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Hit 40 removals in a single week and it made me rethink how I quote big take-downs | Arborists - Discusd

Hit 40 removals in a single week and it made me rethink how I quote big take-downs

I do residential tree work around Chattanooga and for the last three years I have priced most jobs by the day, figuring a big oak take-down is a two day job no matter what. Two weeks ago I finished 40 removals in five days across a housing development off Bonny Oaks Drive, mostly sweetgums and water oaks in the 20 to 28 inch range, and it only happened because the homeowner's association let us drop everything into one open lot instead of hauling each piece out as we went. I used to insist on limbing and chipping as I climbed, which meant constant trips to the truck and a lot of wasted motion. This time the ground guy and I staged all the brush in one pile and ran the chipper at the end of each day, and I swear we cut two full days of work off that job. The number itself was not the shock. What got me was realizing my day rate has been padding jobs that could finish faster with better staging, and I was basically charging customers for my own clumsy setup. I still will not drop wood on a roof or near a fence, but I am now walking every job and asking where the brush can pile up before I give a number. Has anyone else here changed how they stage a whole lot versus hauling as you go, and did it mess up your pricing at all?

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1 Comment

knight.diana7d ago

Isn't it funny how the same thing happens everywhere, not just in tree work? We get so used to doing something one way that we stop seeing the wasted steps, like how people drive the same route for years even after a faster road opens up, or how a cook keeps dirtying five pans when two would do. Your setup change is really about seeing the whole job before you start instead of just reacting piece by piece, and that gap between the two is where all the hidden time lives. I bet half the trades out there are quietly billing for their own bad habits and calling it experience, and the customers pay for it without ever knowing. The fact that it messed with your pricing just means you were honest enough to notice, most guys would pocket the extra days and never ask the question.