My house is trying to kill me
Yesterday another section of the same tree came down, so now the whole thing will be removed along with 2 other limbs on two other giant trees near the house. $4,000. Oh well, I guess we don't have to have any vacation again this year.  |
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| Youch... just think of how many sheepdogs you could have gotten with all that money! |
* Capt. Obvious Danger wrote: Youch... just think of how many sheepdogs you could have gotten with all that money! Not very many!! Well, if you consider we bought a car for our one sheepie!  Sorry to hear that Ron. |
| I always knew (from hurricane season here) that removing a tree was expensive but OUCH!!! |
Ouch! And nothing to look at afterwards except a place where the grass is trying to matchup!  I was complaining about our "high ticket" summer. But at least I have a new pool liner to look at & central air to relax in. |
| i feel your pain i have termites and now leaks from the windows ... i hope a hurricane comes and knocks my place down |
| oh ron, how many estimates did ya get?  |
| You can probably pick up a half dozen hungry beavers for half that amount. |
| Really, $4k?! How big is it? That just seems like an exorbitant amount for one tree, regardless of the size. Do you have more than one quote? Now I know we are in a much lower cost of living area than you are, but we had a giant tree removed - it was 45 feet tall and had a diameter of over 5 ft. It cost $600 including the stump grinding. I would expect $1200-1500 for yours but $4k? Wow. I should add, it was in a very precarious location as well - between a large deck, a driveway and a garage, and only 10 feet from the house. Not an easy, wide-open area. |
Todd's unemployed, I'll send him up for half that price!!!   Seriously - $4000 is outrageous! |
| Actually that sounds about right! I was an arborist and dealt with some of these issues. A big tree take down is not as simple as cutting and dropping. The technical knowledge to cut a limb without knocking yourself out of the tree, get a limb down safely for all concerned is a major logic puzzle. Broken trees.......you said yours was damaged before......possible rot......makes any action on them life threatening. A rotten tree is called a widow maker for a reason. Insurance for physcial damage and death to the arborist (remember electrical lines......they kill several arborists a year) as well as to pay if they drop it into your house. Equipment: saws, rigs, ropes and equipement, lifts, stumpgrinders, chipper boxes, chippers .......just rolling out of the yard each morning cost the company several thousand dollars to send out a crew (the equipement sitting on the street easily costs $150,000. And crew payment. Back in 1982 when minimum wage was $3.35, the average wage to a climber......the guy in the tree was $12.00. You can hire Joe Pickup Truck and his chainsaw who probably has no insurance for himself or for your property, no knowlege, infact let's hope it's a take down because as a "trimmer" he'll probably cause untold thousands of dollars of damage rendering your tree a "hazardous tree" thru improper pruning techniques and resulting rot. Sure you paid less money, but in the long run, when the tree fails and crashes into your home or onto your child's play area, saving money doesn't seem like it was a good idea. |
| The maple(?) is oh, about 75 feet and is in a good spot for felling. The eastern cottonwood is the gigundo giant tree in my yard and is overhanging the house. Every time the wind blows I worry about that tree, so we are taking down a large limb. It cannot be done by a climber dropping or roping alone, the cherry picker will have to lower the limb in pieces as half of it is over the house. The third tree is inbetween power lines and the house and has rot and other issues that call for some major limbing. We arranged for several estimates, but went with the first company we called. They are literally down the street from us and have done some work for us before. The amount includes chipping and removal of all branches and stump grinding of the one being felled, which itself is extra, plus a little bit of pesticide treatment for ants. I'm still deciding on whether to cable another limb or two of the giant tree. Any thoughts about cabling? My neighbor gets the firewood.  |
| Its not your house the trees are out to get you Bob has a chain saw and we also have a log splitter but no longer have a fire place in this house. |
| Cabling is a short term solution....when a tree gets to where cabling is required, it's long term survival is limited. Age, disease, etc. I would not cable a tree with rot unless it's of national historical significance and I had plenty of money for yearly arborist care. The holes put in to attach the bolts allow rot to form around those wounds. It can't be avoided. The question is how strong/healthy is the tree, genetic characteristics of healing (cottonwood isn't great, maple a bit better, oak and other hardwoods much better), to internally keep the disease from spreading. Before cabling, assess the internal condition of the trunk and main branches, tree value compared with the clost of continued pruning to keep load down. Is the tree worth it? Prior to cabling the canopy must be thinned to reduce load. The number and type system depends on the tree. If done improper cabling can cause the tree to fall by wrenching the root system. Cabling should not be dune during growth spurts or leaf fall. Of coursed the arborist must be a certified arborist by NAA or ISA and you have checked out their work on trees at least 5 years before. Yesterday's work show much. |
