Need some friendly advice. An acquiantance has asked me to remove two trees from his yard. Blew over from recent heavy rain. Trees are not completely down. One is at 45 degree angle leaning on second tree, which is at 60 degree angle. First tree is definitely leaning on second. I want to haul away trees for personal use and can discard branches on their property. Access to tree is open, can drive truck right up to tree. Both trees are roughly 80' tall. Mature heavy trees(Rock Maple). Still green up top. Tree stump and cosmetic repair to property are not an issue. Others will do that.


Thanks for any input.

 

so what are you asking? How tog et them down??

I say cut the one that is leaning on the other tree first.. You don't want to be under a tree that is being supported by the one you are cutting..

 

Sorry...I forgot the only question. How much should I ask for this job. I've got all my cutting gear, ropes, etc... Just need to know what is fair.

Thanks

 

not to be a pain, but are u licensed and insured to do that type of work? otherwise it's probably illegal to charge for it (I know because I ran into that problem when I started once). But if ur doing it under the table for ur friend, I guess charge somewhere around $30 a hour, that seems fair for that type of work if ur not in business doing it.

 

If it was me I would charge a couple cold beers and a sandwich. Seems like a quick and easy job and you don't have much to worry about as far as cleanup goes. Since I'm not in the business, falling trees is just good fun and an excuse to use my chainsaw.

Since you wish to charge, I would estimate how much time it will take you to do the job, figure out the value of your time, and subtract the worth of the wood you are hauling away. To me it seems like the wood breaks even with the service you provide.

I know you asked for a tree contractors opinion and I am not one, but you might call a local guy and ask how much he would charge and go off that.

 

Man, Just be carefull! Those things arent calld "widow-makers" for no reason. Because of the odd distribution of the weight of both trees, it is almost impossible to determine the way either tree will fall. Ive dropped about 50 or so trees that were like that, and each one of them went a different way. Also look out for VERY bad kickbacks. Honestly, Id rather hook up a chain to a dozer and drag those things out before I would cut them. Just my .02. Good Luck

 

My fee is $200 a tree to fall them and dispose of them. (this pays for my fuel and disposal fees at the dump).
If you were having to dispose of all the branches and the tree itself along with cleaning the yard up after wards then I would be looking at the $600 low and $800 high range. (not including stump removal)

You have to take into account the time it will take for you to fall the trees, delimb them and then dispose of any waste. Plus the cost of fuel for the saw, your truck, wear and tear on the saw, possibly a new chain/bar, bar oil.
Now in your case you have no waste to worry about as you can dispose of it on the property.

Depending on how good of an aquiantence he is I would charge him $100 for the two trees and tell him to get some beer. This $100 would buy me a new bar and chain along with fuel for my time.

I also agree, try to pull the one snag down before cutting the other one.