Tree Removal

[ehenry]

Over the last year or so I've been listening to my HBIC about her wanting several trees around our house cut. Three 60' live pines, one dead pine that beetles got, one 40' oak and two River Birch trees that I'm tired of cleaning up after, along with limbing up 5 other pines. I told her we would have to get a pro to do it because its too close to the house and way more of a job than I than I'm comfortable even thinking about tackling.

Well, she's been out of town this week and I've had three recommended, by people that recently used them, INSURED professional tree services come give me prices. This was priced as cut, haul away and stumps ground. They were all with in a few hundred bucks of each other. I know this work would be expensive. Prices ran between $7K-$6500. I touch nothing they do it all.

I'm sure prices from around the country for same job will range far and wide. This is in central Mississippi.

 

[Bmyers]

For our area to cut 5 trees and have each ground out, it would most likely be a little over $10K ($2-$3,000 per tree depending on the difficulty). This is in the St. Louis Region (plus that price was pre COVID, so it may have doubled or tripled) . The further out from St. Louis, the cheaper it gets for our area, yet the more difficult it gets to find people wanting to come further out since there is so much work in the suburbs.

 

[ehenry]

Four of the trees are really close to our house so I guess that increases the level of difficulty. Access to all of the work we want done is good unless rain sets in.

 

[old and tired]

We had a 120 foot tall (40" DBH) Yellow Popular, and about a 100 foot tall (30" DBH) Oak tree. First guy, $7000 - we had used his dad before he retired. Son jacked up his prices. Next guy that does lots of business around here was more inline @ $3,500.

Needless to say, One guy gets lots of repeat business and I have not seen the other guy anywhere around town.

 

[Njtool]

Those are crazy prices. But they figure they have you over a barrel.

I do occasional tree work because I enjoy it. The last job I timed. The customer wanted the branches piled in the woods and I took the logs for firewood. They were all dead ash trees, pretty big. Trunks were about 30” across.
with my LX2610 and a grapple, most trees took me and my son 1 hour to drop and clean up. I had to rig most of the trees to control the drop so that took about another 20 minutes per tree.

I cut down 3 average size dead ash, a bunch of small oaks, and one giant ash that was over 3’ in diameter. And I cleared a bunch of overgrowth around some trees. I charged him $2500. He was happy and so was I. The tractor was making me money.

 

[ehenry]

Judging from the two replies, I'm feeling better about the quotes. I'm no judge of tree height. All I can tell yall is I got a 6 foot wing span and I cant reach around the pine trees and touch my fingers. The oak is small but close to a power line. The river birch trees are......damn mess making river birch trees and I'm tired of cleaning up behind them year round.

The trees I want limbed up are big pines and one big whoppin oak tree.

 

[Shanester]

Make 7 trees go completely bye-bye plus lift up 5 others for $6,500? That seems like a deal.

 

[dirtydeed]

Yikes, that seems really pricey. Around here, guys were doing a day rate at approx $1,800/day with a crew of 3-4 with the bucket truck and chipper. That was dropping the trees and chipping the limbs (no stump grinding). I moved the wood to a pile. They had a truck come and haul the logs out.

The guys would easily do a dozen large trees before 3 pm.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

North Ms. My BIL got a quote of $4700 to remove 3 big pines. Guy will use a bucket truck to delimb one side, at least. Says he works alone 'cause he can't find help (go figure).

 

[Goz63]

If the oak is close to a power line see if the power comp

Judging from the two replies, I'm feeling better about the quotes. I'm no judge of tree height. All I can tell yall is I got a 6 foot wing span and I cant reach around the pine trees and touch my fingers. The oak is small but close to a power line. The river birch trees are......damn mess making river birch trees and I'm tired of cleaning up behind them year round.

The trees I want limbed up are big pines and one big whoppin oak tree.

See if the power company will take the small oak down. Sometimes they will if the lines are in potential danger.

 

[JimmyJazz]

Thats probably cheap for my area. I did most of mine myself and the "savings" I used to justify the purchase of a Supersplit Log Spitter and a new Stihl 460 (I think) professional grade chain saw. I was 50 years old before I bought my first chainsaw 10 years ago and its surprising how much I use it. If you are not in a hurry and enjoy these kind of manly and risky endeavors try doing some of it yourself. I still employ professional tree people for the parts I cant or won't do. The Supersplt Log splitter is a wonder to behold. Look it up on YouTube. Good luck and be careful.

