Bidding Help Please

[TreeW?rx]

I need some advice here. I am going to bid on a job here soon. As soon as the HO can clear the snow out of his driveway. He has 3 dead cottonwoods. 38" dbh, 48" dbh, 38.5" dbh. Felling the trees them selves wouldnt be a big deal if it werent for the obstacles in the area. All three trees have trunks that ascend aprox 8' to 10' before branching out. Two of the trees are leaning over the house. I am assuming he would like the house to be left in tack. That isnt to bad. All three trees are stacked in between spruce trees. One of them only has 1.5' to get between them. Not only that, there is a cement irrigation canal that runs 3' behind the trees. The access to the site is incredibly limited. I am going to get some Alturna Mats to drive on for the lawn side.

My question is, and I know I should post pics, How much would you bid this for? I plugged all the info in to my trusty bidding equation and came out with a price of over $9,000. This just seems like way to much for 3 trees. But I hate to try to bid it any lower. What would you do?

I will try to get some pics when I talk to the HO.

 

[CUCV]

How man hours did you estimate?

 

[MillerTreeMN]

sounds like a good job for a crane and a climber or two.


if you over bid it and dont get the job, all it cost you was your time for the estimate.

if you over bid it and DO get the job- good.

i personally walk from jobs that my gut feeling tells me to walk from. ( 1-2 a year ) but it keeps me from biting off more than i can chew.

 

[Tree Pig]

Hard to say with out pics but if it can be climbed and rigged I would probably be 1200 a tree maybe multi tree cut the rate to about 900 each. But again hard to bid with out pics. This price is for a small crew chipper and dump one or two climbers and ground guy. Maybe a little more actually to have to get rid of the cottonwood. The big problem is some ******* will come in behind me and offer to do it for $750 for everything.

 

[TreeW?rx]

I think I can do the job in 4 to 5 days. The hardest part is that dead cottonwood is MESSY. I will spend more time on clean up than on the take downs. I am not having any second thoughts about weather I can do the job, but weather the price is off. I dont want to throw out a bid like that and have the HO laugh me off his property. I am pretty much the only tree service around here and dont want to have a name for over pricing jobs.

 

[TreeW?rx]

Hard to say with out pics but if it can be climbed and rigged I would probably be 1200 a tree maybe multi tree cut the rate to about 900 each. But again hard to bid with out pics. This price is for a small crew chipper and dump one or two climbers and ground guy. Maybe a little more actually to have to get rid of the cottonwood. The big problem is some ******* will come in behind me and offer to do it for $750 for everything.

The trees have been dead long enough that the bark has fallen off most of the branches. I am new enough to climbing that I dont know if I can trust the limbs to hold. I have a 65' bucket that will do all the work. As for pics, I will see what I can do, the wind is about 45mph right now and the wind chill is -25.

 

[MillerTreeMN]

those arent fun for any climber once the bark has fallen off and the wood has gotten tough to spike into, especially in the winter.

id use the bucket to limb them as much as possible, then call in the crane, take the tops out with the crane, then the logs with the crane.


sounds like you dont have any room to drop anything.

heck if you bid it at 5K and spend 700-800 on crane / ground guys and took a whole week to do the job, you wouldnt lose money.

 

[lone wolf]

well you already priced it you said 4- 5 days

 

[call]

trees

Hey Guy I take down a lot of trees $900 a tree is on the high end I would not go any higher Call

 

[ddhlakebound]

Hey Guy I take down a lot of trees $900 a tree is on the high end I would not go any higher Call

Trolls like this simply blow my mind. And profit margin.

Rigging big dead barkless cottonwood over a house? Sounds like a job for superman. Or at least a crane.

With only the vague idea of the job given, I'd easily be at $6k, possibly a bit higher depending on how long the crane had to be there. For $900 each, I'd pull up a cooler and a camera and watch the cataclysm begin, cause Call's on the job.

Sounds like a hairy scary job with a lot of liability. Get paid for it.

 

[TreeW?rx]

I can use the bucket to do the whole tree, I just have to make the pieces that are over the house small enough that they can be pulled to the side. That isnt a big deal. As for the canal side, I am gonna make a bridge out of 6x6 timbers to land the pieces on. That isnt to bad either cause I all ready have the timbers from other projects. I dont have any doubts that I can do the work no matter how much the clean up will suck. As for a couple of groundies to do the schlep work, it is just me and my father, 2 man company. Might be able to get my nephew to help too but I aint gonna hold my breath. My main question is if you think $9k sounds like to much.

