Looking for a reasonable price for tree work(Central Maryland)

[gdb]

Your doing fine GDB...don't let these guys get under your skin.

I get a lot of my needs met by doing just what you're doing here. More often then not the skills needed to do blue collar work rest in the hands of guys that make $20 or $30 bucks an hour and not in the hands of the guys that want to charge $200 or $300 an hour. If you have decent insurance and an umbrella policy you have no fiscal concerns.

You're going to get thrashed pretty good on this site and you'll accumulate a few "red dots" but you'll probably get someone who will be more than happy to get 2 or three times their normal rate to do what they do every M-F.

Buy them a good brew...they're worth it.

b1rdman, thank you, you'd think I had attempted to topple the whole industry by looking for a lower rate ! I'm blue collar through and through, started as a bricklayer's helper in my teens and eventually ended up as a carpenter/punchout worker for a company that does remodeling on
high dollar homes. I also produced approx. 400 cords of firewood by myself for 2 heating seasons. I've been up on lifts and in gondolas suspended by a crane over hiways while operating a pneumatic drill that weighs 2-3 times what the saw does, locked up on a 1" piece of rebar that damn near threw out of the bucket and 90' down. This was pre-osha,no safety equipment at all, after torching the steel,I finished drilling that F'ing hole. Along the way in my work, I've learned to do pro quality elec. work and plumbing and when the pros find out they get all outraged too,seems like they feel that if it isn't done by a licensed bonded and insured outfit, it can't be correct or any good ! I'm gettin the same sorta vibe from here,maybe struck a nerve on the old conscience, about inflated pricing and paying slave wages to the working men who do the actual work? If things turn to $h!t in our economy and the lucrative jobs all evaporate, I suspect that some of the self righteous guys that preached to me, might be faced with stiff competition on bids and have to sharpen their pencils to write lower estimates. I also think that they might want to be thankful that their jobs CANT be sent to India,China etc. ! Bottom line is, I've done dangerous work of one sort or another for 39yrs. and am still in one piece, and one way or another that poplar is coming down, I'd just rather hand the money over to a working man instead of a hotshot cruising around in his F-450 SD!

 

[TreeBot]

one way or another that poplar is coming down, I'd just rather hand the money over to a working man instead of a hotshot cruising around in his F-450 SD!

From the sounds of it, it is going to take more than one qualified person to get that tree safely on the ground.

 

[gdb]

Maybe I could've avoided this whole $h!tstorm if I had mentioned that both estimators said: one guy (with my helping on ground) and about 3hrs. to do what I wanted done. This ain't no giant sequoia here! I truly think that they priced so high because they were busy, and didn't want the job! What's with the red dots? Do they mean that if someone disagrees with your point of view that you're going to condemn them for it ? I found this site while searching for parts for 038s and really only stayed in the saw section until I thought I might find someone who NEEDED work. Didn't mean to stir up a bucket of $h!t in the good old boys club:bang:

 

[TreeBot]

Poplar limbs can be very weak. How many wraps are you gonna take on the porty when your climber drops the top of the second leader on itself, while tied to it, after lowering all of the weight of the first leader off of it? Better get it right the first time, lock it up and the limb could break like a snap pea. That would suck.

 

[Ed Roland]

GDB, imagine tying your hitch knot and ascending 100' then remaining above 50' for the next 4 hrs. All the while running a chainsaw and risking your life with every re-direct.

$50 to $65hr is common for each certified arborist on site.

 

[gdb]

GDB, imagine tying your hitch knot and ascending 100' then remaining above 50' for the next 4 hrs. All the while running a chainsaw and risking your life with every re-direct.

$50 to $65hr is common for each certified arborist on site.

I'd have No Problem paying that whatsoever,but by my math, they wanted $300-$400hr. for ONE GUY on site. Tree is 50'-55' tall at the most.