Called two different tree service outfits, one never showed, the other showed up, gave me a price and then disappeared off the face of the earth.

Then I collared a local guy who was doing EXACTLY that sort of work on a lot around the corner and he said he'd do it. Reminded him twice over the next couple of months, kept getting "Yup, I'll get to it" and never saw or heard from him again.

I was bitching about it to Baby Daughter the other day and she said she knew a guy from high school that did that sort of thing and would give him a call.

He showed up, looked it over, talked over a plan with me (double trunk, one side way heavy in the wrong direction) wandered back to his truck, geared up and put that sucker on the ground.

He asked for $80 for his time. I doubled that and still came in at half of the lowest estimate I'd gotten.

Some glad to have that widow maker on the ground instead of on the power lines or the house!

I had a similar experience. Took forever to get a crew to actually get the job done. I even let them name their price and said let’s do it. Must be nice to have so much work you can ignore a lot you’ve already agreed to.

OK, I've got a chain saw. Had 2 but gave the tiny one to a son. Kept the monster one. But my ace in the hole is my jeep with its winch. An 11,500# winch can almost pull the trees down without sawing. A while (whilst) back I had a poplar that was dead and a danger. but it was in a bad place. A kid from up the road asked what I'd pay for him to take it down, a piece at a time. So I told him $100. He had a bow saw and just climbed up it and started cutting. He didn't need any damn power saw.

Then he took a break from the work, but it was then only 20' or so high. So I went out, handed him a hunnert, thanked him profusely, and sent him on his way. Fired up the 660 Max, and down the rest came. Some trees are better off letting others tackle. Just like PHPaul figured. And that from a guy with a monster saw and new chains!

Indeed, rburg, indeed.

The ugly half of that tree was what worried me. It had about a 10° arc it could go in without hitting the house, the power lines or another tree, and it was NOT inclined to go there on it's own.

He went up my 24' extension ladder, put a choker around it as high as he could reach and we ran about 50 feet of rope out to the Cabota. Then he notched and back-cut it as much as he dared about 3 feet below the choker and I pulled it over with the tractor.

I just couldn't see my wrinkled old ass wielding a chainsaw over my head 20-odd feet in the air on a ladder.

quote:

I just couldn't see my wrinkled old ass wielding a chainsaw over my head 20-odd feet in the air on a ladder.

Well spoken. As they say: "Discretion is the better part of valor".

My guy was very straight with me. I have a tree to trim, and a huge set of bushes to remove. He said they were small jobs, not worth much, but if I wasn't in a hurry, he'd have his guys take care of it one day when they finished a job in my area early. That would be the low cost option. The other option was schedule an appointment and make a point of getting it done. The low bid was 1/3 of the high bid. Since it's only a matter of convenience, I'll wait.

Painters, Body men, and tree guys are like gypsies sometimes. The good ones can be a bit flighty.

Borrow ProjectFarms winnabago. Best You Tube channel too.

3:50 in
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7v5E7cgRGU

Phpaul, we had the same issue with 2 oaks in our front yard. We finally gave up after a year and my neighbor and I cut them both down.

That was the first time for me for something of that size, one was about 60' and the other about 50', but my neighbor was pretty experienced.

Regardless I was quite nervous as the larger of the two was "aimed" towards the garage if it went the wrong way.

Glad to hear you got yours taken care of, as you like we, sure sleep better knowing we won't wake up to the sound a huge crash!

Related story: Where I worked, the local power company used a group of terrorists called Asplundh to trim trees along the power lines. They had a "right of way" to do this.
We had to rescue them frequently. They damaged trees to the point of killing them, dropped limbs on things and damaged them and trashed lawns by driving equipment on them.
These depredations drove property owners to a new level of pissed off. Since they did this on a repeating basis, the once bitten, twice shy experience kicked in and previously aggrieved homeowners broke out their guns as soon as the crew arrived.
The power company DNGAF. And Asplundh was apparently legally untouchable.

I’m all for saving money, but let’s say you hire a kid up the street to cut your tree down.

You’re now the employer. You have no liability insurance, you have no work comp. You are liable when said kid falls out of tree and permanently disabled himself.

Then what?

Wow last tree I had taken down was either $2,200 or $2,800.

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I’m all for saving money, but let’s say you hire a kid up the street to cut your tree down.

