How to Chop Down a Tree

[GrayHare]

When it's too large to do yourself:

1) Search for area aborists, landscapers, ground maintenance companies, etc. whose web sites claim they remove trees. Make a list of 32.
2) Telephone all 32 and find 16 of those phones have been disconnected.
3) Of the 16 working phones, no live person answers, so leave a message. Also send email.
4) Of those 16, 8 do not reply.
5) Of the 8 that do reply, 4 say they don't do that kind of work.
6) Of the 4 that do the work, schedule with all 4 to come to the site to review the job.
7) Of those 4, only 2 show up. Ask both to provide a price estimate.
8) Of those 2 only 1 provides a price estimate.
9) That one person gets the job!

 

[pb4uski]

And the others who did not get the work constantly complain about how slow business is.

 

[user5027]

Here is some inspiration. This guy amazes me every time I watch it...

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

The last tree specialist that I hired cut down a very tall old-growth douglas fir tree that was right next to my house. It needed to be cut precisely, else it would do serious damage. I was a bit startled when, as he left, he had to blow into an alcohol detector device, before his truck would start. He was very competent, but boy was I glad for that device.

 

[jjquantz]

We had a guy knock on our door and ask if we wanted a tree taken down (it had lost its top in a storm). Unfortunately for him, he was still smoking a joint when he knocked at our door. We hired elsewhere.

I will admit, it takes special people to take down tall timber.

 

[harley]

You could try this.

 

[tfudtuckerpucker]

That's funny.

One time a very bad windstorm blew over some very tall fir trees, leaving one leaning towards a house. So we hired a tree-dude, right in the middle of the windstorm, to cut it down in sections, starting from the top, to prevent it from completing its journey into the house. He was literally jumping between trees, with his chainsaw roped to his waist, at about 100 ft in the air. Suddenly he stopped and looked up, with a panicked look on his face. It turns out that an onlooker had taken a photo of him from below, and he mistook the camera flash for lightning. I did admire his skill and bravery.

 

[JoeWras]

"I have a guy". I went through the OP's algorithm 10 years ago and found a guy who is a real pro. He's not "cheap", but man he and his crew know how to deal with trees. Worth it.

He wouldn't drop a tree between buildings like the first video shows, he'd use a crane. Makes it more expensive, yes.

As for the second video... Well I've said it before. If you ever find yourself with a ladder and a saw, you are doing something wrong. No decent tree person ever uses a ladder except to maybe access a roof. Ladders, saws and trees are the number 1 way to die or get paralyzed. This video was different since it was a direct blow. Normally, the limb falls, bounces back and knocks the ladder out from under the guy.

 

[W2R]

When it's too large to do yourself:

1) Search for area aborists, landscapers, ground maintenance companies, etc. whose web sites claim they remove trees. Make a list of 32.
2) Telephone all 32 and find 16 of those phones have been disconnected.
3) Of the 16 working phones, no live person answers, so leave a message. Also send email.
4) Of those 16, 8 do not reply.
5) Of the 8 that do reply, 4 say they don't do that kind of work.
6) Of the 4 that do the work, schedule with all 4 to come to the site to review the job.
7) Of those 4, only 2 show up. Ask both to provide a price estimate.
8) Of those 2 only 1 provides a price estimate.
9) That one person gets the job!

I'd suggest that you look for a company that is licensed and insured, and has a solid reputation in the community.

If your project is unusually large, I'd suggest that you make sure the company has done many, many projects of that scope before over several decades, and already has the trucks, equipment, manpower, and expertise to do it. Otherwise they may get in way over their heads.

 

[mystang52]

I'm always amazed at the lack of response from contractors. I went thru a similar process when I needed a tree service.
A few years ago a whopping 2 masonry contractors got back to me when I needed driveway work. A 3rd knocked on my door, more than a month after my original call, and was genuinely shocked that I was not interested in getting an estimate from him at that point.
I have been using the same lawn service for 20 years. She was literally the only one who returned my call when I was first looking.

 

[MRG]

I used to deal with loggers and trimmers, different breed of people. The loggers have a lot of respect for the trimmers. To quote one "takes a special kind of crazy to climb up in a tree your cutting down". Many of their careers are very short.

