tree removal from pool

[wojo23323]

I have a lawn care business and was wondering what the going rate for removing the tree from the pool and dispose of all debris. the dump is 5 miles from the location. The tree is a dead pine and is 18" in dia. and 20 foot long (which is in the pool). There is another 15 feet that is outside of the pool. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[wojo23323]

Here is another pic.

 

[Treeman14]

I'd say the average lawn guy would charge about $100 for that job.

 

[Tim Gardner]

From what you have described and from the two attached pics it looks like a 30 minute job. I would charge your minimum fee. Hit that job up on the way to your next and add that debris to the tipping fee. Be careful cutting the log up as you drag it out of the pool. Blocking wet wood gives the saw a hard time keeping the bar oiled.

 

[TREETX]

simple formula

(Length of tree x depth of pool x distance to the dump)squared by the stupidity factor of the customer for leaving that widowmaker standing

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Time and materials, I would not bid anything like that since I would probably have to go home and dry out later.

Did the homeowner drop it there trying to remove it?

Job time needs to be figured Portal to Portal. Get all your drive times figured in, there aint no 1/2 hour jobs unless they are right across form your shop.

All that deadwood twiggy stuff is a PITA to rake up, so there is like 20 min of fine raking after the big stuff is dragged out.

 

[TREETX]

I didn't know it was dead, but it hasn't had needles for the last 4 years.

 

[wojo23323]

Thanks for the replies. Let me add one or two things. It is my pool and my neighbors tree that blew into it yesterday. Their insurance is covering it. I could have called someone else to remove it, but I figured I could do it. I was figuring 3 hours labor plus dump fee. I already removed it from the pool. It took me 1 hour and I didn't get wet.

 

[TREETX]

I think I confused your curiousity for cluelessness. My apologies. Glad you got it taken care of. That sounds about right. Didn't know insurance covered damage from graveyard-dead trees. I have seen those claims rejected at times because it is a known hazard on the property kind of like storing gasoline and lit candles in the same corner of your garage - then disaster happens.

Congrats on staying dry. I wouldn't have gotten wet either because I would have had my ground help remove it and they wouldn't be in Texas if they were afraid of swimming or getting wet.

 

[Tim Gardner]

Originally posted by John Paul Sanborn


Job time needs to be figured Portal to Portal. Get all your drive times figured in, there aint no 1/2 hour jobs unless they are right across form your shop.

JPS,

There are plenty of 1/2 hour jobs. I have worked them and there will be more of them. Like I wrote in my previous post, hit that job up on the way to your next. It would suck if you had to return to your shop after every job. The easy part of tree work is the actual removal. The hard part is the business end. Planning the day’s jobs can mean the difference in winning a bid and wasting your time bidding it. You have to gamble a little and assume you will be stopping off on the way to another job to complete that one. Doing so you do not have to add extra for travel time. Figure in the debris of a small job into a larger one.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

Insurance will cover the cost after the deductable. If your neighbor has a $500 deductable, the insurance company won't pay a cent.
That looks like a $1500 job to me. Plus cleaning your pool, replaceing the entire filtration system, and I think the bump from the tree may have made your pool smaller so add on the cost of making your pool big again, plus...

 

[Toddppm]

Bonus for you , but why is their ins. paying for it? It's on your side, your problem now(your ins.) Unless they knew it was obviously dead and they're just covering themselves by paying for it?

 

[wojo23323]

We both have allstate ins. and they are doing a liabilty claim on their policy. The pool liner is torn, the pool lost 1/2 of its water, the wall is dented and two sections of concrete are cracked. I just want the pool to be like it was. It was only two years old. I just wanted to get a fair price to charge. I know what my costs are for mowing lawns, trimming shrubs etc. but i am unsure of rates charged by tree companies.

 

[Toddppm]

BTW what part of SE Va. are you in? Looks like the mow biz is alot better there than here, nice house

 

[wojo23323]

I live in Chesapeake. Most of my business is in Va. Beach.

 

[sonny]

1,000 $ in the winter 100 & or less in the mid summer months.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It is 11 degrees out now. It's gone up a few since I got up. It would be nasty getting that out of a partialy frozen pool over here.

Darnit Tim, I had a nice diatribe on your reply, but it got lost in the eather. C'est la vie.

I ran a small 2 truck 1.5 crew pruning division for the local TG/CL branch here for around 4 years. I loved the small jobs then, they do fill in and round out a day. they are also nice for weekend work to round out a week, or when the help calls in sick. In July I made over 10K in cylical seasonal shrub work alone. Those were the small rollover accounts. Near 8% of my annual gross.

What I mean is that every one needs to take drive times into concideration on jobs. If you can slot it into a larger job that is fine, but in this case it is a "emergency". But then that is not what I said is it.

I'll fall back on my mantra for the small one crew company. They have to make money every day, week, montha and year. Unless it is near the shop, those small jobs can kill a days budget, wich adds up very quickly.

It is the obsessing with the per hour/per job where many fall apart fiscaly. Focus on the per day/per week budget and the micro owner will struggle less.

If a job is 3/4 of a day you need to bid it as a full day if you are not absolutely sure that you will be able to fill in that other work. Because then you loose for the day even if you made it for the job. If you need to negotiate more work into it then so be it.

Same with the small job. If you have to drive 15 min, how often does it take only 15 min to do the job, write the bill and get rolling again?

My philosophy was that the shortest drive was 15 min and the shortest job was 30 min so the minimum fee had to be for .75 crew hours, cut down a small crab in front, and stuff it in the chipper. That went up the farther we got from the shop.

 

[murphy4trees]

If you got bids on a job like that, they might range from $200-1000+. So what makes any of them "fair".
I Am interested in being fair to myself for the years of hard work and risk I've put in. That often means passing on work, bid by others, whom are more interested in working hard than making money.
So asking "what's a FAIR price for the job?" is sort of a moral question. You might consider asking instead "what's the job worth?".
My answer for that is "whatever someone is willing to pay for it"
In the case of Allstate... the answer is "probably a lot".
I've only had one invoice questioned by an insurance company in 20 years. I itemized the bill and they paid. That helped me not feel so bad when it came time for me to pay my insurance bills.
God Bless,
Daniel

 

[wojo23323]

I charged $625. I already got the check. I think that was a fair price.