From time to time I search for recommendations on the Internet and thought
for someone needing a tree trimmer, in the future, I would post this. I
don't work for this company.

This last Monday, my trees where hit badly by the downburst (I'm not sure it
wasn't a small tornado) caused by the storms. After calling around and
getting quotes from about five different services, I went with the cheapest.
The cheapest told me on the day that we had agreed for him to come out, that
he would not be able to haul my trees off for at least a week. So I
contacted the next highest bid, HarvestTree Arbor Care, and asked if he
could get to me quickly, because I had a 30 foot tree in my swimming pool
and it was turning green quickly. He said he would and he did. Even though
his bid was lower that the most other tree trimming companies, I could not
have been more pleased with his services. I even had some fly-by-nighters
walk down my street. They quoted me $500 for a huge chin oak that had fell
in the street. They about died when I told them that I already had someone
that was going to do it for $130. HarvestTree was quick, professional, and
lower costing that most. He will be the first one I call next time I need
trees trimmed.

Tree trimming is more than just cutting down branches. Just because he was
able to remove downed trees quickly (and cheaply), that doesn't mean he'll
do a good job properly triming a tree. Be careful. You want to be sure that
there is an arborist in the team that will work on your trees, otherwise
you're risking too much.

--
Victor M. Martinez

http://www.che.utexas.edu/~martiv

In article , "Trey Meeks"
wrote:

So I
contacted the next highest bid, HarvestTree Arbor Care, and asked if he
could get to me quickly, because I had a 30 foot tree in my swimming pool
and it was turning green quickly. He said he would and he did. Even though
his bid was lower that the most other tree trimming companies, I could not
have been more pleased with his services. I even had some fly-by-nighters
walk down my street. They quoted me $500 for a huge chin oak that had fell
in the street. They about died when I told them that I already had someone
that was going to do it for $130. HarvestTree was quick, professional, and
lower costing that most. He will be the first one I call next time I need
trees trimmed.


I would be interested in knowing what the range of your bids were and just
how large the tree that was removed was (height and trunk diameter). How
much time was spent removing the tree and how many trailer loads of trash
did this genrate.

Last year I had to have 3 large dying Hackberrries removed. The bids were
$3500, $2400, and $1800 (with extra for stump removal). Your bid of $130
seems impossibly low. I wanted to see if I could get it done cheaper and
called a trash hauling company who said they would charge about $400 a
load assuming I had it all down and stacked. I was bid $750 (by the low
bidder above) to bring all the trees down and they generated at least 3+
trailer loads of trimmings (I was around to watch only a little of the
hauling). I understand even a pickup full dump charge is probably $25-50
so I do not know how someone can remove a large tree for $130.
Incidentally, the guys spent about 2 1/2 days bringing the trees down and
chopping them up and about a half day hauling. There were at least two
crew memebers for all this time (3 or 4 at some times). Assuming $10 an
hour this works out to at least $500 in labor cost alone.

I agree with Victor that I would want somebody skilled doing tree trimming
(i.e. I was interested in tree preservation), but there are occasions
where you are interested in tree removal and frankly I would be interested
in the low bid here rather than a surgeon.

Roland

Sounds a little frightening to me! I'm much more concerned that proper cuts
were made on an already stressed out tree. We decided to do our own trees. We
do a little each season, within the safe window to do so. I'm almost ready to
do some on the live oaks this weekend.

If a huge tree fell into the pool, I'm sure my husband would be freaking out.
Green water would make him go mad!

However, it sounds as if you took the middle road and were happy. I would still
have to see some certification before I let anyone touch my 36" diameter live
oaks.

V


On Thu, 21 Aug 2003 21:32:14 GMT, "Trey Meeks" opined:

From time to time I search for recommendations on the Internet and thought
for someone needing a tree trimmer, in the future, I would post this. I
don't work for this company.

This last Monday, my trees where hit badly by the downburst (I'm not sure it
wasn't a small tornado) caused by the storms. After calling around and
getting quotes from about five different services, I went with the cheapest.
The cheapest told me on the day that we had agreed for him to come out, that
he would not be able to haul my trees off for at least a week. So I
contacted the next highest bid, HarvestTree Arbor Care, and asked if he
could get to me quickly, because I had a 30 foot tree in my swimming pool
and it was turning green quickly. He said he would and he did. Even though
his bid was lower that the most other tree trimming companies, I could not
have been more pleased with his services. I even had some fly-by-nighters
walk down my street. They quoted me $500 for a huge chin oak that had fell
in the street. They about died when I told them that I already had someone
that was going to do it for $130. HarvestTree was quick, professional, and
lower costing that most. He will be the first one I call next time I need
trees trimmed.