# Storm Work



## goat640 (Sep 1, 2007)

With Hurricane season beginning to get into gear I have a question. Has anyone traveled to where a storm has hit to work? If so how did you aquire the work when you got there??? Door to door? any input would be appreciated.


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## sawinredneck (Sep 2, 2007)

goat640 said:


> With Hurricane season beginning to get into gear I have a question. Has anyone traveled to where a storm has hit to work? If so how did you aquire the work when you got there??? Door to door? any input would be appreciated.



Never done it myslef, but from what I gather it's a logistics nightmare!!! First and foremost get setup with insurance companies as a contractor, as they wil foot most of the bills. You will also have to have permits from the city/????y that you will be working in, as a contractor.
The door to door thing sounds great, but most times you are locked out, as well as the homeowners, until very late in the game, unless you are already set up as a contractor with the insurance companies.
Is that enough to get you in trouble yet?


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## sawinredneck (Sep 2, 2007)

TreeCo said:


> I heard on the news the other night that FEMA paid $175 per ton for debris removal after Katrina. The final sub contractors that moved the debris got $5. per ton.
> 
> The other $170 per ton went to well connected, large companies.



And that makes it that much more appealing!!!!!


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## tree md (Sep 2, 2007)

goat640 said:


> With Hurricane season beginning to get into gear I have a question. Has anyone traveled to where a storm has hit to work? If so how did you aquire the work when you got there??? Door to door? any input would be appreciated.



Yes I have but it's been awhile... Since Andrew... Made good money on storms when i was younger and still do but I make better working my home range than traveling these days...


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## Beast12 (Sep 2, 2007)

My Dad went to Ottawa in 1998. They had the ice storm there and he went with a couple guys and a truck with gear (no chipper or stumper).

He got a 1-800 number that would ring at the office where my Mom would answer. Then he would call in twice a day and take the messages. He printed up flyers, went door-to-door and people would flag him down.

Worked out good. Helped pay the winter bills and was also a great experience for him. 

-Matt


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## joesawer (Sep 2, 2007)

Working hurricanes like you describe used to be profitable and even fun. But the homeowners who can afford to pay you have insurance and the ones who can't depend on FIMA. The big disaster relief companys have these markets tied up. They will sub you to do the work and God bless you if you can make a living on what you get.


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## beowulf343 (Sep 4, 2007)

goat640 said:


> With Hurricane season beginning to get into gear I have a question. Has anyone traveled to where a storm has hit to work? If so how did you aquire the work when you got there??? Door to door? any input would be appreciated.



I never storm chased with a whole company (besides my time with with asplundh.) Used to just load my gear into the pickup, head to the storm area and start asking tree guys in the area who was looking for a top climber and who was willing to pay my wages. Then would sign on with an outfit till they were done. Loved storm work-would get to do things not even conceivable during regular tree work. A young man's game though, imo.



Beast12 said:


> My Dad went to Ottawa in 1998. They had the ice storm there and he went with a couple guys and a truck with gear (no chipper or stumper).



Boy, that was one hell of a storm! Some of the scariest/stupidist climbing i've ever done. Snow waist deep too. Good times!!


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## bushinspector (Sep 6, 2007)

TreeCo said:


> I heard on the news the other night that FEMA paid $175 per ton for debris removal after Katrina. The final sub contractors that moved the debris got $5. per ton.
> 
> The other $170 per ton went to well connected, large companies.



Thinking about bidding on a little project with FEMA money. The town was awarded with X dollars and now they are looking for bidders for cleaning up the town. The town has about 3000 people in it. The bid sheets do not say how they want the bid. Just X amount of $ for the whole job? OR are they wanting debris removed per ton. I would think they would want $ per ton due to the bid spec saying "All debris will be weighed, not measured by cubic yard.


