Ty Korrigan
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Everything posted by Ty Korrigan
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Hello all, I love hedge work. I use a silky for thick stems, always carry Felcos in a holster and use a Stihl HS45 because its light and I can use it all day (I'm small and skinny) I work from a Henchman Senior mostly, it's a bit of an investment although its worse quality than an N.H.S crutch... sadly. However, it's a good tool even if it does get heavier to move as the day advances. Good thread! Ty
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Hello Chap,
I'm in Rennes, writing this on a friends dreadfull azerty keyboard so very slow going.
It was very good to meet you by the way.
You seem like a reasonable fellow whom I could learn from.
I want to get more experience in rigging and I thought that if I do get a job that requires a level of experience over mine then I might give you a call and price you in as lead climber.
I really hope you do alright over in central Brit ville but I rather think that making a living out of trees and hedges alone could be lean pickings.
Last night, we (Seb and I) priced up for the removal of a chimney, roof repair and total renovation of a small city garden in an old quarter of Rennes.
Bit of a mix but suits our skill base all round as Seb trades as 'Bricol Tout' and acts as my groundy.
I've got to put some pressure on my web master to put up some decent pages as thats a way forward too.
Stay in touch!
Regards
Stuart Lee
Le Jardinier Anglais
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Chap,
May I pick your brains...
Here in perfidious France...
I often come across over mature cupressus hedges with their fronds waving in and out of lines, often they seem in contact.
I've just turned down a 2500euro job because of the proximity to the lines.
Shame, yet there will always be others.
How dangerous can this be if I am dragging the tree out of the lines?
Can it conduct down the foliage for instance...?
Cheers
Ty
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Well, this last week I only broke ONE roof slate with a branch, cut through ONE telephone line whilst hedge cutting:001_huh: and put my spade though ONE 100mm plastic pipe whilst digging out a shrub. I`m getting better ALL the time though! I'm sure even skilled persons have those kind of weeks...
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Hello there, I'm practising target pruning on a friends oaks as a favour to both him and me. It's something I need more experience of as all I seem to do is dismantle or fell. The oaks are fairly close together, 18-20m high and form part of a mature hedge. I've a problem with applying target pruning to very long skinny crowns and am finding that I've no choice but to reduce very heavily OR leave long skinny branches waving like I've forgotten them. Smaller, more compact trees OR trees that have grown with a fuller crown are so much easier. Any advice you chaps can give me? Steve, is bad target pruning called 'Taggert' pruning in Scotland? (Because it's MUrrRDER!)
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No, my error. See, in my head, if you go into a restuarant and order plat de jour for 10euros then change your mind about it and order the chef special, how can you be surprised when you recieve a bill for double? I now realise that the onus lies with me to tell the client about ANY added costs rather than rely on their common sense. Ty
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Whoah! It ALMOST happend again! This time, we had quoted in writing for a crown reduction but on the morning when we got all set up and were just about to start, the client comes out and tells us to fell it. So, instead of 5 hours we quoted for we work 9hours. When I ask for the cheque on completion, the client says they will only pay the previous price quoted. So I wave my quote at them and tell them I have worked 9 hours instead of 5 for a completely different job and they are only paying me the same rate pro-rata. Result, they capitulate and pay up. Also we have further works at the same site in the near future so I hope when I turn up with all my materials pre cut and paid for that they don't try to change things again. I shall ask for a 100% deposit for materials next time. Bad news about the old French biddy is that my British associate has not stood by me and so I have to go back and work for free for 3 hours or we will lose her grass contract. Ty
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Now then my friends... I am a total newbie at this so I wish to pick the brains here. I have a client who will let me loose for the sheer fun of it (ie no charge) on a 2m standing cherry stem that I have recently dismantled. I want to carve a simple wave effect from this trunk as it is next to a swimming pool. If I cock it up then I can just fell it, no loss just a gain of experience. My tools... a 260 with a normal 40cm bar and sharp chain. Do I need anything different? Should I mark the areas to be cut out first? Can... this wood be treated with a stain to give it a white/grey/blue-ish tinge? Actually, I'm quite excited at the prospect! Advice welcome. Ty
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Well... I've got to face her again as we have her grass contract for 2010... Although I don't cut her lawns my associate does and we don't want to lose her custom. Cheers lads!
