Curious about cost

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fields_mj

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I'm curious if anyone could tell me about what it would cost to have a professional take this tree down for me. It's a pin oak that measures 5' across at about 36" above the ground. The picture was taken last June and by September it was completely dead. I've already taken it down, and everything went fine. The question is just to satisfy my curiosity.
 

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I'm curious if anyone could tell me about what it would cost to have a professional take this tree down for me. It's a pin oak that measures 5' across at about 36" above the ground. The picture was taken last June and by September it was completely dead. I've already taken it down, and everything went fine. The question is just to satisfy my curiosity.
Just down safe? Down and cut up? Full removal? Removal of brush and leave firewood? Do you have septic, and if so, where? Do you mind divots, and or vehicle tracks? Do we have access to the neighbor's yard?
 
You have contracted yourself, cost to take down yet you state you have already taken it down?
He's just curious as to what a professional would have charged for it.

The problem is, I can't really give him a price unless he specifies what all he wants.

To fell the tree alone, $100 if you're close to me. Looks to me like there is room to fell it whole.
Once you start adding other stuff, the price goes up quickly. If it can't be felled whole, the price for climbing depends on how much rigging needs to be done. What all needs to be cleaned up, what all needs to be removed...what kind of access we have around the tree....etc etc etc.

Basically OP, we need more information.
 
He's just curious as to what a professional would have charged for it.

The problem is, I can't really give him a price unless he specifies what all he wants.

To fell the tree alone, $100 if you're close to me. Looks to me like there is room to fell it whole.
Once you start adding other stuff, the price goes up quickly. If it can't be felled whole, the price for climbing depends on how much rigging needs to be done. What all needs to be cleaned up, what all needs to be removed...what kind of access we have around the tree....etc etc etc.

Basically OP, we need more information.
You work too cheap, buddy.
 
No access to neighbors yard. That area of the yard is the lowest on the property. About 3 acres drains through it so its almost always wet. If you need to get equipment within 75' of the trunk, it will have to be extremely dry or frozen. No septic field, but the sewer line runs down the east edge of the property, almost as far north as the tree (ties in at a manhole located on the gravel road which runs back to the lift station for the town which is located over the hill behind our property). Divots are fine, huge ruts are not. Plenty of room to drop the tree in the east by south east direction. Assume a 30 minute drive each way. Price for just felling the tree, then price for felling and clean up of loose debris/limbs (basically anything under 4" or so)

I was concerned that the limbs hanging over the fence would cause the tree to want to fall in that direction, so I rented an aerial lift and removed the lower 1/3 of the limbs over the course of a weekend while the ground was frozen solid. Not sure if a professional would have bothered with that or not, but I didn't want to have to wedge or pull/winch a tree that size against it's natural lean.
 
You work too cheap, buddy.
Maybe so. Pictures can be deceiving of course...

Assuming that tree can go whole with just wedges, what would you charge? Literally walk up, face cut, back cut, bang it over, walk away.


Also, note, I am not a true professional. Trees are not my day job, so probably not a apples to apples comparison.

EDIT: I re-read the OP and he DID ask for a 'professional' price so I probably shouldn't even be giving prices for me. My bad. I missed that part.
 
Natural lean actually seems fairly balanced. Trunk leans a bit east, but there is some more limb weight off the back. I honestly think, from this view, that tree would go with wedges fairly easily. Obviously viewing in person may change my mind....but from what I have, that's my assessment.

I don't think that red line is perfectly plumb...but it's close. Might lean a bit right.
 

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Anyone in the business knows guessing games like this is a waste of time. Every time I get a request for a ball park estimate without seeing it I say more than 100 less than 10,000.
If I were having someone do it, I wouldn't even think of having them quote it without looking at it in person. If you'd like to take a drive out to west central Indiana, take a look at the property and what's left of the tree, and then compare it to pictures just to give a ball park estimate for work that's already been done, then come on over. I don't drink, but I'll go buy a six pack and stick it in the fridge for you. ;)

I get what you are saying here, but I respect a person's time and I'm not about to have someone put fort the effort of coming out to quote a job that I know I'm not going to have them do.
 
Natural lean actually seems fairly balanced. Trunk leans a bit east, but there is some more limb weight off the back. I honestly think, from this view, that tree would go with wedges fairly easily. Obviously viewing in person may change my mind....but from what I have, that's my assessment.

