When customers estimate tree size

CaPowell

CaPowell

Participating member
Location
Stillwater, OK
I had a returning customer call with an emergency situation. He had a busted water line at a rent house and the plumber blamed his pecan tree and said it had to come out. They could reroute, but the plumber was adamant it would happen again. I think they also needed the tree out of the way for equipment. Who knows?

Anyway, the customer called me begging to remove it asap. I asked how big and he said 12" diameter at the base and twenty feet tall.

I'm thinking, "piece of cake, that sounds like a minimum job." I told him I would swing by and knock it out at the end of the day. Then I got there and saw this.

I always take customer size estimates with a grain of salt, but wow!
 

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I always assume the customer has no idea how big their tree is, because they never do. We run into this all the time. Around here, every tree is either 20, 50, or 100’ tall, with an occasional tree 150’ tall! We are in PA, many trees 80-100’, some even push 120’, but a 150’ tree is really rare!

And don’t get me started on species either, nobody has a clue there either. Last summer I had a good one - caller wanted a quote to remove a 60’ Ash from his back yard, off the corner of the house. Get there to find a 30’ Ash and a 60’ Maple...
 
Every tree around here is over 150 years old. According to the homeowner. Even if it's a 35 year old water oak that's 50 inches and grew an inch and a half per year. Had a lady call and want a cat rescue. He's 150 up in my tree. There's nothing around here over 100 ft. I pull up and he's 30 ft up a 50 ft tulip tree. I've also had them swear up and down there's no metal in that tree. Nothing's ever been nailed to it and I've lived here 15 years. While I'm staring at barbed wire hanging out of it and a bird house nailed to it.
 
They fail at estimating tree sizes and even if they could measure the stump diameter they are litterally always lazy and guess at least 1/3 too small, it's pathologic.
 
A friend of mine in the Pittsburgh area years ago wopuld advertise " SPECIALIZING IN LARGE DANGEROUS REMOVALS". He would get about 1 in 10 removals that truely were large and/or dangerous. The rest were average removals for properly trained and equipped arboriists but to the HO they were Large and Dangerous. They guy would make bank.
 
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A few years ago I had a emergency storm call in a snow storm. “Really big tree down over the driveway” “blocking access” blah blah. Gave him my minimum emergency rates and hourly thereafter. He agreed and when I showed up I was thoroughly confused. Dude had a circular driveway and a 6” willow across the half that was never used.
Took more time pulling the tools out than it did to clean it up.
He called me a few days ago, just put me on your schedule.
 
oldoakman said:
A friend of mine in the Pittsburgh area years ago wopuld advertise " SPECIALIZING IN LARGE DANGEROUS REMOVALS". He would get about 1 in 10 removals that truely were large and/or dangerous. The rest were average removals for properly trained and equipped arboriists buy to the HO they were Large and Dangerous. They guy would make bank.
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That’s what we do, we advertise as “specializing in large and limited access removals” and we get some of those, but mostly we get fairly easy trees as well.
 
Home Depot requires someone to go out to measure for flooring and other installation jobs, customers are just not in reality usually on what is required. And it is usually impossible to get perspective with photos.
 
The top wire on most residential utility poles is about thirty feet. After getting height of tree or cat rescue heights I ask how much higher than the wire. Trees usually get smaller then LOL

A person's arms span is close to their height. I ask if they give the tree a bear hug can they touch finger tips..or how much gap there is. Divide by 3 gets a close enough diameter estimation.
 
Tom Dunlap said:
The top wire on most residential utility poles is about thirty feet. After getting height of tree or cat rescue heights I ask how much higher than the wire. Trees usually get smaller then LOL

A person's arms span is close to their height. I ask if they give the tree a bear hug can they touch finger tips..or how much gap there is. Divide by 3 gets a close enough diameter estimation.
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That diameter estimate really doesn’t apply here, I can touch my shoulders after hugging 100’ conifers noodles.
 
Benjo75 said:
Every tree around here is over 150 years old. According to the homeowner.
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The railroad got to my area in 1882, and a lot a clear cutting took place, so when customers ask "how old do you think that tree is?," before I got a little better at aging Ponderosas, I would always say "oh about 150"
 
I never listen to a customer when it comes to size or location of a tree. Most the time pictures don't do them any justice either. Always better to look at it in person first. At least you got her down good work
 
I bid the removal of three walnuts, the largest being 28" DBH. Home owners ask if the logs have value so I explain there is probably metal in them ect. She looks at me with a dumb look and says confidently, "there's no metal in those". So I point to the lag bolts holding the hammock and the cable for the dog run line and ask then how old they think the trees are... to which she said 300 years old. ‍the rest isn't worth the time it takes to type...
 
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