare chains just to see him drop it on his house if he insisted on doing it himself!

 

[Husky372]

Originally posted by Bradley
I would've lent him my saw and 2 spare chains just to see him drop it on his house if he insisted on doing it himself!

the problm with that is he would wind up sueing you becuase you lent him your saws and then watched as he dropped it on his house.

 

[Bradley]

Crazy f*^&*ng ba$%#rd stole my saw and two chains after I said I couldn't help him and advised him of his fate!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Whaaaaat???

 

[a_lopa]

i would have rubbed salt im the sooks wounds,charged 500 min then done it in 5 minutes and demanded cash.not worth getting involved, otherwise i would have driven off.i done one similar last week.

 

[begleytree]

I agree with down under, 125 was way too cheap to fix an emergency that he himself created in the first place, though 500 would be a bit steep.
I seriously doubt that his homeowners insurance would have paid either, once they saw the cut he had made.

Never go cheap on jackas5es of all trades.

-Ralph

 

[jaymay75]

Ever think of doing something like saying to the customer, "Pay me $500 and I'll remove your tree. I'll also show you why you failed and teach you how to safely take trees down.

As a homeowner, I'd fee ripped off if someone took $500 off of me and took a tree out in 10 min and walked away.

But if someone showed me what I was doing wrong, how to make the cuts, how to place a rope, where to tie it off at. Showed me how to maintain a saw, and or why my $100 Wal mart special saw sucks. I'd feel better paying $500. I'd see it as a learning experience vs. someone getting rich off of my mistake.

Chances are, after a homeowner sees what is all involved, he'd hire you to drop other trees he has anyways.

 

[Husky372]

let him drop it on his house then you can make more getting it off

 

[NYCHA FORESTER]

When I was in the Private Sector I stopped by a clients house that we had not worked at in years. (I was new to the Co. and trying to mend fences with these types of clients). As I was walking toward this house (about 1/4 mile away from the Clinton abode) when I noticed a 16" Beech with a long vertical crack opening and closing every time the wind blew. When the tree finally fails (at any moment) it was going land in a direction parallel with the direction of the roof ridge line either on the edge of the roof or directly in front of it.

I knock on the door and advise the wife (who got quite agitated that I interupted her phone conversation) that the tree is going to fall at anytime and not to let anybody out of the house through the front door. She did not want to be bothered and said that here husband would look at it when he got home. I pleaded with her DO NOT LET ANYONE OUT IN THE FRONT YARD!. She naturally dismissed me.

I wrote on and estimate sheet that the tree is a hazard and will fail at anytime. Had her Aupair sign it and date it and gave them a copy of it.

Sure enough, a storm went through that night and the tree came down..... luckily it only ripped out the house service, cable, and phone line, the entire length of gutter from one side of the house to the other, mashed up the edge of the roof, and torn off a half dozen clapboards on this (at least) $850,000 house.

They hired another company to do the removal, stump, and clean up..........

 

[knudeNoggin]

Originally posted by hobby climber
... I told him about the the lean and the high voltage wires and he said it doesn't matter so long and you make your knotch in the right position!
... This guys logic,(or lack of it) scared the hell out of me. He has a wife and two young kids to think of and yet when faced with a potential life or death situation, he only thinks about how he can save a few bucks. . I ended up rigging it myself and pulling it over with my truck to keep it away from the power lines. ... I did it for free because I could not live with guilt if buddy died and I was able to prevent it. Took me about 20 minuts to take it down to the ground ... but its a small price to pay for peace of mind!!!

Well, this is one of the best things I've read--so very nice
to see a conscience in action! Three cheers & bravo! :angel: :angel:

You have to realize that there are those on the opposite end of the
moral spectrum, who would see nothing yet propose any sort
of scam for $$$; the uninitiated might simply not be able
to evaluate what you saw so well, re problem/need.
In some recent news, there was mention of a new law against such scammers,
or just a name for those (or a name of the game they play)
who expressly target elderly people for bogus work.

(I can think of a use for your truck & ropes for them, too!)

Thanks,
--knudenoggin

 

[taznleo1]

Dad, You got more sack than I. I wouldn't have climbed it. I am from the Petersburg area. I need to get you number, just in case I run across something like that. I looked at a lot of jobs after the Hurricane and turned down quite a few. Because some of the trees I ran across were leaners and I didn't have the sack to climb them. $125 seems more than fair. I commend you.

 

[Dadatwins]

Tree was 18" live red oak only cut about a 1/3, enough to pinch saw and still had 2/3 live wood holding it. Probably would have handle it different if it was dead or different species but that is the thrill of this biz, every job different, no tree the same.