Tree Fellers Options

[Andysoul]

Apologies for the corny, attention grabbing pun, but does anybody know of anyone who would be able to take down a number of very tall pine trees close to my trullo near Martina? It's likely to be quite a job requiring ladders, ropes and chainsaws and as I don't really trust myself with a chainsaw, (or for that matter a ladder or a rope) I'm looking for someone to do the whole thing for me. Any recommendations greatly appreciated.

Andy

[rosiezed]

Hallo All,

I stumbled across this rather old post from Andy while looking for exactly the same information. I have 5-6 big pine trees that need to go because they have grown so big, they are now becoming a hazard to our foundations, cisterna, pozzo etc. Our piazza has been ruined by the roots and every time it rains, we have an unwelcome piscina to contend with. Our driveway is so bumpy, it resembles a free ride on the big-dipper.

We are also seriously looking into the possibility of installing solar energy soon and the pines are so tall, they are in the way of any direct sunlight we will need for that to work (according to the guy from the solar panel company).

Nobody gave Andy an answer all those months ago. Andy, have you managed to solve your tree problem, and if so, how? Anybody else out there with a trusty tree-contact in or near the Ostuni-Carovigno area who could maybe help us?

We will be asking our Italian neighbours when we next see them, but any useful info from the Posse is welcome.

Thanks to all for your time!
Rosie

[Billy]

Hallo All,

I stumbled across this rather old post from Andy while looking for exactly the same information. I have 5-6 big pine trees that need to go because they have grown so big, they are now becoming a hazard to our foundations, cisterna, pozzo etc. Our piazza has been ruined by the roots and every time it rains, we have an unwelcome piscina to contend with. Our driveway is so bumpy, it resembles a free ride on the big-dipper.

We are also seriously looking into the possibility of installing solar energy soon and the pines are so tall, they are in the way of any direct sunlight we will need for that to work (according to the guy from the solar panel company).

Nobody gave Andy an answer all those months ago. Andy, have you managed to solve your tree problem, and if so, how? Anybody else out there with a trusty tree-contact in or near the Ostuni-Carovigno area who could maybe help us?

We will be asking our Italian neighbours when we next see them, but any useful info from the Posse is welcome.

Thanks to all for your time!
Rosie

We used a chap in San Michele called Romeo he runs a land-scape gardening business, he speaks good English and he will certainly be able to put you in touch with some tree fellers if he can't do it himself! His email is verdeplus@yahoo.it
Obviously, it depends where your house is located, if he is handy for you.
Ciao Billy

Hallo All,

I stumbled across this rather old post from Andy while looking for exactly the same information. I have 5-6 big pine trees that need to go because they have grown so big, they are now becoming a hazard to our foundations, cisterna, pozzo etc. Our piazza has been ruined by the roots and every time it rains, we have an unwelcome piscina to contend with. Our driveway is so bumpy, it resembles a free ride on the big-dipper.

We are also seriously looking into the possibility of installing solar energy soon and the pines are so tall, they are in the way of any direct sunlight we will need for that to work (according to the guy from the solar panel company).

Nobody gave Andy an answer all those months ago. Andy, have you managed to solve your tree problem, and if so, how? Anybody else out there with a trusty tree-contact in or near the Ostuni-Carovigno area who could maybe help us?

We will be asking our Italian neighbours when we next see them, but any useful info from the Posse is welcome.

Thanks to all for your time!
Rosie

We used a chap in San Michele called Romeo he runs a land-scape gardening business, he speaks good English and he will certainly be able to put you in touch with some tree fellers if he can't do it himself! His email is verdeplus@yahoo.it
Obviously, it depends where your house is located, if he is handy for you.
Ciao Billy

[nickandadelaide]

I've PM'd you with the name of a good guy in the San Vito area with all of the necessary tools and know how.

[MargaretM]

I've PM'd you with the name of a good guy in the San Vito area with all of the necessary tools and know how.

Does he prune olive trees?

[Franky]

Hi,

I also want to suggest you Romeo.
Good guy, not expensive, and making a good job.
he speaks some english but it is difficult to speak by phone.

his phone number is : +39 320 118 7255

He read his emails only every four days, so it is beter to call him for a quicker answer.

Or you can find him in my garden I hope :-) He should be pruning our olive trees.

Franky

[rosiezed]

Thankyou all so much for the valuable info. Our solution turned out to be much easier than we had imagined. The man that takes care of our land and our 120+ olive trees is going to take down the pines for us. He also pruned the olives in May (with some others). Apparently, the pines are far too big to just chop down so they have to be cut from the top down. We'll be left with a few stumps until the roots eventually die off and can be taken out. Tearing them out now would be a huge job and a dangerous one too. He's busy now with the olive harvest, but on rainy days he will come to us and concentrate on the pines.

Anyway, once again many thanks to all. The suggestions and telephone numbers have been jotted down for future reference.

Posse Rules!

Ciao,
Rosie

[Hotchpotch]

We'll happily fell trees if we can keep the wood.

[rosiezed]

Sorry Hotchpotch... it's sorted. And we'll need the wood ourselves for the coming winters. Thanks for the offer though!

