Working with an arborist? Getting firewood?

claydogg84 said:

Regardless of what the tree is next to, it can still kill you. These trees are fairly large, and unless the OP is extremely comfortable felling trees, paying someone to do it shouldn't be looked at as a ridiculous option. Is saving $3,000 worth your ability to walk, or perhaps even your life? I say no.

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your right. if hes not comfortable dropping them certainly hire someone who is. just saying if the room is there to drop in one piece it would be much cheaper.

edge-of-the-woods said:

So we have two BIG ash trees near the street at our house in CT, and it looks like they are infested with the emerald ash borer beetle and beyond saving...meaning they have to come down.

These trees are 4-5 feet around and too big for us to handle ourselves, so this will be the first time we hire someone to take down trees.

I am wondering if the tree service might cut the fallen trees down to a small enough size that we can then finish up, sawing and chopping them for firewood. Has anyone had experience with this?

Thanks!

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I just had a local service take down 2 trees for me in meriden, CT One as big or bigger than yours and one smaller. Got it done for $550 and they left whatever I wanted and chipped the small stuff. Did a really great job. I too was leery because of the size of the tree and the fact that it was dead. Don't know if it is appropriate to put the company name here, so if you want it shoot me a message.
Ed

Keep shopping. Look for someone that is an arborist vs a full tree service outfit. Often times the tree service will charge you the day rate for their crew, so it doesn't matter if they spend an extra hour or two bucking up the trunk and hauling it away. You want a skilled (and insured) arborist who will show up, maybe climb/cut off a few limbs if needed, then drop the trees and leave.

a lot of tree services will want to section every tree down in pieces. why pull up and charge you a cpl hundred to drop a tree in under an hour when they can spend all day taking it down in pieces and charge you a cpl thousand.

First off you shouldn't be looking for a tree company to take your tree down, you should be looking for a tree company that can become your regular supplier. The dead trees in your yard are bargaining chips. I am 100% certain that there are tree services in Hamden CT that will deliver wood to your yard for free. My sister hired someone in Hamden last fall to do some trees in her yard. They left the logs. And more wood has come since. You are just talking to the wrong guys.

And yours look to be adjacent to the street utility lines. They have to be very careful. If things go bad it gets really bad for them. Expect to pay for it.

Wow! Kudos to you for doing the extra research, and the reward is the roughly two cords of free firewood! That's a great score!

I paid to have a Chinese elm taking down on my property that had 2 electrical service lines running through it. I told the guy cutting, before we made the deal, to just leave the brush and logs on the ground where they fell and that I would pick them up. He said that was no problem at all and it saved me a little money because the tree company didn't have to dispose of the wood.