Felling of a ~160yr old 25m tall Copper Beech Tree - Chiswick, West London

[AHPP]

12 hours ago, Clutchy said:

Yep, 10 days seems totally possible. 

 

Especially if the drag is really crap (it is really crap as OP confirmed there is no access for skidsteers etc). If you want to keep staff morale up I'd certainly be saying work till whatever time gets you back to the yard for 14:30 if fairly local 

 

Not every job has to be done the fastest, if it's crap price it high, allow the time on it. 

 

Have done this several times and it's so worth it makes a crap job ok 

 

What would your approach and numbers on that job be?

 

Off the cuff, I’d factor in £1500 of climbing for preferably one day, possibly two, worst-case three. Then £4000 for a couple of days of going hard at dragging and chipping. Two crews of 2/3 with transit and chipper that can drag and chip themselves. Then another £3000 to do wood with a skeleton crew over however long. Then round it up for profit. Could be bollocks. In a hurry. 

[Mark Bolam]

14 minutes ago, AHPP said:

In all seriousness, I do get the advantage of going slow on a miserable job (if it is a miserable job - we still don’t know that the drag is bad). But that’s not what’s happened here. If they could have decked it in eight hours, they would have. 

 

There isn’t room in the garden to fit the tree in if you took it down in a day.

You’d be 4’ deep in timber on the ground.

[Mark Bolam]

[peds]

1 hour ago, Mark Bolam said:

 

There isn’t room in the garden to fit the tree in if you took it down in a day.

You’d be 4’ deep in timber on the ground.

 

Dismantle whole-tree chipper, carry through to garden, reassemble. 

Chip tree as it lands, big limbs, everything. 

Cut stump at 4', go home.

[Clutchy]

4 hours ago, AHPP said:

 

What would your approach and numbers on that job be?

 

Off the cuff, I’d factor in £1500 of climbing for preferably one day, possibly two, worst-case three. Then £4000 for a couple of days of going hard at dragging and chipping. Two crews of 2/3 with transit and chipper that can drag and chip themselves. Then another £3000 to do wood with a skeleton crew over however long. Then round it up for profit. Could be bollocks. In a hurry. 

 

 

In fairness I price everything higher than most so will get my usual hate;

 

 

But i would genuinely be around the £15-20k + VAT mark. If it needed 40 man days then we aim for £450 + VAT per man per day. So that would be £18k 

 

 

Got a £19k single tree we are doing in a few weeks (inc crane and traffic management admittedly). Should have that done in 2-3 days though. Priced it so high as didn't want it and of course there the ones you always win. 

 

 

 

 

[Steven P]

I was going to say, would a crane be cheaper than this job

[Mark Bolam]

No.

It’s Chiswick, it would take about 15 years to get a road closure.

[AHPP]

1 hour ago, Clutchy said:

 

 

In fairness I price everything higher than most so will get my usual hate;

 

 

But i would genuinely be around the £15-20k + VAT mark. If it needed 40 man days then we aim for £450 + VAT per man per day. So that would be £18k 

 

 

Got a £19k single tree we are doing in a few weeks (inc crane and traffic management admittedly). Should have that done in 2-3 days though. Priced it so high as didn't want it and of course there the ones you always win. 

 

 

 

 

No. That sounds fair. I went cheap as if I was doing it myself as a scruffy little outfit. I reckoned on £2000/day for ten days for any serious concern, which is your top end figure. 

[AHPP]

5 hours ago, Mark Bolam said:

 

There isn’t room in the garden to fit the tree in if you took it down in a day.

You’d be 4’ deep in timber on the ground.

 

My thinking was fill the yellow box and leave the butt up to be felled once a bit of wood has gone. Plus get Facebook log collectors on the job. I once lost tens of tonnes off a site clearance with about twenty people with cars, vans, trailers etc. Thought it was going to be a nightmare but I was plain with them and they didn’t get in the way of MEWP, felling, tracked chipper etc. 
 

“Don’t talk to us. Don’t get in our way. Don’t say thank you. Get your wood and leave immediately.” 
 

I’m aware I could be being optimistic. Not usually my part of the job. I’m up the tree. 

[Mark Bolam]

I ‘guested’ for a mate for Oxford City Council years ago.

BIG horse chestnut 1-day crane dismantle. Roadside.

Blackbird Leys for anyone familiar with the area.

 

Track-suited goblins appear.

’Can we have some wood mate?’

 

TL said they could have as much as they could carry off as long as they didn’t get in the way of the job.

And it needed gone by the time we left.

 

We had a 10” Gandini chipper on that job, and were busting the light heavy into liftable bits.

 

The goblins muttered and left.

 

Within 20 minutes they reappeared with a fleet of supermarket trolleys and about 20 mates.

 

I reckon they took over 3t from that job, I’ve never seen anything like it.