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Tree removal?


DizRotus

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We let a redbud tree grow too close to the house.  It's beautiful in the spring when it flowers. The rest of the year it's a nuisance.  It's 13" in diameter and ~ 15' tall.

 

A guy working next door said he'd bring it down to the ground (no stump removal) and clean everything up for $350.  That seemed reasonable to me, especially if Keith Richards is unavailable.

 

I called a local arborist who wouldn't quote the job, as they are not taking on new customers.  To quote Steve  Martin, "Well excuse me."

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That seems like a pretty good price, especially with him cleaning up. Does that include him hauling away the debris, or will you save the wood?

Was insurance ever mentioned? That trade had an extremely high worker's comp rate around here.

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Then that might be a good price.

 

I'd be there to make sure they rope it or something to insure it falls the right (correct) way.  Don't want it smashing into your house and him saying "Gee, I'm very sorry"

 

You might also get explicit understanding that they're going to take the canopy away.  Sold some timber here on the farm once....they came out, took the main trunk of the trees and some of the branches (that were large enough for firewood) and left a huge pile of the rest of the top of the tree that they didn't want.

 

Fortunately, I was able to push things into a pile and burn them...it really irked me that they essentially left half the mess for us to deal with.  Then again, (bless his now resting eternally heart) that is my classic father in law....  allow himself to get taken advantage of.  They say one thing, do another and he can't (won't) do a darn thing about it

 

I don't think the tree is that huge, if they left some of the canopy, it might be a relatively small mess to clean up....but still....I'd want to know 100% up front.

 

 

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I had 3 Pear trees that were huge that I wanted removed from my back yard. I called 3 tree removal companies and only one would show up to give an estimate. The guys that came were young. I wanted one tree removed and several large limbs removed from the other two. All debris to be hauled away. Lots of work since the debris would have to be manually dragged to the street from the very rear of my yard.

 

I asked the guy in charge if they could rope the large limbs down to avoid damaging my neighbors property on either side. 'Oh yeah', he said. The next morning I head some commotion at the street and saw 5 young fellas getting ready to work. A few minutes later I walked out back and a guy is standing on the ground with a Stihl chainsaw with what looked to be around a 30" bar dropping the big limbs that he could reach from the ground. They smashed each neighbors yards/plants as they hit the ground.

 

They hauled everything off and left my yard neat and clean. I paid them $600.00 which was cheap to me considering the work involved and the fact that you can't find anyone to do any manual labor around here any more.

 

 

 

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Cheap at twice the price compared to what I am charged on the east end of Long Island. $2500 cash for 3 white pines and an old bent oak. Stump removal only went as far as to when the grinder broke, sorry. I had to pay my contractor to be there to make sure they didn't screw anything up.This was a fly by night, bootleg operation. A legit tree removal company quoted me $4500. Yikes.

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14 hours ago, DizRotus said:

We let a redbud tree grow too close to the house.  It's beautiful in the spring when it flowers. The rest of the year it's a nuisance.  It's 13" in diameter and ~ 15' tall.

 

A guy working next door said he'd bring it down to the ground (no stump removal) and clean everything up for $350.  That seemed reasonable to me, especially if Keith Richards is unavailable.

 

I called a local arborist who wouldn't quote the job, as they are not taking on new customers.  To quote Steve  Martin, "Well excuse me."

 

call the Klipsch Consumer help line...

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I'm nervous about somebody who's not bonded or insured.  My understanding is that if something bad happens, even if the guy isn't one who is inclined to sue, his medical insurance company can come after you?  People with legal knowledge... please correct me if I'm wrong.   It doesn't sound like that big of a job really... have to be careful though and keep it away from house and people.  

 

That isn't a huge tree but it will be heavy enough.  Redbud is a really hard wood and was quick to dull the chain if I remember correctly.  Made decent firewood and if there are some burls or crotch pieces you might have some interesting pieces for some local wood carvers.  Your local museum or art gallery might know of someone who would love to look through the wood for some sculpture or carving possibilities.  A 13" diameter is very large for a Redbud.  It would be nice to make some use of it!

 

 

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I paid $200 each to have two Mexican fan palms removed down to the stump, stump left in ground.  They were about 20 feet tall each.  That was a good deal. 

 

I was just quoted $10,000 or more to have 22 more of the same kind removed from my backyard by a different person, I had to rent the dumpster and he "wasn't sure" if it could be done for that price.  My neighbor hired the guy and he charged him $2500 for 2 days of yard work with his crew.  Not the kind of guy I will deal with. 

 

I need to clean the carb in my chainsaw and do this later this year.  Water is expensive out here and these trees grow way too tall.

 

$350 does not sound bad if you do nothing and the stump is ground to a little below grade so that you can conceal it.  If you do a bunch of trees at once the cost per tree should go down because of fixed mobilization costs.

 

 

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We're lucky up here. I had five large trees and stumps removed for $1900: A maple, three Oaks, and a Pine. They came up with a large crane, a cherry picker, and a chipper rig. Mind you, my property is only 0.15 acres. Started in the morning and were finished by lunch, AND they also removed my next door neighbor's oak. Cleaned up every bit. The guys are pros, and just about everyone uses them. I definitely got a discount because of the oak. That was some usable lumber - straight and true.

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When Davey Tree was here last they removed several trees. Watching them was fascinating. One of the large diameter trees (3.5ft.) had poison ivy growing all around it up to about 20 feet high. The young guy was roped around that tree tight into and around the poison ivy cutting about 10 foot sections out. I said why didn't you remove the poison ivy first? And he said, "If I took the time to do that I would be fired and someone else would take over. " I was never that tough.

JJK

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The $350 doesn't sound like a crazy price but I'd want that stump cut to ground level so you can mow.

 

I live in West Virginia where there are tons of people with a pickup truck, a buddy and a chain saw so getting trees cut up is cheap. 

 

I personally think most home owners should have a chain saw just for the trimming of small trees around the house.  I have a Husqvarna 440 with a 16" bar which is a decent saw for light work.  A 14" bar is less expensive and will do 95% of the work the large ones do.

 

You might consider a $200 saw and $50 worth of ear protection, gas can, two-stroke oil and chain oil.  It's fun and you can impress your wife and neighbors with your manly outdoor skills.  B)

 

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http://www.homedepot.com/p/ECHO-14-in-30-5cc-Gas-Chainsaw-CS-310-14/100675457

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