What is a fair price to charge for cutting down and sectioning trees?

[gixxerjim]

A coworker of friend asked me and my dad to cut some trees down and cut them up into 2' lengths, then just let them lay. About 8 trees about 60' tall, all dead or at least dead tops in a fairly open hardwood woods. These are hardwoods, 10-18" diameter at the base and straight as an arrow. My dad worked as a lumberjack for a couple years years ago and would do all of the felling, and I would assist in the cutting on the ground, which he and I are comfortable doing together having done this type of work for our own wood when I was a kid etc. Insurance is not an issue as the guy understands if any accidents occurred we're all friends helping eachother out with no money involved.

I'm not looking to get rich off the guy but could use the money so what's fair for everybody? Wisconsin if it matters...

 

[ShoerFast]

Just set a price, for the say, say $50.00 an hour + expenses, do a way better job then there expecting and a handshake when you leave.

It seems that most people have an idea of what they want done, and have an idea what it's worth, with good people it doesn't matter what you charge, there going to give you more if it wasn't near what it was worth to them.

Find a use for the wood if there going to leave it sit, that has a value also.

 

[Diesel JD]

Are you 100% positive of this guy's goodwill toward your family and youin case crap happens? If so...I agree with the first poster, set what you and your dad agree is a fair price, have him lay 'em on the ground and be sure to do a beautiful job on your part. Your friend will probably take good care of you. Don't forget to treat your dad to soemthing he likes for helping you and enjoy that time with him. I only question the other fella's goodwill because people can get pretty upset when something happens. A personal story, when I was a sophomore in highschool, I had a French tutor who needed a few small gums removed out of her yard...I was not going to take any money from her, adn they were not big or threatening trees. Well I had taken 3 or 4 down and everything was great, then my dad and I started on a bigger one she wanted gone...maybe 6" dbh and 60' high. It was close to the porch but not leaning that way. i was already a fairly experienced wood cutter with a lot of trees under my belt. Well I made the backcut too deep and the tree set back and fell into some bigger pine trees, at this point I was left with walking it down in sections, after we had taken two or three chunks off the bottom, we sort of lost control of this tree and the tip of it dinged her porch a bit. No real property damage and no one got hurt. We offered to pay to have it fixed, but she and her husband never called anyone to fix it,instead they were just aggravated at me and I never really heard the end of it. Well I learned that I will never cut trees for anybody if there is ANY possibility of it hitting a target until I have liability insurance and I will be really careful when working for friends to be sure they know what they're getting and we're on teh same page.

 

[gixxerjim]

I think I came up with a fair deal for everyone, I probably went a little low $ wise: $75 and hour or $75 per tree, whichever is less. The most it can cost is 8 x 75 = $600 if it takes 8 hrs or more, and it would be less if it takes less. Seem reasonable?

As for liability, the very first thing I said to this man when he called me is my dad and I don't normally do this for anybody other than family, and have no insurance, at which point he interrupted and said not to worry, that's what homeowner's insurance is for, and if anything happened it would be a friend helping a friend type situation as far as the insurance company was concerned. So I think everybody understands the deal and feels good about it.

Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

 

[MS-310]

I cleaned up a 25" oak tree last week for my boss that fell on one of his apartments. My truck my saw my time and I took the wood home for me. He will be charging the Ins. company for the work I did do, 3 hours and 10 gallons of gas for the truck and dull chain. (freaking fence in the tree in town)
How much do you think this is worth in MI.