Jerseygirl

During the hurricane last fall we had a huge fir tree down (120 ft)...cost over $10K just to have it cut up and moved. Fortunately it took 3 fence panels with it...so our insurance company paid.

Nutek

I THINK ours was about 4.5K or so.

HUGE crane, 8 guys, 2.5 days.

We had some larg(ish) Pines also that my neighbour paid to have removed (as he wanted them gone and i didn't care about them). Then a bunch of smaller ones that I cut down myself.

Bob

Good money in it... I know someone where we used to live clearing $30 k a month on average.

Nutek

Before or after tips?

Bob

lansbury

Good one. Didn't know you were meant to trip tree cutters.

Yorkieabroad

That pays for a lot of high heels and bar tabs......

Nutek

He's ok.

Bob

That would be paying them extra to clear the wood, which even a pine tree they could then flog for $300-400 if it's a tall one.

Pulaski

Just paid $900 (nine hundred US dollars ) to have five mature pines 80' (ish) removed four were within 15 feet of my house, three (including the "remote" one) leaned towards a neighbor's house and were within 30-40ft of it. I don't know how many men were in his crew (I wasn't around when the work was done), but he used a bucket truck.... which left rutted tracks all over the back yard.

scrubbedexpat099

I had 6 very large trees to remove, cost me $400 and I still had the chainsaw.

Pulaski

I had intended/ wanted to do the removal myself, but it would have meant renting a builder's lift, at around $1,200 for a week (same as the cost for three days), and give me the opportunity to deal with a few other trees, and clean some of the upper reaches and hard to get to parts of my house. All that other stuff will have to wait a while now.

Yorkieabroad

Neighbour had some big old trees come down in the last hurricane 3 or 4 years ago. He invited one of the local scout troops in to clean it up - they sent a swarm of Scouts, and had it sorted in a day. The dads handled the chain saws on the big work, making the felled trees safe, then the boys chopped to firewood size with axes and saws (weren't allowed to use the splitter). They left the neighbor as much as he wanted for his own firewood, (which wasn't a lot) then they sold the rest off as a fundraiser.

Our own Troop does something similar, but with wood from one of the dads ranches out west. They sell it by the half cord and deliver 2 weekends a year, just before Thanksgiving and just before Christmas. Its always a good, sweaty day delivering and stacking then cleaning up. I honestly think its the only "proper" graft some of them do all year - most of them have jobs as tutors and lifeguards and stuff - nothing that'll give blisters or sore muscles!

Michael

I lived in a HOA (townhouses and single family homes) along a ridge with a view of San Francisco and I purposely purchased my townhouse since it had an unobstructed view from the living room and master bedroom.

About 5 years after I moved in, the HOA planted a maple directly in front of the living room deck and naturally 15 years later, it was about 40' high.

When I was ready to sell the townhouse, I realized the 30' maple and another overgrown tree to the side of the house would likely reduce the selling price by probably $20K-$30K and also make it more difficult to sell.

After discussions with the HOA, they decided that the maple could be cut down since it was not in the developers plans and the overgrown tree could be trimmed but at my expense. The wouldn't trim the overgrown tree at their expense since it wasn't scheduled for trimming until the following year. The second catch was that I had to use the lawn service that the HOA used.

For cutting down the maple and grinding the trunk to ground level plus trimming the other tree, it cost me $1,800.

Pulaski

There's another reason not to live in SF, not that I needed one, I already have a very long list.