Thesnarlingbadger

£1000 per tree seems mad unless they are 30m tall. I would say if access is good and the trees have good space around then you are looking at £2500 in total but I would need to see a picture of the trees to give a rough estimate.

Had a bit of a nightmare recently. Was a little quite then really busy and last week I have had 2 weeks worth of work cancelled by separate customers mainly due to the cost of living and I hate to say it but our travelling friends. The issue I have found recently is that people are being more careful with their money and if I quote £750+Vat for a days work with 3 of us and some door knocker says they will do it for £500 all in then what chance have the company’s who go by the book got? I am not too stressed because we have commercial work which keeps us busy but I have had to let a couple of the lads go and am just doing 3 or 4 day weeks for the next month. I’m using the spare time to get on top paper work and have been working on a coffee table out of some black walnut I to down 3 years back so have go plenty to do but I do think if work doesn’t pick up soon I might have to jump back on a couple of subbie climbing days with a few old firms I used to work for. Not the end of the world but I’ve done 3 big climbs this week and I’m not sure my body can take it as much as it used to. Spoke to a few other people in the industry I have worked for and it seems it’s the same everywhere at the moment. Fingers crossed it picked up on the plus side the LA’s are getting my applications through pretty quickly at the moment so July is already starting to look good.

A full reduction on a cedar is a bit of a no go imo I would say most work we do in large cedars tends to be end weight reducing lateral branches to reduce risk of failure in storms and snowfall. My advice as said by others would be to get an arborist in to take a look and see what they can do. As the tree is TPO’d it obviously has a high amenity value in which case your local LA would be looking to retain the beauty of the tree and if you take the top out then you will wreck that beauty straight away. If your concern is only that of the branches snapping out and the BT cable then I would say and end weight reduction on the larger lateral branches and a 1m clearance away from the BT cable. The height is neither here nor there as the tree has grown the way it has and dealt with the elements for 70 years already. Trees are bloody strong and hold their own weight 4x over generally unless there are other issues at play. Have you got a photo of the tree by any chance?

What I tend to do is with the slower (lazy) workers is ask them to stay on when the others have left so they can help me sort things at the yard for 30 min. And just explain that everyone else has worked hard today and that’s why your staying to help out now. They soon pick up there act after a few cases like this and if they don’t their gone.

Don’t work slower so I have to work harder you (insert offensive word)

I would check the head gasket as the engines are prone to overheating and can split the gasket. I’m sure there are plenty of other issues that someone will come along and mention but I know I’ve heard this was a major issue with the older models.

Shame here mate. All done now typical it all goes down over the 4 day weekend. I’m sure the LA’s will have a mountain of emails tomorrow.

Thanks for letting me know. I’ll try this evening when I get in. 🤞

Thanks mate. I had a couple of minor issues before but not this one. It’s all working fine but when you try to finalise the application it just says can’t do it and contact the help desk. I was just wondering if anyone else had tried sending applications over the weekend and had the same issue.

I’d say it’s likely to be a hydraulic issue. Maybe a solenoid sticking?

Hi people, Just wanted to check if anyone else has had issues submitting applications via the planning portal recently? Ever since they updated the website I’ve had problem after problem and I’ve got 5 applications to put through that I tried doing on Thursday evening first of all and I have put all the applications together and tried sending each one but when it gets to the final submission it just says unable to process and is issue continues contact help desk. It’s a pain in the backside for me as I have a million things going on at the moment and I thought if I can fire off the applications over the bank holiday then that’s one thing off my plate come Monday. The apps are over 3 separate councils, South glos, Bristol and North Somerset but non of them can be sent. I’ve tried on my laptop and phone but no luck. I guess I’ll have to wait till Monday and see if they sort the issue by then but I just wondered if anyone else has had an issue.

Well I have put together my quote, now just have to sort out TM and put together RAMS for every site. The quote came in at just over double and if the LA are not going to agree with the road closures or TM I am hoping for then I’ll wipe my hands with it I have MEPS and chains involved and the stress of it all is not worth it if they are not going to accept my way of doing this safely. As mentioned before we are busy enough with work so I can always accept not winning a bid. But I guess it’s always good to try out and see what comes back. Thanks for all your help. I have always priced for tenders and been close to the mark but this one threw me but every other company I have spoke to said it was way off the mark. Quote will be in on Wednesday at just below £200k let’s just see how that goes. Thanks again for your input and the make advice I got is don’t race to the bottom. [emoji106]

The natural brace being removed would concern me massively. I wouldn’t like to remove the tree either. A 20% crown reduction and a brace might be enough to hold of the problem for a while but it will be a problem at some point in the future and with it being close to buildings I’d be worried.

Ssshh he’ll hear you.

Just been to a garage in Bath today and it was £1.92 a litre on normal diesel and £2.08 a litre on supreme. I went for the cheeped one as I could not face paying over £2 a litre my pickup will just have to suffer.

