A solicitor came by (and ignored the no soliciting sign) but just wanted to let my wife know that this tree he spotted in our backyard is “already dead and holding a lot of water” and that it would be liable to fall on our house at some point. He quoted her $800 to trim everything off the top to keep it from falling? Or I believe $1600 to cut the whole thing down and haul it off. Honestly I don’t have extra money like that laying around and it provides decent shade in the summer. Is this solicitor just trying to meet his quota or should I be worried?
by kcchiefer91
20 Comments
Don’t answer your door. Why do people still answer? These guys would go away if no one ever answered the damn door.
Fight him
I would be pissed that he was poking around in my backyard
“Same to you buddy”
Solicitor is soliciting, trying to play off your fears. That said, while your tree is clearly not dead, because that wound from losing a major limb is so large it is taking a long time to encapsulate and (to my untrained eye) it does look like the internal wood has started to rot, it may be prudent to have looked at by an arborist, gauge the risk, and if needed, investigate taking it down on your terms instead of its.
I would not listen to that your tree looks fine
Silver maples.. Poor compartmentalize so they rot out inside kinda like an egg . Structural basket case when they get old . Get a qualified,certified to take a look perhaps . Tree has lots of life just week wooded
Lol
What’s the top look like
I’d get it checked out, there is some substantial rot there, that said however this guy is sketchy as heck. If you want a proper arborist’s survey go to http://www.treesaregood.org
There isn’t a single solicitor with your best interest in mind.
I’m going to just start knocking on doors and be like “yeah, your driveway needs to be repaired”. This sounds like a scam.
If the leaves are green it’s not dead.
That tree is not “fine” as some indicate. If there were no danger to dwellings, I’d leave it, but that big hollow shows it’s rotting inside. For sure skip the dude who door-to-door told you to remove it, but I’d have it looked at. It’s a silver maple and those are very prone to snap at those junctions when there is rot.
I make it a policy to never hire anyone who goes door to door. 99 and 44/100 percent of the time, they are scammers.
In fact, last summer I had a couple of guys show up at my door with the same “we saw your backyard tree from the road and it needs to come down”. Except my house sits back about 150 off the road. And except, as my flair shows, I know a thing or two about trees. I let them talk a while, and then started asking questions about compartmentalization, dieback, and codominant stems. Then I pulled out my business card (with my ISA credentials) and told them they were full of fertilizer, and that I was going to call the city arborist and have them ticketed for attempting to do tree work without a city tree license. Never saw two guys leave my property so fast before…
Yeah he kinda needs that to be the case
I’d get it looked at definitely could be a risk if the inside is all rot.
Name one other thing you would buy at your door. Seriously, there is nothing. Knives, maybe?
You mean the one with all the healthy greenery on it?
+1
*never* hire someone who comes door to door soliciting work, especially when they are trying to create a sense of urgency.