Recent Tree Job

[Little's]

Hey Steve. I havent posted any pictures on here in a long time. So I thought I would post some of a cottonwood tree I climbed and took down last week. Took us 2 hours. The homeowner had a tractor and dragged all the limbs, and trunk off into the gully behind his house. I like jobs that are quick and easy!

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Northern California

Lawn care business tips

nice pics I love climbing Sure is nice to get the tree down and walk away

[Steve]

Oh that is very interesting! It looks like it was pretty close to that one structure!

Can you teach us a little on a break down of how much a lawn care business owner should charge for something like that? Maybe offer us some kind of price range idea they should shoot for and why?

This is a great learning opportunity!

[picframer]

Good Job, those growths on the side look like burls, would need a close up to confirm, if that is the case that trunk is worth some serious bucks, quick guess is most wood turners would give you around two grand for the trunk.......Andy

[Steve]

Good Job, those growths on the side look like burls, would need a close up to confirm, if that is the case that trunk is worth some serious bucks, quick guess is most wood turners would give you around two grand for the trunk.

What are burls and why are they so sought after?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

What are burls and why are they so sought after?

Generally speaking it is thought that a burl is caused because something tramatic happened to the tree, If you look up the Halifax Explosion where I live it pretty much flattened the city many years ago, I would guess 60% of the trees in the south end of halifax have burls, i wrote an article for the paper on this and I believe this is due to the explosion. They are the big lumps on the side of trees, considered a growth, can go well over 3,000 pounds. My high school friend makes a very good living turning burls over 1,200 pounds as glass covered table bases, I have seen a couple that were over 6 feet across.

When Hurricane Juan hit here a few years back, my son and I collected 20 truck loads of burls, you can see this on my woodworking website, we could have collected 10 times that amount however I had no where to put them and they have to be properly sealed for drying which can get expensive.

They are sought after by woodworkers and turners as they have crazy grain and command a very high price tag, for example we sell a 16" burl bowl for $600.00 to $950.00 and they sell just as fast as they are ready, it's a process to turn them properly and takes a few months between steps.

Here is a Maple burl trinket box, I sold almost 200 of these in December.

[Little's]

Originally Posted by Steve

Oh that is very interesting! It looks like it was pretty close to that one structure!

Can you teach us a little on a break down of how much a lawn care business owner should charge for something like that? Maybe offer us some kind of price range idea they should shoot for and why?

This is a great learning opportunity!

This was the second of 2 trees that were almost identical. Me and my helper did the trees about 1 month apart so the homeowner could afford it. I charged him $300 for each tree. Each tree took about 2 hours. That is pretty cheap, but with the economy the way it is, and since I didnt have any clean-up, I gave them a good deal.

Anyone who wants to do this type of work really needs to get some good experience first. And having a small light top-handle chainsaw is almost a must.

As far as bidding, it's like with any other bidding, you get a feel for how long it is going to take, and how hard the job is going to be, and give it your best shot. You win some, you lose some, but your bidding gets better with better experience.

When I first started, I made a few bad bidding mistakes. For example, this nice elderly lady had a tree in her backyard. Well her house was built on a hill and the backyard was sloped downhill to the tree she wanted removed. Well giving her age and the hill, I just looked at the tree from her 2nd story balcony with her and gave her a price.

Then next week when I came to remove the tree, it was much bigger then it looked from the balcony and each and every piece had to be cut small enough to throw over the shoulder and hiked up a super steep incline. OMG what a killer workout, and in 100 degrees at that. I was so glad to be finished with that job.

[Little's]

Originally Posted by picframer

Good Job, those growths on the side look like burls, would need a close up to confirm, if that is the case that trunk is worth some serious bucks, quick guess is most wood turners would give you around two grand for the trunk.......Andy

Hi Andy,
I am surprised anyone would want to work with it since it is cottonwood. They were some sort of burls, but I dont know about the quality of them. I will keep this in mind for the future.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Little's

Hi Andy,
I am surprised anyone would want to work with it since it is cottonwood. They were some sort of burls, but I dont know about the quality of them. I will keep this in mind for the future.

Cottonwood is one of three members of the poplar family, I thought that is what it was/could be from looking at the stump. When it comes to wood turning, the species is not that important, I turned some Japanese Yew Roots a few years back that were given to me by the grounds keeper at the Halifax Public Gardens, brutal on the tools as there was still grit in the wood but the results were breathtaking. So in short turners look for grain, doesn't matter much the species. If you do come across more, send me a note before you discard and I will put you in contact with the local wood turning club, it could turn out to be a small gold mine under your nose and you will probably get paid to take it away.

Here is my personal favorite, Thuya Burl, it gorws off the roots of a small shrub in Morocco, what is interesting is although the shrub is very small these burls grow to 200 pounds off a small root system and are worth big bucks.

If any of you fall a Walnut tree, especially in the CA area, there are balls on the root system that are also worth big $$$, they refer to it as Claro (not 100% on the spelling) I have herd from friends there a big Walnut tree can be worth up to 10 grand if it has root balls and for some reason in the CA state they do.

Andy

[justin_time]

I am gonna need your expertise Brandon, I'm gonna need help trim my apple tree. Every year we want to do it and end up forgetting but it gets so loaded the branches break off. So what I am gonna do, is send you a picture and you tell me how i should trim it since I am not an expert yet but learning the tricks