Remember when . . . How do wages / revenue compare with the past?

[ChoppingBlock]

I've been in the business for a little less than a year now. I'm located north of Seattle WA. I primarily do removals since I'm not a certified arborist, and there is definitely no shortage of tree workers in Western WA. There is a lot of competition around here and although I have low overhead, I'm surprised at how low some other, much more established contractors will bid jobs for. Is it because they are that hungry for work or what? I'm scratching my head when a customer tells me another outfit quoted her $2500 to remove 3 fat 90' doug firs in her front yard, near the house, that had terrible access due to the tiny yard, fence and the house power feed that was below their crown. They would have been a lot of rigging to say the least. Does this competitor live around the corner with a crane or what? I thought a single tree such as described above would run around $1200-1500? Anyways stuff like that. Did prices plummet around 2006 hard or what? I thought I remember hearing this type of work paid better than this, or is having to pay all these bills to run the business make it feel like it pays so much less?

 

[lxt]

Well................what happened is every meat whistle who lost their job mostly in the construction field went out & invested a little in some gear.........they already had the dump truck & a good relationship with the rental yards......so they give it a try! they under bid but get work & while they`re learning to bid they keep getting work........so being cheap the word gets around & bam another tree service & then another & so on.............

there is a guy round me who has a roll off dumpster service & does tree work using his own roll off dumpsters.........what a sight watching him work, its laughable! Fact is I made more money back in late 80`s early 90`s with practically nothing.....Now I got toys & the work can be had but for not the same!!! most of us stay in it cause its all we have or know........Im trying to make the change & will see how that works this year..........if not I just stick with my 40 hr a week job & hope for a raise.....LOL



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

 

[no tree to big]

well doug firs dont have any branch structure to them so they will limb up real quick... and 2500 seems like an average price for 3 of them the Co. I'm with has a pair of smaller cranes so those 3 would prob be done and cleaned up by lunch... limb it up a ways real quick, drop the top when it gets down a bit grab it with the crane set in street let the ground crew hack at it and clean up the rest of the mess while the climber and crane are now picking big logs

now if the crane had 130-150 feet of boom the three would be done by 10 O'clock break

now the loader swings by and makes a couple runs or the log semi comes out with it and your done in one trip

so no there not desperate for work they can just do it so much faster and more efficiantly