Did you lose a tree last week and if so, how much did your arborist charge to remove it?

I lost a ~50ft hemlock at 8PM Wednesday night, which landed on a neighbor’s house. Immediately contacted an arborist who I’ve used for at least a decade and was the first to reach him that night.

He was at my house at 9AM the next morning and with his crew, spent 6.5 hours removing the tree from the house. The hemlock had huge branches, so the work was quite involved and extra steps had to be taken to assure safety. There’s still a couple hours of work to go, but I’ve told him there’s no rush on that.

His emergency rate was $500/hour plus another $500 dump fee. I think that’s double his normal rate. It feels like price gouging, and the total bill is going to be over $4500, but it had to be done and done asap as it was indeed an emergency.

I’m just curious what others have paid as you’ve dealt with the aftermath. Thanks!