Removing trees around homes is expensive. What are they paying for?

[softdown]

Homeowner was pleased to pay only $250 for removal of a small/medium pine tree that was severally leaning and about to block his driveway. Took me an hour after I got there. Was thinking about how well tree removal pays before proceeding to back the trailer into a small Makita battery chainsaw. Damaged but still working. But seems significantly weaker now.

We all know the risks and expenses of tree removal:
Dangerous job. Some would argue very dangerous.
Expensive equipment. Can be very expensive.
Insurance
Frequently brutally hard work.
Time is compounded by need to deliver an in person bid then send an invoice.
Improperly dropped tree can literally destroy whatever they land on.

 

[ChillyB]

Paid $300 for two trees that were near my shop. Guy went up on hooks, climbed and topped them before dropping the trunks. Guy did not have insurance, just an old pickup truck and some saws that I'd say most on this site would argue weren't nearly "pro" enough or big enough.

The guy with insurance and pro saws wanted $2000.

 

[CobraChevelle]

Homeowner was pleased to pay only $250 for removal of a small/medium pine tree that was severally leaning and about to block his driveway. Took me an hour after I got there. Was thinking about how well tree removal pays before proceeding to back the trailer into a small Makita battery chainsaw. Damaged but still working. But seems significantly weaker now.

We all know the risks and expenses of tree removal:
Dangerous job. Some would argue very dangerous.
Expensive equipment. Can be very expensive.
Insurance
Frequently brutally hard work.
Time is compounded by need to deliver an in person bid then send an invoice.
Improperly dropped tree can literally destroy whatever they land on.

I was quoted 12k to clear a 1.5 acre plot... I went out and bought a backhoe and chainsaw for 13k...

 

[softdown]

Paid $300 for two trees that were near my shop. Guy went up on hooks, climbed and topped them before dropping the trunks. Guy did not have insurance, just an old pickup truck and some saws that I'd say most on this site would argue weren't nearly "pro" enough or big enough.

The guy with insurance and pro saws wanted $2000.

So many people have heard about shocking prices that I quit telling repair shops that I do tree service. It never helped. At all.

Anyway the perfect storm hit today. Rope snapped and dropped a 100' pine on a gazebo. Had the "perfect" face cut with the right hinge on the back cut and used two wedges. The lean was too severe. There were several other factors in this "perfect storm" of events.
Going back to winches. Rope on a skid steer didn't work out so well. The skid steer was already in the neighborhood this time.

Figuring I lost 5 times more than I would have made. Perhaps more.

 

[OM617YOTA]

I paid $2k to have three cottonwoods taken down, wedged between my shop and the neighbor's house. Precisely zero chance I'd have let someone who wasn't licensed/bonded/insured do that. So many things that could go wrong that would make the $1500 extra look like chump change. I paid it happily.

 

[lone wolf]

I paid $2k to have three cottonwoods taken down, wedged between my shop and the neighbor's house. Precisely zero chance I'd have let someone who wasn't licensed/bonded/insured do that. So many things that could go wrong that would make the $1500 extra look like chump change. I paid it happily.

How big were they?

 

[OM617YOTA]

80+ feet tall, don't remember exactly. Stumps 5-6ft in diameter.

 

[lone wolf]

80+ feet tall, don't remember exactly. Stumps 5-6ft in diameter.

Was that all cleaned up and removed or just left there? If it was all removed that was a low price.

 

[OM617YOTA]

Was that all cleaned up and removed or just left there? If it was all removed that was a low price.

As close to a no cleanup job as possible, given the need to keep the limited drop zone open. Chip the brush, dump chips on site.

It was also ~7 years ago. That wasn't that long ago, but $2000 went farther back then.

 

[Blue Oaks]

FWIW, I paid $1500 to have a crew of four guys with insurance bring down about a sixty foot cypress and chip the branches other than what would be firewood. It also had a fairly rotten core after seeing the rounds. I don't know how they made any money on that one. Four guys took about 4 hours, plus two trucks including the chipper.

I got a quote from the same outfit to bring down 2 fifty foot Atlas Cedars that are wedged in between power lines and my rental unit. Again, to chip the branches but leave the firewood they quoted $3800. He said they'd need a bucket truck for those. The Atlas is a great firewood and burns a lot like oak from what I could tell after taking down a much shorter one on my own.

Atlas Cedars are native to the Atlas Mtns in Morocco. They look like this file photo below.

 

[Lightning Performance]

They pay for knowledge and experience not tools and clean up. I see both as separate but on the same site or another words as one number.

 

[cookies]

The price paid is to cover any property damages, hurt individuals and equipment needed. A single sawyer in a pickup truck could cost a company over 150,000 to today to cover the truck, saws and other tools plus about double per hour the wages for the sawyer from insurance, fuel and maint. At least those are the figures shared with me by a couple tree service owners I have cornered to talk saws with.

 

[lone wolf]

As close to a no cleanup job as possible, given the need to keep the limited drop zone open. Chip the brush, dump chips on site.

It was also ~7 years ago. That wasn't that long ago, but $2000 went farther back then.

Still a great price.

 

[ElevatorGuy]

My pro buddy climbs and has his own big chip truck and a large diesel chipper. On a normal climb job he charges between 14-1800 a day. Number of trees doesn’t matter, based on what he can get done in a day. I was shocked when he told me he charged 10 grand for a single tree a while back. Crane job with zero drop zone.

 

[Lightning Performance]

They pay for knowledge and experience not tools and clean up. I see both as separate but on the same site or another words as one number.

Speaking about this makes me want go sell my chipper and find a dependable ground crew with one or a company who wants to do clean up like landscapers. Of they have a climber I can cut and rope, even better for me, less work than climbing. I've had my fill of all of it. Logs of the fat nature is about all that interest me now. A young crew with small equipment would be perfect. Teach them how to rig for removals then I take over if needed when they get to the big limb arms and chunking. I'm interested in meat not the wings and urban crews just keep chunking till there ain't none left. That's great if I need firewood or tiny slabs. I'm more into the seventeen to thirty two foot logs not chunks. If they hate firewood I can bring a second trailer the day before for them to load. I'd even bring the chipper if they wanted to drag the brush and haul the chip away. Only about a quarter of the people want hardwood chips in the off season when the leaves are not on it. Another job this guy is needing to be done with is moving any brush, **** that, young mans game!