Getting a fair price on tree work can feel like a guessing game, especially when every quote seems to land in a different ballpark. The truth is, no two tree jobs are the same, and the variables that drive cost are often invisible to the homeowner standing in the yard. In this video, a homesteader who runs a small one-man tree operation walks through the five factors he weighs before throwing out a number, giving you a rare look at the logic behind how much is tree removal service actually costs in the real world.
What you’ll learn: The five practical factors a working tree operator uses to price out a job, from hazards near the house to whether the homeowner wants to keep the wood.
What’s different here: This isn’t a corporate tree service with cranes and skid steers. It’s a one-man band with a truck, a small chipper, and hand saws, which means the pricing logic is stripped down to what actually moves the needle on cost.
The proof: He shares a real bid example, an $1,100 job with broken tops leaning over septic tanks and leech fields, showing exactly how location risk translated into the price.
If you’ve ever wondered why one tree quote came in at a few hundred bucks and another at over a thousand for what looked like the same job, this breakdown answers it. The septic-field example alone shows how a single hazard on the ground can change everything about a bid.
Key Moments From the Pricing Breakdown
Click any timestamp to jump to that moment in the video.
- ► 0:58 — “Number one, tree location. Is it leaning over a house? Is it next to a house? Is it near power lines? What are the hazards?”
- ► 1:32 — “I bidded this job $1,100 because on both sides of the tree were septic tanks, leech fields, and they had broken tops and they were leaning over.”
- ► 2:34 — “Is it a straight nice maple tree with a few branches on it? Or is it a hemlock that’s got 400 branches on it?”
- ► 3:30 — “I’m only running a chipper on the back of the trailer and an 8 foot bed on a truck. I need to pretty much be able to back right up to it.”
- ► 5:31 — “Is it a cut and run type of job or do you need to haul the wood out?”
How a One-Man Tree Operation Prices Out Real Jobs
Welcome Back to the Homestead
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the homestead. Today we’re going to talk about how I price out tree jobs. I am not a professional tree removal company. I am working with a truck, a chipper, and a bunch of hand saws. Mostly hand work, ground work.
I do do some climbing, but most of the time it’s storm cleanup, damaged trees. We’re going to talk about how I price out jobs. I’ve been actually getting a few phone calls. I’ve thrown out a few bids. This whole side tree business is actually making some progress.
Why You Should Read the Comments From the Pros
However, read the comments below. This channel has a huge firewood community following and there are people in the comments below that have done this professionally for years. So, please skim through the comments, find somebody who has a tree company or tree service and read what they have to say to chime in.
I’m going to give my thoughts. These are just how I price it out. Just again, I’m real basic layman’s, non-professional service. No cranes, no skid steers, nothing like that. This is just a one-man band, if you will. So, yeah, let’s get right into it.
Factor One: Tree Location and Hazards
Number one, tree location. And I say this tree location being is it leaning over a house? Is it next to a house? Is it near power lines? What are the hazards? I kind of group that into one area. What is the tree location? Is it in the middle of 30 acres or is it literally next to a shed, a house, and a swimming pool? These are going to determine a huge difference.
I bidded a job for $1,100. It was two broken tops. I bidded this job $1,100 because on both sides of the tree were septic tanks, leech fields, and they had broken tops and they were leaning over. Again, I’ll overlay the photo, but tree location is number one. I think obviously the most important factor is where the tree is. Is it near a house? Is it leaning over a shed? Is it leaning over a pool?
Factor Two: What Species of Tree You’re Dealing With
Number two, I think is relevant, and these are in no particular order, is what kind of tree is it? For those of you who may be just joining us, we just did a white oak job. White oak is some premium firewood. So, are you dealing with dead standing pine, which you really don’t have much resale value? Me having the luxury of an outdoor boiler, if it grows in the woods, I can burn it.
So, the next thing, like I said, is what species of tree is it? Is it a hardwood tree? Is it a softwood tree? Tree species is important. Is it a straight nice maple tree with a few branches on it? Or is it a hemlock that’s got 400 branches on it? So, these are all things you got to consider.
Is it a saw log? Not that I do any sawmilling, but is it a log worth the sawmill or is it just a firewood tree? These are all things you got to consider. What species of tree is it? The last job I bid low because I just wanted the wood. I wanted to cover my tracks, make a few bucks, and I wanted the wood. It was premium white oak, and it was easy access.
