# Tree leaning on power lines



## treeclimber jul (Apr 26, 2008)

A wind storm here a while back caused a tree to lean on a power line 440v (I think). 
The owner called the power comp.......the neibour called........ and they FINALY came and looked at it. They said it was ok  

The owner wants it off of the line, I may end up pulling it off. What do you guys think??????

Thanks


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## ClimbinArbor (Apr 26, 2008)

pics! of tree and closeups on the lines


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## treeclimber jul (Apr 26, 2008)

I'll get some soon. Same owner has a tree that he wanted removed because it was dead. I looked dead but no dropping bark and on the tips it was green. so I told him to wait a bit and see if it's just a late bloomer.


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## tomtrees58 (Apr 26, 2008)

stay away from it let it fall then call power co leave the tuft ones to US tom trees


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## Bigus Termitius (Apr 26, 2008)

treeclimber jul said:


> A wind storm here a while back caused a tree to lean on a power line 440v (I think).
> The owner called the power comp.......the neibour called........ and they FINALY came and looked at it. They said it was ok
> 
> The owner wants it off of the line, I may end up pulling it off. What do you guys think??????
> ...



I think I'd like to know what makes you think it is 440. What do you mean by pull it off? How big is the tree and were is the point of contact?


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## cb01 (Apr 26, 2008)

treeclimber jul said:


> A wind storm here a while back caused a tree to lean on a power line 440v (I think).
> The owner called the power comp.......the neibour called........ and they FINALY came and looked at it. They said it was ok
> 
> The owner wants it off of the line, I may end up pulling it off. What do you guys think??????
> ...



If you THINK 440 I think you should leave it alone and let some one who knows what they are looking at do the job


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## ropensaddle (Apr 26, 2008)

treeclimber jul said:


> A wind storm here a while back caused a tree to lean on a power line 440v (I think).
> The owner called the power comp.......the neibour called........ and they FINALY came and looked at it. They said it was ok
> 
> The owner wants it off of the line, I may end up pulling it off. What do you guys think??????
> ...



I think you better know what your doing pulling a tree off lines
what happens if limbs below the line tangles it and brings them down?
Guess who pays time,material and overtime for linemen! Pics please 
anyway it is actually against the law for anyone not a qualified in line
clearance to get within 10 foot of energized overhead conductors.
I am qualified and have worked in trees around them over two decades
and can tell ya things can go badly and get very costly quick!


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## Magnum783 (Apr 26, 2008)

ropensaddle said:


> I think you better know what your doing pulling a tree off lines
> what happens if limbs below the line tangles it and brings them down?
> Guess who pays time,material and overtime for linemen! Pics please
> anyway it is actually against the law for anyone not a qualified in line
> ...



I agree with rope. I would run away from that one like a scared little school boy. Who just got his lunch money stolen. Call the guys who like power lines and have them do it. An energized power line does not sound like the place to learn.
Jared


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## joesawer (Apr 27, 2008)

It is illeagal for you to work on it if you are not line clearance certified. Why? "It is 440v (I think)"
It is an OSHA violation for anyone to work on it if it is in contact with enrgized lines. Why? Because none of our tree cutting tools are contact certified. Even linemen rubber up the lines before they work on hot lines. 
Call the power co and get them to send some one out again. Document the location, date, condition of the tree and the actual contact of the tree with the power lines, also the distance from dwellings. Have the power co rep sign it. I bet it will get fixed pretty fast.


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## ropensaddle (Apr 28, 2008)

joesawer said:


> It is illeagal for you to work on it if you are not line clearance certified. Why? "It is 440v (I think)"
> It is an OSHA violation for anyone to work on it if it is in contact with enrgized lines. Why? Because none of our tree cutting tools are contact certified. Even linemen rubber up the lines before they work on hot lines.
> Call the power co and get them to send some one out again. Document the location, date, condition of the tree and the actual contact of the tree with the power lines, also the distance from dwellings. Have the power co rep sign it. I bet it will get fixed pretty fast.



The term is line clearance qualified certified is great but many like me done line clearance for 20 years but don't have a slip of paper. I have seen many notebook boys that could not perform the work at hand. Qualified means years of training and practical experiance, my last position of hazard tree foreman for 13 years and line clearance trimming foreman for ten at another, more than qualifies me.


