Close shave and thankfull

[tree monkey]

The chap pulled my rope and i gave him a smack in the gob patched the finger put a glove on the had a brew.I didnt go to A&e coz there was nothing to stitch just a mess across the finger so i went back up the tree and finished the job.I was amased how much blood there was up the tree i pity anyone who has a bad cut it made me realise about the fact that my family rely on me for money.But they would miss me not walking in the door at night more!

[David Riding]

Although there are a hundreds of members on this forum, its scary how many people have had accidents. Reading this thread has made me think and I should go back in the morning to finish a job today and not force the closure of the work. Although I am not a subby climber and run a business it really gets to me how climbers get payed so little. Every decent climber should be getting £150+ if not just for the dangers of the work. Even if the climber is totally safe, there are so many external parameters that can not be controled. I would like to see the NPTC courses much much harder so 100's of climbers are not appearing every year. Therefore making climbers more in demand. Its too easy to pass you NPTC climbing tickets even if you make a mistake on the assessment you get a second chance.

[David Riding]

I should add that obviously if the demand for climbers went up that the market would pick up generally therefore a business would be making more profit.

[Dean Lofthouse]

Every decent climber should be getting £150+ if not just for the dangers of the work.

 

I totally agree.

 

The only reason they don't is simply because there is always someone willing to undercut or undervalue their work.

 

Therefore to gain employment or work they themselves have to lower prices until it becomes rediculous

 

Just as an aside, my brother came up north this weekend, he drives for sainsbugs, 198 hours a month and his basic is £38k

 

Makes you think doesn't it ?

 

Tree surgery is far too undervalued IMO and needs to move along a little price wise, for the work effort, overheads and danger, it needs to be valued higher.

[Buzz]

Trouble is Dean at the end of the day we are a service industry, and not an essential one at that.

 

Sure if it's dead dying or dangeroues people will call but i've noticed pruning work drop to nothing since Christmas. Clients allready view tree surgery as expensive, they just will not have it done if prices go up as much as we'd all like.

 

I'm fed up with working for just a meagre living and not making any profit so I'm getting out later in the year. Seems as soon as you get on top bang something else goes wrong.

[Dean Lofthouse]

I know what you mean Buzz.

 

Work for me is still coming in thick and fast at the moment touch wood.

 

Like you say, you think you are getting ahead and something breaks or an insurance needs renewing.

 

Tree surgery is a high overheads business, that can't be helped and it will never change. I just seem to keep in the green at the bank although I have got all decent tackle, just the landy maintenance costs are fairly high though not as high as the Mog , might do you a favour to downsize to a landy, I sat down and done some sums and I couldn't afford to run a mog on just domestic work

 

I have HGV2 and was thinking of doing Class 1 next year so in quiet times I can do agency driving, I want some of that 38K basic wage:001_tongue:

[Mesterh]

I reckon that most people (potential domestic customers) see tree work as glorified gardening and therefore expect to pay gardening wages!

After all everyone used to climb trees when they were a kid so how hard can it be

[treedave]

I reckon that most people (potential domestic customers) see tree work as glorified gardening and therefore expect to pay gardening wages!

After all everyone used to climb trees when they were a kid so how hard can it be

 

You might be right there, but the gardeners round here are charging £15 per hr = £120 per 8 hr day per person. Whilst local climbers are getting £85 per day. Not bad when you take out the "massive" running costs of a mower/strimmer/fork & rake!

[Dean Lofthouse]

That's what next doors Gardener charges.

 

Today I saw him trimming the laurel hedge, with loppers. Not a set of hedgetrimmers in sight.

 

A 15 minute job must have taken him at least 2 hours.

 

I personally can't afford a gardener, they charge too much.

[bob]

That's what next doors Gardener charges.

 

Today I saw him trimming the laurel hedge, with loppers. Not a set of hedgetrimmers in sight.

 

A 15 minute job must have taken him at least 2 hours.

 

I personally can't afford a gardener, they charge too much.

 

call yourself a pro

the proper way to trim a laurel hedge is with loppers and secuters its lazy tree surgeons and crap gardeners that do them with trimmers as it looks horrible slashing leaves

you laurel butcher