Ash dieback takedowns — how are you pricing them this year?
Dan ·
Getting more ash dieback enquiries every year and I'm still not settled on the best way to price them, so I'd genuinely like to hear how others are doing it. Round me it's mostly garden ashes, occasionally a batch for a landowner or a parish council. Stems gone brittle, half of them with the bark slipping, and every other one hung up in the neighbour's sycamore. I've been climbing them less and less — rope angles on dead ash make me nervous, and I'd rather section more and take longer than trust a stem that snaps like balsa. Day rate or per tree is the question I keep going back and forth on. Per tree feels right when you can get under it and drop it whole, but the awkward ones — over a greenhouse, roadside, tight rear access — always end up eating the day. I've started quoting the nasty ones as a day rate with a note that it covers making safe and clearing, and punters seem to take it better than a big single number. What's everyone else doing? And are you factoring in anything for the extra handling dead wood needs, or is that just part of the job now?