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Update... I went around to visit the old bird. Plain and clear that she didn't want to pay up. Grumbled about me being expensive blah blah blah. Then she went off to in her own words (French of course) 'To scratch the bottom of the draw'... I got 300euros out of the 474 owed and I still have to return and prune her roses for free...
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I know I'm going to very soon... Back in October, I quoted 150cash to fell a cupressus into a field. Then called back the client in January to tell them that I could chip it for another 30e When I got there, under what I thought/was told was a bramble hedge was a low but valuable stone wall. No felling then. So I climbed it and dismantled it which took 4 man hours longer. What a dense mess! Still the client fed us royally and we kept our reputation and professional integrity. Now, I'm about to quote 4k euros for a job that a fire wood hunter quoted 600euros for. If I lose, I'd like to see if if F.W.Hunter does do it... Also, we under quoted 400e for a thick leylandii hedge and this too has been snapped up by another F.W.Hunter and guess what... THIS TIME WE DON'T CARE!!! In fact, as it is around the corner, when it kicks off, we shall cancel our work for the day, pull up a pair of deck chairs and a flask and just watch... and laugh! I mean, how much wood 'v' brash in a Leylandii hedge?
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Acorn Milling, I'm perfectly able to price :001_huh:and thank you for you positive comments so far the rest of you. I posed this thread so as to confirm with my peers that I am on the right track. I also agree that a stone burier does do the best job but for now it is a little out of our budget to buy and hard to find locally to rent. Currently we are doing a mixed bag of tree, hedge and landscaping. We find that diversifying in a region of low population is good sense. Thanks again guys:thumbup:!
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Hey guys! Sorry but you've read it wrong here. This price is for seeding as there is almost no turf available in France. It's always seed here. Have another go please
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Hello, Looking for opinions here. I would like to know if I am the right track. I've an estimate to do for several large grassed areas at a large country house near Dinan. I've gone back through my records looking at similar jobs and come up with a price of 1euro per m2 The euro is almost a pound by the way. Based on around 1000m per day for a team of 3. This assuming that we are faced with a blank weed, stone and obstacle free canvas. It includes rotavating, raking, rolling, seed and fertiliser. It does not include any preparation such as the removal of the above, visits for spraying, flailing the area beforehand or hire of a tracked digger to rag out roots or decompact the soil in areas too hard to cultivate. Many thanks Ty
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What does it cost to be a tree surgeon?
Ty Korrigan replied to Albedo's topic in Business Management
Just to add... The British here are very poor payers. Most are skint what with the exchange rate fall and pension value collapses. We find that the French side to our business based near Rennes is far more profitable with our average hourly rate being around 90euros for 2 men and a small chipper. We could even probally get more if we dared! -
Ah... I grew me a set of 'Mutton Chops' in honour of the former landlord of the Woolpack in Emmerdale in the days when it was all about Being a Yorkshire man and farming issues. I get smiled at alot these days...
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What does it cost to be a tree surgeon?
Ty Korrigan replied to Albedo's topic in Business Management
Hi, Here in France, I'm now allowed an automatic allowance of 50% for the business and 25% of the remaining 50% for me, the rest is social charges/tax. The leaner I run my business the more directly for me! I've try to aim at 60euros minimum per 2 man hour average/480euros+ per day. I have other competitors who run at far less like 20/25euros per man hour but unless they are on a 5 day week with NO traveling then they are only making an existance NOT a living or a future. Ty -
Hi, I've a nearly naked Parson Jack Russell who wears a little gay red coat when kenneled in the van on a cold day. It's 'oh so' camp but very effective. He's never cold when moving but shivers like a jelly when a rest. Ty
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Hello there,
Been very lean over Dec/Jan as per normal but now back up to 2/3 days tree/hedge work per week when not landscaping.
