Fair price for taking down this tree?

[rudysmallfry]

So I gave up trying to cut up my partially fallen limb when I realized the tree has seen better days. I've started getting estimates on having it taken down, but the bids are all over the place, so now I'm confused. I plan on keeping all the wood except the smaller crown stuff, want the logs cut up into 20" sections, and want the stump taken care of. Given that I'm in overpriced Connecticut, what would be a fair price for taking down this tree?

 

[Ctwoodtick]

If the tree can be dropped in one cut, then I would not expect it to be all that much.
I think price has a lot to do with what tools/machinery needed to complete job. Is it close to a structure aside from that fence?

 

[rudysmallfry]

Nope. Nothing it can hit except another tree to the left.

 

[Seasoned Oak]

Should be reasonable if they are leaving the wood. If they have to haul all the branches away or chip them thats another story. Plus a stump grinder may be needed so thats additional too. Some outfits give high prices on every job if they are busy. So prices all over the map is normal.

 

[maple1]

Nope. Nothing it can hit except another tree to the left.

What about the fences?

 

[Kevin Weis]

I would say about $500 given the requirements you mentioned. Pretty small tree. Thoughts about taking it down yourself or having a neighbor with a saw help out? Kevin.

 

[Allagash350]

I dunno. To me it looks like most of it is leaning towards the fence. And that is not a one cut tree.
Probably has a lot of rot in it and the multiple trunks complicate things.
I would think most would want a climber in the tree to take it down in sections. I would think in CT you might be looking at 6-1200 to drop it without cleanup. A fair price would be 6-9 if they send a climber up. What kinda numbers were you getting? Also take our comments with a grain of salt. We aren’t arborists. I had a maple taken down with no clean up that was over a power line. 600 bucks and they were done in about an hour. I was happy but someone else may have been cheaper, I liked the guy and he did a great job so I really didn’t care 600 was acceptable to me

 

[rudysmallfry]

So far I've gotten 2 estimates. One for $1200, the other for $1,300. Neither includes grinding the stump. Both will cut the logs up into firewood length sections and shred all the smaller stuff.

 

[maple1]

That doesn't seem way out to lunch to me, just going by the pics. Fences can cost some $$.

 

[kennyp2339]

I was thinking between $800 - $1200 for the tree, including chipping up the smaller stuff.
You have to remember a couple of things. Even though the tree isn't the biggest tree its still going to take a minimum of a 1/2 day to do, with setup time and clean up its hard for the contractor to get another job scheduled so essentially he has to cover his "books" for the day with a higher price. Everyone has a bottom line, like my old boss use to say, "if my company cant make a minimum 1g per day then that day is a lost day and I would have been better off laying in bed all day." What he meant was between all the insurances, equipment, vehicle maintenance, and employee wages he had to make at least 1g profit to be in the black for the day.
Tree stump grinding is a different animal all together, generally speaking many general tree contractors don't have a grinder due to the cost, also the job gets stretched out some because a reputable person doesn't want the ones and two's job, they want to have the jobs that have a minimum 10 stumps to make there day worth while, unless the land owner is willing to pay the premium.
The cheaper companies probably have less overhead to cover and unfortunately perhaps no insurance to pay for so be careful.