I have 6 that I need to remove and maybe a dozen trees that need to be trimmed. I got my first quote in at $46,000 and it seems ridiculously high. The belly ache was about insurance and cost of labor yada, yada.
I’ve done the physical labor of removing trees when I was a teenager (unpaid) and from my experience doing that, these trees are not that complicated. All of the dead trees have a natural lean that allows them to fall without much risk of damaging anything. Only a few limbs for the tree trimming will need to be tied in order to avoid damaging roofs.
If that’s the cost of tree trimming, I may have done better cutting trees than owning parks.
Get more quotes. I recently spent $7000 and that got me a crew with a crane (in a moderately expensive northeast market) for one day. They flew through a dozen or so trees plus some trimming.
Yearly maintenance I pay for a crew with and chipper and bucket truck for a day or two ($2,000 per day) and that’s enough to keep things looking nice. This is for two parks ~20 acres each.
My cost per tree, if I do not do them myself, is generally in the $1200- $1500 range for 100’ pine trees.
This past year I arranged for our hydro training school students to remove 7 trees at no cost to me.
I talked with the owner of a local tree service yesterday evening and was able to get it for $950 per tree and an additional $125 to grind down the stumps. These are much smaller trees than those pines.
We didn’t get into the pruning yet but I like asking for that on a crew for a day basis. That would really keep it simple between me and this guy long term.
I pay about 3K a day for a good crew of 3 or 4 guys, and about 1k a day for a good crew of 2 guys that I also use often. This is in Indiana.
Also if you plan on owning the parks for several years, I would consider removing trees instead of trimming them if they are near the homes. I’ve owned parks for 20 years and used to just trim trees around MH’s. Then about 10 years ago I realized I may as well just remove them cause they just keep growing back and it kept getting more and more expensive. The roots just get into the sewer system, and the trees can cause damage when they fall.
$46k? Thats outrageous. And yes, beware of the ones who complain about their costs. Nobody, esp a customer, wants to hear all that nonsense. Its called the cost of doing business.
Lets break this down: 6 trees removed - price does vary now. Depend largely on size (pun intended!). And expect an upcharge if higher skill is needed (painstaking or meticulous detail, buildings in very close proximity). Nonetheless, lets call it $2k per tree (for which, if you are having them do all 6 during one visit/job, they should most definitely give you a volume discount) 12 trees trimmed - also varies, dependant on height. Also dep on proximity to buildings, etc. Call it $500 per tree (which is again is high, as some trees won’t need this much detail.
Crew/equipment breakdown: I’m not into telling contractors how to do their job. I am, however, into figuring out the actual resources necessary to do a job. This helps determine true cost. For this job, let say: 6 guys, 2 highly skilled climbers, 2 bucket trucks, 1 chipper, and 1 pc of misc heavy equipment. Chainsaws and other smaller equip are a given - these are called the cost of doing biz (you dont upcharge for that). That many on the crew should take 3 days max. Total $18k
If you pay each guy $750-1000 for the 3 days, that is $7,500 max on labor. Remainder can be put toward machinery, profit, and “insurance”. As you can see, total price of $18k is more than enough.