 

[ehenry]

All the power company will do for the smaller oak is cut the limbs up the side closest to the line. If I were to cut it, it go wrong and get in to the power line i'm on the hook for all repairs. Yall have any clue what that would cost? Way yonder more than my wallet can afford. An old guy that fancied himself a lumberjack dropped a big pine on the main line out on the highway. It brought the lines all the way to the ground, broke three poles, took out two transformers and started a fire that burned in to a cotton field and burned up some baled cotton waiting to be hauled to the gin. That sounds exactly the way my luck would go...LOL

Thirty years ago some friends and I would have tackled the river birch trees and do the limbing I want done on the other trees but the pines close to the house would be left for a pro even back then.

 

[NCL4701]

Price sounds pretty reasonable for a turn key job, but obviously prices vary regionally. Since you say you’re nowhere near comfortable dropping them, hiring a pro is a good call. If you want to save money maybe consider doing part of the job yourself, as in get the pro to drop them, grind stumps, and chip brush; but you handle chip disposal and work up the too big to chip stuff.

Been a long time but working for the tree service we always liked the few jobs that were drop/prune the tree(s) and leave cleanup for the customer. Turned quick, no chips to haul to the dump, no dragging or toting big pieces, no final raking and cleanup.

 

[skeets]

Im in the same boat there are 4 large pines along the driveway and one in front of the house dead due to the beetles. I was quoted 2500 per tree by the only guy that would return my call

 

[lugbolt]

tree service companies have to carry a huge amount of liability insurance. One of many reasons they are expensive.

On the ones closer to the house. Contact your homeowners insurance company. Sometimes they'll pay you to remove them if they deem them a danger to damaging the house during a storm or whatever. Worth asking about for sure.

 

[Nicfin36]

Tree quotes I hear around here are quite high for the most part. But, tree services quote sucker prices quite a bit.

I used to work for a tree service after I graduated college, so I have some experience doing it and have done a bit of work afterwards for myself and my friends. But, I am 50 years old now and it is becoming more and more difficult to climb a tree as each day passes.

When we trimmed trees for the power company, they always wanted us to cut down a tree near a power line rather than trim it. The way the power company saw it was that tree will never have to be trimmed again, even though removing that tree took much longer to cut down and remove than trimming it. But, different power companies have different policies. Of course, a dead tree they will cut by the main line probably anywhere since there is much more than one person affected usually when that line is down. So, maybe poison it.

Also, I assume you were talking about the main power line and not the service drop line to the house. The power companies here do nothing for you on that. But, they will drop it to have a tree cut or for other work that may cause damage to the line. I just had the power company come by last week to drop the service line while I cut a large dead oak limb, which would have fallen soon on the line. They do not charge for doing that, at least here they don't.

 

[Old_Paint]

Local company took down 9 trees for me at roughly $750/tree last November. 5 of the 9 encroached the powerline right of way, and one elm had several limbs that had been 'pruned' by the powerline. Trees down, stumps ground, all brush and debris removed, less than $7K. A couple were pretty close to the house, but nothing like what I had to contend with 6 months after I bought the place. They brought a crane and rigged from the top to fly them out to an open area to cut 'em up and limb them One day, they were here and gone. They've probably made 5X that amount in this neighborhood alone since I had mine done. The neighbor had them do 6 trees, and I've seen them back again this week with MUCH bigger machinery doing work up the street. The way they cleaned up and didn't destroy the lawn (what little I had) is what sold them to the other folks in the neighborhood.

 

[Donystoy]

Local companies charge about $1700 for a two man crew or $ 2300 for a three man crew for a whole day. That includes a boom truck and a chipper. You are the boss and tell them what you want done. I usually just have the trees brought down and cut into manageable lengths that I finish cutting later. Brush is all chipped and saved for mulch or taken away if not wanted. For the stumps I just rent a grinder for about $100 for the day. Any trees that are out in the open I just handle myself.

 

[old and tired]

People charge around $475 / hour, then they estimate how long it will take... when we had ours done, it took them about a month to get to it.