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## outdoor images (Sep 8, 2007)

joesawer said:


> Working hurricanes like you describe used to be profitable and even fun. But the homeowners who can afford to pay you have insurance and the ones who can't depend on FIMA. The big disaster relief companys have these markets tied up. They will sub you to do the work and God bless you if you can make a living on what you get.



i went to lake charels la ,hattisberg miss,bocarattan fl in 2005 man what a season it was my first experiance i was with another compony then im on my own now i was the manager sales giterdone guy i think i was in the skidsteer for about thre weeks non stop and i was bidding jobs getting new work and managaing 15 guys feeding them makong shure they had cean cloths and a place to sleep and making shure all the chainsaws wer working keeping fule in everything it was really hard stuff the guy i was working for made about 4to 5 hundredthousand dollers i got a 7 thousand doller bonus all he did was go to the bank and the casinos when they opend back up ..... well to answer your qwestion yes it can be profitabal but not easy you really need a good crew alot of suplys and some luck dosent hurt eather remember no food on fule no house for about ten days or so you gotta get thare early and hnope you finde what your loking for in a place you have never been nobody wants out of towners workin thare and the city and county officals are out to get you if you f up lots of work and lots of mony but you dont know if its all worth it untill the smoke clears i plan on going if we have a storm but i cant afforsd to make the wrong call because im a new compony and dont have alot of capital to risk


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## lxt (Sep 9, 2007)

Manager of sales? with spelling like that? Storm work is only profitable if you are a big Co. or a small Co. the middle guy has a hard time bidding against the likes of this, IMHO


LXT............


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## joesawer (Sep 9, 2007)

lxt said:


> Manager of sales? with spelling like that? Storm work is only profitable if you are a big Co. or a small Co. the middle guy has a hard time bidding against the likes of this, IMHO
> 
> 
> LXT............



It doesn't matter, big, medium or small. As long as the people who get (buy)the contracts sub them to illeagals, it is only profitable if you use illeagals. I have seen over 90% of the subs, of certian disaster relief companys, go broke.


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## lxt (Sep 9, 2007)

exactly!! however I dont know too many small /medium companies that have the capital to buy contracts!!!

Ive been outta state numerous times, the big companies have the equipment & the contacts(usually) thus the big jobs go to them, lumberjack fred & his pickup get the homeowners with small looked over work, while we in the middle kinda suffer(mainly because theres more of us).

alot of the disaster releif companies & restoration contractors in my area are a joke!! they might as well be general contractors tryin to make a buck off of my trade & dont know squat about it!! hence the reason others use illegals cause they cant afford knowledable people & are tryin to bid reasonably!!! 

any time a disaster/restoration company gets involved the price is much higher than it should be, they wanna make a buck for doing nothing.. atleast in my area anyhow!!!

LXT..........................


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## stihlaficionado (Sep 19, 2007)

I've replied to several threads like this in the past. I'm not an arborist nor do I own a tree service. Before Hurricane Ivan I rented an SUV and loaded up
my saws and headed to Pensacola, Fl., where I used to live years ago.
I still have old friends there and went mainly to clear whatever dropped on their property.

At the crack of dawn after the storm the whine of the saws started. FEMA had the tree companies lined up for miles along side of I 10. I spoke to a crew from Maryland--basically three guys. They said they drove all night to get there and ran out of gas in one of the rich neighborhoods, where they started to work. They would work 10-12 hour days for weeks without a break. They slept in the truck until they worked out a deal with a local guy that let them rent his house for tree work.

I stayed for 2 weeks during which I did 5 jobs, mainly for friends of friends.
The BIG money IMO went to those with boom trucks. I heard a quote of $9,000 for one large water oak which was lifted over a house and placed
at the street. And another quote of $12,000 for a large pine that was impaled on a roof. I saw signs for stump grinding medium sized pines for $25.00. Doesn't seem like enough $$$ to me.


