Tree Surgeon Quote: €3k - Fair Price or Forest Fleece?

portach king

Hi all,

I just got a quote from a tree surgeon for some work on the north side of our house. It's a 40ft-ish long ditch at the end of a small estate, there's a field next door, but the trees fall within our boundary. We've spoken to the farmer who owns the field and access is absolutely no issue. I wanted to see if anyone had some experience and could offer advice on the price.

The Quote:

Cost: €3,000 (excluding tax)
Work:
    Complete removal of several ash trees with Ash Dieback
    Trimming of a healthy sycamore tree and removing the ivy growing over it.
    Tidying of a large holly tree
    Chopping the removed wood into firewood pieces and left behind
    Planting heather bushes in place of removed trees, to help with wind due to the aspect of the house. 

The Company:

Run by a friend of a colleague
Seems reputable, but I'd like to be sure on price

So, does €3,000 (+€400 tax) sound like a reasonable price for this job?

Any insights or experiences would be greatly appreciated!

portach king

I meant to add, they also have very good reviews when you Google them, so I'm not concerned about the quality of work. I think it'll be top-notch. I'm just curious what others would make of the price.

We're relatively new homeowners so we've never had to hire a company like this before.

T-Maxx

Quality is remembered long after price has been forgotten.

If they come highly recommended I'd say go for it. You will get it done cheaper by some local lad with a chainsaw but you might not be happy with the results.

The Continental Op

The usual problem in Ireland that pushes prices up "INSURANCE". Costs can be mad. Just check they are fully insured (should be for several million don't know what the recommended current minimum is).

Would depend on the size of the trees? I know when I was in tree surgery is was cheaper just to dump everything rather than cutting it up for logs as that was very time consuming. I assume the trees can't be very big or chopping up the logs for firewood would be even more time consuming.

Ivy removal is gardening work but a large sycamore could take half a day or more to dead wood and tidy up.

Provided it takes them more than a day then the price is OK but if they are in and out in under a day then thats a bit steep. With small trees that could be the case but a large sycamore and a few large ash trees could be 2 days work. Its all down to the size of the trees. So what I'm saying is €1500 a day wouldn't be excessive for good work.

I worked on one ash tree that took a week to take down but not many are 100ft tall growing the back garden of a row of terraced houses. I've also done jobs where we went in and one guy held the tree while another cut it and then the guy holding the tree just through it on the back of the truck and off we went - 10 mins max. You just can't give a price without seeing the job first.

con___manx1

Did some work like that but im not a proper tree suergon.

a Tree surgeon company was charging the client 8000 we charged 4. it was just topping and trimming a very long large permiter hedge. Two of us Had it done in less than 4 days. That was 10 years ago so probly more expensive now.

standardg60

Really all depends on the size of the trees, I've seen 1500 quoted for removing one so for a few it sounds ball park.

I would query exactly what he means by 'heather' bushes though, heather isn't a windbreak. I wonder did he mean conifers?

portach king

I wasn't home when she visited the garden, so I was relaying what my wife told afterwards. Turns out that wind break idea was a notion of my other half's imagination. Glad to have that cleared. The heather was more to fill the gaps in the bare ditch.

People above, first of all, thank you for getting back to me with all of that experience and knowledge. It's been very helpful.

For context, we're talking about removing 10-12 ash trees (hard to tell where one ends and another begins in spots) and then the other jobs mentioned on the first post.

CramCycle

It certainly isn't extortionate, considering complete removal of the ASh which I presume are a decent size, as well as all the other work

Sheep breeder

How tall are the trees and are there much branches would there be, are they taking the trees to ground level, also are they chipping the branches or leaving them behind for you to clean up, are they falling the trees into your property or the neighbours field, important to know these things at the start, back a few years ago a friend of the family had a tree in Dublin to fall in the front garden and got a quote of 800 euros as it was dangerous to fall and a big clean up and the traffic would have to be stopped during the process, myself and friend went up one Sunday morning dropped the small tree ( front garden cherry blossom) in 20 minutes cut up load into a dyna pick up truck and took longer to eat the breakfast after. Some lads are able to make a job into a mountain, surprised the farmer wouldn’t take the trees for firewood.

jj880

Sounds about right to me from talking to the neighbours who hired a crew.

We made a deal with them to sort some trees after theyd finished their main job. 300 euro. The neighbours weren't there at the time. Probably for the best 🤣

portach king

Thanks again.

Height wise, they range from about from 20ft -50ft. The dieback is significant, they all have the long upward shoots of bare branches.

Like I said above, they will leave behind the felled trees in firewood sized pieces for us.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122082739#Comment_122082739

Ah, with that size of tree and count of trees, I think it's around right. Ask him to drop in any firewood that he may be disposing of to sweeten the deal.

Ted222

When you say the trees “fall” within your boundary, do you mean the trees originate from your garden or that they’re growing into your garden from the neighbours.

If it’s the latter, it’s the neighbour’s responsibility to cut them back.

standardg60

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122082739#Comment_122082739

More than fair for that size OP.

portach king

They are within our property, so it's not an issue of debate with the farmer. To be honest he's dead sound, so if it was his responsibility he would have had them gone years ago.

The firewood deal has already been done and factored in. She said she'll chop what she can into stove size pieces for us.

BorneTobyWilde

That's a lot of firewood at 100 per ton bag. So price seems good

standardg60

Apologies to all shes for assuming they were a he btw, can't go wrong with a she contractor 🙂

That is assuming OP didn't do a typo above!

portach king

No typo. She's a she! And like I said, comes highly recommended. 🙂

BorneTobyWilde

Do you actually need the firewood?

portach king

Yes! We've two stoves in the house that'll need feeding next November 🙂

Oscar_Madison

Hi OP- yeah it’s not bad at all. I organised work to be done with a he and she crew in the last year for an elderly relative.
You’re provably talking about 200 euro per “item” depending on the work done . I assume the Ash are bear no leaves ? So that’s a chainsaw cut followed by a bit of hard slog chopping up into pieces - ensure BTW that those pieces fit into your stoves and aren’t too large - obviously you’ll need to then store them to dry them out - so think about how you’ll do that - if that doesn’t work out you’re spending money on getting people to chop up wood that won’t be used .

It’s not a bad cost at all and if they’re well recommended by a number of people then I think you’re good to go here. How big is the sycamore and just how much work is required there? Will whatever they do keep you straight for another 4-5 years? If it’s very big you might find you’ll be calling them back sooner than that but good they even make a start on it

CramCycle

For the firewood, in case you have not much experience with making your own, you will need to dry it out. With Ash, you would just about be OK next November cutting now but I'd aim for at least a full year. I'd look up how to store it properly, figure out space, aeration etc. Nonetheless, I thought they were taking away, if they are clearing everything else away and then leaving you with a load of firewood cut to size as well, it is an even better deal. For those saying about they could get it done themselves for cheaper, you could, but you won't get insurance, no cover if it goes wrong, not sure how your house insurance will take it if there is an accident and so on. Yes the tree surgeon is making a profit but that is business and when you factor in time, training, and the saving of effort for yourself (trust me, when it's work you don't do normally, you will feel it for a fortnight afterwards and it will take days to do).

Leg End Reject

That seems like a bargain to me. I had 3 trees cut back several years ago, they were near overhead power lines and I didn't want ESB crews just hacking them and leaving everything behind.

Cut back, all wood removed, 3 lads for 4 hours cost €500 at the time. The trees were properly shaped and there was only bits of sawdust left.

No way would I let an uninsured cowboy with a chainsaw do the work.