Dr. Cornwallis
ArboristSite Member
A little about me first: I'm a career firefighter who currently owns and operates a medium sized lawn care business on the side. I cater to higher end homes in the suburbs and rural areas. A few months ago I decided to add tree care and removal to my lawn business as I've had a lot of customers as well as just random people ask me if I did it. I've added the necessary insurance to my plan and obtained a business license in my county. Yesterday, while mowing one of my best clients yards I noticed an oak that had been struggling last year appears to have thrown in the towel. I'm planning to shoot them an e mail with a quote to remove it, however, I had some questions first.
I've taken down several trees with my father, however, none have ever had any penalty for failure as far as adjacent structures or hazards. Also, in the past I've never climbed, we have always used a JLG boom lift. I'm new to climbing and have been practicing SRT around my property with equipment borrowed from a friend at work.
For the real pros, my question is: would you climb this tree or utilize a lift?
As an amateur, my plan is to use a two man crew, me in the loft with a saw and a ground man to lower stuff. I would use the boom lift to get up there, set rigging to a higher branch and then take the branches apart in sections from the lift until it's down to the stump at which point I'll fell it in sections.
I haven't measured yet but the tree is approx 20" DBH. It's freshly dead/dying so it shouldn't be rotten. I plan to keep as much of the stump as I can for milling as it's a good long/straight stump, I think I may be able to get two ten foot sections out of it. I'll keep what I can for firewood too.
I was planning on pricing the job at $1550 without stump grinding.
$350 for lift rental
$200 labor for a ground guy for the day.
$1000 for my profit/business expenses.
With my lawn business I charge $50 an hour, and I figure (based on past experience on my own property) I can have this thing on the ground and cleaned up in well under a day (and I'm slow). So I should be looking at $100/hr. There is no dump fee as I just have to stack it by the street and the homeowner can schedule the county to come pick it up.
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I've taken down several trees with my father, however, none have ever had any penalty for failure as far as adjacent structures or hazards. Also, in the past I've never climbed, we have always used a JLG boom lift. I'm new to climbing and have been practicing SRT around my property with equipment borrowed from a friend at work.
For the real pros, my question is: would you climb this tree or utilize a lift?
As an amateur, my plan is to use a two man crew, me in the loft with a saw and a ground man to lower stuff. I would use the boom lift to get up there, set rigging to a higher branch and then take the branches apart in sections from the lift until it's down to the stump at which point I'll fell it in sections.
I haven't measured yet but the tree is approx 20" DBH. It's freshly dead/dying so it shouldn't be rotten. I plan to keep as much of the stump as I can for milling as it's a good long/straight stump, I think I may be able to get two ten foot sections out of it. I'll keep what I can for firewood too.
I was planning on pricing the job at $1550 without stump grinding.
$350 for lift rental
$200 labor for a ground guy for the day.
$1000 for my profit/business expenses.
With my lawn business I charge $50 an hour, and I figure (based on past experience on my own property) I can have this thing on the ground and cleaned up in well under a day (and I'm slow). So I should be looking at $100/hr. There is no dump fee as I just have to stack it by the street and the homeowner can schedule the county to come pick it up.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk