One of the joys of having a tree in the garden, is that I get to meet new people.
It starts every year, around this sort of time.
There will be a knock on the door, and when I open it, I am usually met with some bloke in outdoor work clothes, who goes into detail about how he is in the area doing some tree work for people in the next road. He had noticed my tree and wondered whether I wanted it doing, as it’s looking a little bit of a mess.
Normally, I will just say that I’m not interested, take the proffered business card and shut the door, because a lot of the time they are just chancers trying to get some work.
Jack was one of these. He knocked at my door some years back and gave me a reasonable quote, so I let him and his boy have a go at it. I watched in horror, as they clambered about in the tree, swinging a chainsaw around, neither of them wearing a single piece of PPE… not even gloves.
The tree looked a mess for a while, but after a couple of years – like a bad haircut – it grew out and looked OK again.
Jack has knocked several times since, but I have declined his services each time.
But the guy who knocked today, looked and talked like he really knew his stuff. Dressed in all the proper gear – green trousers, green t-shirt – Barbour body warmer and boots – he looked the part.
The tree was starting to look a bit overgrown and tatty – like my haircut – so I let him give me a ‘free quote’. He looked at it for several minutes, pointing out to me what he recommended should be done.
And then told me he could do it for just 400 pounds.
Just 400.
A bargain.
Yeah right. I think I’ll wait till Jack the hack comes knocking again.
Yep, not cheap these days. When we first moved down here the large conifer in the garden had 8 very big branches removed to allow more light into the annex. That cost us 400 as well. They were swinging around on ropes with chainsaws (and all the ppe) to do the job. The best bit was watching them carry it all to the front of the house to take away.
Four hundred seems to be the norm, then.
Now, if he’d offered to do it for tree hundred, he may have got a deal.
Don’t forget mine was about 5 years ago and was an all day job for 3 of them.
I will watch out and will not let my apple tree grow beyond that I cannot chop it off.. 😂
Thank you, Issac Newton.
Tall trees do make for good aerial fixings, though. 🙂
Shouty Susan From Over The Road had her silver birch removed by a couple of blokes who had all the hi-vis PPE and a flatbed lorry to remove the spoils and super powerful chainsaws. I don’t know how much it cost her, but Openreach had to come a few days later to repair the cable that got bounced when the tree came down.
Our neighbour has a Silver Birch and I wish someone would chop that down! In the summer, the seeds from it go everywhere. Means we can’t even have a barbecue in the garden.