What Do You Think About This Job? OT

Bryce Frazier

Well-known Member
Had a lady offer me "a lot of trees" basically, we had a REALLY bad storm come through last July, and they still have all these trees (apparently about 40-50 of small to big sizes) laying around.

They need to be limbed out, chunked, and hauled off. She told me that I could have all the wood I want, if I was willing to cut it up and haul it out! Sooo, basically, free wood, heres the catch though...

It is an hour away, and I could only haul about 1 1/2 cord at a time with my truck and trailer (that would be 2 short box chevy trucks). By the time I drove there and back with a load of wood, that would be $40 in fuel, plus I have probably 4 hours of cutting and loading? That is $60-80 for me if I was working else ware.

The other thing, is that we have LOADS of wood around here, probably 3 years worth, so I do not need it, nor do I have a place to store it, so I would want to sell it. IF I could find a buyer, the going rate for rounds is somewhere around $150 a cord, delivered.

So, if I bust down all of my costs, say $50, that leaves $100 for me per cord, and that needs to be spread out over 7 hours (2 for driving, 4 for work, 1 for unloading).

Thats $14 an hour. Lot of work, lot of driving... What do you guys think? The thing that hangs me up, is that there is NO guaranteed sale, however it is going to cost me money either way...

Bryce
 
I think you already figured it out, she gets her mess cleaned up for free and you either hustle up sales for small profits which do not include wear and tear on trucks, tractors, chainsaws etc. or you go in the hole altogether.
 
Thats kind of what I am thinking.. The "half truck, trailer" needs tires on it, which I think I have used ones off of my truck.

But you are right, that is mileage off of my truck, the trailer, and wear and tear on my big saws...
 
What would be perfect is if you had a loader and a big flat bed tractor trailer handy. Limb it out and load the logs. Cut at home on your time. Do you know anyone who has a big rig? I would most likely say no but I am 65!
 
Bryce- It does not matter what you could sell the wood for, I would quote her a price for cutting and cleaning up plus hauling.

We have storms here very often and people are always posting ads on CL...FREE WOOD, you just have to come and clean it ALL up.

Sounds like you will be throwing your money into this project and don't even know if you can sell the wood once you do all the work.

Again, I'd quote her a price and if she does not want it just say thanks and walk away.
 
I had a neighbor call me the other day to help someone from his church clean up a BIG tree that was down. I had to decline as, one I needed no wood (got more than I can handle now), two it would cost me a good bit in fuel and time to do it that would be better spent working for paying customers, and three, I've simply got too much work to do right now.

I called a friend who has a tree service and who takes a lot of the wood he gets and has it sawed in to boards, along with doing firewood. He said the same thing I did about the whole deal.

On top of what I've said so far, think about this. If your cutting up this tree and hit something with the saw and damage the chain, or the saw itself, make a cut and pinch/bend the bar, etc, it's going to cost you big to repair.

In the end, if you want to do it just to do a 'good deed' and to help the people out, then great. If your doing it with the intent to make money, I'd say your time is better spend elsewhere as this has very little on the upside as far as profit, but has the risk of costing you all of your potential profit and then some if something should go wrong.
 
I think you still need to add some more of your time and cost to:
unload the wood from your truck and stack the wood at your storage site;
time to find a buyer;
reload the wood on your truck for delivery;
delivery drive time, fuel and truck wear;
unload and stack the wood at the buyer's site;
return trip home, fuel and truck wear.

I agree with simply charging a fixed hourly rate for your time and travel, leave the wood behind or charge a disposal fee to remove it.
 
Bryce, I know you have a busy schedule already. An hours travel time away is a lot of distance to cut wood. Now, if wood were a scarce commodity in your area it would be different. Surely someone in this lady's area would be willing to cut the trees up and remove them. If not then, as has already been suggested, charge for your services, or just say, "No thank you, M'am". Sometimes you agree to do something like that and the people become very particular about the clean up, etc. In other words, it is difficult to satisfy them, and they are constantly bickering about you left a stick over there, get that limb out of the way, etc, etc. Know what I mean?
 
