Can You Guys Tell Me What You Would Bid On These??

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LOL...i gotcha on what he was meaning.

i understand the underbidding crap! it is unreal how much of that is happening to us here too. we dont work for nuthin and there is quite a bit of work to those 3 trees. man i wish something miraculous would happen with this ####ty economy & we could all have good work again. wishful thinking....i know.

obama who???
 
The nice thing about doing the stumps is you can bomb chunks, sinse you would (presumably) be bringing in topsoil anyways.

I dont have my own stumper. If I did I might be able to go a little cheaper... not that I would have to if everyone was on the same page (which most of us should realize is never going to happen by now).
 
I would say 2800 but really hard to tell with the pics, some of my competition would bid it for 1000 to 1200. He is so cheap he scares a lot of people of and the ones he dosen't think that I'm out gouging folks.
 
I won't even try to give a monetary bid from here because different geographies have differing cost and logistics.


What are dump fees in your area?
How far to dump ?
How much can you haul in one trip?
How much help do you have ?
How many drivers?
How much is labor in your area?
Do you plan on rigging big,small,or mostly cut & throw?
Can you lift big wood with your tractor?

Get these figures in your head,and that should let you know what time it will take you ,your crew,and your equipment to do the job.

If you can get a good idea of how much your cost will be ,after that is when you get into the how much will the market stand for in your area,how much do you have to make to meet other obligations[taxes ,ins,maint.,etc,etc]

How much you bid above your cost is subjective to a lot of things.

Again ,if you can get an accurate estimate of your fixed cost,then you know what you are willing to do,or not do for a certain amount of profit.



As for myself,and my area,I would have to pay to dump every last bit of the wood[not much firewood business down here].
Looks like about 14,000Lbs of trees all together.
I would start at 2,000 with a counter offer of no less than 1,800
or stay at 2,000 and offer to do a shallow grind on the stumps for free with the removals.
Yeah,I know it is patheticly low for 3 trees that size,but I know I could bank
1,300-1,400 if I got trees and stumps for 2,000 for 2 days w/ 3guys on trees,and a few hours on the stumps solo on day three.
 
seriously though..

Everybody just remember to keep those prices as high as your market will bear, otherwise we'll all end up whipping weeds and pushing lawn mowers, or worse yet - painting houses.

This thing aint no joke, if you have a tree service, you have a responsibility to our craft - the way I see it anyway. Too many people mucking up my local market here. A while back I bid 1700 on a job, HO told me thats what the "competition" started off at...but then called back several times, lowering his price each time, finally ended up at 750! :confused:
 
This thing aint no joke, if you have a tree service, you have a responsibility to our craft - the way I see it anyway. Too many people mucking up my local market here. A while back I bid 1700 on a job, HO told me thats what the "competition" started off at...but then called back several times, lowering his price each time, finally ended up at 750! :confused:

I hear ya on that. I bid on 12 spruce trees a month or so ago. All about 20"-24" and 55 ft. tall, and stumps ground too. The job went for $1200. I bid a little under $2k and thought i stood a good chance.
 
I hear ya on that. I bid on 12 spruce trees a month or so ago. All about 20"-24" and 55 ft. tall, and stumps ground too. The job went for $1200. I bid a little under $2k and thought i stood a good chance.

Stumps ground too eh? :laugh:

Sounds like I'd rather stay home and do twelve oz. curls to stay in shape.
 
Stumps ground too eh? :laugh:

Sounds like I'd rather stay home and do twelve oz. curls to stay in shape.

That's kind of what i did. The grounds keeper (know him real well) had told me what the other bid was and asked if i wanted to match it. Drank a few with him that night and told him i'm not in business to work to break even.

To me calling the customer back multiple times, lowering the price each time makes you sound desperate, and lowering the price that much makes you look like you were trying to rip them off at first.
 
To me calling the customer back multiple times, lowering the price each time makes you sound desperate, and lowering the price that much makes you look like you were trying to rip them off at first.

Couldn't agree morer! My usual line is that quality has a price, that usually ends the conversation rather quickly. Happened a few times that someone went with the cheaper guy who then made a mess out of things

Cheers,
 
Couldn't agree morer! My usual line is that quality has a price, that usually ends the conversation rather quickly. Happened a few times that someone went with the cheaper guy who then made a mess out of things

Cheers,

Yeah, this calling the customer back and lowering the price seems to be a new tactic these dirtballs are using around here lately. Personally, if I cant sell them on the bid - oh well, thats business! better luck next time.