You’re now the employer. You have no liability insurance, you have no work comp. You are liable when said kid falls out of tree and permanently disabled himself.

Then what?

Before they hit the ground yell, "you're fired."

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I’m all for saving money, but let’s say you hire a kid up the street to cut your tree down.

You’re now the employer. You have no liability insurance, you have no work comp. You are liable when said kid falls out of tree and permanently disabled himself.

Then what?

You are not his employer. He is an independent contractor. As long as you don't tell him how to do it, if the method he chooses fails, he is on his own, barring some dangerous, unexpected condition you didn't disclose.

Now, I'd never suggest hiring a young kid to do dangerous work like that, but you are not the employer of such people.

We had a big White Oak very close to the back corner of the house . We talked about having it taken down for several years . Got a reference from a co worker and had a guy come out and remove it . He had to set up a crane in my front yard and swing the cut sections over the house . Turns out the tree had a huge hollow section in the trunk that was not visible from the ground . They cleaned up and hauled everything off for a total of $800 . Money well spent for peace of mind .

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
I was bitching about it to Baby Daughter the other day and she said she knew a guy from high school that did that sort of thing and would give him a call...

He showed up, looked it over, talked over a plan with me (double trunk, one side way heavy in the wrong direction) wandered back to his truck, geared up and put that sucker on the ground.

He asked for $80 for his time. I doubled that and still came in at half of the lowest estimate I'd gotten.

Since a couple of posts seem to refer to the 'youth and inexperience' of the 'Tree Guy', I thought I'd circle back to the OP and point out that:

1. 'Baby Daughter knew a guy FROM high school, NOT in high school, that did that sort of thing...
2. By my read, the plan was devised by the 'Tree Guy' who then 'Geared Up', so seems to me he's a least a 'semi-professional' Tree Surgeon...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
I was bitching about it to Baby Daughter the other day and she said she knew a guy from high school that did that sort of thing and would give him a call...

He showed up, looked it over, talked over a plan with me (double trunk, one side way heavy in the wrong direction) wandered back to his truck, geared up and put that sucker on the ground.

He asked for $80 for his time. I doubled that and still came in at half of the lowest estimate I'd gotten.

Since a couple of posts seem to refer to the 'youth and inexperience' of the 'Tree Guy', I thought I'd circle back to the OP and point out that:

1. 'Baby Daughter knew a guy FROM high school, NOT in high school, that did that sort of thing...
2. By my read, the plan was devised by the 'Tree Guy' who then 'Geared Up', so seems to me he's a least a 'semi-professional' Tree Surgeon...

Well, yes and no. "Baby Daughter" is 54 years old and I should have said when "they" were in High School.

AFAIK, tree work is an offshoot of his major employment as maintaining a couple of large estates for some well-to-do residents.

"Gearing up" consisted of a choker, some rope, a pair of earmuffs and a couple Jonsereds saws, the larger of which sounded like it had been hot-rodded a little. No helmet, no eye protection, no chaps.

Made me a little nervous, frankly.

I gave up - had a palm tree between wires and near house that also blocked gate access. Couldn’t get anyone to show up - pretty usual in Florida unfortunately. Finally got a line, a come along and did the chainsaw work myself while having my dad keep tension. Fell right where we wanted. Glad you got someone to do it in a fair an timely fashion.

https://i.imgur.com/Ch5DJ91.mp4

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:

quote:

Originally posted by a1abdj:
I’m all for saving money, but let’s say you hire a kid up the street to cut your tree down.

You’re now the employer. You have no liability insurance, you have no work comp. You are liable when said kid falls out of tree and permanently disabled himself.

Then what?

You are not his employer. He is an independent contractor. As long as you don't tell him how to do it, if the method he chooses fails, he is on his own, barring some dangerous, unexpected condition you didn't disclose.

Now, I'd never suggest hiring a young kid to do dangerous work like that, but you are not the employer of such people.

And what happens when said tree, goes crashing through the middle of your house?

The Ponderosa pines around Lake Tahoe are HUGE. I watched from my balcony as a large one was being dropped nearby. A monkey-man climbed to the top, cutting branches as he went. He then had a larger saw pulleyed up. Cut the tree in sections as he went down. The felling only took about 30 minutes. Entertaining to watch, to say the least.