 

[calmloki]

Getting work done is not easy. Years ago we were trying to get a shaggy place decent enough to want to rent it. One issue was the crawl space was way way too low - like have to turn your head sideways in a low spot under a floor joist to ooch through flat on your back low. Decided we wanted the crawl dug out and in a college town in the middle of summer didn't think we would have a problem. Hah! The few guys that showed up to look would get about half their torso under the house and then back out like crazy - OOO! Got cobwebs on my face and there are spiders under there! Big scaredey cat football players. Had a woman call me one night - said she had heard we had work and wondered if we would have a problem with her and her 16 YO daughter tackling it.

Told her the name of the game was to get the job done - if she wanted to do it I didn't have a problem with a woman running a shovel. She and her Goth daughter and the daughter's boyfriend showed up the next morning and they worked like gophers on their way toward a garden. Short shovels were flying as they bored tunnels under the house to gain enough room to spread out and work. End of the day the lady asked me if they could get paid and I figured that was the last time I'd see them - but I was wrong.

Those three kept after digging out the underside of that house and after a week or so the woman said her husband was getting out of prison and was capable and could he work as well? Husband showed up and I had him lay some floor tiles - nice job. Smooth some walls for paint - great job. hmm. Those people kept on the job through the summer, we rented a great looking house to college kids that fall, and the husband and wife continued as our go-to painters for the next twenty years. They are getting decrepit now and I haven't found good substitutes.

 

[pb4uski]

Here is some inspiration. This guy amazes me every time I watch it...

Impressive. He seems very relieved.

 

[GrayHare]

I'm ready to spend thousands for help with a specialized task (not a tree removal project), but have located online only 8 candidate companies/people in my area. Beginning with 8 rather than 32 spells trouble. A week has elapsed and I've yet to find one real, live person answering their phone, or receive a reply via phone or email. Feels like lots of people are intentionally minimizing their income these days.

 

[braumeister]

Yes, it's a common problem alright. My former neighbor who was a banker specializing in small business loans used to say "This is why most small businesses stay small."

My practice is to get a minimum of three estimates on jobs likely to cost over $1K, not so much about the prices but just to get a better feel for the people who are doing that type of work.

 

[6miths]

I used to deal with loggers and trimmers, different breed of people. The loggers have a lot of respect for the trimmers. To quote one "takes a special kind of crazy to climb up in a tree your cutting down". Many of their careers are very short.

+1

I've found that it takes me about 10 years to forget what happened the last time I climbed up a tree with a chainsaw!! Finally got a 13-foot pole saw but now of course the temptation is to get on the ladder or into the tree with it! On the bright side, at least the branch and business end of the saw are much further away. And the saw is lighter. You can't cure stupid!

 

[travelover]

Yes, it's a common problem alright. My former neighbor who was a banker specializing in small business loans used to say "This is why most small businesses stay small."

It seems like a lot of the self employed like to throttle back work to an "as needed" income basis. If you catch them when they have rent due, they will hop, if they'd just been paid for a job, forget it.

 

[sengsational]

I'm having the same thing with re-quoting insurance. I want a quote for home auto umbrella just like I have now, so I made a PDF with every last detail of what they need to quote it (right out of my existing policies). Of six companies, only one quoted it, and not a complete quote. Maybe the insurance agents just got paid and don't need the money or are smoking a joints or something

 

[W2R]

I used to deal with loggers and trimmers, different breed of people. The loggers have a lot of respect for the trimmers. To quote one "takes a special kind of crazy to climb up in a tree your cutting down". Many of their careers are very short.

The guys I hired last month have climbed up into small or medium sized trees that they cut down for me in the past (at my old house). However, for truly giant trees they bring equipment. This is the small portable bucket that they brought into the back yard on its own offroad transport, but they also brought a second, bigger one on a very huge crane truck that they used on another tree. No photos of most of this because it was a hardhat area, but I took this one through my French doors.

 

[harley]

We've had a lot of luck in our SWFL home with Angie's List. DW has found a number of people for jobs like tree work, roof repair, painting, and laying a paver patio (big one). There are tons of companies listed down here, and she picks ones with A+ reviews and then gets quotes and interviews them. She also tends to find Angie's List discounts, and we've gotten a lot of quality work done for what I think are very fair prices.

