Really starting to hate trees!

[Brian Elfert]

I live in a long established neighborhood with lots of big trees. I'm really getting sick of dealing with them. A few years back a fairly small branch caused $3,000 in damage to my car when it fell. Around the same time a branch came off a really big Cottonwood costing me $1,500. I have a 4 foot diameter Cottonwood that is rotting and really should come down, but I don't have $5,000 to take it down. A few weeks ago we had a severe storm come through and broke off several large branches. One fell on my motorhome without damaging it luckily.

The kicker is last night a neighbor's tree just fell over in the middle of the night with no storms or wind. It had hidden rot that could not be seen. Luckily, it fell in the only direction that would not have caused property damage. Another foot or two would have taken out the power line. Any other direction and it would have hit a house, garage, or my car.

I think right now I'd like a nice lot carved out of a farm field with no trees. They do shade the house, but I could air condition an unshaded house for several years with all the money I've spent dealing with these darned trees.

[Myk Rian]

Seems to me you're parking in the wrong spots. :D

Sorry. I couldn't help myself.

[Matt Marsh]

I have a 4 foot diameter Cottonwood that is rotting and really should come down, but I don't have $5,000 to take it down.

Man they gotta be gouging the heck out of people where you're at! I normally cut my own trees down, but a couple years ago we had a huge red oak right next to my pole shed that had died. I hired a pro that came out with his whole get-up of block and tackles, ropes, saws, etc. He used climbing spikes to climb the tree, rig his gear, then top small sections and gently lowered each piece to the ground, until the tree was pared down to a safe size where we could manage it with the chainsaw. When he got down out of the tree, he explained that his minimum fee was $400.00 or 4 hours, and that if I had any other trees that needed tending to, that I still had lots of time left. I had him do two or three more that were iffy up by the house. Granted, all the clean-up was mine, but still!

[paul cottingham]

5000 dollars! Even in Canada, where everything costs more, I got 5 birch trees cut down and hauled off for $1000. Same guy charged me 500 to cut down a rotten maple close to the house, that required a ton of acrobatics to cut down safely.

[Chris Kennedy]

5K is WAY too much. I had a big maple to take out, and the first outfit quoted me $1600, which was ridiculous. They said it was because they couldn't bring their cherry picker into the back yard. So I got a second quote. They were a shade under $700 (cleared away, bigger stuff cut into logs for firewood, stump ground), and also took off a branch from another tree hanging dangerously over the shop. They explained it would have been more if they had to use a cherry picker.

I'd shop around.

Chris

[Larry Fox]

Agree with others that 5-large is way too much. Last year I had 14 large trees taken out for exactly the same reasons you are contemplating it. I had a very, very large polpar hanging over my house that made me so nervous that I moved my son to sleep at the other end of the house whenever there was a storm. The only way they could get this one out without damaging my house was to bring in a giant 40' crane. All 14 trees cut, removed, stumps ground, and debris removed was $7,500. No tree was smaller than 12" in diameter and most were twice that.

[Prashun Patel]

Get other quotes. However, beware of bargain oufits. You will find a wide variance of prices. Sadly you do get what you pay for here. If the tree is close to your house, dont undervaalue the premium paid for proffesionalism, bonding, and bigger equipment.

[Kevin Bourque]

Does that $5000 include dinner and a show?

[Lee Schierer]

Get other quotes. However, beware of bargain oufits. You will find a wide variance of prices. Sadly you do get what you pay for here. If the tree is close to your house, dont undervaalue the premium paid for proffesionalism, bonding, and bigger equipment.

I concur; however, 5K is way high. In NJ they charge $500 a tree. Your cottonwoods are short lived trees so you will continue to have this problem. Make sure whoever you hire is bonded so that if they drop the tree on your house they pay the bill not your insurance.

