Just finished removing 79 green ash trees at a neighboring farm, dead from EAB. I cut them down, got them to an area where we could safely burn the refuse and cut out what was reasonable for firewood. My expertise, saws, a 35 hp skidsteer loader and when needed a tractor to drag the trees to the burn pile. Used the farm’s payloader some and a little of their labor. Trees were about 25 years old on the average, most were about 16” diameter at 24” up from ground. Cut the stumps off at ground level but haven’t ground them. What would be reasonable to charge per tree? I figure we have about 50 man hours into the project. I want to be fair to them but make it worth our effort. Thanks!
Picture, or it didn’t happen, right? This was the brush pile of about half the trees, taken from a dirt pile about 20 feet high.
And a picture of a load of limbs. Firewood yield out of these trees was poor but much of it will be nice rounds. Probably about 8 loads like this? Plus a couple little dump box loads of stump cutoffs. I like to make the felling cuts 24” up from the ground for the safest felling cut, then cut at ground level and have a decent chunk of firewood left.
How many men x 50 hrs Has your neighbor helped you in the past or can help you do something in the future? I have felled trees for a friend and charged $50-100 per tree no cleanup and taking primo wood. I have felled simple trees for neighborhood folks for $100 per no equipment besides a saw. You have to cover your equipment fuel plus some walking around money if you can’t work out a barter. I still believe in the golden rule.
Are you going to grind the stumps? As Chud said $100/just saw. You used your equipment, so figure $125 or so per tree...79 x 125 = 9875, x 130 = 10,270... If you grind stumps, they are probably close to 18"-20" at ground level...figure you will have to grind about 30" to get all stump/root swell. $3-$5/inch. That many will wear out some teeth... A deal for all would be about 16K...
Stump grinding not included in my price. 50 man hours; 9 hours of myself plus 2 people, 23 of hours just myself. Neighbor is short of help so I am already working for them on an as needed basis. This was just another project on the list.
I am really curious why a price wasn’t worked out before work began. What happens if they don’t like your price? I would never put myself in that position.
We had some idea how to price the work going into it and we have worked together in the past so coming to an agreement on project costs isn’t new. We were figuring that they would put more manpower and machinery into this deal than how it turned out, so that throws any original estimate off. I sat down with the neighbor this morning and we came to a price we were both comfortable with, but I wanted to be sure I wasn’t out of line for what I asked. I do appreciate the responses I’ve gotten here!
Concur! One of the most giving men that I have ever met said 16K, toss out the stump grinding, maybe 13K. Definitely should have talked money before the work was started. Unless of course you just wanted to help your neighbor!
This chart from ISU extension list rates for lots of things, including skid loader, chainsawing, labor & other stuff. https://www.extension.iastate.edu/agdm/crops/pdf/a3-10.pdf I am still baffled by there being that many trees in NW IA. I have been in similar situations, don’t sell yourself short.
