How to Estimate the Cost of Tree Work

Comments · 286

• SM

  @small-town-southern-man3573 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Had a guy come up to me Friday on a job asking how much I charged to “cut a tree down”. I told him I’d have to look at it, that every tree is different. He pointed to a tree in an adjacent yard, saying his tree is “about that size”. I told him I would HAVE TO LOOK AT IT.

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• BR

  @broitried4022 · 1 year ago

  This has been the single most educational video I’ve found on this topic in 10,000 videos.

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• KE

  @kenlee5376 · 1 year ago

  As a retired contractor that is a good basic way to start.  Well done.

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• BE

  @belowfray5251 · 1 year ago

  I would just go with - I want around $84,000 take home this year. I would charge them about $120,000 for the trees.😊

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• MR

  @mrcryptozoic817 · 1 year ago (edited)

  Very enlightening to me as a consumer of those services. It reminds me of magician Bugs Bunny trying to pull a rabbit out of a hat and getting a lion. &nbsp;<br>I will be less critical of the cost of tree removal in the future.<br>Thanks!

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• GR

  @groundpounder24365 · 1 year ago

  Excellent video..I love how you accounted for the people interrupting you 😂

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• FR

  @fredo3161 · 1 year ago

  Thanks. Was very helpful. Good approach to bidding work, making sure your expenses are paid and profit made first and sticking by it.

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• FA

  @factsoveremotions6035 · 1 year ago

  Zach getting into the nuances with us. What a guy!!! Much love for the small business guys!!! ❤

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• SA

  @SawdustSunshineGoodTimes · 1 year ago

  That break down was fantastic. Thankyou sir 😊

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• 4.

  @4.0gpa44 · 1 year ago

  Nice fairly in-depth video. Thumbs-up. Couple things you might need to figure on (this isn&apos;t so much as a critique, as you did recommend having an accountant review your numbers), is to figure on repair/maintenance costs. A $65,000 bucket truck will be a used one for that price, and will likely have plenty of annual repairs. New they are about $174,000+. The mark up labor by double is better than not doing anything, but ideally an accountant will understand your numbers enough to give you a bit more precise advice. A guy that you are paying $25 an hour has about 22% overhead just in taxes/withholdings (in my state at least) and about 6% worker&apos;s comp for the tree work classcode (my state is cheaper than some others on that, I&apos;ve heard 20%+ is common in some areas). So between worker&apos;s comp and taxes, a $25/hr guy is $32/hr, and this isn&apos;t including health or dental/vision insurance, which would likely be $3-5 more per hour. There&apos;s also fuel, saws, ropes, harnesses, rakes, tarps, etc. While each of these isn&apos;t crazy expensive, it all adds up and can eat you alive if you don&apos;t have enough cushion in your pricing. <br>One thing that works out a bit better in favor of equipment is that while you&apos;ve got interest payments (if you get a loan for it), in most cases after 5-10 years, you can still sell the equipment for something. A $60-70,000 pickup truck after 10 years might be worth $10-20,000. Residual/resale values make the numbers look a bit better.<br> As a different estimating method, I&apos;ve read that some &nbsp;figure on charging their man hour rate for each large piece of equipment, for instance, their loader and chipper both each get $100/hr that is onsite. That might not always be possible to get that, because like you said, though, there&apos;s big differences between markets. Realistically, you have to figure on some rain days because not every day is workable in this industry. While you might pay nothing in labor if your employees are hourly, you have fixed costs, like loan payments and insurance. General liability insurance is several thousand a year for a company that size. Big issue in my neck of the woods is underinsured companies that might only have general liability insurance, and have no worker&apos;s comp, and they undercut me if people get too many quotes with the small companies (that tend to not be properly insured).

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• JE

  @jeremyj612 · 1 year ago

  Great job explaining how to approach this stuff! This video will help a lot of people. Thanks!

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• SI

  @SidonianTree · 1 year ago

  Great video with a ton of helpful information! Well done!

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