[Ole Anderson]

Cottonwoods, I hate them, dirtiest tree ever, stickies and cotton just for starters. I often wish we had been besieged by the Emerald Cottonwood Borer. I have 3 big ones left, biggest is almost 4 feet in diameter and 100 feet tall and the property line runs right through the middle.

[Prashun Patel]

I had 4 trees removed for 4000. One of them was near my home and posed a challnge to the removers. I also feel the quote is high but not by a factor of 8 without knowing about more about the situation.

[Eddie Watkins]

I had a huge elm removed a couple of months ago. It cost $900. The tree had a base that was about 4' across at ground level and was as big a tree as we get around here. Usually tornados or 80mph winds get rid of them before they get as big as the elm was. The tree was next to the house and had easy access from the street.
Here in Oklahoma home insurance will not pay for the removal or replacement of a tree that has been blown over. It has to be touching a structure for them to cover it.

[David G Baker]

A few years back I lost 17 trees to straight line wind. The trees broke at around 15 feet in the air and the broken parts were hung up in other trees. I usually cut my trees unless they are in a area where they can damage my buildings or near power lines. These trees were to dangerous for me to take on so I called my insurance company and they paid $1000 towards the removal of the danger and I had to pay the $300 deductable. A local company cut the dangerous breaks, cut the trees at ground level and burned the wood on site. This was all done in a 6 hour time period. I was very lucky that I had an insurance company that covered most of the clean up. I have 5 acres of land so it makes it easier for tree issues to be delt with.

[Chris Damm]

My son just had a 42" oak tree taken out of his front yard. Power lines in front so 60 ton crane was brought in to remove it in pieces. They left the logs but chipped all the brush, ground the stump and the total cost was $1500. This was done by a reputable tree service.

[Jim Becker]

I lost a Black Walnut this weekend due to the excessive amount of rain...it came down in the middle of the night Saturday and even blocked the road, a state highway, in front of our home. (They brought in a big machine at about 2am and moved it off the road back onto my lawn) I spent all of yesterday cleaning it up...in the lovely heat and humidity. Thank goodness for the big orange power tool (Kubota) to move everything around!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v646/a-j-adopt/IMG_2352_zps76fe4dc3.jpg

[Brian Elfert]

I wasn't surprised by the $5,000 quote on my cottonwood tree. The trunk is 4 or 5 feet in diameter. I haven't gotten any other quotes on removing it. It probably wouldn't hurt anything if it falls, but it should be removed some day. I paid $1500 to have a large limb removed that had broken off and gotten tangled in other trees.

[David Epperson]

I think we spent around $600 to rent a 45' Geni-Boom bucket lift for one weekend, and dropped 4 pines 6 Red Oaks and a very large Bradford Pear. And also trimmed up about 6 other trees. Then we spent about 0.25 per bd/ft and had almost all of it turned into lumber with a portable band sawmill. We called in all sorts of family to help, but it went pretty smoothly. The Bradford pear was the largest though, at "only" 32 inches in diameter at the base and only 85' tall.

[Bruce Page]

5K is outrageous. I had a 35 year old Limber Pine tree ~ 2.5’ diameter base X ~40’ tall removed in March for $700 including stump grinding and cleanup.

[Brian Elfert]

I really think DIY is beyond my abilities on this tree without more tree cutting experience. I also don't have a large enough chain saw, but I guess I could rent one. Some of the branches are huge and would be hard to get to the ground. I rented a small boom lift once to pressure wash my house and was going to trim some trees with it too and my dad highly recommended against it.

I will get some more quotes on taking the tree down before I move forward with removing it. It won't be this year unless it becomes an emergency.

[Jim Becker]

Safety first, Brian...let the pros take down a large tree like that. You can always have them leave it in large chunks and do the breakdown yourself to save some money. That's what I did a few years ago when I had a number trees taken down along the road. They used their boom to cut them off and lay them down and I dealt with the aftermath. I had them grind up the smaller stuff to eliminate that portion of the cleanup. Definitely get multiple quotes, too...