 

[1savagehunter]

Go with your gut ... I've bid lots ... some you get and some you don't. I think 6-7K is tops but I'm not standing where your standing so ... go with your gut.

 

[ArborSmithNw]

Trolls like this simply blow my mind. And profit margin.

Rigging big dead barkless cottonwood over a house? Sounds like a job for superman. Or at least a crane.

With only the vague idea of the job given, I'd easily be at $6k, possibly a bit higher depending on how long the crane had to be there. For $900 each, I'd pull up a cooler and a camera and watch the cataclysm begin, cause Call's on the job.

Sounds like a hairy scary job with a lot of liability. Get paid for it.

AGREED.

Wurx, $9k may sound like a ton to some folks, and may not even be remotely in the budget for them, but you know the value of your work and the risk of something going wrong that could cost you much more than $9K.

What I always keep in mind on high risk jobs is that those trees didn't die last week, they more than likely thought $3K was too expensive 8 years ago and have now created that situation, which is not your probelm!

 

[ArborSmithNw]

The trees have been dead long enough that the bark has fallen off most of the branches. I am new enough to climbing that I dont know if I can trust the limbs to hold. I have a 65' bucket that will do all the work. As for pics, I will see what I can do, the wind is about 45mph right now and the wind chill is -25.

I've been in long enough to know I wouldn't trust the trunk wood of de-barked cottonwoods, let alone limbs!

Crane crane crane. Plywood plywood plywood.

 

[TreeW?rx]

I've been in long enough to know I wouldn't trust the trunk wood of de-barked cottonwoods, let alone limbs!

Crane crane crane. Plywood plywood plywood.

God what I wouldnt do to be able to use a crane for this. But in this area that isnt an option. We are talking serious rural here. The town I am in is only 500 people. The closest crane is at least 50 miles away and the operators prob arent going to know how to do work with an arborist. But I do have plywood, I was planning on using it anyway.

 

[ArborSmithNw]

God what I wouldnt do to be able to use a crane for this. But in this area that isnt an option. We are talking serious rural here. The town I am in is only 500 people. The closest crane is at least 50 miles away and the operators prob arent going to know how to do work with an arborist. But I do have plywood, I was planning on using it anyway.

Thats a bummer. Now I feel completely spoiled!

I hope you keep us posted as to how this turns out!

 

[TreEmergencyB]

you said 4 or 5 days to do the job, we usally charge 1800 a day for 3 guys truck and chipper 8 hrs port to port so 9k might be a lil high but it all depends on the shape of the trees, how far from the dump site, wood stays?, how far to the chipper, bunch of variables. hell putt 8k on it and if you get im sure it be worth your time

 

[ND_ash]

I bid a 90' cotton wood near a lake cabin in late October. 1500.00 to get on the ground and clean up the trunk, he whats the branches. Went out there to do it and it was so bad I didn't have the guts to stay in the tree after dropping some lower stuff, upper branches keep falling. Their so happened to be another company out there with a 60' lift and he said he could drop it for 1200 so I said go for it. The tree is still standing and he gave up when the lift would get high enough for him to rig branches decent. I may ground ball it after the ice freezes hard enough to land it on the lake.

Point is sometimes it isn't the price, it's the fact of being able to complete the job without issues. Most home owners have a pretty good idea what the works going to cost. Give him a hourly cost and stick with it, most people have more than one speed.

 

[WalterTreeCare]

IMO, The most important part of the sale is putting as much value in your product that you can. Ive seen so many people just throw a number at the HO and watch the door hit em on the ass. If its really hazardous and requires a ####load of time the HO needs to understand that. Any ####### with a chainsaw can underbid all of us, it just comes down to sellin em and gettin that sig on paper. When i sell my jobs i focus on putting value in the product and then i deal with the numbers, and if the homeowner trusts in you and the company the dollar figure wont matter as much. Obviously its a very thin line. Seems like an interesting one brotha, good luck!

 

[tomtrees58]

Trolls like this simply blow my mind. And profit margin. :agree2: post some pics tom trees