[JON AND LAURA]

Apologies for the corny, attention grabbing pun, but does anybody know of anyone who would be able to take down a number of very tall pine trees close to my trullo near Martina? It's likely to be quite a job requiring ladders, ropes and chainsaws and as I don't really trust myself with a chainsaw, (or for that matter a ladder or a rope) I'm looking for someone to do the whole thing for me. Any recommendations greatly appreciated.

Andy

All........I understand the situation to be as follows;

anyone taking down your trees should be doing it for FREE, as the wood will be his payment, wood is a very rich commodity in Puglia and he will get his payment from selling on the fruits of his labour.

So please bear this in mind.

I cant get you my contacts until I go out but have had two offers for exactly this service, which I,ll have to use later in year as like yours my Pines are serious ...even for me, a trained gardener !

I hope this is of some benefit to the POSSE !

Jon Gourlay (Jon and Laura)

[Billy]

All........I understand the situation to be as follows;

anyone taking down your trees should be doing it for FREE, as the wood will be his payment, wood is a very rich commodity in Puglia and he will get his payment from selling on the fruits of his labour.

So please bear this in mind.

I cant get you my contacts until I go out but have had two offers for exactly this service, which I,ll have to use later in year as like yours my Pines are serious ...even for me, a trained gardener !

I hope this is of some benefit to the POSSE !

Jon Gourlay (Jon and Laura)

Hi Jon you'll certainly be busy if you are prepared to cut down trees for nothing but the wood! Indeed we have a couple of pines ourselves which could do with the tops being chopped.......

[Peter Gee]

Hi Jon you'll certainly be busy if you are prepared to cut down trees for nothing but the wood! Indeed we have a couple of pines ourselves which could do with the tops being chopped.......

I think you might be right there, Billy. A friend of ours in Ostuni has just paid €2.500 for the cutting down and removal of 8 pine trees from around his country villa. His family have lived in Ostuni for at least 8 generations as well, so he may know one or two people there by now. In point of fact, we paid nearly that for the cutting down and removing of only 4 trees close to our house up here in Padanialand, so it wasn't a bad price at all in reality.

The bottom line here is to get a quote for any work and don't expect it to be gifted to you or you might be disappointed.

[Billy]

I think you might be right there, Billy. A friend of ours in Ostuni has just paid €2.500 for the cutting down and removal of 8 pine trees from around his country villa. His family have lived in Ostuni for at least 8 generations as well, so he may know one or two people there by now. In point of fact, we paid nearly that for the cutting down and removing of only 4 trees close to our house up here in Padanialand, so it wasn't a bad price at all in reality.

The bottom line here is to get a quote for any work and don't expect it to be gifted to you or you might be disappointed.

BUT who got to keep the wood Peter?!?

[Admin]

Just interested to know if anyone has a daily rate for pruning back secular olive trees. I received a quote of 80 euro per day which seemed a good price and I get to keep the wood.

[truffles]

I have heard of quotes of 20 euros a tree(don't know whether you keep the wood for that!)

[nickandadelaide]

My parents paid €60 per day on mates rates from their neighbour. I have also heard of upto €45 per tree depending on their size. I would approach a neighbour and see what they will offer. They also paid €30 per hour for a cherry picker to get to the high palms and pines, he took under an hour to prune 2 palms and 2 pines. Beware as I have heard people have paid treble that.
I really think you guys with trees should start a group to take advantage of economies of scale and sell your produce in bulk.

[The P's]

Just interested to know if anyone has a daily rate for pruning back secular olive trees. I received a quote of 80 euro per day which seemed a good price and I get to keep the wood.

Expect to pay between €10 & €20 per hour - the higher rates will be for a fully insured worker BUT beware of paying daily rates unless you can get a guarantee on the minimum number of trees they will cut in a day, otherwise you may end up with a lazy worker who will spread the work out.
Also you cannot use a rate per tree as a good comparison as there are wide variations on the size of trees i.e. bigger the tree - more time

I really think you guys with trees should start a group to take advantage of economies of scale and sell your produce in bulk.

Nice idea but I cannot see it working. I looked at the figures before buying our land as I could have bought a much bigger plot but to make any worthwhile money out of olives you have to do it on a very big scale. Where economies of scale would work is the maintenance of the olives, having a group tractor/rotivator/brushcutter.

[JON AND LAURA]

Hi Jon you'll certainly be busy if you are prepared to cut down trees for nothing but the wood! Indeed we have a couple of pines ourselves which could do with the tops being chopped.......

Hi Billy, like I say I,ll share my contacts details with you, if and when I take either of them up on their offer to remove mine for FREE.
Maybe I,ve just got lucky ! Who knows, time will tell.

Green Fingered Jon.

Just interested to know if anyone has a daily rate for pruning back secular olive trees. I received a quote of 80 euro per day which seemed a good price and I get to keep the wood.

Hi Admin, in my humble opinion you should ensure that the person giving the quote has actually surveyed the trees which require pruning as you cannot give ball park until you actually asses the level of pruning required from shape maintenance (light pruning) to encouragement of more fruit formation etc (more substantial) which would take longer.
This is certainly how I will treat any enquiries I receive for my pruning services (when we eventually make it out there) as they really are worth taking the trouble over...I simply love them!

Best regards to you

Green Fingered Jon