fact or fiction?

[treeman82]

I went to look at a tree job tonight for a regular lawn customer who lives right up the road from my parents' house... it's only 5 houses up the road. They want to take down about 25 red maples in their back yard. Some are leaning towards the house, but can be pulled away... nothing is smaller that 18" DBH. The wood stays, but has to be cut up, and the chips can be left on site, so long as they get spread out before the job is finished. I told them I want $6,000 for the trees, and another $1,000 for the stumps... not even a day with a Super RG50. It would take me with a 3 man crew probably 4 days to do the job... and then another day for the stumps. According to the customer, they got a price from somebody who did work for their in-laws... of $1,500 per day and it would take 2 - 3 days to do the job. So that's $3,000 - $4,500... but no stumps. I asked how many people they are bringing to get the job done in 2 - 3 days. He said the guy would bring either 6 or 7 guys at $1,500 per day to do it in that time frame. I told him to do whatever he felt was right, but my price is $6,000 for the trees, and $1,000 for the stumps. Of course if he gets the other guy to do the trees, whatever work I do in the future will be priced sky high.

 

[rahtreelimbs]

I encounter that kind of shat every once in a while...............don't sweat it!!!

 

[John464]

what are you asking? if someone can undercut your quote? sure, happens to me nearly every day

to take down 25 red maples that can be pulled sounds like the guy is on track with his time frame estimate, especially if nothing has to be hauled. also sounds like you are on track with the price.


bummer on bucking up all that wood though. if it was me id be taking logs out rather than all that cutting. would cut your cutting time by 1/10

 

[TimberMcPherson]

Probably its treeminator, sounds like him and his 14 year old burger flippers

 

[SilentElk]

Probably its treeminator, sounds like him and his 14 year old burger flippers

Nice. Very clever!

Could be true. I wouldnt worry it. You might consider telling him you are willing to still do the stumps but they need to be cut so low to do them for $1000.00 Personally I would just mark the trees extremely low then to give the low bidder a heck of a time with it.

 

[treeman82]

I was just wondering if there are actually people out there in this business who are working with a 6 or 7 man crew for $1500 per day with 2 trucks, a chipper, saws, proper insurance, etc. etc. That's just slightly over $200 per man day...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I was just wondering if there are actually people out there in this business who are working with a 6 or 7 man crew for $1500 per day with 2 trucks, a chipper, saws, proper insurance, etc. etc. That's just slightly over $200 per man day...

Maybe not fully insured, I know guys like this who hire part timers @$10/hr. If that is the average (for easy math) that is 700/day with the last day probably will be significantly less by manhours.

Also, if he has a bigger chipper, he can do it faster. One of my clients is highly mechanized and always amazes me as to how fast he can get things cleared out. He can underbid most similar sized companies on large removals, thogh he looses on trim work.

 

[Magnum783]

Maybe not fully insured, I know guys like this who hire part timers @$10/hr. If that is the average (for easy math) that is 700/day with the last day probably will be significantly less by manhours.

Also, if he has a bigger chipper, he can do it faster. One of my clients is highly mechanized and always amazes me as to how fast he can get things cleared out. He can underbid most similar sized companies on large removals, thogh he looses on trim work.

Agreed there is a guy here like that. Has no chipper uses grapple trucks and a tub grinder. (keep the tub grinder centrally located and has a huge dump site that he owns and just dumps his debris there and grinds on the weekends) Uses a little tractor with a grapple to haul all his debris to the roadside where he can pick it up with the grapples. He does stuff way cheap, I have told customers on some big jobs like the one described at the bigging of the post "you are best to call this guy" Don't sweat it man you will make you money else where. Sounds like you have a good company.
Jared

 

[teamtree]

Don't sweat the petty stuff...

pet the sweaty stuff....lol....

It took me a long time to stop worrying about all the "come and go" competitors and the unprofessionals.

I sell these facts...

We are educated, professionally trained, have nice equipment, follow safety guidelines, we clean up like pros and we pay attention to the details.

For example, last year I spent over $10,000 on training a staff of 7. Only one of about 40 competitors in a 60 mile area can say the same. In additon I paid for my staff to attend the TCIA Show in Baltimore.

I have workers comp insurance and 3,000,000 of liability insurance (mostly for a large project we are working on).

Not saying I have not pissed a few customers off but we try our best to provide timely and professional service. We try to keep our customers informed as to when we will do the work and try to stick to our deadlines.

So do you really care as to what the next guy charges to do the same work? If he is cheaper ask yourself what the difference is. Is he more efficient at what he does (i.e. does he hustle to get the job done quicker) or is he skimping on insurance and safety? Use that as a selling point. Offer your certificate of insurance or tell them about your training programs.

Just my thoughts.

 

[lxt]

depending on the situation he may be legit & just plain faster at what he does!! I just did a job that companies were bidding at $7-$8000.00 & I did it for $5300.00 that took 1 day at 4 men & 2 days at 3 men, I run a legit operation!!! but I also have a tow behind which provided me access to difficult areas that other companies would have had to use climbers.

we did 28 trees total, 3 spruce`s & 25 locust`s all wood stayed brush was chipped total of 3 days, NOT BAD!!!! customer was pleased & recommended my service to many others.

one of those referals was a customer with large oak tree many problems(structural) hanging over house, service drops etc... not to mention honey bees in a crevice 40+ ft up, very large tree,they had bids $24-$2800.00, 1 bid at $6000.00. I told the home owner my bid would be around the $6000.00 price range maybe more, crane, larger lift(90 ft) etc... I dont think Im gonna get that job!!! oh well. depends on your equipment base & skilled worker base sometimes as to obtaining certain jobs. IMO

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

 

[teamtree]

right place at right time

I know I move around on my bids somewhat but I try to stay consistent. I cover a 60 mile area and the further I go out the higher I get on my estimate. I have found that my competitors inquire as to other bids and then say they will beat it by so much, say $100. I don't do this and I do not move my price once it is written or spoke. I do price some jobs lower to gain access to a certain neighborhood or small town but other than that I let the chips fall where they want. I am sure some new upstart is out there that will do everything cheaper. I had one guy in my area advertise he would beat any estimate by 20%. Now that guys was a character. They had to come pull a big oak off a house with a track hoe. And geuss what....he was not insured. OOOPS! The farmer down the road who brought his tractor over to pull the tree even got sued.

 

[mckeetree]

I was just wondering if there are actually people out there in this business who are working with a 6 or 7 man crew for $1500 per day with 2 trucks, a chipper, saws, proper insurance, etc. etc. That's just slightly over $200 per man day...

Oh. there have been a few guys come here from time to time and work 7 guys for less than that but they don't last long. One ******** from wisconsin blew in down here with a bunch of crap equipment a few years ago and was working for peanuts. And I mean his equipment was sh*t I have never seen anything like it before or since. Claimed he was going to put us out of business. He lasted five months.

 

[Ax-man]

Probably its treeminator, sounds like him and his 14 year old burger flippers

: Has he opened a branch office in New York state.

 

[SilentElk]

You know, reading these replies got me thinking of when I used to do trees. It was jobs just like this where I often underbid all my competitors. I had a vermeer 1800 and I could tear through some trees in a hurry! And especially leaving chips on site too. Perhaps, he justh as better machinery. If they are really, bringing 6 or 7 guys then it isnt machinery I suspect. Just under the table labor.