evaluation

[treeman82]

I need help from you guys in regards to a price I gave today.

Here is the scenario; I got called this afternoon to give a price for pruning 2 MASSIVE red oaks about 30 minutes from my house (down county). I was referred by a customer who I removed a large ash tree for which was over the house. Guy wanted me down there this afternoon to look at them, no problem as I didn't have anything better to do.

Tree 1; 3 - 4 feet DBH, never been touched for pruning, co-dominate stems approximatley 25 feet up, 1 stem goes out over the house, not any large dead wood just lots of little stuff. 2 or 3 small branches have to come off that are over the house (5" diameter TOPS). Install 2 cables. Situated; house, driveway, tree, former disturbance area where there is most likely a good amount of root damage.

Tree 2; 4 - 5 feet DBH, again never been touched for pruning, co-dominate stems about 25 feet up, 1 stem goes out towards the house, (1) 6" diameter dead branch, lots of small dead stuff, install 3 cables. Situated; house, parking area (paved), "garden", tree, fence, crappy area. Parking area is approximatley 3 feet below the trunk flare. I noticed a few good size frost cracks in the tree which have been healing up pretty well I would gather.

House is maybe 30 or so years old.
Rear parking area looks to have been re-done about 10 - 15 years ago with some granite edging having been placed between said parking area and the roots of the tree.

I told the guy to call "The Care of Trees" to have them come out with a resistograph.

Gave a price for just pruning of $2,200.00
Gave a price for cabling of $900.00

At MOST (1) 10 yard chip truck would be just under full 1x


What is everyones' thoughts, both on the conditions of the trees, and of the prices I gave?

 

[Treeman14]

Its hard to say without seeing the trees. The cabling price sounds about right, but the pruning price seems to be on the high side. Of course, here in FL, we rarely prune a tree for more than $500-$600. A typical prune on a large live oak is $300-$500. How many man-hours are you figuring for those trees?

 

[coydog]

It seems like an awful lot of chips for a prune job, remember, less is more.

 

[kf_tree]

the thing's you need to ask your self is 1) how long will it take from start to finish including travel time? 2) how many guys in the area can do as fine prune job as you can? (are you pricing the tree not to spike when other guys will spike it up) 3) what $$$ do you shoot for a day? if you shoot for 2000.00 a day and the tree's take you a full day then its the right price. the thing i don't like about the job is the guy wanted the estimate the same day he called. (or did i miss read) if thats the case then he seams like a pushy customer, that can lead to head aches. i basicly estimated my jobs by time and the volume of debris i had to get rid of. since i had bigger trucks and chippers than most i was able to clean up jobs alot faster. but that was my edge, i tried not to pass my edge to the customer.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I assume this is in a high end comunity and you will be doing a lot of fine pruning and twitching small deadwood.

5 inch limb is not small in my book, but I guess it could be in an apsect ratio to its parent limb. A tree this size should not be putting much long incremental growth on branch ends, so 5 feet of clearance could be 7-10 years worth.

Old trees should not have the ROT 25% thinning of live material, because dynamic mass is only on the branch ends. I'm more inlined to 5-10% at the outside. In my pitch I say something like "no more then I have to."

I've been in big bur oaks that took over 8 manhours to fine deadwood.

 

[treeman82]

John- all of the branches; both living and dead, could be run through a 6" chipper with ease. The 2 living ones only need to be removed in order to get them off the roof of the house.

Ken- I try for $1200 per day for; 3 guys / truck / chipper. I am thinking approximately 1 day per tree with 1 climber. If the cabling could be installed during those 2 days it would be interesting.

Coy- Between pruning the 2 trees, I figure the job would yield about 5 yards of chips, give or take a little bit.

Brett- I had somebody prune a black walnut for me a couple years ago and he got $450 for it. That tree was not even half the size of each of these, and didn't have anywhere near the amount of dead wood, or require anywhere near as much activity whilst aloft.

What do you guys think of the area it is situated in? I could most likely get some pictures tomorow... but who knows?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

It sounsd typical, if you ar not seeing any apical decline by noe, I would assume there is not much root damage.

Air excavation for visual inspection is not a bad idea though.

 

[Greg]

I think Brett was on the money, but then again you live in a different part of the country. You have it priced for 3 guys over 2 days, you may want to think about a 2nd climber and kill it in 1 day, might save you a little depending on how much a climber gets around there. and with the size stuff you will be droping I'm sure 2 groundies could keep up.
I bet you did the right thing, you will always feel better on a big job having bid it a little high, once you get into it, it may start looking like 3 days, never know...
Greg

 

[kf_tree]

its hard for you guys that don't work in a city to judge the price's we get. please don't tell treeman82 to back off on his price's. i always shot for 2500.00 a day or better and got it. the guy i was working for this summer had kind of a super crew but we were doing between 3500.00 to 5000.00 a day. the numbers sound nuts but its possible. why settle? drive the price's up. tree climbing is a skill. don't give that skill away.

 

[treeman82]

Ken, just out of curiosity, where do you guys dump chips / wood down in brooklyn? The guy I know who does work down there has to send his trucks 2 - 3 hours each way to dump back up here.

*#1 reason tree work is so expensive in the city = no where to dump.

 

[kf_tree]

does macy's tell gimbles where to buy clothes i was never able to dump wood in brooklyn. the chip spots dried up. the parks dept will take some chips but its not worth the hoops they make you jump through. all wood and chips get hauled back to staten island or new jersey. just make sure your boys aren't cutting any beatle trees.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Ken, I've seen some of the areas you could be working in. Never done it & don't want to. The worst I've ever had are things like Rog's cottonwood; tall, wide and rotten picket fence/garrage. But we got allies to drive into on most of those lots.

Matt's clients would be gravey work for you

 

[kf_tree]

thats why its so hard finding climbers by me. we hire guys out of penn, ohio etc. but in a tight back yard they do too much damage. i was taught to climb in brooklyn back yards. so tight back yard stuff is all i know. those 140 ft pines that rb and the boys do out west would scare the hell out of me. but i guess you get used to it after a while.