Reasonable?

We had a tree taken down by LIPA yesterday. The tree was hanging on a power line so they took it down. They don't cart it away though so DH got two "friends" of his to tie up the wood and put it at the curb. Also these two guys will put up the two pieces of fence that came down. Now these guys do home projects on the side and said they would give him a quote. Well the quote was $600. DH talked them down to $400.

It will probably take them a few hours to do all of this work but I'm just looking for a sanity check.

It was a big tree..lots of branches, they have to chop out the remaining roots and put the two pieces of fence back up.

Do you think this is reasonable?

Since they are "friends" of his we don't have a choice about it. They are going to do the work either way.

I'm far from cheap, I just want to know what is reality.

Re: Reasonable?

I live in NJ and the power company had to do the same thing....My power company paid for it and took it away. Maybe its not the same on LI.



By the way I have no idea who my power company is. I have to call my husband

Re: Reasonable?

Sounds reasonable to me....

Re: Reasonable?

Posted by MrsDrMatt

I live in NJ and the power company had to do the same thing....My power company paid for it and took it away. Maybe its not the same on LI.



By the way I have no idea who my power company is. I have to call my husband

Re: Reasonable?

reasonable for someone you're hiring, yes -

reasonable for a 'friend' ?? absolutely not !! I'd NEVER accept or REQUEST payment from a friend to help them out !!!

Re: Reasonable?

2 people would be $200 each and if that is for a full days worth of work I would say its okay. I just remembered (edited part) DH's cousin said for us it would be $300 a day to get home to come out and take his Kat and just destroy our stuff/remove bushes and rip up the lawn so we can regrade. So if he is charging that much i wouldn't say its unreasonable.

Message edited 3/17/2010 4:35:18 PM.

Re: Reasonable?

I have a fallen tree on my property from the storm. It's a 25 foot pine. It's totally uprooted and lying on the front lawn - nothing needs to be done with the stump. I got two quotes to chop it up, take it away, and clear all the debris. A friendly neighbor with a chainsaw offered to do it for $300. Our landscapers came by and offered to do it for $650. I told them about our neighbor's offer and after a lot of back-and-forth they agreed to do it for $300 as well.

I don't know how your tree compares to mine, but mine is pretty big, very dry, and the wood is unusable so they have dispose of it for me (can't save it/sell it for firewood). They (the professionals with their truck and tools) estimated that it would be about an hour of work.

Re: Reasonable?

Re: Reasonable?

Re: Reasonable?

I disagree with everyone that said these friends should do it for free. As you mentioned - they have a side business doing this type of thing for cash. I would never expect a friend who has a side business to provide his or her services to me for free - especially something that's going to take them the better part of a day. I'm sure that just because they have the tools or skills a lot of people expect them to do jobs for free as a friend - if they did that they'd be spending every weekend doing all their friend's yardwork and renovations. It's like asking your friend who has a maid service to come over and clean your home on Saturday and not get paid, just because she's a friend. I don't think they are giving you any bargain rate - for the amount you're quoting I'd expect licensed and insured labor so your homeowner's insurance isn't at risk if anyone gets hurt.

Re: Reasonable?

I think its reasonable if its going to take them all day.

Re: Reasonable?

well they didn't finish.

Of course DH left them alone for a good part of the time to go to the driving range (don't get me started) and came back to them half done.

He bought them beer and McDonalds too..Dh mentioned that they could have gotten it done if they didn't take so many breaks.

I knew we should have just paid the tree service to do it.

But the are "friends"...please..I should have handled it.

Now I have no choice but to let them finish. (hopefuly)