I don't think that red line is perfectly plumb...but it's close. Might lean a bit right.
Yes, the line is pretty plumb, and yes the trunk leans to the east but there were some large, heavy limbs hanging to the west. I wanted a few of the big lower limbs on the south east side off anyway because I wasn't sure what kind of damage they were going to do when they hit, or if they could cause that big ol thing to shift and roll before it hit the ground. Problem was that taking those off gave the tree even more weight heading west. So I started by taking off the east limbs, then rigged and removed the limbs that were hanging over the fence. Aerial lift (50' towable) was only $250 for the weekend and it was worth that to me just to get those limbs out of the way before dropping the tree. The pic below gives an idea of what I took off. I should have taken one more limb off that's pointing out toward the camera. When it hit, it broke off about 18" out from the trunk. That 18" long 12" diameter stub is now 100% below ground....

My point in asking this is to know what it would actually cost to have an insured professional do the work. It's a question that my wife often asks me. It's a fair question. Even though I'm capable, and have most of the tools needed, is it really worth me doing it on my own? I THINK I have a general idea based on what I hear other people say they've paid, but I don't really know. They normally have the entire tree taken out and cleaned up. I burn firewood, so I can use the limbs. I hope to sell the trunk (its solid and about 30' long) to a local mill, but I'll have to transport it there which I have the equipment to do. I currently have a huge mess to clean up in the yard, and I'm sure that I'll end up asking myself if it was worth the money saved by the time it's all said and done :)
 

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Looks easy enough to drop it to the right. I routinely get $200 for dropping large trees, but 5' diameter sounds like a lot of work. I'd probably quote $500, and that might include some dissection of the trunk after it is down. Most homeowners cannot chop up the trunk with their little bitty saws.
 
Looks easy enough to drop it to the right. I routinely get $200 for dropping large trees, but 5' diameter sounds like a lot of work. I'd probably quote $500, and that might include some dissection of the trunk after it is down. Most homeowners cannot chop up the trunk with their little bitty saws.
Would that include cleaning up the brush? My guess is no because there's a ton of it (literally).
 
Maybe so. Pictures can be deceiving of course...

Assuming that tree can go whole with just wedges, what would you charge? Literally walk up, face cut, back cut, bang it over, walk away.


Also, note, I am not a true professional. Trees are not my day job, so probably not a apples to apples comparison.
Yes, he asked what a pro would charge, not a weekend warrior. Keep in mind, when you hire a pro, the expectations increase, as do the costs.
This is actually a good post, and a way to describe a typical day for a professional tree service. I am going to describe it from my time as a lead climber/foreman perspective when we were running 3 crews in Bastrop County TX.
The customer calls for an estimate. He has stated 1/2 hr. drive from the shop. We might be lucky, and myself or the owner might be passing that way in the next day or two, so we can just swing by, or maybe not. If the owner has to make a special trip, that will be a minimum of 1-2 hours out of his day... travel time, time with the homeowner, and then travel to wherever he is going next... so, with gas, use of his truck, and time out of his day, we have to at least call it $75.00 just to bid on the job. Let's say it is in my general neighborhood, say 15 minutes out of my way, so the boss asks me to swing by and look at the tree on the way back to the shop. I usually ran a 5 man crew, so 15 min. drive time, and a 1/2 hour with the customer. Meanwhile, I have 4 guys sitting in the chip truck, but it isn't fair to expect them to sit for free, so they have to be paid, right? So, at roughly $100,00 an hour in labor, plus amortization on the equipment, we are back at 75-100 bucks just to bid the job.
So, we bid the job, and it is scheduled. It is decided to just drop it safe. We have 2 choices: Boss can send me up in a pickup with a groundie, and we can catch up with the crew later, or just swing by with the whole crew, knock it out, and move on to another job. Probably more efficient to just go there with the whole rig and crew, even though I don't need them, so our day isn't totally screwed up by this one stupid tree.
I'm going to set a line in it while my guys get the masdaam or the 3 in 1 out of the truck, find a suitable anchor point, and gas up the saws, etc. Keep in mind, if my boss bid the tree, I haven't seen it yet, so I have 5-10 minutes at about 5 bucks a minute to assess the tree and assemble a game plan... Meanwhile we have a out a 150k worth of equipment sitting out on the road, rusting and amortizing, lol.
In under an hour, the tree is down, assuming I didn't hit old wire or metal in the tree and trash an 80 dollar chain, and half to swap out, etc. Since we bid the job, we eat the cost, because the homeowner isn't going to be happy if we try and get him to pay for it, even though he swore there was no metal... like he would know at 50 the entire history of a hundred year oak... cost of doing business...
Now, since I am conscientious, and the 660 is already running, I will probably go ahead and limb it at least until the trunk is on the ground, and no danger of rolling on the homeowner, and probably even buck the trunk into some fashion of workable lengths, since we all know once that tree is on the ground, it is more dangerous than when it was standing, and I don't want to read about the customer in the paper... by then the boys had better be all loaded up and ready to roll... I produce the invoice, get the check or process the card, so the boss doesn't have to make another trip out, and we head to the next one... probably get there just about in time for lunch... day half gone...
So, even being simplistic, and without adding maintenance, insurance, repair costs, shop space, etc. It costs a professional tree company a minimum of 4-500 just to drop it.

