Happy home owner here.
TL; DR. I called 3 people to cut down a tree. Highest was $1100. Lowest was $675. All are insured and experienced operations. Read last paragraph too.
We have a massive silver maple about 40’ from the house. It’s a pretty and healthy tree, but it’s a junk tree too as stuff always falls from it. The root system is every bit as big as the crown and it’s starting to come over the house so it has to go.
I called 3 places. I wanted a price for just dropping it. I can do the cleanup. There’s power lines around and it’s in a tight area with landscaping otherwise I could do the job with a saw and a 24” bar.
First place came out right away for a quote. Had great reviews on google. First google result. Nation wide company. $1100. The guy seemed to know his stuff and was confident would create issues for the house.
I called guy 2 who was recommended by a guy who’s doing tree trimming for the power company. (Also met with him for an unrelated issue.) He never called back.
I called guy 3 because I wanted a second opinion and it was over 24 hrs for guy 2. He said he’d be out in an hour. Ended up being just under 3 hours late. Ended up costing $800.
Meanwhile, guy 2 calls and says he’s 10 mins away while I’m waiting on guy 3. What a mess... They ended up missing each other by about 10 mins. He was $675.
Looking back, I probably shouldn’t have called guy 3 and wasted his time. Then again, if he was cheaper, I would have gone with him. I wanted another opinion and there’s nothing wrong with shopping around I guess.
When it comes to getting quotes, what’s a fair thing to do? How many people would you get quotes from before giving somebody th