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## (WLL) (Apr 28, 2008)

just fell the power pole and someone will be right out to get it fixed:hmm3grin2orange: . or be smart and dont mess with it. keep calling the power company and complaining


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## joesawer (Apr 28, 2008)

ropensaddle said:


> The term is line clearance qualified certified is great but many like me done line clearance for 20 years but don't have a slip of paper. I have seen many notebook boys that could not perform the work at hand. Qualified means years of training and practical experiance, my last position of hazard tree foreman for 13 years and line clearance trimming foreman for ten at another, more than qualifies me.




Certified does not equal qualified. Certified just means documented training that protects from liability.
How did you get to be a clearance or hazard forman without being cerified? It must have been before '93.


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## ropensaddle (Apr 28, 2008)

joesawer said:


> Certified does not equal qualified. Certified just means documented training that protects from liability.
> How did you get to be a clearance or hazard forman without being cerified? It must have been before '93.



I worked for the last power company from Aug 94 to Oct 2006 and quit
due to nepotism. I was a in house ticket crew foreman at a coop. 
I never had a certified utility arborist papers we trained though and
was certified in cpr,osha training classes if that is what your saying?
I removed thousands of dead trees in the worst places and boys half my
age got paid near the same to do the easy stuff. They were so friggin
generous with 20 cent annual raises I better stop thinking about it


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## pdqdl (Apr 28, 2008)

treeclimber jul said:


> A wind storm here a while back caused a tree to lean on a power line 440v (I think).
> The owner called the power comp.......the neibour called........ and they FINALY came and looked at it. They said it was ok
> 
> The owner wants it off of the line, I may end up pulling it off. What do you guys think??????
> ...



When I get a request for tree work in or above the power lines, which I am distinctly NOT qualified [or certified] for, I quote the customer a price to do the job. I advise them that the local utility will have to do certain things first, and then we will finish the job.

I bid the job as though the utility is just going to block off the lines, and I hope they come cut the thing down for me, which is usually the what happens.

The last one I had like that was a big locust towering over some 3-phase lines in the back yard. We could have done it without too much risk, but not without seriously breaking the 10' rule. It took us about 6 weeks of constant pestering, but KCPL finally did their part. 

Curiously, they would never have done the job for the customer, no matter how much he called them. Since the removal had been sold by a commercial tree service, they were obliged to respond to the legal obligation to do the work inside the 10' rule. If it was just the customer calling, they were at liberty to recommend that nothing was needed, which is exactly why we got called in the beginning.


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## ropensaddle (Apr 28, 2008)

Yes that is the case I have had to cut many for tree services
it ticked me off then but now hmm let them take the risk and
me the reward:monkey: It is true if a tree service presses the 
issue they have to at least top it below the lines, I just wander
how the customer looks at it? Do they not want to pay, after
all you just have to clean up the mess. I guess if ya can get
it done it is all the same did you bid just your part or the whole
removal price?


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## pdqdl (Apr 28, 2008)

ropensaddle said:


> ... I guess if ya can get
> it done it is all the same did you bid just your part or the whole
> removal price?



I bid doing the whole job with line blocks, and I let them know that it may be less, depending on what the utility company does.

I'm not out to get over on a customer. Every job we get, I try to turn into a loyal customer. You can't do that if they think you took them to the bank.

The job I referred to got no price breaks. KCPL saved us 1 to 1.5 hours of climber & crew time. I spent 6 weeks on the phone. When we finally got to finish the job, there was brush in piles all over the place. The back yard was a mud pit when we got done, due to the heavy spring rains. We started in February, when the ground was frozen and the work was hard to find. After we fixed all the torn up ground, and restored his flagstone path, the customer let us know he was exceedingly happy.


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## ropensaddle (Apr 28, 2008)

pdqdl said:


> I bid doing the whole job with line blocks, and I let them know that it may be less, depending on what the utility company does.
> 
> I'm not out to get over on a customer. Every job we get, I try to turn into a loyal customer. You can't do that if they think you took them to the bank.
> 
> The job I referred to got no price breaks. KCPL saved us 1 to 1.5 hours of climber & crew time. I spent 6 weeks on the phone. When we finally got to finish the job, there was brush in piles all over the place. The back yard was a mud pit when we got done, due to the heavy spring rains. We started in February, when the ground was frozen and the work was hard to find. After we fixed all the torn up ground, and restored his flagstone path, the customer let us know he was exceedingly happy.



Sounds swell,good job, I could not take the customer to the cleaners either.They may think the price is too high but I don't, it is a costly business and I provide a quality job a little under equipped sometimes but quality is good. I try to eliminate anything they could possibly say negative and would rather them say; he was middle to high on price but no problem and the clean up was immaculate better than before he came!


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