Have 4 weeks serious big budget landscaping ahead of us plus about 2 days per week tree work coming in on average.
Doing 'fairly well' out of Central Bretagne and getting more and more work from Pay du Rennes with my French associate where the rates are far higher.
There are 3 of us in this collaboration and it seems to be paying off.
Had a hard day today down near Chateau Neuf de Foix, no climbing, just felling, pruning fruit trees and phone line clearance.
Started V'cold and wet but by middle A'noon needed sunglasses and a hat!
Stay in touch!
Ty
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Chipper report, Glomel, Central Bretagne. Never mind the actual job of climbing a tree so dense with branches that you would have to be built like a weasel... Garden path to steep for ANY chipper and we found the alternative access to the field blocked by a large mound of frozen snow dumped by the farmer/commune (that's council round 'ere) So... Parked the chipper in the clients garage which was below the surface of the garden and fired the chips through an open window back into the garden after the clients x 2 and my groundy had dragged the waste across the small garden, over the wall and into the garage. Really a quite small and uncomplicated journey. Funny to see the chips flying out of the window but as the machine can really throw wet conny we had to devise a screen from a ladder, tarp and branches to stop the chips in their tracks. I am very pleased with my CS100.. more than pleased. I just need to fit my tacho to measure blade economy. I MAY have images very soon to post. Ty
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Well, Thanks for all those replies lads. I went back today to try and get my money but no-one answered the door. My French family are furious that I have been diddled this way but my Brit associate has had it done so often now he would just rather forget it. What can you really do though...? I mean, the can you just do this? and can you just do that? soon adds up and if the client doesn't witness you working at all times then they can I suppose turn around and argue that you have not earned your final bill. Putain le merde!
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Hey! Can I join as I've just bought a CS100 18hp electric start. Feeding it is like teasing a pitbull with a bone, it scares my groundy witless! He's not got the nerve to hold on to wheat he's feeding it with yet:001_unsure: Thinks its going to rag his arm off! I'm off tomorrow morning to Central Darkest Bretagne to fell a 16m 3 leader cupressus. Its second 'big job' The client wants the wood... I've also bought myself a 'tiny tach' to attach to the machine and count the hours which should be usefull.
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Hello there,
I'm operating out of Corlay 22 and Liffre 35
How is it going for you?
Ty
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Another Rant - The Pricing Stupid
Ty Korrigan replied to TimberCutterDartmoor's topic in General chat
Huh... Here is some of my 'competition'... Brittany - wood and more wood: The AngloINFO Forum And another... Brittany - Advice on how to deal with cutting huge tree trunk (Page 1): The AngloINFO Forum Hope these links work! -
Heres a knotty one for you all. I give a verbal quote for felling a tree for an old French Dame who whose garden we look after. We take down the tree and clear up as agreed on budget THEN Madam asks for other works to be done. Further tree work that also creates waste that needs sorting out and garden that requires cleaning up afterwards. End of month and we send out the bills. Nothing from Madam until we hear from local gossip that we are expensive rip off merchants! I visit with another copy of our itemised bill (I write down all start/finish/break times etc) We are accused of 'exagerating' the bill and going over the agreed verbal quote. Only price agreed was for the first tree. Madam pleads poverty, age, doesn't remember use coming or going, blah blah blah... playing the vunerable card. Now, I am very fond of older people, I shall be one myself one day and have a great respect for those who belong to older generations. So, if Madam had asked us for a discount and reasoned with us then I would have dropped my bill for a cash payment. Instead, I find myself with a slandered reputation and being FORCED to drop by a ridiculous sum in order to get any payment at all. We drop by 50% for a cash payment in the end. This Madam has guiled us into doing further works with little intention of ever paying. Not helped I hear, by another 'gardener' telling her that he would have charged her a fraction for the same work. This is a local ladder and top handle saw man. I'm not angry about this, just sad that some-one would do this to us. We pride ourselves on our value for money and customer service. With this Madam, we went the extra mile for her and she repayed poorly.