Oh, So she is going to do you a favor and let you clean up a mess she can't and is willing to give you the mess she does not want in exchange. I with these other boys, tell her to call a tree service and then do it for 1/2 of what they quote plus the wood.

I used to have people offer me all kinds of "deals" like that when I was younger, then I learned how to tell people "NO'.

Bryce, This is the first time I have commented on one of your post, but I have enjoyed reading your tractor efforts. I am glad to see a "young un" that still likes the things I did when I was young (still do it's a sickness that does not go away)

Now is the time to learn that there are people out there that will take advantage of your good nature.

First lesson when this happens--- O.K. whats their angle and how are they trying to work me to their advatage.
 
Without charging her to do the job, the only way that you could improve the situation would be if you could find someone close to her to sell the wood to immediately.
 
(quoted from post at 05:52:36 04/17/15) Sometimes you agree to do something like that and the people become very particular about the clean up, etc. In other words, it is difficult to satisfy them, and they are constantly bickering about you left a stick over there, get that limb out of the way, etc, etc. Know what I mean?

A guy that helps me at times clean up downed trees for the wood told about a time where he agreed to cut up some trees for the wood for a woman in our area. He burns wood almost exclusively to heat his place, a bit ironic since he's in the heating/cooling business, so he doesn't turn down the chance to get some. She wanted all the chain saw chips cleaned up and the small sticks raked up, she told him this after he was about done. He said he was out lawn raking and vacuuming the field where the tree fell. Did it because she is a good customer otherwise and refers others to use his business. But it was the last time he ever did that kind of work for her. I know her and she is a nasty piece of work, I told him I wouldn't pee on her if she was on fire.

Bryce, I think you have some good advice given in this post. Tell the lady you don't need the wood but would clean it up for a price. Make sure you cover your out of pocket costs and a resonable rate for your labor and something for the wear and tear on your equipment. Otherwise she can call someone else or a tree service.
 
I don't know why people expect others to get excited about free wood. A friend of mine ran a tree service and got calls from people to look at jobs. He said it would never fail that one tree was against a house. He goes out, looks it over, and gives an estimate. They then get the deer in headlights look and say, "I thought you would do it for the wood!" He gets a good laugh from them. Seriously, you need to get paid for your time, travel, fuel, etc.
 
Bryce, I have gotten into those kinds of deals several times in the past. Somehow, I always wish I had not taken the jobs once I got into them. If it were family, that makes a difference, but even then, it CAN be bad. I used to do stuff for my Grandmother and my parents all the time and do not regret those one bit. I would do whatever they needed done.
All that being said, at that distance and with all the things you have going on, my advice is to politely tell this person you just don't have the time.
Richard in NW SC
 
Nothing is for free.You have to charge for your time and hauling costs.Getting the wood out is doing her a favor.

JMHO

Vito
 
Without knowing anything about the woman it would appear, as others have said, she is trying to get free work out of you. You have seen the property, the woman and therefore may be the best person to determine if she might have the means to afford the removal of the wood. There is a reason she has waited so long after the storm. That said, if I needed some wood I would take what I wanted if I needed it and maybe stop by later if I wanted more, because it doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. I had a 40 year old man ask me about a check engine light on his Pacifica yesterday and before I could comment his wife came over and said loudly and rudely "We have no money to fix the car." I politely replied that car repairs cost money and excused myself. I knew them both and they both work decent jobs. In my experience most people that "need" your help won't be there when you need their help. Life will teach you who those people are. Gerard
 
storm down trees....
If the job was right next door and paid well....I'd still pass.

when I have to hire a tree service truck and need a quote.
Tree guy (friend) gives me a quote for dropping what I need.
I always jokingly ask how much to do the whole job, clean-up and all.....
him...."quadruple the quote"

funny....as I am cleaning up the mess...if I had a lot
of money....I would pay the quadruple...lol

ps remember, cleaning up storm wood debris, you'll do a lot of damage to the ground. Most owners will want that fixed too......
 
