The homeowners around here are really frustrated with the tree pros about dead trees.

W

Winchman

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Southwest Georgia
I've had at half a dozen people ask me about doing dead tree removals in the last two months. They tell me they've had one or more of the pros come out to look at the trees and give them an estimate. The guys tell them it'll be several weeks before they can do the job. They agree on a price, and ask to be put on the job list. They wait patiently, but the guys never show. Calls and messages left to ask about the work aren't answered. The homeowners are frustrated, and their trees continue to deteriorate.

There are several tree services in the area with really good crews and equipment along with several smaller outfits. I see work being done regularly, but it rarely involves dead trees. It seems like the pros would give the dead trees a priority since they become increasingly dangerous as time goes by.

What advice can I offer to these homeowners about getting their dead trees removed?

This is the only tree I've been asked about that I've even considered working on. The HO (a friend) has been trying to get it taken care of for over six months. He made arrangements with two of the pros, but they never showed up to do the job. The live part appears to be infested with bark beetles, so the whole tree needs to come down. I got a rope up in the dead part, and that part is still pretty strong. I think it'll fall right along with the live part.

There's just enough room to drop it between the HO's garage and the neighbor's house. The neighbor just moved in, and the HO doesn't know if he can get permission to drop the tree on his property. Dropping it another direction isn't an option.
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I encouraged him to try the pros again since there's still some time before the dead part is really dangerous. I hope he can get some action.

It would be such a quick and easy job with a crane and a crew.
 
Winchman said:
I've had at half a dozen people ask me about doing dead tree removals in the last two months. They tell me they've had one or more of the pros come out to look at the trees and give them an estimate. The guys tell them it'll be several weeks before they can do the job. They agree on a price, and ask to be put on the job list. They wait patiently, but the guys never show. Calls and messages left to ask about the work aren't answered. The homeowners are frustrated, and their trees continue to deteriorate.

There are several tree services in the area with really good crews and equipment along with several smaller outfits. I see work being done regularly, but it rarely involves dead trees. It seems like the pros would give the dead trees a priority since they become increasingly dangerous as time goes by.

What advice can I offer to these homeowners about getting their dead trees removed?

This is the only tree I've been asked about that I've even considered working on. The HO (a friend) has been trying to get it taken care of for over six months. He made arrangements with two of the pros, but they never showed up to do the job. The live part appears to be infested with bark beetles, so the whole tree needs to come down. I got a rope up in the dead part, and that part is still pretty strong. I think it'll fall right along with the live part.

There's just enough room to drop it between the HO's garage and the neighbor's house. The neighbor just moved in, and the HO doesn't know if he can get permission to drop the tree on his property. Dropping it another direction isn't an option.
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I encouraged him to try the pros again since there's still some time before the dead part is really dangerous. I hope he can get some action.

It would be such a quick and easy job with a crane and a crew.
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Hasn’t talked to the right “PRO”
 
The way I see it is there might be something fishy with the custy or Tree Co.s are just busy. Or that tree looks to be out in the open and has low priority as there are few targets in the strike zone. Or there is a No Work order due to viruses and such.
IDK that tree looks like a flopper to me but I am just looking at a picture. Plus the top looks to be fresh dead so there is time. And why tie into a dead top when there is a live top next to it?
 
If a company doesn’t like the job, they won’t prioritize it. I for one won’t question anyone who doesn’t want to climb a dead tree. If you don’t have the equipment to do it safely with confidence, it is not worth it. If you take a 1% risk of dying every day, by the time a year is over the chances are that you will be dead. Seems like the risk vs. reward is not worth it in the minds of the companies around.
 
The Black Carpenter ants are bad here also and they compromise the tree, wether pine or oak.
 
I put the line in the dead part mainly to get some idea of how strong it is, but I used it to remove some limbs to make it easier to get a good TIP in the live part later if necessary.

If the dead part falls by itself, it could reach a lot of the house. Now I know the HO has some time to try again to get a pro to do the job, and that's what I encouraged him to do.
 
Around here we see tree companies do bids and not show up when they realized they bid to low. There the same guys that constantly have broken down equipment because they will buy the cheapest pos and not fix or maintain it properly.
 
Fivepoints said:
Around here we see tree companies do bids and not show up when they realized they bid to low. There the same guys that constantly have broken down equipment because they will buy the cheapest pos and not fix or maintain it properly.
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We have the same problem around here. We always show, and complete the project even if we did bid low by some sort of mistake. We did one of those last week, although we were underbid by the local Monster franchise. They showed up, made up a tall tale about why they could not do the work, and walked off the job. The homeowner was not impressed.
 
Reach said:
We have the same problem around here. We always show, and complete the project even if we did bid low by some sort of mistake. We did one of those last week, although we were underbid by the local Monster franchise. They showed up, made up a tall tale about why they could not do the work, and walked off the job. The homeowner was not impressed.
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We do as well. Thankfully I don't underbid much these days. I have had to change a bid on occasion if something changes. I had one where the home owner put up one of those cheap metal sheds right by the tree to be removed. If nothing changes, the bid stands period.
 
Fivepoints said:
We do as well. Thankfully I don't underbid much these days. I have had to change a bid on occasion if something changes. I had one where the home owner put up one of those cheap metal sheds right by the tree to be removed. If nothing changes, the bid stands period.
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I rarely underbid a project these days as well, but once in a while it still happens. On a busy day around here I’ll do 15+ quotes, and once in a while I just plain mess up. When the crew gets there I usually get a call to the effect of “Did you actually look at this tree!?”

We had a shed story last summer, real easy drop, winch, and chip a little maple. Crew arrived to find a new covered deck ending three feet from the trunk, and a shed on the other side, leaving no work space and barely a big enough opening to carry the brush out by hand. That one got me out to help, and explain the facts of life/prices to the homeowner.
 
My neighbor found someone to do the job, and they showed up yesterday morning. It was a local outfit I'd never heard of. They had a good-sized bucket lift, a Vermeer stump grinder, a new-ish truck for loading and hauling debris, and an old Deere loader.

None of the four guys had safety equipment...no hardhats, helmets, face shields, safety glasses, leggings, or hearing protection. The guy in the bucket didn't have a harness or safety line, and there was no lanyard on the saw. Really disappointing.

The top ten feet of the first tree they cut fell on their trailer, which was parked on the street. The second tree broke some limbs in a nearby oak tree as it fell. Then they cut the live part of the tree with a split just above the split. The dead part was really moving around from the rebound, but it didn't break. They got it down with no problems.

I didn't stick around for the rest of the show. I was sixty feet up removing dead limbs from another neighbor's pine tree when they left the subdivision a couple hours later. I'm really glad my neighbor was able to get the tree taken care of. I know that's a load off his mind.
 
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