Factor Three: Access to the Tree
So, that’s another thing. The third thing is access to the tree. Now, the first part of this video, I said the location of the tree, but the location of the tree is one thing. Can you get a truck back there? Can you get a trailer back there? Can you get a wood chipper back there? Can you get a skid steer back there? Do these people have fences? Small openings. Is there hills?
Number one was the tree location. Is it near a house or a shed? But number two is can you get a truck to it? Me, I’m only running a chipper on the back of the trailer and an 8 foot bed on a truck here. I’m not running dump trailers and I don’t have cranes and I don’t have skid steers. So, I need to pretty much be able to back right up to it.
That’s again how I price jobs. If I can back a truck right up to it, the last job I did, the white oak job, I was able to back right up. So, it was worth it to me. If I had to get that wood out through a fence or maybe there’s some hills, that’s a whole different story. So, how hard is it to get the wood out? Can you get equipment right up basically at the butt at the root of the tree? So, that would be the third thing.
Factor Four: Chipping Versus Leaving the Brush
Fourth thing would be chipping. Do you have to chip on site or are you allowed to stack the brush somewhere? Maybe the people want to have a bonfire or something. I’m running the Echo Bearcat chipper. It is not the fastest thing. It works. It’s all we could afford at the time. It’s a decent chipper.
But if you’re able to just cut brush and leave it or cut brush and maybe throw it in a tree line somewhere, which is what we were allowed to do on our last oak job, we had to chip most of it. That was part of the agreement. And some of it dad and I threw into piles. So, do you need a chipper or can you leave the brush?
That makes a big difference as far as time goes because I’ve ran this small chipper and it works, but it takes a while. So, that would be the fourth thing. Can you chip or can you leave brush on site?
Factor Five: Does the Homeowner Want the Wood
Number five would be do they want the wood or not? Some tree jobs, people may have a tree taken down that’s beyond their expertise. Maybe they want the wood for firewood. Maybe they want the wood for camp wood. Maybe they want to split it up and sell it themselves or put it on the marketplace. Who knows?
So, that’d be the fifth thing. Is it a cut and run type of job or do you need to haul the wood out?
Putting the Five Factors Together
So, that’s how I would price out tree jobs using those five basic things. Again, I am not a 30-year veteran, but this is kind of how I look at jobs. And I am a lowgrade tree service. Just truck, small chipper, bunch of chainsaws, mostly hand work. So, I’m not talking cranes and rigging. That’s a whole another story.
If you got to get into rigging and cranes and all that stuff, go find a professional tree company to give you an idea how to price jobs. But for the layman’s person like me, that’s just kind of how I price out tree jobs. Those five things are pretty basic: the location, the type of tree, access to it, the species of it, and if they want the wood.
Those are all things to consider. You can plus or minus some. If some of these trees are in a tricky spot, but the owner wants to keep the wood, all you got to do is get it down, buck it up, and off you go. Get in the truck. See you later. Checks on the dashboard.
A Call to the Pros in the Comments
So, hope you guys enjoy this video. These are just things I’m starting to consider. What I want you to do is read the comments below. There are plenty of professional tree companies that follow me and my channel. Look to the comments below and if you are a tree guy, feel free to leave a comment with basically if you agree, disagree, how else you look at it.
So, that’s all I got for you today, folks. God bless. Thanks for watching. Let me know what you think. Like I always say, we’ll see you guys out in the woods.
The next time you walk out into your yard and try to size up a tree job, run through those five factors yourself before you ever call for a quote. Note where the tree is leaning, what’s underneath it, whether a truck can actually reach the trunk, and whether you’d rather keep the firewood or have it hauled away. That mental checklist alone will tell you why one bid comes in low and another comes in high, and it’ll save you from sticker shock when the numbers land.
If you’re trying to figure out how much is tree removal service for your specific situation, get two or three bids and ask each operator to walk you through their reasoning the way this homesteader did. Pay attention to whether they mention access, hazards, and what happens to the wood, because those are the variables that separate a fair price from a guess.
And don’t forget the advice the homesteader himself gave at the end of the video: read the comments. Working tree pros chime in there with decades of field experience, and the back-and-forth often reveals nuances no single bid can capture.