May be a touchy subject. It seems that I have run into more companies that dont climb or wont climb difficult trees. In the area that I work out of the 8 tree services only 2 will climb very hard trees my company and the other is the biggest tree service in the area. I have noticed this not only locally but my family lives in Fort Collins CO. While last trip out there I had to cut a Cottonwood down for my sister. Every tree service that looked at it said the fence would have to be taken down and they would have to drive across the garden (bucket truck) other that one but there price was $2500 and they would climb it. The tree took me about 7 hours to get down and saw everything up. I picked up a few other jobs while I was out there all Cottonwoods. The couple of other jobs that I did while out there after I gave them a price they told me what other people had quoted them. One tree was quoted at $1000 by on company and that was the cheapest they could find. I did it for $500 it took me 3 hours. The other job was another Cottonwood did that one for about half as much as anybody else quoted and hauled all the brush away (no chipper, huge pain) which added about 3 hours to the job and I still managed to make $125 per hr. I get call about once a week from other tree services in the area wanting me to climb a tree or two for them, sometimes I will do it sometimes I wont. It is easy to climb but give a guy a large tree with 14+ inch braches hanging over houses, power lines, decks, Flaggstone patios and all that fun stuff (not the limbs that are 20 feet above them, the ones that are 6-12 feet above them) and that's where you can really tell true ability.
nobody climbs??
- Thread starter mpatch
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BostonBull
Addicted to ArboristSite
7 hours worth of work for 2500 sounds pretty cheap!
skwerl
Will Climb for food
The fact is that there are less competent climbers than tree companies. That is why a good climber can make up to $300 per day or even more. Bucket trucks allow non-climbers to perform the same job without as much risk. Insurance for climbers is also a likely factor, it isn't the safest profession around.
:biggrinbounce2:
:biggrinbounce2:
daveyclimber
ArboristSite Operative
your awnser to why nobody climbs , Because todays workforce is the laziest yet , always looking for shortcuts and a fast dollar , I can only count on one hand the people I know that are my age who are worth a damn . These pansies wont stick around long enough to be taught anything let alone be able to teach them to climb .I am 27 and can admit I am shameful of our workforce today , Tomorrows will be worse yet I can gaurantee. I started climbing at 18 when I went to work at Davey Tree , I have seen hundreds of people come and go cause this type of work is just too much for lazy whiners to deal with .
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The amount of young climbers coming out nowadays is low and getting lower by the year.
Go figure my desire to learn climbing starting at an age of 31.
I was brought up "old school"..........you want something you work for it!
Go figure my desire to learn climbing starting at an age of 31.
I was brought up "old school"..........you want something you work for it!
BostonBull said:
I hope you are kidding. It was me and my ground guy = 7x2= 14 man hours =$178 per man hour. It was for my sister so I charged her $400. I started climing at the age of 20 now I'm 25. The company that I worked at found out that i liked to climb and that was it. Made foreman in 5 months and had to do almost every climbing job. I learned very quickly. Two years ago I started my own business, no bucket truck I climb everything. It was nice at my previous employer I had a new 60 foot vera-lift, new BC100XL, new Ameriquip Eagle (bucket on tracks) handy as hell made line clearance work a lot easier, but wasn't very reliable. I hope that someday I will have all new top of the line equipment. Well if I stop this
maybe I'll have the money,,,,someday.
clearance
Addicted to ArboristSite
Davey-you are right on the money, home run. Like my buddy (one of the guys who taught me) said to me in front of two young groundsmen "ya know Jim, they make a lesser and lesser man every year". Mpatch-I sure hope you are qualified and trained to work around power, there is a huge diff. between damaging houses and putting something on a powerline. Upset customers are just upset customers, electrocuted climbers are dead.
power lines
Yes I trimmed power lines for 3 years. Mainly back lines, the ones that are a pain. Had a few close calls. That's what I used to do all winter long not fun climbing in temperatures ranging from -10 to +40. Hard to work with all that clothing.
Yes I trimmed power lines for 3 years. Mainly back lines, the ones that are a pain. Had a few close calls. That's what I used to do all winter long not fun climbing in temperatures ranging from -10 to +40. Hard to work with all that clothing.
darkstar
ArboristSite Guru
right
First off i think you are full of sheet , i worked that area several years ago and their are meny a good climber locally . Secondly if you did do the work, then you cheap as ... Ill leave it at that . Thridly if you are so darn good at climbing ,Youd know youre own value and by now you'd own about 3 chippers and etc etc etc . Later dark:censored:
First off i think you are full of sheet , i worked that area several years ago and their are meny a good climber locally . Secondly if you did do the work, then you cheap as ... Ill leave it at that . Thridly if you are so darn good at climbing ,Youd know youre own value and by now you'd own about 3 chippers and etc etc etc . Later dark:censored:
ASD
Addicted to ArboristSite
climb trees ?? 
face cut
back cut
chip chip chip
DONE
face cut
back cut
chip chip chip
DONE
wradman
ArboristSite Operative
I hear ya patch i log full time for the going rate when i do res. work it's 50/hr straight cash when i don't put my spurs on for anything less than $100 I'm forty and still giviner accident free over 10 years
hmm?
do a yellow pages search for tree services in Strugeon Bay WI there are about 8 tree services yes maybe in the Green Bay area there are better climbers but that's more than an hour away. Figure in 2 to 3 hours of travel time for a job and it wouldn't make sense for them to come up here. I have worked at or for 4 of the local tree services. There is one large tree service Dave's he has 5 buckets, 4 chippers, log truck, loader, posi-track, 3 1 ton chip trucks for a county that has a population of about 18k people thats a pretty big outfit. He has been in business for 35 years. Up until a few years ago he had a monopoly, and the city and county line clearance contracts. Now it seems that every year another one or two tree services pop up.darkstar said:
Mpatch - I was looking at your posting and commend you on being able to price as such. Now I have a question, How much are your monthly, expenses?
