Current Events > A friend of mine is acting like cutting down a tree is very simple.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I have a rotting tree in my front yard and I want to cut it down before any accidents can happen. I got a quote for 1200 and I feel like that's cheap. I asked a group chat of friends what they thought. A few thought that was a decent price. The one friend suggests I should do it myself, saying it's easy and he's done it many times so he knows and I can save money.

First he suggests I should just burn it down LOL. I told him it's a 40-50 feet tree and has electric wires going through it so burning it down is a no-go. Further more I don't have any of the equipment that could help me do it. He then tells me to just go buy or rent the chainsaws and ladders and ropes that'll help me do it. I told him if I have to invest all this time and effort to plan and do this laborious thing manually then I'd rather just pay a professional to do it. How much money am I really gonna save? Plus there's the risk of me fucking it up, hurting myself, hurting someone else and destroying property.

He still insists that it's as easy as he's making it sound. I'm very annoyed at this point. I told him if he can come show me how it's done and cut down my tree safely and also make it look as easy as he makes it sounds, I'll pay him double what a contractor is quoting me. He stopped responding. Most of the time I can ignore things like this and brush it off as nonsense but this dude has been doing the "Pretend Hard Things Are Easy" gimmick for a long while. Even if it's easy for him he needs to understand that it could be difficult for others.

Better to get a contractor, especially at that price. If you or your friend fuck up, that could easily add another digit

Also probably best not to rely on friends help unless you know they are about that life. Nothing more 20/20 than having a friend who often BSes do a BS job and now you gotta fix the BS anyway

VeggetaX posted...

I told him it's a 40-50 feet tree and has electric wires going through it so burning it down is a no-go.

Electric wires going through it - leave it to professionals. Not worth electrocuting yourself over.

Cutting down a tree is simple.

1. Climb tree with chainsaw, cutting branches on the way up.
2. After getting to the top, start climbing down, cutting off small segments of trunk on the way down.
3. Grind the stump.

Problem is you probably don't have any of the equipment to do any of this and don't know how to use it even if you did get it somehow.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Electric wires going through it - leave it to professionals. Not worth electrocuting yourself over.

^This!!!^
Ive cut down trees with a chainsaws and axes and was going to suggest you just do it yourself, but screw that. If electric wires are involved let professionals handle it.

Burning it down would be the most metal option so I'm going with that one.

I had a dude climb it and attach a rope to pull it down. No heavy machinery required 600 plus removal

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/64e8041d.jpg

boomgetchopped3 posted...

I had a dude climb it and attach a rope to pull it down. No heavy machinery required 600 plus removal

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/64e8041d.jpg

Yeah bro I ain't about to do that and that shit don't look easy.

1200 sounds like a lot to cut down a tree, but my dad was a lumberjack so we had chainsaws available and he made it look easy.

Tanthalas posted...

my dad was a lumberjack

And that's okay.

It is simple.

You just cut the tree.

boomgetchopped3 posted...

I had a dude climb it and attach a rope to pull it down. No heavy machinery required 600 plus removal

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/64e8041d.jpg

That seems fair if no electrical lines are involved

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


It's what the guys I hired did.
\ _ ( ) _ /

You might want to get some other quotes to see if you can get it done cheaper. Definitely wouldn't recommend doing it yourself if electric wires are involved

if you can rent a scissor lift and the tree isn't fucking massive its not that hard. i wouldn't suggest climbing it by hand though unless you've got the kit/training/insurance plan for it.

its got electric wires though? yeah i'd hire someone else to do that.

Do they get rid of the stump as well?

$1200 for a tree that tall and with the added headache of the power lined is an excellent price. Most in my area charge $2k-$5k and that doesn't always include the stump grinding.

1200 is a great price for a 50 foot tree. You're paying for the service, and you're paying for the business that has insurance to pay you damages if they somehow severely fuck it up.

Is your buddy going to pay for your roof or your neighbors street parked car if one of the sections comes down wrong? Because that will definitely be more than 1200.

BlazinBlue88 posted...

$1200 for a tree that tall and with the added headache of the power lined is an excellent price. Most in my area charge $2k-$5k and that doesn't always include the stump grinding.

I was going to say, we have ash trees in the neighborhood that needed to come down and neighbors were paying like 3k. 1.2 is definitely a good deal.

pretzelcoatl posted...

1200 is a great price for a 50 foot tree. You're paying for the service, and you're paying for the business that has insurance to pay you damages if they somehow severely fuck it up.

Is your buddy going to pay for your roof or your neighbors street parked car if one of the sections comes down wrong? Because that will definitely be more than 1200.

Insurance is important. All I would say is get many quotes if you can for this very reason. Outfits with lots of claims on their insurance need to charge more

so you might want to make sure they're actually insured. neighbor had a big pecan tree cut down about 2 months ago, the chucklefucks doing it dropped a branch on the power line below and caused several explosions and knocked the power out to the neighborhood for a few hours. they were lucky nobody was hurt, especially since they weren't insured and the neighbor would likely have gotten a fun lawsuit if they had been.

why does the tree have electrical wires in it

badjay posted...

