accurate tree felling.

reubenT · January 28, 2015, 10:25:29 PM

A lady got ahold of me one time from a town bout 30 miles down the road, wanted a bunch of oak trees cut right around her two houses. I went for a look and told her I'd do it free of charge just for the trees. Tree service guys wanted pretty fancy wages to do it. Houses had been built into the woods not too long before so there wern't likely much metal in them. One of them was a large oak right between the two houses. I did it with my 4x4 truck and winch, a cant hook and flatbed trailer. And a tall ladder to hook the cable and put a pulley in strategic places. Several of them had to be dropped with precision, not hardly a couple feet to spare to prevent damage to buildings or good trees that wanted to stay. With the wedge and hinge carefully angled, dive cutting most of the middle out when appropriate, pressure applied with cable, dropped them all in just the right places. One of them had a fence in it. I sawed that one myself rather than sell it whole because of the purple stain which I knew came from metal below it, but no one else would. Can be done if some intelligence is applied.

Jeff · January 28, 2015, 10:30:54 PM

The tree service guys deserve what they are paid. They are insured for such work and have the expertise and equipment to do so. I have a question. A couple of posts ago, you were pretty much belittling mechanized high volume loggers, and in this topic, sort of the same thing towards the professional arborist. What gives? Whats the agenda here?

Spartan · January 28, 2015, 10:39:17 PM

on a real day for me, accurate tree felling is simply, with the exception of some instances, general direction = can the skidder easily get them out, don't break it... on to the next tree. Arborists definitely have their niche, and should get paid what they do on some jobs. power lines in the way, houses, gardens. If I run into problems, I shove it over with the skidder... done. They don't have that option. And they have to be clean.

Gary_C · January 28, 2015, 10:55:22 PM

Quote from: reubenT on January 28, 2015, 10:25:29 PM
wanted a bunch of oak trees cut right around her two houses. I went for a look and told her I'd do it free of charge just for the trees.

If I ever did something that risky and foolish, don't believe I'd tell anybody. :

barbender · January 29, 2015, 07:26:01 AM

One slip up with no insurance and Rueben would quickly figure out why tree service guys charge what they do.

celliott · January 29, 2015, 08:12:05 AM

I do chainsaw work for people locally on occasion, cut firewood, cleanup trees, some tree felling (in the woods, field edges, etc.). I am very clear up front that I absolutely WILL NOT fell a tree if it has ANY chance of hitting any of their property (house, shed, powerline, etc.)
I am not a tree service and don't pretend to be.
I have also worked on a tree service crew, and yes, they deserve what they charge. Tree felling can be unpredictable, and if an accident does happen, they carry the insurance to cover it if they damage your house (or the neighbors house)

Southside · January 29, 2015, 09:28:51 AM

I watched a tree service crew drop a large poplar onto a 3 phase power line last year about 1000 ft from where I was working. Lots and lots of fire coming off the tree until it broke through all four lines. There were probably 30 utility vehicles that responded, several of which were big bucket trucks and they were there all day, I bet the bill was well over $50K. They had asked me before hand if I could fell that tree - I have nothing to prove so my answer was no. They did the two men with a rope on the ground with one guy in the bucket truck trick and it still went bad.

You got lucky this time.

RayMO · January 29, 2015, 10:47:32 AM

As a rule I never cut trees close to dwellings .That is why we have tree service companies . I am a logger and plan on logging not risking everything I own doing another mans job .

pine · January 29, 2015, 10:57:32 AM

Just curious if anyone has first hand knowledge (and willing to post that) of what the premiums are that the tree specialist crews/companies have to pay considering the liability that they have? I can only imagine that they are pretty steep.

DeerMeadowFarm · January 29, 2015, 03:33:17 PM

I've dropped a ton of trees that were dangerously close to creating damage to my own property and I hate to think of how many gray hairs they created. I've dropped a ton of trees for other people as well, but I refuse to drop one for anyone else that has even a remote chance of damaging property. As celliot said, I am not a tree service nor do a pretend to be one.