In return... all you have to do is write a check... neighbor's fence gets damaged? Our problem. Tree goes wrong? Our problem. We hit an old galvanized conduit in the middle of the tree? Our problem.
I make this post mostly for education, and also to maybe show just what is involved behind the scenes of a professional tree company...
Now, scenario 2, is the boss just sends me out Saturday morning with my lead groundie to drop it... we are back at the shop by noon, but I still have to swap the blades on the chipper, rotate the greenteeth on the stump grinder, change the oil in the F350, and my lead man has 18 saws he has to run through... we aren't gonna make that cookout after all, unless we want to come in sunday... because Monday is a whole new week, and we are already behind...
 
Including cleanup? No; hell no.
That price is only for getting it on the ground. I might even have brought in a machine, set several ropes, and made damn sure it went where I wanted. Maybe not, if it was easy to place.

I'm not that crazy about a Maasdam. Great when you need 'em, not so great if you want a little more speed and power.
 
Anyone in the business knows guessing games like this is a waste of time. Every time I get a request for a ball park estimate without seeing it I say more than 100 less than 10,000.
Good for you.

This is a forum, which is mostly a waste of time...so who cares if you waste time giving some guy a price on a tree or arguing about full comp or full skip or what mix oil is best?

The fact that you entered the thread, and posted that is more of a waste of time than just answering the question.
 
Including cleanup? No; hell no.
That price is only for getting it on the ground. I might even have brought in a machine, set several ropes, and made damn sure it went where I wanted. Maybe not, if it was easy to place.

I'm not that crazy about a Maasdam. Great when you need 'em, not so great if you want a little more speed and power.
Love the masdaam for what it is, but in this scenario, I'm gonna make a 3 in 1 with a couple biners and pinto pulleys and let the boys earn their keep, lazy bastards... 🤣🤣🤣
 
...assuming I didn't hit old wire or metal in the tree and trash an 80 dollar chain, and half to swap out, etc. ... We hit an old galvanized conduit in the middle of the tree? Our problem.

The stories I could tell...

I have an excavating company that has me drop a tree for them occasionally. We ran into a fencepost in the middle of the tree, with no way short of a cutting torch to get through it. And right there behind the tree was that 35 ton excavator, waiting for an operator...

My truck & ropes couldn't push it over on the failed cut, but that excavator sure did the trick.
 
...snip...
I don't disagree with anything you've said. I agree it doesn't make sense for you to take anything less than what is profitable for the tree.

But this exact scenario is why weekend warriors like me exist. I'm 1/5 the price because I have almost no overhead, but the home owner is taking a risk taking that $400 gamble that I'm not going to screw something up. The VERY reason I started climbing trees is because I got a quote for $1500(cheapest) for a no clean up job in my backyard with zero access for any machines on a dead ash...and a fairly modest dead ash at that. I said hell no. I can buy all the equipment, do the tree, sell the equipment and spend a couple hundred and a weekend of fun. Took me, an absolute novice climber 4 hours to disassemble the tree. Zero property damage, zero injuries. $1200 in equipment. I paid off that equipment in the first 2 trees I did...

I constantly turn down work that is too risky or full clean up jobs(unless the tree is small). I let you professionals handle the real nasty/risky stuff. I don't have cranes, I don't have $150k worth of equipment, I don't have a 5 man crew. I don't do full service stuff like stump grinding. But there are plenty of people that want a tree taken down that don't have the money to pay for professional services and have a tree that is within my wheel house. I pick and choose carefully and I'm honest with people when they really need a big company to come in and take the tree down.
 
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