Having said that, in our MD home on the Eastern Shore, Angie's List has been a major failure. I think it basically comes down to the population density and wealth distribution. In SWFL there are a lot of people, a lot of money, and therefore a lot of companies competing for the money. On the Eastern Shore, there's not that many people (except in the summer season), and definitely not much money. It's a largely agricultural area with the exception of the tourist beach season. If you find a company up there that doesn't blow you off if the surf's up or the rockfish are running, you got lucky. There's one plumbing company that advertises on TV "We show up!". So it depends on where you are, but it might be worth considering.

 

[imoldernu]

How not to down a tree.


News article about the tornado that hit our campground last summer. Five minutes of storm... 500 campers and park models destroyed, 400 more damaged and 10,000 to 15,000 trees downed.

ONLY ON 13: Two months after tornado Woodhaven Lakes still worki - WREX.com – Rockford’s News Leader

Gotta be a better way.

 

[calmloki]

How not to down a tree.


News article about the tornado that hit our campground last summer. Five minutes of storm... 500 campers and park models destroyed, 400 more damaged and 10,000 to 15,000 trees downed.

ONLY ON 13: Two months after tornado Woodhaven Lakes still worki - WREX.com – Rockford’s News Leader

Gotta be a better way.

Remember you posting about that storm - Real good to see you post again!

 

[427Vette]

I'm ready to spend thousands for help with a specialized task (not a tree removal project), but have located online only 8 candidate companies/people in my area. Beginning with 8 rather than 32 spells trouble. A week has elapsed and I've yet to find one real, live person answering their phone, or receive a reply via phone or email. Feels like lots of people are intentionally minimizing their income these days.

I doubt many contractors are intentionally minimizing their income. Perhaps the companies you are calling are simply to busy to take on one more job. It seems to be the misconception that most people think small contractors wake up in the morning about ten, have a couple beers, delete all of their messages without calling anybody back, smoke a quick joint, go do a quick shotty job collect a few hundred bucks and go back to the beer drinking. Most of these contractors are truly small businesses. The guy swinging the hammer or running the chainsaw is probably the same guy who answers the phone, estimates the jobs, collects the money, pays the bills, maintains the equipment, cleans the bathroom etc. Its not like the megacorps that most people here are accustomed to working at. There isn't a whole department for phone calls, bill collecting etc.

I am a small contractor and one day last summer I had 87 phone calls. There is obviously no way that I can get back to all of those people and still be somewhat efficient. If a regular customer calls I will definitely get back to them because obviously I already have the job. If someone calls and leaves a message saying that they want me to do a job, I will get back to them. If someone calls and says I am thinking about doing a project and getting several bids. The first thing that comes to my mind is do I have time to waste educating this person on how to do their job, give them my ideas so they can shop my method around to other bidders so they can save themselves a few bucks but waste my time and money. So, perhaps the way you are asking them to get back to you is why you don't get a call back.

 

[427Vette]

Yes, it's a common problem alright. My former neighbor who was a banker specializing in small business loans used to say "This is why most small businesses stay small."

My practice is to get a minimum of three estimates on jobs likely to cost over $1K, not so much about the prices but just to get a better feel for the people who are doing that type of work.

Or perhaps they chose to remain small because the cost of growing does not out weigh the benefits. Admittedly I chuckled at a banker saying such a thing. What could he possibly know about actually operating a small business?


I am assuming the estimates that you get for jobs in excess of $1000.00 are free estimates. If you had to pay for estimates would you still get three estimates or would you decide on a contractor in a different way?

 

[427Vette]

It seems like a lot of the self employed like to throttle back work to an "as needed" income basis. If you catch them when they have rent due, they will hop, if they'd just been paid for a job, forget it.

I can see how it may look this way from the outside looking in. The reality is that if a contractor is going to pay for keeping his license up to date, pay for his bonding, pay all of the insurances it requires to be in business, pay for continuing education, maintain equipment, pay office help, this list goes on longer than you can even imagine so I will stop there. There is not to many of us that have a luxury to "throttle back". Perhaps if you were able to get a contractor out at a specific time he got done with a job early or a job cancelled out its probably not that his rent was due.