| Better off paying it my idiot brother tried to do it himself fell broke is back and ankle --8 weeks in the hospital-0vr 35,000.00 -3 months of rehab and another surgery to take the pins out of the ankle. |
DTrost wrote: Better off paying it my idiot brother tried to do it himself fell broke is back and ankle --8 weeks in the hospital-0vr 35,000.00 -3 months of rehab and another surgery to take the pins out of the ankle. Oh My God!! Youch! I worked for a neurosurgeon who had a guy who was trimming his tree on a ladder with a chainsaw. Needless to say, he fell and broke his neck. The good news is that he is doing great now! |
| we have a tree trimmer that actually has a harness and climbs the tree to do thinning and he has also taken down a few trees for us. Most of our trees are huge over 200 years old so I know what you are dealing with. our guy charged us 500$ to take down two locust trees, grind the stumps, and thin a black walnut tree whic hung over the house (that tree has been calbled for 25+ years. the price also included cleaning up, mulching the branches and wood haul away if we wanted. Where are you located???? 4K sounds outrageous. |
 Has he sued you?? I assure you Joe Pickup Truck tree service would have sued you. I mentioned trees "healing".....they don't. Actually they build chemical barrier walls and control the disease spread. Some species, like aspen, birch and cottonwood aren't very good wall builders. Oaks, hickory, etc are good "wallers." Also tree healthy comes into play. Since the walls must be maintained 24/7 it takes continual energy from the tree. If the tree hasn't been making enough energy to support all its functions (root intiation, bud intiation, etc) it will shut down some functions; growth, flowering, wall maintenance. So any further injury will not be well confined. There will be an arboriculture quiz later. |
| From having the wonderful and expensive experience of taking trees down myself, I would say the devilish expense is in the detail. I suspect Ron is paying big $ for two things, 1. the cherrypicker and 2. the insurance, in case they do drop a branch on his head (figuratively speaking of course Ron  ) |
| If someone shows up to trim your trees and dons climbing spikes, fire him/her immediately. All those holes are wounds on the tree. It is not permitted in the code of ethics for certified arborists. Climbing with ropes, slings .....fine. Just no tree wounding spikes....trees don't heal. Take down for $500. If I had a tree standing out by itself and the guy had insurance on himself, I'd probably hire him......after all what I've said. But when it comes to quality work, home and personal safety, hire the pros. In light of John Kerry mooring his boat in RI to avoid Mass taxes, next time Ron, hire a RI arborist. |
| Maybe it's the area cause even $500 sounds insane to me - aside from the location and the risk. I realize those make the cost much more. Or maybe I'm just that cheap. We had a guy next door do a really decent size tree for $80. He was insured etc. and just a blast to watch. He looked like some kind of super hero up there. Amazing. I'm probably going to have him do our huge maple that was struck by lightning. Shellie |
| Three guys and the truck for two days is the major expense; I think it was about $1600 a day. I know that a medium virtually dead pine was $400 or $450 15 years ago. |
| I think I must just be that cheap. Two weeks ago Vic and I used a way-too-small chain saw to take down an ugly pine tree. I counted the rings - it was 51 years old. Now the one right next to it has to go because they were growing together. Unfortunately that one is much larger, and there is no way I'm going to try that. Glad we have no wires or house structure involved. The one that was struck by lightning - that's a whole other story. The lightning not only blew the bark off the tree but dug an 8" trench in the ground to the corner of the garage. (along a root) There was grass hanging 25 feet up in the tree. Shellie |
| from what i can gather, whitey bulger might still be missing, but still controls tree services in boston. |
| Why do you think I canceled the other estimates? (or is it cancelled?????) |
| whitey says canceled. it's da american way and evidently he's not fond of da queen's version. |
| Your house isn't trying to kill you Ron, it's trying your patience. After our sewer backup and fence damage ....sigh I know. It's trying to tell you - you took it for granted that life was bliss, reminding you of how you and Joan must test your patience. So at the end of the day and when everything is finished and your bank account is depleted you sigh and say....wow! I really love this house and thank goodness it didn't destroy it. Good luck! |
| If you insist...... Good news though! I forewent the grinding and a neighbor decided he'd take all of the logs including the giants for firewood, so between avoiding the dump fees for the logs, the mess of the grinding, the time involved in doing them both plus additional runs to the dump-- I was able to prod them along (with bribes) to get them to finish in just one day. I saved about two thousand dollars-- I feel like I've hit the lottery! LOL A week ago if you had told me I was going to have to spend $2,000 I'd have been very upset -- now I'm dancing. Life is all about setting expectations. |
| i'm very happy for you, whitey, not so much. way too save a buck, i don't think he'll come outta hiding, keep dancing. |
Half price - I guess it's a good deal  At least the trees are trimmed/removed and life is safe in Ron and Joan's yard again.  |
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