Anybody in the Ft. Myers Florida area?

[skwerl]

Hey folks,
I just got a call from one of my regular customers. He's a real estate guy and he just bought a property in Ft Myers. There is a large uprooted tree that needs to be cut up and hauled off. He wants me to drive down there and handle it but there isn't much I can do down there without equipment to dispose of the tree.

Anyway, I was hoping someone in the area might be willing to eyeball the job and see what it would take to handle it, and perhaps go ahead and just do the job and save me a trip down there. I'll have more details by tomorrow, right this minute I don't even have a job address. I'll be talking with the customer again later tonight.

 

[LightningLoader]

Arbor Tech in Lakeland is the closest that I know of that actually has some equipment. I know he has a grapple truck at least, because he picked it up this week. 863-619-5202. Guy's name is Nate.

 

[skwerl]

OK, looks like Ft Myers is about 100 miles south of Tampa. That's probably too far to run a grapple truck from Lakeland. Looks like I may end up driving down there and trying to rent or hire local equipment/ haulers. I guess I'll have to figure on two days, one day to drive down and figure it out/ line up my equipment, second day to do it and drive home.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

I know this is off topic but I have been thinking of relocating to FLA. what kind of wages can a do-anything-that-comes-up arborist make?

 

[treeminator]

I know this is off topic but I have been thinking of relocating to FLA. what kind of wages can a do-anything-that-comes-up arborist make?

not good... at least now anyways. we had like 5 hurricanes in the past 2 years and this resulted in 1,000 new tree companies popping up out of nowhere. basically, all the lawn jockeys bought chainsaws and started a tree business and are applying the same low hourly charging rates they use in lawn industry.

plus the hurricanes brought in alot of hurricane chasers and some are still in Florida. my stumpgrinding pricing has been cut in half.

this past week i lost a stumpgrind job. 40" hardwood stump (with big roots around it)... owner was offered $50. those used to be $250. it's yahoos like that, that are ruining it for the rest of us.

 

[vharrison2]

I know this is off topic but I have been thinking of relocating to FLA. what kind of wages can a do-anything-that-comes-up arborist make?

OGT BOSTON, welcome to the site.

Contact me at [email protected] I am in the Florida Keys, 50 miles from Key West.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

Wow! it totally sucks that the market has been saturated like that. Although A lot of guys from up here claim to be making a killing on the hurricane chasing stuff.

I was in Key West last week, saw the dotpalm trucks and ads looks like a decent outfit TTYL.

 

[vharrison2]

Wow! it totally sucks that the market has been saturated like that. Although A lot of guys from up here claim to be making a killing on the hurricane chasing stuff.

I was in Key West last week, saw the dotpalm trucks and ads looks like a decent outfit TTYL.

Really, you should have stopped in!

 

[OTG BOSTON]

too busy chasing the spring breakers!!

 

[vharrison2]

Ah, Fun!

 

[treeminator]

Wow! it totally sucks that the market has been saturated like that. Although A lot of guys from up here claim to be making a killing on the hurricane chasing stuff.

I was in Key West last week, saw the dotpalm trucks and ads looks like a decent outfit TTYL.

it WAS awesome money after the hurricane, but we're 6 months past it now and every Tom, ****, and Harry bought a chainsaw and got a tree license.

 

[OTG BOSTON]

whats a tree licence????

 

[LightningLoader]

Sent Tom, **** and Harry over here, because I still think it's expensive to get tree people and stumpgrinders. We paid this guy $250 to grind out 3 medium stumps. Seemed expensive to me considering the guy only needed a junky truck, a stump grinder, and himself, and it only took like and hour and a half. I can't say that it's so bad for that kind of market to be saturated, but when it comes down to really taking care of a tree I would want an expert, and there are probibly none to be found in Lake Wales.

 

[LightningLoader]

pre-hurricane business

Any of you guys ever tried promoting tree care as a preventative measure. I know when the hurricanes came through here last year the people that had recently had their trees trimmed/thinned didn't have half as much damage, because the tree didn't have as much bulk for the wind to grab onto.
I'm sure if you advertized this somehow you could drum up some pre-hurricane business.