Rant: lost a 60 foot oak takedown in Strongsville over a fence I couldn't see
Got called out to look at a big oak in Strongsville Friday morning, homeowner wanted it down before it dropped a limb on his garage. I walked the yard, quoted it at $2,400, and shook hands. Then during the takedown my ground guy radioed up that there was an old wrought iron fence buried under the ivy right where my drop zone was, and I mean buried, maybe 8 inches of vines over it. I ended up roping out every piece in 4 foot sections instead of dropping it, which turned a 5 hour job into 11 hours and ate my whole profit. What got me is the homeowner knew about it and forgot to say anything until I was already tied in at 45 feet. Do you all walk the whole property line before you bid, or am I the only one getting burned by stuff under the brush?
Did the homeowner offer to make it right on the price once he saw how bad it got, or did he just stand there watching you rope it out all day? If he knew about that fence and sat on it until you were already tied in, that is on him, not you. Next time I would put a line in the quote about hidden stuff in the brush and what it costs you when it turns up.