To this day, in the poorer sections of Pensacola, there is still storm debris
scattered about. I did see alot of hispanics doing the grunt work.
You could go door-to-door and if you could prove that you had insurance you'd stand a fair chance of being hired. The large local tree companies
like Tri-State had all they could handle. But later on in the game you'd see
ads that made light of a guy being local. Also, as time went on and the average joe bought a wild-thingy, the prices dropped drastically.
I was undercut by $150.00 by a guy with poulan, on a large pine set back from the street. It was large enough that I needed to cut it in 1 foot sections to move it without breaking my ass. At that point I started to sleep late and savor the morning coffee!

mark


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## stihlaficionado (Sep 19, 2007)

I've replied to several threads like this in the past. I'm not an arborist nor do I own a tree service. Before Hurricane Ivan I rented an SUV and loaded up
my saws and headed to Pensacola, Fl., where I used to live years ago.
I still have old friends there and went mainly to clear whatever dropped on their property.

At the crack of dawn after the storm the whine of the saws started. FEMA had the tree companies lined up for miles along side of I 10. I spoke to a crew from Maryland--basically three guys. They said they drove all night to get there and ran out of gas in one of the rich neighborhoods, where they started to work. They would work 10-12 hour days for weeks without a break. They slept in the truck until they worked out a deal with a local guy that let them rent his house for tree work.

I stayed for 2 weeks during which I did 5 jobs, mainly for friends of friends.
The BIG money IMO went to those with boom trucks. I heard a quote of $9,000 for one large water oak which was lifted over a house and placed
at the street. And another quote of $12,000 for a large pine that was impaled in a roof. I saw signs for stump grinding medium sized pines for $25.00. Doesn't seem like enough $$$ to me.


To this day, in the poorer sections of Pensacola, there is still storm debris
scattered about. I did see alot of hispanics doing the grunt work.
You could go door-to-door and if you could prove that you had insurance you'd stand a fair chance of being hired. The large local tree companies
like Tri-State had all they could handle. But later on in the game you'd see
ads that made light of a guy being local. Also, as time went on and the average joe bought a wild-thingy, the prices dropped drastically.
I was undercut by $150.00 by a guy with poulan, on a large pine set back from the street. It was large enough that I needed to cut it in 1 foot sections to move it without breaking my ass. At that point I started to sleep late and savor the morning coffee!

mark


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## lufkincy (Nov 7, 2007)

"if you could prove that you had insurance you'd stand a fair chance of being hired. "

That is the key. My son-in-law owns a tree service in East Texas. A couple of years ago he went down to the Gulf Coast after a storm with one of his crews looking for work. He just drove slowly through some of the more affluent areas with his equipment trailer and he didn't have to knock on doors. Homeowners stopped him. Their main concern was if he had insurance. He pulled out his policy gave them his pricing, and scheduled the job. Customers ended up recommending them to their acquaintances and he had more work than he could handle. I don't know just how much he made in the four weeks he was there, but he normally nets about $8,000 per week. He said that trip to the coast was the most profitable venture he had ever made. The homeowners paid him and they handled getting their money back from the insurance companies.


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## mckeetree (Nov 8, 2007)

You sound like an insurance salesman to me.


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## lufkincy (Nov 8, 2007)

Not an insurance salesman. I'm a retired print shop owner. However, I do appreciate the necessity of both liability and casualty insurance, as does my son-in-law. A while back he was removing a large tree. There was plenty of clear area to fell the tree, but as it was ready to come down, a huge gust of wind came up, it broke a new rope, and the tree fell on the home causing about $35,000 in damage. It cost him the $1,000 deductible, but his insurance premium went up substantially. When we owned our print shop a customer sued me over some artwork we created for his company but did not charge him for it. My insurance company's lawyers represented me in court. It did not cost me a cent (but it did take some time) and the judge had the customer pay all attorney fees and court costs.


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## upperlimits (Nov 25, 2007)

I have traveled to do hurricane clean-up in the past and belive it to be a pain in the rear. I do enjoy tree work, but after 8 to 9 hours of non storm work, I want to call it a day. I will never forget the three and a half weeks working 11 to 12 hour days. I was very tired at the end. Take care of your local customers first, because if you don't they may not be yours when you get back.


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