Ty Korrigan

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

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

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!

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...

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?

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:!

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

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

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...

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

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

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!

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.

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.

Had a 'moment' a week ago... I didn't fall but it was a near thing. I was topping out very skinny populars ready for felling. I was using a wire strop and my work position strop as well which I'd wrapped around a branch I'd left to give me a more secure foothold. I find skinny pole like trees a nightmare to climb. When my groundsman pulled on the rope as I was doing the backcut a freakishly strong squall hit and the top sat back on my saw. It creaked away and I could hear the hinge creaking and twisting when the squall passed and the top fell away badly, almost vertically and caught the branch with my W.P.Strop attached snapping it off! The top fell away to the ground but the branch it took with it got caught up in another tree so I was only given a light shaking instead of... worse. I managed to unclip my W.P.Strop and climb down, heart racing... I learned. Never leave a long branch as a foothold when topping out. Get a heavier groundy or a stronger system for pulling. That I hate skinny populars even more now! Got any advice for me... (stands back and lights the blue touch paper...)

Hello all, I've just invested in a Greenmech CS100 gravity chipper. Anything it can't handle is simply valuable fire wood... I shall let you all know how it goes for me later on. I've also bought an hour metre for it just to help with the servicing. Ty

British tourist crushed to death as ancient tree falls on her in France| News | This is London

Hello, Any suppliers of a compatible set of blades for a Greenmech CS100? I am told they are 150 squids from G'mech themselves.

Ah... a difference in opinion here... Never mind, I've ordered a CS100 from Greenmech. Most wood (apart from Cupressus) we either take home or the clients keep for fuel so I wanted a compact machine for the smaller branches and twigs. Cheers anyway Ty

Hello all, Any-one have an opinion on or experience with the Elite Pro range of machines...? Many thanks. Ty