Oh, i heard my guy with the 750 went out of business, lol. He was indeed a real dirtbag and definitely not a tree guy anyways - very dangerous/no real experience. The guy had all the big iron though, I suppose with the recession and all those are the types to go out first - hacks with alot of bills. Guess what his new business is?? "property maintenance"...you know, weed whipping, lol. So there is some justice from the tree gods after all. :)
 
I don't know if I can do this but anyways check this out. This guy underbid bid me on this job by 1800 dollars. He got the job for 600 rootball removed and backfill. www.professional4life.com check out the gallery its the only pics in the gallery but just in case its the red house. Ohh yea check out the preferred customer plan.
 
If you've got enough room there, you could save a lot of time in the trees especially over the roof. That branch over the roof looks like the most significant challenge.

If there is enough room there, you could heavy, heavy bound the two outer most trees together, and then each one separately to the one next to the garage. Before you cut anything, pull the two outer trees with a truck, so the whole "jam" of trees is leaning in the proper direction certainly. Notch and cut the two outer trees, so they are leaning outward some and stretching the lines tout between them and the tree closest to the house pulling it outwardly too. Now notch and cut the one closest to the house. Once this one is cut and on the way down away from the house, the weight of both trees and the truck's torque will certainly pull the trees right out and away from the house even that long limb that's reaches all the way across roof.

I would think this would save a bunch of time in the trees saving you cost of man hours allowing to stoop low enough to get the easy job but saving you enough cost to make a worthy profit on the job.

A few more details for security about that plan are:

Make sure you don't get the two outer trees to really want to fall until the one closest to the house is prepared to go. Leaning outward is OK, but with them really leaning hard outward by the lines to the tree closest to the garage, is might botch the operation.

Bound those things together with very strong lines like you and everyone's lives depend on them.

Tie low and higher up on those two outer trees to the truck. Tieing high will bring them forward for sure, and tieing low will make sure the bases of the trees can't kick back through the garage in that kind of high tie rig. Because the two outers are tied to the one closest to the garage at a high height, there is the potential for the trees to begin to fall but the tops will be held in place while the bottoms will not be forced to stay. This makes it possible for the bottoms to go right past that one closest to the garage, and go right through the wall. I think it is very unlikely because of the shear weight of the tree driving the base straight into the ground, but I know that lighter trees can jut back at there bases if preparation is not done right.

Two together, Each to one. Tie the two outers together be safer. Each one can resist the other's wish to fall to the sides that would botch the whole rig. Tie each outer to the close one separately for obvious safety reasons.

If you don't have clearance to pull the trees straight out with the truck, use another tree, and go around it with the lines to a different angle that your truck can drive in while keeping the truck out of harms way. You don't have to drive straight out from the shed if you go around a tree that is out from the shed with your lines, and then pull that other direction.

Cut kind of high on trunks to be sure they fall forward a bit with no chance of anything bouncing back into the garage. Then cut the rest of the trunks down once the crucial parts are downed.

Everyone else is going to be climbing and rigging for many more hours than what it will take to complete this plan. You could complete this plan in 4 hours maximum. While everyone else is bidding low on a 10-12 hour job in the trees to get hired, you can bid high on a 4 hour job (not including the clean up hours afterwards). :greenchainsaw: Score.


:popcorn: I think it's a solid plan. Take it or leave it.
 
If you've got enough room there, you could save a lot of time in the trees especially over the roof. That branch over the roof looks like the most significant challenge.

If there is enough room there, you could heavy, heavy bound the two outer most trees together, and then each one separately to the one next to the garage. Before you cut anything, pull the two outer trees with a truck, so the whole "jam" of trees is leaning in the proper direction certainly. Notch and cut the two outer trees, so they are leaning outward some and stretching the lines tout between them and the tree closest to the house pulling it outwardly too. Now notch and cut the one closest to the house. Once this one is cut and on the way down away from the house, the weight of both trees and the truck's torque will certainly pull the trees right out and away from the house even that long limb that's reaches all the way across roof.

I would think this would save a bunch of time in the trees saving you cost of man hours allowing to stoop low enough to get the easy job but saving you enough cost to make a worthy profit on the job.

A few more details for security about that plan are:

Make sure you don't get the two outer trees to really want to fall until the one closest to the house is prepared to go. Leaning outward is OK, but with them really leaning hard outward by the lines to the tree closest to the garage, is might botch the operation.

Bound those things together with very strong lines like you and everyone's lives depend on them.

