I have a little “hell strip” between the sidewalk and the curb and I want everything taken out. It’s technically owned by the city so the guy will have to get a permit but he’s sure it will be approved. What is there is a nasty looking palmetto that is about 10 - 15 feet tall and the upper fronds are touching the power lines. There’s also a wild growing cherry laurel, only 3-4 years old but already 15 feet tall, growing from the center of a small crepe myrtle and entangled with the palmetto. It is considered a nuisance tree. There’s two other tiny crepe myrtles, some boxwood and a big clump of irises. The cherry laurel has a slim trunk, maybe 5" diameter but the palmetto is wider, more like 15" diameter $1700. I must add that it’s right on the street and everything is easy to get to.
This might be comparing apples and oranges, but I spent approximately $2,100 to have a 50-to-60-foot oak tree taken down. It would have cost more if the tree service workers had needed to climb the tree to take it down but fortunately, with great care, they were able to get a small bucket truck into the side yard.
I’m lucky - DH worked as a lumberjack in Alaska for a few years. We live in the woods in Maine and have to take trees down periodically. He can do it for us! We would have to spend a fortune, otherwise.
I have a second opinion coming by, but not until December 3! I called a third place but haven’t heard back yet.
What scares me is that I have a huge live oak that looks stressed. The tree guy thinks it was hit by lightning 10 or more years ago. A big piece was pruned off and that area has bark that falls off and just looks terrible. This tree would be very hard to get to and it’s right on our side of the property line. I was afraid it might cost $10,000 to remove that tree. Now I wonder if it might be even higher! Luckily, tree guy said it’s OK for now, just needs watching.
The original job sounds like it would cost me about $2 in gas for the chain saw. I’d get up on a ladder and prune back the line interference - they are likely not power lines, probably cable tv or phone at that height, but it’s easy to tell the difference. For this approach, I am guessing that I am in the minority here, along with mainelonghorn.
You are paying for relatively cheap labor to operate very expensive machinery and be covered by very costly insurance. Stump grinders and chippers are really pricey pieces of equipment. However, most everything is negotiable, including tree services. Also, those “free estimates”, usually by the more expensive labor (owner/arborist), really aren’t free since it gets recouped in the work performed.
Whenever we’ve asked for bids, we have always had a wide range of estimates. Hopefully, for you, this is the high end. When you say, “everything” do you mean the cherry laurels, crepe myrtles as well as the palmetto and the boxwood? I also live in MD where that estimate (if everything means all of the above) actually sounds close to reasonable.
Every time I’ve done tree work I’ve been surprised at the expense. But I agree that it is worth getting more than one estimate as prices can vary quite a bit.
I once got a pricey estimate for a partial removal for a tree on the line between me and my neighbor. I came home and found that he had already hired his lawn guy to remove it. I saw how it was being done, and I’m really glad he didn’t get killed. I reminded myself of this when I paid a lot to have a big tree removed–the tree company did a really nice job, especially filling in the hole and removing roots.
Tree work is very expensive. As some mentioned up thread, they have a lot of money invested in machinery. They don’t just cut the trees, the grind the limbs and haul it away. That’s huge.
The last time we needed work done, I scanned the yellow pages for someone close and small. I hit the jackpot! One of the three I called for estimates gave me a price that was lower than the others, and his work was meticulous. I’ve had him back several times.
But…he doesn’t give a written estimate (only verbal), and he doesn’t live by a schedule. I’ll receive a call at 7 am and he’ll say he can do it that day. Not everybody would be okay with that.
DecideSomeHow and ML, Mr. B approves of your approach. He and his 2 chainsaws have been helping friends and family to get rid of nuisance deciduous trees and small conifers. Something like the OP’s tree would be right up his alley.
The only time we had to call a tree service was when the tree was a dead 100 yr old Douglas Fir. I cannot believe we paid $300 for that job plus $300 to another guy to gride the stump!! The neighbor took the chunks of the tree for firewood and was very happy about it.
They are city trees but there’s no way the city would remove them - in my lifetime! Anyway, tree guy #3 got back to me and said he would try to come by today.
Yes, I want everything removed - three tiny crepe myrtles, cherry laurel, big nasty palmetto, boxwood. Tree guy #1 told me that mice and rats can nest in the little spaces on a palmetto’s trunk that point up in vee shapes between where old branches were. There are dozens of those spaces! And of course, there are some baby cherry laurels growing out of some of them.
$300 for a Doug Fir BB? Let me know your tree guy. Our last one was $1000, but it had tipped over in a windstorm and was leaning against other trees. It took 3 guys about half a day.
I can’t remember how much we paid to have 4 mature trees removed from our front yard. They had to avoid an overhead power line, our roof (not let anything fall on it, even the one of the trees towered over the roof), the neighbor (two of the trees were near the property line, or any of the plumbing (they came out and marked where the plumbing lines were). They also ground the stump for the 4 trees they chopped down and one old stump that was still in the ground from when the 5th tree was removed (before we bought the house). I believe we paid between $1500 and $2000 and they used a lot of expensive equipment and had a big crew and worked about 3/4 of a day. H asked and they gladly left half a truckload of bark chips that they made out of the tree limbs and trunk in our front yard for H to use around the yard. It as well worth it for us, as we aren’t handy with expensive tools that are needed to properly bring down so many trees and chip them up, grind the stump and dispose. Access wasn’t a problem, since there was access directly from the street to the front yard.
We have a big wood boiler, so DH cuts up the tree into two-foot long pieces and has DS split them. Free heat! We just throw the small branches and leaves into the woods behind our house (it’s our land, of course).
Funny side note: One of the schools DD is applying to is Stephen F. Austin State University in east Texas. It’s located in the wooded part of the state, and the school mascot is the Lumberjack! We think it would be ironic if DD moved from Maine to Texas and became a Lumberjack!
Reminds me of growing up in Georgia with a ton of trees on the property. My Dad and I would break out the chainsaw and chop down trees pretty regularly. Must’ve cleared 40+ trees around the house. Had to trim the branches once they were down and cut the trunks up into firewood, then stack it beside the house. Then spend years hacking at stumps with an axe.
I totally forgot about all that until reading the thread. Man my parents got a lot of work out of me!
Years ago, after a major windstorm left a 150-foot Doug Fir leaning toward our house (and it was only about 40 feet away), I paid $5000 to have it taken down by professionals. I thought I was getting off cheaply–that tree gave me nightmares. (We left the house while they did it, too, and took the dog with us.)
