contract climbers, shake your heads

hl_tree

hl_tree

Location
New Fairfield, CT
For those who sub themselves out from time to time for other companies, what are some situations which have just made you shake your heads at the companies you work for?

A few years ago I went to climb for somebody I had gone to school with... he told me it was 5 pine trees over a house for $600, just put them on the ground. We go up the first day, he couldn't find the house, and didn't have the number for the client to get directions.... about a 45 min ride each way for nothing.

Today I was working for another tree company, the guy told me that it was a bunch of dead ash trees next to a private road, we were just going to bomb them all into the road and cut them up. Well I get there, 3 out of 7 trees had to be climbed to avoid major damage to the road or neighboring properties. Then when it came time to clean up the mess... I found that the guy hadn't brought any rakes to use, or pitchforks, or anything other than a blower... meanwhile there was a HUGE mess to deal with all over the road.

What are some of your stories?
 
One time I was desperate for cash so I met this shady tree company at a truck stop(I know, don't say anything)
anyway....their foreman told me that the job I was about to be taken to was the reason I started climbing.

He sat there eating his fatty breakfast telling me that I had been waiting for this job all my career. I listened intently if somewhat disturbed by this guy's cryptic description of the job.

We went to the jobsite........My jaw almost dropped off my face when he showed me the tree......A 100ft Oak growing at a 45 degree angle over a ravine 200ft deep with a fast flowing river below. The roots of this tree were growing down the side of the cliff which was crumbling sandstone.....everything had to be rigged back away from the cliff using winches etc.

I politely declined, and went home, poor but happy and alive.

Seems they ended up felling the whole tree into the river below and spent 2 days cutting and winching the tree back up the cliff.
 
I love it when they say "It's only this big" or "It'll only take a couple of cuts."

Haha, yeah RIGHT.
aaf_shifty.gif
 
Worked for a guy who said he had all rigging gear I would need to remove a tree in a back yard. I show up and he has a webbed sling that you'd attached a winch to with a clevis and a half inch climb line for rigging purposes to do a large Oak tree. I told him it was gonna cost more to do since i was gonna use my gear and was gonna have to use my ground guy. Called my groundy got it done and got paid and then got to hear the guy tell his "buddies" that they need to buy some of that stuff from the local tractor/hardware store.
 
I always wanted to know the def of a contract climber? When I used to do side work and the resident would always insist on hleping me with any kind of lowering I would always politly decline their services for fer of them not letting the piece run and shocking the tree and gear or slapping me with it. I too would always laugh when I would say " TAKE A WRAP" and they would do so, around their hand or fore arm. Any one up for turf sking? So later I would always tell them I use only my gear and my guys to get the job done. Yea the price would be higher but I felt safer and more confident.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Its not a big tree but bring your big saw

[/ QUOTE ]

[ QUOTE ]
I could do it myself but it needs a good man on the ground

[/ QUOTE ]

Just two example's that warrant a shake of the head. Amazing how many unrelated contractors have given me the same BS over the years. Who do they think they're kidding?

I'm far more selective nowdays but when it does happen Ive learned to just laugh and make the best of it.
 
The worst is when you get called in to finish a tree that was started . They slam all the easy leads in the yard and leave the leads over the house , realizing they just cut all their lowering options . So cool to slam a leaning lead into an open yard . Thats when I shake my head and place my hand in my pocket and shake the change.
 
[ QUOTE ]
The worst is when you get called in to finish a tree that was started . They slam all the easy leads in the yard and leave the leads over the house , realizing they just cut all their lowering options . So cool to slam a leaning lead into an open yard . Thats when I shake my head and place my hand in my pocket and shake the change.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ha ha ha!! nice post!
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[ QUOTE ]
The worst is when you get called in to finish a tree that was started . They slam all the easy leads in the yard and leave the leads over the house , realizing they just cut all their lowering options . So cool to slam a leaning lead into an open yard . Thats when I shake my head and place my hand in my pocket and shake the change.

[/ QUOTE ]

Nothing like this right?
grin.gif


The bucket was about 20 feet away from that leader (pic is deceiving). Calls and tells me he was just gonna drop it onto the roof but the customer disagreed (go figure). I took my jolly time.
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Going back and forth to a client's house over the last 2 or 3 weeks I've seen a large red oak that was in the process of being taken down by what I can only now gather is a bunch of landscrapers. It's taken them almost 3 weeks to get this tree down. It's big, that's for sure... but I would have had it down in a day, no problems. It seems as though they do a few branches one day, then wait a few days to do another few branches... so forth and so on.
 
I've been really lucky with the people i sub with, no real head shakers so far... been amused and mildly pissed a few times...

There is this one outfit though, debris removal guys (dump truck, bobcat) that have caused me to lose some nice work. Rather than work for them contract we supposedly split the deal, i do the climbing and felling, they furnish a ground man and cleanup the site. I got a nice pine felling job and brought them in, we both cleared $2500 each for 2-1/2 days of work. While we were doing it we had 3 neighbors come over and ask for bids. The guy seemed to have $2000 on the brain because that was his price for his 'half' on all 3 jobs and my highest estimate for my 'half' was $1500 (low one was $850) so we missed on all 3... that wasn't the last time that happened but i don't bother to call them anymore...
 
[ QUOTE ]
"It's a nice easy job, I wish I could be on site to help"




"I forgot my checkbook"

[/ QUOTE ]

haha,how many times have i heard that
 
This is a pretty funny topic. I never really put much thought to the head shakin' idea, but after reading through, I have one to share.

I started a job with this guy in Oregon, that sent me out to an easy 40 pine removal in a front yard. I gotto the site and we discussed the job and he said he had to go. Before he left he asked me and his groundy to sit next to the tree and pray with him, so as that I made it out of the tree safely and that the tree would go to tree heaven, for it's time and prupose have been served in this realm. KOOK!
I did start the job. I ended up leavin because the groundy would not give up his saw. The saw I was left with took 6 tricks to get started and I wasn't doin' it with a handsaw.
 
I came home today, a landscrape company was doing a job around the corner... not so close that I could see them, but I could hear the chipper going that's for sure. Around 7:30 tonight I went out for something and decided to drive by... it was getting dark, and there were some drops of rain on my windshield. Their climber was maybe 3/4 of the way done with a big white oak in a back yard. Big, but not a hard tree. I was tempted to go over to the boss, slap him silly and then offer to help put the tree on the ground so they could go home... but then I realized, "Hey, I don't like morons, and I really don't like working for morons.. so I'll just stay away"
 
[ QUOTE ]
I could do it myself but it needs a good man on the ground

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to work for a guy who said this to me every time he phoned me!
hitaxeonthehead.gif
 
"how much do ya'll charge per tree" lady at a red light.
"how much for a tree this tall" every other person in the world

ever had to go out to a job to pull a 40 foot oak stick out of someones house? well if you live in the south jersey area you may have to. a guy i know notched a monster and cut through his mouth sending the tree backwards through the house, i doubt my boss will get the call for that one but if someone on treebuzz gets the call let me know how the job goes
 
I sub contract climbed for years. Most of the people i worked for were reasonable. Some of the situations they'd put me in i would decline today (Trees with: root rot, trunk rot, nasty splits, lg. "stone dead" trees, etc.) The worst was the ground "help" (i would've been better just doing it myself) For a while i charged a whopping "hundred a day" (didn't take long to figure that wouldn't work...duh!) But what really got me bent-up was when someone needed to use one of my saws "for just one cut!" Then you look over and they've got the nose in the dirt!
 
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