This is very true, I’ve looked at several of the sites now and really think that they is no way in hell that anyone is going to come in even close the the planned price. The logistics of the work and the hassle involved in the job mean that the only way to actually carry out the work safely is with MEWPs and road closures. If the LA aren’t prepared to close the roads while the work is going on then I’m not taking the job as the risk is way too high and I’m just going to be stressing about the amount of traffic coming through and the time it will eat into the work. I’m starting to pick up with work again and back to my normal amount of enquirers a day now so not too worried if I get it or not. Plus there are some other contracts on the horizon that I would rather go in for. As I mentioned I’ll put in for the tender and see what comes back at least I’ll have a bit of feed back. I’ll be interested to see who gets the work and what price they went in at but doubt I will.

Thanks mate, like I said I’m not to bothered if I don’t get it, part of it is 2/3 days with a crane and not a lot of space for cock ups. So I could do with out the added stress at the moment. With tenders I generally get an invite to go and look at them from the company supplying the tender or from being passed on by other companies/LA’s. I think there are places you can go and sign up but I’m not 100%. In this case we have done work for a sub part of the company previously which is why I got an email or I’m guessing why I got the email. Yeah there has been loads of it recently. We are probably taking 1 or 2 out a week for domestic customers and have blocks of ash fells for the commercial clients at the moment. It’s a bloody shame.

Not really something you can learn from books more time on the tools and watching others. I would just say when our starting out doing reductions I would have a decent groundsman spot you in and work positioning is what will save your back in the long run. Other than the technical guide to climbing and aerial rescue there isn’t much out there but I could be wrong.

Good advise so far, I would also look out for any bits of bone and any blood in the chipping chamber.

Thanks for all the reply’s on this one. To be honest I’ll put in the quote for the feedback. A lot of work for something I doubt I’ll get but always good to see where your going wrong. I have plenty of other work on/coming in but as always looking to get more and larger contracts. Then I can start to look at other kit that gives me a boner. I’ve always said I’ll get a tractor and timber trailer and call it quits but to be honest I’m looking at some lovely diggers and other bits of kit so I don’t know where it will end. I am happy doing what I do 50/50 commercial and domestic and would be more than happy to keep it that way but want to expand a little as I have enough headache and stress at the moment apparently. Some tenders I look at and go for are close o the expected mark and I would say I get 20/30% of the ones I go for but this one has thrown me as I’m thinking they have missed a 0 off the expected price.

Hi guys, Looking for a bit of ice here on the price the tender is set at and the actual price it comes in at. I’ve been looking at a small tender, a few sites and all ADB road side stuff. I won’t go in to the exact details but we are a small firm with a couple of teams out most days 2 chippers 2 transits and a pickup and trailer so no major kit (although that’s the dream/aim). I have looked at a few of the sites on this tender and am already thinking the price I am going to slap on at the end is going to be almost double what they are expecting. I’m just looking for a little bit of advise as to how close to expected price you are meant to be? I spoke to another chap who has a larger business today while I was out looking at a site who said he had been running 30 years and has looked at half the sites and was going to come in at twice if not 3 times the amount they are expecting and he had 40 off guys working for him and all the kit to deal with the work (Tractors, MEWPS, 360 diggers etc). He seemed like a really genuine bloke and said to put in a price and see what comes back. I have no idea how myself or a larger firm could possible come in at the price the client is expecting? Am I missing something because I’m looking at throwing 6 guys at this for the best part of 5 months work, with MEWP hire and tractor grab and timber trailer borrow but am still expecting he price to be at least double. I just want to know if larger Irma can come in much cheaper than me or have I missed something? There are around 1000 trees in total and are mainly road side with roads that can’t be closed, power line shut downs and a fair amount requiring MEWPS. Not out of my depth with the work involved but thinking there is no way it can be done at the expecting cost Thanks for you help as always

Not a road verge but a patch of land we dealt with years ago. The land was a triangular shaped bit of land in the back corner of this chaps garden who lives a couple of roads away from me. The area was completely overgrown with bramble, a few Young ash and some other crap. Also a few bits of junk like and old bike and the of can of piss and shoes etc. Anyway the guy spoke to the council and asked them to clear it because it was attracting more and more rubbish and the council told him it was his land and even sent through a photo showing where they boundary ended and his began. He got us in to clear the green and grind all the stumps out. Then he got a small skip in to clear away the rest of it away, dug it all over and put turf down. The area was about 5m by 8m by 8m so not a bad space and he did a really good job of it including extended his fence out around the new patch of his garden. Anyway I noticed a load of Harris fencing piled up in there and next time I saw him as I walked past I asked what he was doing with it all. He said some council lot pilled them in there and he told them to stop as there were doing it but they had been told to put it there by the council for some works they were doing up the road. Anyway he was straight on the phone to the council who said they had made a mistake and emailed a different photo through with a different line drawn on it. I told him to take it to court which he did but I never found out the outcome of the case but he said he was going to sue the ass of them for s*****g all over his dreams. I couldn’t believe the audacity of the people involved with this at the council but it goes to show they don’t want something until it be if it’s them.

I’ll stick to the crack then

I would say if you are only doing small jobs then a predator 360 would be enough. But if you are doing it regularly then a 28x might be a better choice. We are a small/medium sized firm and cope with most things with a 360 but that’s because grinding is a small part of our business. Horses for courses really and it will depend on how many narrow gates you have to get through

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