We had a tornado go through a couple weeks ago and lost alot of trees in town. I have helped people cleanup at least 50 trees, some for firewood, some for a log. I was talking to a friend, and he told me his neighbor had a big maple fall on his house and called one of the tree service guys in the area , he had a crane come to help lift off the tree. He charged the owners 12,600.00 dollars for his services. Is this normal? It sounds like highway robbery to me. Any coments?
Depends upon the size of the crane. I was at a removal two months ago that required a 190 ton crane, at full extension and boomed out to around 30 degrees. It was extended so far that it could only pick up 7 tons.
It was aiding in the dismantling of a 6' diameter, 100' tall red oak that was on the far side of a stone building (and grew over the slate roof). The pick had to be made over the top of the building, and some of the tree sections cut down to 4' lengths in order to not overload the crane.
That crane took a few hours to set up, break down, and then was on site for over a day. Hauling off the debris required multiple trips too.
12K would have been a bargain for that particular removal.
There are several crane accident fails on youtube.
One that went bad over a hot tub install in the backyard, showing the crane removal from off the house. That be expensive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4v9N2uCUu4&list=PL922DD6D041E4508B
I can see a big enough tree, in an awkward spot, and trying to minimise damage to the house, multiple loads of debris to haul off etc, it could cost that.
Setting one of those cranes up on an urban street is a bit more complex than just cutting up a downed tree and loading the firewood on a pickup. You might do that for the value of the wood if it was a straight forward job. But a decent sized crane, they will want thousands just to get it set up on site.
Ian
This crane runs about 100 per hour, the tree was 24" maple leaning on house.
Sounds kind a high to me, actually really high to me! We charge on ave 500.00 for a small one to around 2000.00 for a big one! We have done a lot of out of state to instate storm jobs. Cranes make fast work but are not always needed. I would charge that much if it was on the white house! Work safe!
If that's all they did was pick the tree off the house (and didn't clean up the debris and haul it off) Then yes, they have taken advantage of the storm situation. I could see it costing $3-4,000 under normal circumstances, and inflated to $5-6,000 for the fact that it was in a disaster area, but if they didn't also clean up and haul everything off, and the crane work was straightforward and quick, I would think anything over $7,000 would be in the highway robbery department.
I will have to agree with Smitty," It depends on the size of the rig " and the pick, when the rig gets big enough and extra boom length is needed it can get to a point where it takes a second crane just to get the boom off the ground and the lift capacity is greatly reduced, I am sure that reaching over the house added to the costs with the rigger/oiler having to deal with signaling. Crane certification and insurance are the highest of all equipment and the operators must have steel nerves and a calm perspective.
An old quote about crane operators:
"Crane operators boom up and hold their load" <------- seen on bumper stickers in the 60's and 70's
Neighbor down the road had a oak that was 11' plus dia dbh blow over in a storm a couple of weeks ago. They estimated it was between 250-300 years old.
He said his insurance was going to be paying just over $12k for the removal. The but log and the next one up were boomed out with a crane onto a lowboy hauler and taken to the dump from what I understand.
Hated to see such a majestic tree go to waste, but they couldn't find anybody local that could handle that size log.
I think it is bad that at one end of town you have 5 neighbors all helping each other out and removing trees from several blocks around where possible. Then you have a guy hittin the gold mine on a few hard trees, but I guess its the insurance company that has to pay the bill. Im not knocking the guy for making a honest living, I do construction work so I have been loaded with repairs too, but I dont try to make a years wages in a week.
We've used cranes around The Beach for tricky removals from time to time. Most are a $400 set up, and at least $200 an hour (and up). It all depends on location and size of the crane. Can't say your amount is too high, as all removals and trees are going to be different.