Corley5 · January 29, 2015, 05:07:06 PM

I paid a tree service to remove some trees in the tree line around the house last summer. He's insured for that kind of work. I'm not. I won't cut my own hazard trees let alone someone else's. If the Fabtek would have been on the farm I'd have done it ;)

Autocar · January 29, 2015, 05:07:39 PM

It all comes down to common sence , know your limits. I walk from most of those types of jobs but if Reuben feels confidant cutting that type of job more power to him. Iam with DeerMeadowFarm I have enough gray hair ;D.

coxy · January 29, 2015, 05:40:57 PM

don't know how true it is but my buddy says he pays 13k a year for that kind of insurance again don't know how true it is

Ed_K · January 29, 2015, 06:44:37 PM

wouldn't suprise me. I pay almost 1k just to cut in the woods.

brendonv · January 29, 2015, 07:11:01 PM

You also make the arborist look like a crook. People wonder why they cant do the job in trade for logs. It costs us a lot of money just to show up at someones house.

CX3 · January 29, 2015, 07:30:47 PM

Bore into a rotten old booger and you'll be figuring out how to frame houses too.

bill m · January 29, 2015, 07:35:03 PM

Quote from: brendonv on January 29, 2015, 07:11:01 PM
You also make the arborist look like a crook. People wonder why they cant do the job in trade for logs. It costs us a lot of money just to show up at someones house.

Exactly! I was paying over $24,000 a year for insurance when I had my tree service. It's people like reuben T that makes my glad I am not in the tree service business any more.

lopet · January 29, 2015, 08:05:07 PM

Quote from: Gary_C on January 28, 2015, 10:55:22 PM
Quote from: reubenT on January 28, 2015, 10:25:29 PM
wanted a bunch of oak trees cut right around her two houses. I went for a look and told her I'd do it free of charge just for the trees.

If I ever did something that risky and foolish, don't believe I'd tell anybody. :

Plenty of examples on you tube " how not to fell a tree " Then you hear them yelling .... oh no no it's going the other way. Hilarious :D

I have been ask several times from firewood customers or their relatives to take down a urban tree. I ask them what specie it is and what diameter at the stump and ...... does it matter which way it comes down ? ( customer ) What you mean ?
Well , can it do any damage to something near by when it hits the ground ? ( customer ) Oh yeah, the house is on the one side and the power line on the other and between we have a pond with a gazebo.
Then i say ..... this tree needs to be cut down from top and you need a bucket truck for that. ( customer ) There nuts they want 2 K for it. :D :D

Southside · January 29, 2015, 09:34:14 PM

Not sure how to find it but a while back somebody posted an animated video of a conversation between a tree service and a customer who had a "very valuable walnut" in her backyard. Its pretty funny and sadly accurate. Starts out with the homeowner thinking she is getting $10K for the tree and if I remember right ends with the tree service walking away from the owner offering $12K to remove it or something like that.

North River Energy · January 29, 2015, 09:54:59 PM

Here you go Southside:

http://youtu.be/iTgQHWQoatg

4x4American · January 29, 2015, 09:56:45 PM

Here's another one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJXPXTaVlMY

1270d · January 29, 2015, 10:25:48 PM

I like that one 4x4. The faller definitely has plenty of skill, along with a healthy dose of good luck.

DeerMeadowFarm · January 30, 2015, 10:14:42 AM

That was awesome NRE! :D

bedway · January 30, 2015, 01:10:51 PM

Quote from: Jeff on January 28, 2015, 10:30:54 PM
The tree service guys deserve what they are paid. They are insured for such work and have the expertise and equipment to do so. I have a question. A couple of posts ago, you were pretty much belittling mechanized high volume loggers, and in this topic, sort of the same thing towards the professional arborist. What gives? Whats the agenda here?

Maybe I missed it but what was it that reubent said that was so offensive?

Jeff · January 30, 2015, 01:53:04 PM

bedway, I don't really think you are in need of asking me about my administrative questions in public, however, since you did, a slightly derogatory comment about a noble profession in this topic was compounded by comments in other topics of the same ilk, if you really need to know. If you can't figure out what was wrong with this topic from the get go, that's a shame.

You should not forget, I'm not just another member here. I am the owner, I am the founder and I am in charge of making sure this place remains a legitimate source of information and a decent family place at the same time. You should not forget you don't know any of the things that I know that go on in the background of the Forestry Forum. You should not forget that I do the things I do, make the posts I make for the good of the entire forum and you may have no clue why I do it, other than you should trust I do it for good reasons. You should not forget, that if you want a private answer next time to a question that you could have easily asked privately, that's what you need to do. Ask it privately