Follow-up on tree removal

[micky]

Follow-up, tree removal.

Instead of the company that wanted $2300 for HOA tree 1, we hired another guy who wanted only 650. Saving 1650, over 71%. He cut up tree 1 that was leaning, and also cut down a tree 2 of mine that was pretty much dead but still standing. Each was 30 to 35 feet tall.

He charged the HOA 600 or 650 for the first one, and charged me 450 plus

100 for stump grinding. That price had been 100 dollars higher but he volunteered 100 off it if he could do mine at the same time as the other, 100 yards away.

I thought he and the other 2 men did an excellent job start to finish.

I didn't know how to do these jobs but I would have known if they made a mistake, and they didn't make either a big one or a little one.

They came with all the right equipment, including a a large wood chipper machine that's pulled by a truck, and another truck with a trailer and a stump grinder. Both locations involved climbing the tree, using tree climbing spikes. He tied off as he should and in general, they worked in a safe manner, for each other and for me.

Nothing was damaged at either location, at my house they ground the stump. (The other tree had fallen over from the woods.) They cleaned up well** when they were done, and used a blower to move the sawdust off the steps and the sidewalk.

It took about 2 hours for the first tree and about 1:45 for the second.

I watched the entire thing, mostly because I'm interested**. They did not need supervision. **Ever since I watched my grampa replace a light switch when I was 6. (That and the Lionel train my brother had got me started on home repair.)

They are licensed and insured. I can't imagine the expensive company could have done a better job except **maybe it would have picked up more of the under 3" sticks left behind. But I think those were only from my tree, a mostly dead pine, not from the other, a honey locust which was not dead or dying before the roots on one side gave way and it fell over.

[gfretwell]

Cool. That tree topping is pretty dangerous work. When I did it I rented a lift so I could be above the limbs I was cutting. I did have a Latino guy who was climbing and cutting on another tree we trimmed up. I should have had them "trim" it about a foot below ground level. It has grown back already.

[Marilyn Manson]

How tall was the Latino guy?

[micky]

He came from Honduras when he was 15, with his parents I think he said.

30 now. Learned to do this when working for an electric company, which had its own tree department so the trees wouldn't knock down power lines.

Spoke English fine. The other two guys were older and from El Salvador and didn't speak English as well.

I don't think I could have gotten something like that close to the tree. Maybe if it were just something I pushed in.

? I did have

I had read that stump grinding only went about 3" below ground but it seemed like he was at 5 or 6". Can't tell because it's full of sawdust.

He was going to take it way, but I think I can use it for someething. Noisy differential on a '65 Pontiac.

Your tree grew back?

[Ralph Mowery]

I guess that it all depends on who is doing the grinding. I had a couple ground out and not sure how far he went down, but it was more than 5 inches. More like 8 to 10 inches . There was one small tree that a power line ran under so I told him and had him to just grind the stump to just below the ground so the mower would not hit it. Before he came out he told me to drill some holes about 6 inches or so deep in the stump and fill it full of the Roundup type stuff, so I did that about a week or two before he showed up to do the grinding.

I had two pine trees that were almost 3 feet across at the stump and the pile he put next to the woods for me was bout 4 feet high and over 6 feet around the bottom. A man with a bucket loader moved it out and filled the how with dirt.

[micky]

Sounds great. With 8 or 10 inches I would think you can really start planting things, bushes even, and their roots will go sideways and to some extent work their way though whatever is below, roots or more trunk.

Interesting.

Wow.

If I don't find a use for the sawdust, I can throw it in the woods, and I have left over dirt from planting 3 rose buses. maybe I'll mix it with sawdust, like hamburger helper.

Before I was born my father had a tree cut down in his/our backyard, and the stump stayed there until it disappeared on its own afaik. I don't think stump grinding existed then and people my father's age (born in

1892) who were not farmers just put up with stumps. AFAIK

[gfretwell]

This was a rubber tire machine, self propelled with outriggers. You could drive it anywhere.

I just had them trim the top of is so I could get some sun on my solar collectors. It is now shading them out again.