So hurricane Isabel blew through last week and we have a bunch of downed trees laying around the yard. To be exact there are four, each about 50 feet in height (or length to be more exact given their current position), with base of trunk diameters of
12-14 inches. My wife refuses to allow me to use a chain saw so I have to hire someone to cut them into pieces small enough to be dragged into the woods. Currently no one is available to do it but in a week or so I will begin looking. Anyone have a ballpark guess at what a fair price for the work would be?
Given that it’s a sellers market right now for such work, fifty dollars per man-hour (including travel time) would be a bargain. The trees would probably have to have limbs trimmed off to make them draggable, so max of three hours x $50 = $150.00. That is assuming you and the little woman do the dragging, which likely will be more difficult than you expect.
I was quoted a price of $600 per tree, and that seems to be about the going rate here in Richmond.
Actually, I don’t want to do the dragging. Wood is just too damn heavy. So doubling the cost of cutting puts it around $300. Sounds pretty cheap to me. Hope I can find someone to do it for that amount.
Ah, but if no one is available that means the market price is going to be higher than usual.
extra: Stump removal (usually by grinding) ranges from 25 for small stumps (6 in diamter) to 50 for god size stumps. Massive oak stumps hundreds of years old around $100.
extra: Wood removal 100 bucks for about a small truck load.
I’ve had 60 foot trees taken down for as little as 350 per. Get as many taken down in one shot as possible. One tree might be 350 bucks, but four trees might be 750. Alot of hassle getting set up and dragging equipment out.
Back after Fran I had the privilege of paying $300 per tree, which after shopping around was low (250-400 range).
This did include hauling away the cut up tree.
b][dauerbach**, $300 sounds reasonable, but it depends on where you’re at and of course, it is a seller’s market. I don’t doubt plnnr’s assertion of $600 a tree near Richmond, even though they’re on the ground.
tree ‘on the ground’ note: usually more expensive.
First, you need the service…and need it soon.
Second, working on the ground is sometimes less favorable. When cutting large timber horizontally or diagonally, the tree and limbs tend to compress the saw blades, blades tend to bottom out (requiring sharpening) and there is a certain unsafeness to a fallen tree.
It is common for a felled tree to be more expensive to remove for these reasons.
Actually, when it gets done is not too important. They are interesting landscaping accents at the present time. It is interesting to hear that it can cost more for a tree that is already down. I had always assumed that you felled a tree and then cut it up into appropriate sized pieces rather than cut it from the top down. No stumps to grind, these suckers uprooted themselves and left holes in the ground. No wood to haul away, just need to be dragged into the woods, from whence they came. All of our landscaping trees survived unscathed. These were exclusively crappy old locust trees, which fortunately do not have much in the way of branch structre. Wide range of opinion here regarding cost. It will be interesting to see how much I have to spend.
Are they an eye-sore, or can you ignore them for a while? We lost several LARGE trees way out in our back yard in a hurricane many years back. We’ve got this funny, long and narrow lot, and basically don’t use that part of it for anything, so we simply ignored the trees for two years.
This gave enough time for all the leaves and minor twigs/branches time to dry up and fall off (leaves) become brittle (twigs) and dry out to ‘burning’ condition (large branches/trunk.) Then we put an ad in the local paper offering the wood from the tree to anyone who would come cut it and haul it away. We had six responses in the first day, and by the end of the following weekend all we had left to do was to rake up the sawdust & broken twigs that were left behind.
Of course, we live in an area (Vermont) with a lot of people who burn wood for heat, so that may not be practical in your area.
This all sounds so foreign to me … like a subsistence farmer listening to a conversation about some suburbanite who has this damn wheat just growing ALL OVER their property, and how do they go about paying someone to mow it down and burn it all?
I’ve been clearing the new driveway on my property for the last few months, and been doing nothing but use a chainsaw to cut up downed trees into short logs, perfect for eventual burning. I fell and cut them, the wife stacks them into neat piles.
No offense, but if you are hale (I would never want my own aging parents to clear a downed tree themselves) and have used a chainsaw before–and own one? not clear from your post–just cut the darn things up yourself into little logs. Then they’re very easy to move.
I went out and bought a chain saw. My wife took one look at it and said no way am I using that thing. I tend to be careless (although I would not be with a chain saw), but historically I would not be a prime candidate to use one.
Yeah, me too, but its fun & do wear eye protection.
Right now you have plenty of equipment in the neighbor hood which should make it cheaper than waiting. If you want to wait how about advertising free fire wood, the you cut, you haul kind?
Chain saws aren’t all that difficult to use. Read the instructions, use the safety gear, don’t rush, don’t do anything stupid - piece of cake! To me, it seems the most important thing to remember is to look at what you’re planning to cut before you even start the saw. Figure out if something is going to spring up or fall down or roll toward you. Think about what you’re doing. Take your time. And if there’s any doubt about your ability, you hire a pro.
Come to think of it, that pretty much applies to anything.
As for cost, afraid I have no idea. We were quoted several hundred dollars to have a single dead tree removed some years back. We moved a few months later and the tree became someone else’s problem.
Well, if your wife doesn’t want you to use a chain saw, but you’re otherwise willing to do the removal yourself and time is no object, 12-14 inches is borderline do-able with a bowsaw. You could certainly remove all the branches and probably much of the trunk. This would have the side-benefit of your not having to pay a gym membership for the next month or so. Although you might want to wait a month or two as sawing wood is hot work and it’s more comfortable when it’s cool outside.
I climbed up on a ladder about 12’ over the street with a bow saw & cut a 5" branch & when I got to about 4.75" it came down still attached, hit that ladder on the side & lucky for me, said ladder was anchored to a little piece of branch so it didn’t fall 
This provided ample amusement for the guy sitting in his car nearby.