Just a quick PSA that no matter what project that you need to have another company come out and help with or a contractor…get multiple quotes. We needed a handful of dead/dying/diseased trees taken down (4 total land vine removal) from our back yard and the first quote scared us so much that we held off talking to another company for about a month. There can be a huge price range with any project that you need to hire out for and it is SO important to know your budget and do your research. Now, I am not saying hire the most expensive or the cheapest possible person if they don’t really fit your check boxes. For example, our first quote came out to $11,000 for multiple trees, ripping out our retaining wall so their bobcat could fit in our yard, and we’d need to rent the dumpster, and we’d need to buy extra pine straw to spread in our backyard (almost 2,500 sqft) after they are done because the bobcat would tear up our yard. And they would have to tear down trees so their bobcat would fit in our backyard too. And we would have to rebuild our retaining wall. That quickly became an almost $15,000 really quick. All for just a few trees!
In total, we talked to 8 tree removal companies. The prices ranged from $11,000 all the way down to $1,700. We did lots of research from Nextdoor, Google, and our neighborhood Facebook page to find our folks that we wanted to talk to. We narrowed it down to three companies after that and requested proof of insurance, licenses, and Workman comp. What’s crazy is not every company had all three! So remember when I said to not pick the cheapest or most expensive? Not always the best idea! Our more affordable to us choice quoted us a 1/3 of the original company and they didn’t bother to squeeze a bobcat in our backyard. Win win for us!
All in all, we are so happy that we stuck to our guts and sought out many quotes to be sure we were betting the best value, the best company, and the best overall experience. So if you’re going to remember anything from this post, please please please get multiple quotes. And always check for proof of insurance, licenses, and workman comp. We had our parents remind us multiple times so we’re happily passing that knowledge onto you.
Thank you for following along! Peep our cat, Ginger, keeping an eye on things.
