How much would you charge....

[BigDogues]

My sister-in-law recently bought a new house and a few months after moving in had the misfortune of having an old maple tree, 30 inch in diameter, snap off in a wind storm and crush both her and her daughter's cars straight across the hoods.
Since I live only a couple of miles away, I drove down with my tractor and chainsaw and lifted the tree off the two cars and cut it up and removed it.
It took me a full eight hour day to finish the job with one helper.
So my question is, how much do you think would that job be worth if you had a professional to do it?
We live in the northeast if that has any bearing on cost.
Thanks in advance for your input.

 

[bigbull338]

you are asking a loaded q.most tree cutters here charge $1000 or more to take the tree down.an they get the wood as well.but since the tree was down an you had to cut it up an clean it up id say prolly $500.but then again i doubt if i could charge family for something like that.

 

[Mousefield]

Perhaps your sister in law should offer to pay you a reasonable amount.
As you did her a favor she should offer to pay, not you ask for money. I am thinking if you supplied the equipment and labor then something in the $50-$70 per hour range. considering you had a helper. Of course if you are charging her she might be expecting it for free, may open up a bad can of worms. Just saying.

 

[BigDogues]

Sorry, I should have mentioned up front that I don't plan to charge her anything. Family, after all. She fed me, that was enough. Just "curious" as to what the job was worth in case I ever find my self in that position again.
I've had people tell me that just to get a piece of equipment to the site would be $400, then $100 for each hour of tractor work after that. Manual labor should be about $50-60 hr.
So I see $600 for tractor service plus another $360 for manual labor.
Do you think I am close?

 

[tmc_31]

It would really depend on my relationship with my sister-in-law. Normally I get about $70/hr for me, my skid loader and a helper. So 8 hrs * $70/hr = $560.00 plus I tack on an hour on each end for transport/mobilization. So, if I was on the outs with sis, I would charge her $700.00. If the relationship was good, I would probably do it for nothing.

Tim

 

[bigtiller]

In my neighborhood there are two professional tree service companies that I have used. Two years ago they had a $400 minimum charge for taking down a tree and removing it. I suspect that minimum has increased to $500 or more by now. These two companies take trees down from the top with a bucket truck. I would guess that if it was a storm damaged tree such as yours that the charge would be higher because of the increased risk involved from working on the ground from tree movement.

 

[Deere Dude]

My sister-in-law recently bought a new house and a few months after moving in had the misfortune of having an old maple tree, 30 inch in diameter, snap off in a wind storm and crush both her and her daughter's cars straight across the hoods.
Since I live only a couple of miles away, I drove down with my tractor and chainsaw and lifted the tree off the two cars and cut it up and removed it.
It took me a full eight hour day to finish the job with one helper.
So my question is, how much do you think would that job be worth if you had a professional to do it?
We live in the northeast if that has any bearing on cost.
Thanks in advance for your input.

There are some pretty good estimates so far. If it is covered under her insurance I would charge the going rate without trying to rip anyone off..

If she doesn't have any insurance, which is highly unlikely, then it would probably be a freeby, or enough to cover expenses. She will collect from the insurance whatever the adjuster gives her, and she should just pass it on to you. Of course you will have to give her an estimate first and she will have to give that to the insurance company.

 

[TripleR]

Sorry, I should have mentioned up front that I don't plan to charge her anything. Family, after all. She fed me, that was enough. Just "curious" as to what the job was worth in case I ever find my self in that position again.
I've had people tell me that just to get a piece of equipment to the site would be $400, then $100 for each hour of tractor work after that. Manual labor should be about $50-60 hr.
So I see $600 for tractor service plus another $360 for manual labor.
Do you think I am close?

That would be darn close for my area no matter what equipment was used.

 

[herefromthere]

FWIW, about 2 years ago, I had some work done by a guy with a Kubota B26 TLB that mostly involved the backhoe. He charged $300 for about 6-1/2 hours of work and mentioned that he was increasing it to $400 for a full day of 8 hours. There was no additional trip charge. This was his business, and I believe he was insured, etc.

 

[Combustix]

I had four big cottonwoods cut down by a tree guy and all he did was fell them and he was $300. Since you had tractor work and cut the logs yourself I would say $1200 as that is 16m/hrs for two people @ $75 an hour. That's with out the tractor work. It's $800 at $50 an hour.

 

[BleedingOrange]

Would her house insurance not cover the tree clean-up, and her car insurance cover her cars ? Amazing how prices vary depending on how good the sister in law looks. Lol Can you post any pictures, of the downed tree, and the sister in law ? :laughing:

 

[TripleR]

Having read quite a few posts from guys who do this kind of work, it is hard to make money in a lot of places due to regulations, transport and insurance costs.