I think this is another case of someone talking just to hear the sound of their voice and that you have no intention of doing this work, don't need the wood, etc. But I am a bit surprised at the responses! Must be different in other parts of the world. I have a lot of standing ash trees in my woods that fell victim to the ash borer. Not a week goes by that someone doesn't stop and ask me can they cut them down and haul them off. They will do this in exchange for the wood. Lot of people heating with wood these days and they are always looking for more.
 

1 too far

2 you don't have enough trk

3 too much wear & tear..

4 Did I say it was too far??
 
A tree service is probably going to charge at least $75 per hour per person.

There is a lot of risk going up in the trees.

Run away.
 
Would be different if you could haul more, that's a job for a nice size single axle medium or class 3 type truck you could put 4 cord on or better. That and how you are set up, if productive, fine, but to go back and forth for small quantities would make it undesirable at first glance. I see good hardwood advertised, free for the taking or know of places within a certain radius where it could be had for free, its time consuming and unless you can put a large quantity on a truck or trailer each trip, it may not be worth it. Some locations, species of wood, well worth it if easy access, and many of the ads have images, so it depends on the situation. I've done it before, worked off a massive pile of tops 10 miles away, all kinds of good hardwood, hickory, oak, hard maple, just the quantity was small at the end of the day, needed a more efficient manner of processing it. A good friend does this when visiting their farm, one pick up truck at a time, 36 miles each way, He visits often and each time its one load, over time he gets what he needs for a season, between this and what he has near his place. The farmer I used to help, spring planting one year was after an ice storm that littered the edges of the fields with downed trees, more than I could gather, but I did bring my old grain truck to the fields and a home made set of forks for the bucket, my chain saw and at different times was able to get full truck loads to haul home, made large pile of logs that I worked off of for 2+ years, that was worth doing. Now if one is desperate for firewood, then you do what you must. One friend was coming here with a pick up truck, lot of dead elm here, so I figured it a help to give some of it away as I could not process all of it, though I did cut up lots of it. 20 miles away was where it was going, too time consuming, he ended up ordering a 10 cord load of logs, dropped in his yard, so much easier to deal with.
 
Do you know this woman? Do you like her? Do you feel she could use some help? Are you inclined to possibly do this as a sort of favor? What if you could get a bunch of friends together with trucks and saws and make a day of it? Take a barbeque. Have some fun. Tell the woman before hand exactly what you are prepared to do. If she wants it park-like maybe she could find some high school kids to clean up after for a few dollars on a weekend. Maybe explain your situation and what it would cost her to hire a tree service to do it. See where it goes.

Just a thought.

phil n
 
"In my experience most people that "need" your help won't be there when you need their help."

ASE, That is my experience too. Some just make excuses.
 
My thoughts too. If you want to help her out and do her a favor, by all means do it.

But if you're doing it for the money/wood - the general rule of thumb applies: If you have to ask, it aint worth it.

You broke down your costs well enough, but failed to add in an appropriate amount for potential equipment failures, potential broken fingers, time
spent for rests in between every trip, etc. It always takes you much more time than you thing to complete a job like that - because - )#($* happens.

If you're doing it just for the money - figure how much it'd take to get you to do it without thinking so deeply. If she wants to pay it, then it's a
good deal for both of you. If she doesn't, well, there's your answer.
 
Without reading the other posts, I would suggest cutting the wood and selling it to a person near that location. Less travel and expense and you get paid.
SDE
 
I should have said:

Her and her husband are family friends, and I will be the one that does the job either way, whether my payment if keeping the wood or not, is kind of my choice.

I really care about the lady, and want to help them out.

I am going to pass on it though (for taking the wood on trade that is) just sounds like too much work/expense for what I will be making.... NOW, if I could find a buyer only 20-30 min from where she is, that wanted a bunch of wood, then it might be a different story...

Thanks for all the advice guys! REALLY appreciate it! :)
 

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