Rant: a customer in Boise asked me to top her 40 foot maple and I said no, now half the block thinks I'm lazy
Last Tuesday a homeowner in Boise wanted her 40 foot silver maple cut back to about 15 feet because it shades her garden, and I turned the job down on the spot. Topping a maple that size kicks off a flush of weak sprouts from every stub, and in 3 or 4 years those limbs fail in wind because they're attached to decay instead of solid wood. Half the neighbors think I'm just scared of heights or lazy, and one guy said the last crew did it in an afternoon for $400. The other side of this is that plenty of guys will take that money, do the cut, and be two states away when the tree starts dropping limbs on her roof. I've watched 3 topped maples in my own town rot out from the inside within 8 years, so I'll keep losing the work. Where do you all draw the line between what the customer wants and what the tree can survive?