Pricing 80+ limes???

[The Tree Hunter]

Hi just a quick question to get your thoughts, i'm looking at 80+ 200 year old limes in an estate and then giving a price on the work thats going to be needed on them. My question is should i just price each tree individually, or give him an overall price, ie... work it on an average so it'll balance out over trees, ie if one needs felled and one just needs a lift and reduction, or whatever the combination might be, just charge him the same rate for each tree as there's so many................ does that make sense what i'm asking????

 

Cheers

[gibbon]

Are you quoting for works from a survey? or are you quoting for what you think needs to be done? The problem is when 2 different contractors end up quoting for 2 different specs.

 

If a survey has not been a done would the client pay you to do 1? then at least you can prioritise the works and other quotes will be based on the same spec.

 

If its a repeat cleint and you'll end up with the job anyway, I would just price a day rate.

[The Tree Hunter]

Its not from a survey, he's just asked for them to be cleaned up and any dead/diseased ones to be taken down, there's nobody else involved called in to price it, the job has come in by luck reallly.........

[Stephen Blair]

Its not from a survey, he's just asked for them to be cleaned up and any dead/diseased ones to be taken down, there's nobody else involved called in to price it, the job has come in by luck reallly.........

 

he obviously trusts you, i would go for day rate:001_smile:

[Rowden the cowboy]

Its not from a survey, he's just asked for them to be cleaned up and any dead/diseased ones to be taken down, there's nobody else involved called in to price it, the job has come in by luck reallly.........

 

Its worth taking time out and doing a survey then and pricing the job as a whole. you can easily load the prices so that your time spent surveying the site is payed for, and it then means that the job is accurately priced.

[Highland Forestry]

I would give a flat price per tree rather than a day rate.

If you get two or three trees done in a day that's better than just one..

 

If it's 80 trees then I would work on the assumption that you'll be doing two a day, therefore I would be charging something like £150 a tree and then looking to do as many as possible in a day.

 

However, having not sen the trees you might be up to 4 a day as it is or even down to one per day if they are big and need alot of work.

[Stephen Blair]

I would give a flat price per tree rather than a day rate.

If you get two or three trees done in a day that's better than just one..

 

If it's 80 trees then I would work on the assumption that you'll be doing two a day, therefore I would be charging something like £150 a tree and then looking to do as many as possible in a day.

 

However, having not sen the trees you might be up to 4 a day as it is or even down to one per day if they are big and need alot of work.

 

or the epicormics havent been touched for 20yrs, they are full of boulders and steel and you cant see if they are hollow/rotten or good.

 

i have worked on 100foot limes full of epicormics from tip to toe, can take you 2 hrs just to get to the top to get your line in. then half way up you find a hole you could hide in:scared1:

[Treeworld]

It seems that you have the clients trust and the job in the bag to. I would go for a day rate as like SWB says you can come across all sorts of nasties which can ruin your price work. Sounds like a great job, I've also got some lime and Ash work to do on really old TPO'd trees. Already had tree officer round who has granted work on trust. He doesn't like all the paperwork and can see they need desperate attention. Great to work alongside a TO applying common sense on the field.

[gibbon]

I'd go day rate for sure, if the clients happy with the work, it could lead onto future works on the estate. I have about 10 large estates, all day rate and work on trust and its makes for about 30% of our teams work. Sure you won't get through an extra few priced trees and coin it for a day or 2, but these things often lead to more work and other good contacts.

[RPA]

I think the fact that you are uncertain how to price really means you should go day rate.

 

Nothing to stop you working out what you would quote for the whole job and see how near you are when finished - good practice for when you cant go in at day rate!