Do they get rid of the stump as well?

I think it's usually a separate contractor.

Holy_Cloud105 posted...

It is simple.

You just cut the tree.

Come do it. I'll pay you 2400. However, I expect you to do it just as good as a pro would with no issues. Also he said he'd get it done in a couple hours.

Pay the money. Like someone said make sure you go with someone insured or you might severely regret it.

Even without the electric wires in the way, cutting a larger tree next to a house can be tricky for someone unfamiliar with it.

Do yourself the favor and just pay someone.

I suppose it's technically simple to cut down a tree. It's doing it without collateral damage where it gets complicated.

I don't understand. They know damn well it's not easy to cut down a tree. It costs lots of money to get the proper equipment, lots of time and effort and you can easily fuck it up. Why act like it's still so simple? What do you get from acting like that? Does it make them feel manly?

VeggetaX posted...

I don't understand. They know damn well it's not easy to cut down a tree. It costs lots of money to get the proper equipment, lots of time and effort and you can easily fuck it up. Why act like it's still so simple? What do you get from acting like that? Does it make them feel manly?

Some people are just assholes like that.

Yeah I dont care how simple it sounds, Im not messing with anything when electrocution is involved. https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/e4a3ccfe.jpg

What if you illegally hire beavers to do it?
They would probably do it for a couple pounds of tree nuts.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]

Having done some work in tree removal, that is how it's done sometimes.

Thermador446 posted...

I think it's usually a separate contractor.

The stump is something you can do yourself if you have the inclination. You can burn it, you just have to carve out an X that goes all the way to the edge and deep enough that it goes to the base, and then light it with a little help from some lighter fluid or a very small amount of gas. It should burn down cleanly. Just make a fire ring with some rocks before burning it and make sure to have water on hand in case it goes beyond the ring.

Did it with my own apple tree, it worked pretty well. Should be a YouTube video that can show you how.

Dont listen to anyone telling you to do it yourself. The fact that there are electrical wires running through it means you should leave it to the pros. Ive done professional tree cutting for multiple years earlier in my career (climbing with chainsaw, as described earlier, and cutting from the ground). Both are quite hazardous and if you dont know what you are doing potentially deadly for tress that do not have power lines running through them. On top of that the tree is dead. Cutting dead trees is more dangerous than alive ones. Living wood will usually splinter in predicable ways when cut, dead wood has a high potential to break in unpredictable ways. For example a dead tree could break 10 about where you are cutting simply from the vibrations caused by the chainsaw.

tldr: have someone else do it, especially if power lines are involved

edit: if your friends first suggestion is to burn it down, then you should definitely not listen to any of his advice on this matter

AceMos posted...

why does the tree have electrical wires in it

Trees grow. They dont care if the electrical wires are already there.

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Trees grow. They dont care if the electrical wires are already there.

i get that but im confused how the wire gets inside the tree rather than the tree just pushign the wire out of hte way

BlazinBlue88 posted...

$1200 for a tree that tall and with the added headache of the power lined is an excellent price. Most in my area charge $2k-$5k and that doesn't always include the stump grinding.

Yeah I was going to say, idk where TC lives but $1200 would be a steal around here

itcheyness posted...

Having done some work in tree removal, that is how it's done sometimes.

In hindsight, I think that was supposed to be a joke about using a chainsaw as a climbing implement.

Really depends on what kind of tree. I had a 100y old pecan tree. A bolt of lightning struck it. Many years passed and it started to rot. I neglected to do something about it. One day one half falls into my barn and surrounding buildings. That left the other half. I called a local company and the price was about $800. They also got the parts that fell on the building. They were fair

That building repair was another story. It took my friend and me replacing rafters, tin and barn floors for 2 weeks to get it back to the way it was. So it was a extra 2k mistake. My friend was in his 60's then and not really good at being balanced. This was also the time I was puttin the last piece of tin on. It would have finished the job. A thunderstorm pops up and about blew me off the roof. I laid on the tin to keep it from flying away. Guess I was heavy enough. Lol

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


aw ok yeah that makes more sense me a derp

It is very easy to cut down a tree, but doing it safely is not easy, as many things can go wrong. Then there is the clean up/disposal.

A friend of mine recently paid $1200 just to get a stump removed. The tree had been gone.

Tree surgery is literally one of the most dangerous jobs out there. Your friend is a moron.

Plus, how are you going to remove it after you cut it down?

Like I said, he's been doing the "pretend everything is easy" shit for a while now but mainly towards me. Unsure what his problem is.

MarshMellow posted...

A friend of mine recently paid $1200 just to get a stump removed. The tree had been gone.

Couldnt rent a grinder?

I own a pressure washing business and people generally have no idea how much a job should cost

I might have missed if stump grinding was included, but I feel its a decent price. A great price if it is included

I bet you could get the electric company to do it if there are power lines going through the limbs.

But yeah your friend doesnt know what hes talking about.