What obstacles have homeowners left out to make your job more interesting.

Between my bid, the client's reply, and schedule work date there is often just enough time for little gardens of delicate and cherished things to grow up around the trees.

I have been hired by landscape architects to place obscenely expensive tree lighting systems throughout densely forested backyards (I am told that one client spent over 100K on such lighting). Wires, fixtures, glass bulbs, and lag bolts are everywhere. For tree work I occasionally recommend my competitors.
 
@flying french man dude I've blocked lots and spots off to find my stuff stacked in the grass the next day. And the commercial lot FULL of cars. Building owner didn't even tell the business and it's office workers.

Who out there does foliar sprays? We confirm the day before so people know, then they leave their dog out all freakin day and their laundry hung up on the line. And then call and complain they were not sprayed.

Or how about the homeowner playing his own GC and has the plumbers, electrician, and carpenters all parked in the driveway taking up any sort of workable area and just doesn't get why I won't play musical trucks all day whenever I need to move.

Give me a little while I'm sure I'll be back with more now that I've gotten myself all fired up. Thanks for ruining my morning reminiscing
 
Parakeet cages in a hoarders backyard - had a reduction two years ago in summer - the customer was a hoarder and had 3 LARGE cages outside in the shade of an overgrown mulberry.

It was full of parakeets- there wasn't a square inch left in the backyard to move them in the shade and the inside of her house was 3x worse.

She was very old and frail and wanted to move the 20+ birds inside one by on in the winter cages. After taking 30 minutes trying to capture just one bird, I said - I'll just have to leave them and be extra careful and leave them be.

Long story short - it took forever, she stayed outside the whole time to watch, and she kept saying - I think the noise is scaring them.

Worst thing - it took her 6 months and 3 payments to pay.

Lesson learned - dad I don't care if she has been a customer for 30 years. Let me bid on them.



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A friend of mine who made signs and vinyl lettering made me some signs on white corrugated plastic.

I copied the signs that the city used for no street parking. Something to the effect...

No Parking on date______
Cars will be towed

In the fine print at the bottom I put my company name and phone number.

Also, add a line or two in the contract that defines the work/access/parking zones that will be clear on the day of the job. If not...add surcharges.
 
NorCalBrock said:
Parakeet cages in a hoarders backyard - had a reduction two years ago in summer - the customer was a hoarder and had 3 LARGE cages outside in the shade of an overgrown mulberry.

It was full of parakeets- there wasn't a square inch left in the backyard to move them in the shade and the inside of her house was 3x worse.

She was very old and frail and wanted to move the 20+ birds inside one by on in the winter cages. After taking 30 minutes trying to capture just one bird, I said - I'll just have to leave them and be extra careful and leave them be.

Long story short - it took forever, she stayed outside the whole time to watch, and she kept saying - I think the noise is scaring them.

Worst thing - it took her 6 months and 3 payments to pay.

Lesson learned - dad I don't care if she has been a customer for 30 years. Let me bid on them.



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Click to expand...
Yeah boy, that's a miserable one.
 
Wouldn't have been a big deal to move them if every square inch of the property wasn't filled with priceless crap. I thought about putting them in the street but the asphalt was over 100 degrees...sucked it up instead


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NorCalBrock said:
Parakeet cages in a hoarders backyard - had a reduction two years ago in summer - the customer was a hoarder and had 3 LARGE cages outside in the shade of an overgrown mulberry.

It was full of parakeets- there wasn't a square inch left in the backyard to move them in the shade and the inside of her house was 3x worse.

She was very old and frail and wanted to move the 20+ birds inside one by on in the winter cages. After taking 30 minutes trying to capture just one bird, I said - I'll just have to leave them and be extra careful and leave them be.

Long story short - it took forever, she stayed outside the whole time to watch, and she kept saying - I think the noise is scaring them.

Worst thing - it took her 6 months and 3 payments to pay.

Lesson learned - dad I don't care if she has been a customer for 30 years. Let me bid on them.



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Click to expand...
Lol....yeah....thanks dad! My go to saying in that regard is "what the f♡(¤ were you thinking?!"
 
man, don't me started on parked cars, i worked in Brooklyn, NY for 10 years, you can't even secure a job sight with saw dust flying and logs swinging :loco:

now i'm in Cali and i see stuff like this:
IMG_20161023_123216055_HDR.webp big open park, these contractors decide to stick their trailers under the 200' Eucs, dig a mini septic and hook up electric, cable and internet before deciding they want all the tree above deadwooded, reduced and one or two of them removed. here's the 200' crane candle stick while the other climber had to flop limbs to be picked off (those powerlines are in the foreground by the way) :tonto:
 
I thought those were mobile home at first - which also wouldn't surprise me if someone snuck one in over night


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I sold a crane job without meeting with the customer, he just had one condition. That I meet with him and discuss how I would perform the work. So two weeks before the job I meet with him give him a run down on our game plan. Crane will be parked here, chipper here, we'll land the picks here, ect. So I show up the morning of the job and there is a 30 yard dumpster sitting right where the crane is suppose to be! Luckily I was able to push the dumpster back between the house and garage but made it a pain getting back to one of the trees. This was just a couple weeks ago.
image.webp
 
919ed64baa9bc76ad28d0f6f947fa254.jpg


Got to this job today and he customer stacked wood in front of the tree we were going to just drop. Nice.
 
We have a dead tree block from our yard that is in our ( highway) right of way so we are responsible for it. There's a perennial yard sale under it, unfortunately there's never anyone there. I'll get a pic in the am as I'm doing my daily look at it on the way in.
 
A job was bid tondo during the winter with frozen ground. We got the go ahead after he frost was gone and the ground was soft. In order to not trash the yard the game plan would change and add hours of work

When I explained this to the client and gave them a different price they were miffed. Made it seem like I was ripping them off
 
Used to have a customer with a row of Southern Mags around the swimming pool. Property fence on opposite side of trees. The trees had camo netting stretched throughout the canopies because the guy was paranoid about his neighbors watching. But that was mediocre compared to the pirate ship shaped tree house built throughout th canopy with a plank that overhung the pool, and a safety net to catch his kids if they fell. Never had to zipline so many limbs in my life!!!
:pirata:
 
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