Ty Korrigan

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

Har har har! It went for 505 quid! Weird, I couldn't see a chain brake either...?

They are very 'popular' around here at the moment and no wonder with these published rates. Their market is purely the Ex-pats who are really feeling the pinch since the fall of the pound against the euro. I find the French are better payers all round.

Dear Sir, I have a very 'serious' question. I wish to know the typical per hour running costs of your TW125 as I'm about to make a 'serious' financial commitment and wish to price my future work with this in mind. Regards Ty

Hello there, For any-one interested in business life in France, whilst googling around I came across this business operating in my neck of the woods. http://www.brittanytreesurgeon.com Interesting part about it is that they publish their day rates. How do these rates compare with the U.K? Worth bearing in mind that the tax rate here is more than 48.5% of profit after an automatic 40% allowance for business costs. This means that the 2 person day rate of 375euros is 109 tax leaving 266euros with which to pay costs and 2 wages Set the earnings against the French minimum wage of around 8.84euros Ty

Hi, Had my Stihl about 2 weeks and so far it has earned good money for me. I stand on my new Henchman and lop the tops off of nasty mature hedges with it and clear drive ways of overhanging skinny branches. Saves me time loads of time all round and makes me more competitive. I tossed up between the saw kit for my km85 combi which would have been a great saving but wanted the flexibility of the telescopic pole. Takes some getting used to though, makes my arms ache alot and I have to think hard about not getting it pinched (in the tree not by pikies:001_tongue:) I shall buy the angled head next time I'm back in the U.K. which my improve my cuts. Ty

Hello, Any ideas on cost of the magneto for a Stihl KM100? Thanks Ty

Per m3 how much do chips weigh?

Gurt great fellas they are! The boughs literally dripping with these huge hazelnuts and yet when opened in front of a roaring fire... They contain no meat. Empty except for some dust. Now some have a small worm hole yet others without said hole still have no meat. What goes? Whats denying me my nuts! Any ideas?

I did agency work for a week strimming the verges of St Malo for a council contractor in 2008. It rained all week too. I had to strip off all my kit and wash in disinfectant before going to lunch or home. So foul when it hits your face... even with a visor and specs on... I also hate having to weed where cats go...

IF... you had an unstoppable nose bleed... Could you sniff the stuff?

Why though... did Mr Bullman edit Geoffs poem...? A man not known for bad language:confused1:

A local neer-do-well expat Brit near us has decided to buy a chainsaw (I'm going to get me a really big pro saw that will do everything) and offer himself on the black as a 'treework'. Reckons he is going to buy a cherrypicker and work from that. I can't wait, I really can't... Might send him a sachet of Celox and a safety pin.

Er... Sex. Yup. I'm doing a tree for a lovely French woman for a good meal and a jump. RAAAHHH! Tax that one Sarkosy!

Hello all. I'm fairly new to pricing tree work. Because I'm new I'm also not say 'up to speed'. However... I have looked into my costings and know how much I need to make every hour. The percieved value of the work is important. I climb trees for far more than I cut grass. If a customer is happy with the price/quality of work balance then thats what is important at the end of the day. Too cheap and I feel that I may become a busy fool and de-value the work. Too expensive... well I'm already there with the hard up Brit ex-pats. I grossed 160euros for 1 hours climbing which was 1h45min total including cleaning up from a French guy who was over the moon with my price and service. However, I quoted 1200euros for a take down of a large Horse Chestnut overhanging a phone line and two houses and was told firmly by the British client that in her opinion 300euros per day was an obscene amount of money to charge in this economic climate. Yet I full well know her hubby and son charge 160euros cash for D.I.Y/ plastering and cutting grass! Would she talk that way to a solicitor or doctor...? I know my base rate and won't go below it, though the more effort and risk involved the greater the price I ask.

Hello, As some may have read, I'm in Bretagne, France. Normally, I'm a gardener looking after second homes and whatever comes my way. Rather than employ tree surgeons here and lose out on work, I took some time out to retrain in '08 and now offer tree services along with my 'collaborator' who acts as my bad tempered groundsman. (good cop bad cop..) I did try working for 2 French companies to gain some experience but sadly realised very fast that nothing was to be learned there. So I decided to go back to trading under my old name and also under the umbrella of my collaborator. We cut grass one week and do hedges, trees and other stuff the next. Rained hard recently so we started our winter project early. A manor house, clearing its grounds ready for the builders. All burn on site and 400euros a day for 2 men with cash paid to a U.K bank from Saudi. Some good climbing to be had and alot of felling which I love as I'm always trying for the perfect cut. With the pound falling against the euro, times are tough out here but we still get the work coming in although we have dropped our prices when dealing with retired folk as they really are feeling the pinch. I may be 40 and too old to ever be a fast climber but I'm much younger in terms of fitness levels. I feel safe in the tree and enjoy the work immensely and wish I'd done this 20years ago. However, I also wish I had done some time with a really good firm so as to build up on my experience first. Ah well... who would employ a 40 year old 10 week tree surgeon eh...? Better off going it for myself.

ISC Capstan.