Tie low and higher up on those two outer trees to the truck. Tieing high will bring them forward for sure, and tieing low will make sure the bases of the trees can't kick back through the garage in that kind of high tie rig. Because the two outers are tied to the one closest to the garage at a high height, there is the potential for the trees to begin to fall but the tops will be held in place while the bottoms will not be forced to stay. This makes it possible for the bottoms to go right past that one closest to the garage, and go right through the wall. I think it is very unlikely because of the shear weight of the tree driving the base straight into the ground, but I know that lighter trees can jut back at there bases if preparation is not done right.

Two together, Each to one. Tie the two outers together be safer. Each one can resist the other's wish to fall to the sides that would botch the whole rig. Tie each outer to the close one separately for obvious safety reasons.

If you don't have clearance to pull the trees straight out with the truck, use another tree, and go around it with the lines to a different angle that your truck can drive in while keeping the truck out of harms way. You don't have to drive straight out from the shed if you go around a tree that is out from the shed with your lines, and then pull that other direction.

Cut kind of high on trunks to be sure they fall forward a bit with no chance of anything bouncing back into the garage. Then cut the rest of the trunks down once the crucial parts are downed.

Everyone else is going to be climbing and rigging for many more hours than what it will take to complete this plan. You could complete this plan in 4 hours maximum. While everyone else is bidding low on a 10-12 hour job in the trees to get hired, you can bid high on a 4 hour job (not including the clean up hours afterwards). :greenchainsaw: Score.


:popcorn: I think it's a solid plan. Take it or leave it.



No disrespect intended,,BUTARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?
SOUNDS LIKE A DISASTER WAITING TO HAPPEN


Do you agree with the estimated weight of the trees to be around 7 1/2 tons.

You don't play games with that kind of lbs over somebody's home.




edit:I just noticed you were the OP of this thread" What are the "must haves" for a NEW tree care service?
"

That answers my own question .
 
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If you've got enough room there, you could save a lot of time in the trees especially over the roof. That branch over the roof looks like the most significant challenge.

If there is enough room there, you could heavy, heavy bound the two outer most trees together, and then each one separately to the one next to the garage. Before you cut anything, pull the two outer trees with a truck, so the whole "jam" of trees is leaning in the proper direction certainly. Notch and cut the two outer trees, so they are leaning outward some and stretching the lines tout between them and the tree closest to the house pulling it outwardly too. Now notch and cut the one closest to the house. Once this one is cut and on the way down away from the house, the weight of both trees and the truck's torque will certainly pull the trees right out and away from the house even that long limb that's reaches all the way across roof.

:jawdrop: Unless I'm not looking at the picture right, if your method fails he will have three large trees completely destroying a house that otherwise has no damage. He'll either have to use a crane or do a lot of limb walking and zip line the pieces, or use the other trees as gin spots or lower the pieces to somebody standing on the roof. Don't know what method he'll use but I'm sure it will be much safer then the method described above.

Anyway, my old boss would of probably bid about $1500 for the tree over the house and maybe about $500 to $800 a piece for the other two trees. That would include stump grinding and taking all the wood away.
 
Well, I was just shooting that blue print out there to see if anyone would give that a green light.

I'm sure of the forces applied there though. It's impossible for trees to fall anyway but to the big truck. The trick is being overly damn sure about the lines' tensil strengths all the way around and the size and power of the truck. A little Dahtsun Love truck might get sucked back into one of these kinds of deals and/or spin out botching the whole operation. A heavy chip truck would just pull it out even at their sizes.

I do agree that there is risk. It's a little like the "what ifs" in explosive demolition where teams are demoliting a building by imploding it with proper sequences of detonation each placed at key points. Ya, if it goes wrong, it can turn critical. When is this work not critical though. When it's done soundly, the quick take down proceedures save major money getting all of those stories of building to find it's way to the ground. "Man Made Marvels"

I have actually seen one of those jobs that was botched. The building just fell over, and actually rolled a half of a block to hit another apt. building. Wow. And you know that even a guy could slip with a part of the tree or a rope could slip or bust. It depends on proper gear, and proper placement.

What does the guy tie a zip line to? On one job I had a tree at the top of a steep gulley. Below the tree was a cactus garden. I planted a few screw in stakes down the hill, and zipped the stuff that way. The cable bowed to much for my likeing though. I'd have been satisfied with a tree down there to put a manual winch on.
 
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Well, I was just shooting that blue print out there to see if anyone would give that a green light.

Sorry but, RED LIGHT all the way! Way too many things to go wrong in that scenario. It literally makes my head do this... :dizzy:
 

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