Insurance:
Saw Expenses:
Mileage:
Supplies:
Equipment:
Worker's Comp for Everyone on site:
Pay Roll taxes and Service:
CPA:
Lawyer:
Business Lic:
Mannuals and Educational Materials:
Advertising:
Is this factored into your price? I wish I didn't have to consider these things.
Insurance:
Saw Expenses:
Mileage:
Supplies:
Equipment:
Worker's Comp for Everyone on site:
Pay Roll taxes and Service:
CPA:
Lawyer:
Business Lic:
Mannuals and Educational Materials:
Advertising:
Is this factored into your price? I wish I didn't have to consider these things.
BostonBull
Addicted to ArboristSite
Tree Frog said:
I think he is trying to say nicely that you underbid EVERY other company out there by hundreds if not thousands, and then came to brag about it here.
How are we employees of these co's going to ever get more money and nicer equipment in with every tree co out there underbidding each other and then guys doing it on the side for half as much as the underbid?
expenses
Insurance: $75
Saw Expenses: $50
Mileage: $800
Supplies: $100
Equipment: $600
Worker's Comp for Everyone on site:$400 average out of 12 months based upon annual pay
Pay Roll taxes and Service:do my own
CPA: do my own
Lawyer:no need
Business Lic:not needed or required
Mannuals and Educational Materials:none
Advertising:$300
not exact figures but pretty darn close, still wish I knew why my liability insurance is so cheap??? no bucket truck maybe??
grand total= $2325
figure on 150 hours paid at $90 an hour = $13,500 granted I only get that much work about 6 months out of the year (lot of seasonal people up here)
employee salary $15-$20 per hour= $3000
granted the only equipment I have is a chip truck and chipper and all the chainsaw's and climbing stuff
Tree Frog said:
Insurance: $75
Saw Expenses: $50
Mileage: $800
Supplies: $100
Equipment: $600
Worker's Comp for Everyone on site:$400 average out of 12 months based upon annual pay
Pay Roll taxes and Service:do my own
CPA: do my own
Lawyer:no need
Business Lic:not needed or required
Mannuals and Educational Materials:none
Advertising:$300
not exact figures but pretty darn close, still wish I knew why my liability insurance is so cheap??? no bucket truck maybe??
grand total= $2325
figure on 150 hours paid at $90 an hour = $13,500 granted I only get that much work about 6 months out of the year (lot of seasonal people up here)
employee salary $15-$20 per hour= $3000
granted the only equipment I have is a chip truck and chipper and all the chainsaw's and climbing stuff
free enterprise
competition is what keeps prices affordable
I wasn't trying to underbid. I gave them prices that I would charge if I were at home. They happened to be a lot less. I charge $90 per hour for a crew (2 men). The one place that I called (the largest in the Fort Collins area I think)to ask about how they came up with the price that they gave had a charge for everything $45 per man $50 for chipper $120 for a bucket per hour.
You can go out and buy a nice bucket, chipper and chip truck for about $100k
about $2200 a month in payments. Figure you charge $100 per hour thats taking in $16k a month after all of the operating cost and salary let's say that you have about $8k+ left. That still makes you $2k a week profit. Don't be greedy. Yes I have raped a few customers and done some jobs for free but you can't do too much of either.
BostonBull said:
competition is what keeps prices affordable
I wasn't trying to underbid. I gave them prices that I would charge if I were at home. They happened to be a lot less. I charge $90 per hour for a crew (2 men). The one place that I called (the largest in the Fort Collins area I think)to ask about how they came up with the price that they gave had a charge for everything $45 per man $50 for chipper $120 for a bucket per hour.
You can go out and buy a nice bucket, chipper and chip truck for about $100k
about $2200 a month in payments. Figure you charge $100 per hour thats taking in $16k a month after all of the operating cost and salary let's say that you have about $8k+ left. That still makes you $2k a week profit. Don't be greedy. Yes I have raped a few customers and done some jobs for free but you can't do too much of either.
thanks
My old boss does everything by the book and charges $90 an hour for a 2 man crew up until last summer (now he's at $120) he makes plenty of money. Well enough that he owns his own plane bought his kid a $45k truck and a $35k boat for fun and has about $750k in equipment that's mostly paid for. That's what 35+ years of being in business will do. Now he is taking helicopter lessons so he can buy one. As for employees seeing any of the price jump, good luck I think they got .50 to $1 hr raise. Works his ass of though 80 hr weeks in the spring summer and fall looking at jobs. Gets utility contracts in the winter to keep his men working full time. (doesn't believe in drawing unemployment)
My old boss does everything by the book and charges $90 an hour for a 2 man crew up until last summer (now he's at $120) he makes plenty of money. Well enough that he owns his own plane bought his kid a $45k truck and a $35k boat for fun and has about $750k in equipment that's mostly paid for. That's what 35+ years of being in business will do. Now he is taking helicopter lessons so he can buy one. As for employees seeing any of the price jump, good luck I think they got .50 to $1 hr raise. Works his ass of though 80 hr weeks in the spring summer and fall looking at jobs. Gets utility contracts in the winter to keep his men working full time. (doesn't believe in drawing unemployment)
darkstar
ArboristSite Guru
mpatch
Sorry about my post ,i misunderstood the area you are working in .
Just do the right thing .
Dont mind the nay sayers.:spam:
Dark
Sorry about my post ,i misunderstood the area you are working in .
Just do the right thing .
Dont mind the nay sayers.:spam:
Dark
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