Drilling into tree before removal

[alonfn4]

I've wonder if anyone else has done this

I have two 30" oak that the home owner want removed they are close to the house. The property backs up to wet lands
and when we cut down some trees in the back i noticed that they have carpenter ant damage. so I guess I am wondering have any of you ever drilled 1/4" 3/8" hole into the trunk to look for internal damage before attempting to climb and remove trees. They are in bad shape as is the crowns branch tips are dying. we did the tap test and they don't sound hollow. has anyone ever drilled to just double check whats inside.
I could bring in a cherry picker if needed I priced it into the job..

 

[Zale]

If the tree is a removal, drill away. If the tree is sketchy, drilling can give you an idea of the amount of sound wood. If you know anyone who owns a Resistograph, you will get a very precise reading. Good luck.

 

[ATH]

I have never done that, but it is not a bad thing to do if it's fate has already been written. Unless you have Resistograph use for no cost, I am not sure it is worth any more than a 16" drill bit in this case.

Having said that, if you do a thorough examination, know what to look for, and find no indications of decay or rot, I don't think that is necessary. That carpenter ant damage is a sign of decay...so you do want to know how bad that is. If there is a small spot in the base, I'll dig around with a probe (sometimes just a screwdriver) to see how deep that rot is...

 

[imagineero]

You're probably overthinking it. If it hasnt fallen over, adding your body weight probably won't tip the scales. If you sound it with a hammer and it sounds solid, has no cavities and no visible rot then you're pretty much good to go. That advice goes for cut and drop. You'll be taking your body weight out of the tree pretty quick anyhow. When you make your branch cuts you'll get a pretty good look at the inside. Trees can be well over 70% hollow and still structurally sound. Being full of muck increases their strength over hollow trees also which is reassuring but not much good for your chains.

If you're rigging off it then further inspection is worthwhile. Visual inspection on the way up is worthwhile too - keep an eye out for bulges in profile (a sign of cracking) and anything unusual in the bark, funky forks, rot etc.

The drill thing isn't a bad idea, but unless the drill immediately punches through the whole tree, it's probably just going to confirm what you already know; the tree has some rot.

Shaun

 

[flushcut]

Drilling can be misleading. I did a bore cut on an oak for removal and found the tree to be sound so no cause for alarm, but when I started rigging down chunks the trunk split up the middle because half of the root plate was rotton. Luckily it was a bucket job or I would have shat myself.

 

[alonfn4]

drilled all three of the trees only 2 of them came up clean the third one was rotten over 75% luckily the one I said looked bad was the right one and was just a cut and drop.

the others were completely clean down to the last cuts.

i think its a good habit to get into for a very small investment in a 1/2" x 18" auger bit cost me 24 dollars and it spirals out all of the shavings from the hole so if you watch what is coming out you can see the damage as in clean sold wood or dirt coming out of the hole..


thanks for the advice it worked out perfectly.

 

[imagineero]

That's fine, just don't get to thinkin' that because good wood come out of one hole you drilled that a tree is safe to climb and rig off. There's plenty of other hazards in a tree, and no test to cover them all. You've got to look at each tree case by case. Still plenty of opportunity for weak forks, vertical splits, root rot, bracket fungus etc etc...

Some of them are not so obvious, and you do get caught out from time to time. I had a tree just last week that looked fine, gave it my standard lookover. Scarfed and dropped it, and it went sideways to where it was aimed. Closer inspection reveled the tree was split in 3 fine cracks vertically, with white mould in them. They weren't apparent from the outside even if you knew they were there, and drilling would have revealed nothing. One of them went right through the hinge, and the hinge snapped in half.

Shaun

 

[alonfn4]

That's fine, just don't get to thinkin' that because good wood come out of one hole you drilled that a tree is safe to climb and rig off. There's plenty of other hazards in a tree, and no test to cover them all. You've got to look at each tree case by case. Still plenty of opportunity for weak forks, vertical splits, root rot, bracket fungus etc etc...

Shaun

I completely agree that a full inspection is need of all removals before climbing IE check the root ball, looking for bulges, Dead limbs, fungus, crack, splits, ECT... but in this case the tree no long gets foliage and had sever wood pecker damage at the top. while working in the back yard dropping trees we noticed a wide spread amount of bug damage so it was on of my major concern. luckily it didn't need to be rigged out

first pic was the tree in question of rot 2nd pic is tho other stump that drilled out clean 3rd is the wood pile 4th is the domino of leaners in the back yard. we have one more tree to take care of then the job is done great client tho.

View attachment 264812 View attachment 264814 View attachment 264813 View attachment 264811

 

[VA-Sawyer]

About 4 or 5 years ago,in the month of May, I got a call from a friend wanting me to look at a tree that had just fell on the neighbors house. It was a huge Red Oak about 36"+ DBH laying on this nice single story home, and even had branches hanging over the far side of the house, even though the tree was still more than 45 degrees upright. The tree was in full leaf with no signs of die-back on the branch tips or any large dead branches. The wind was a light breeze at most, yet the tree just laid over as if it had been cut. The bottom of the trunk looked like a dull pencil point. No roots of any real size or their remains were visable on bottom of the trunk. It was as if they had all rotted away in a matter of days, since our last storm went through. The weirdest thing was the total lack of rot anywhere above the dirt line. It looked so good, I would have been willing to do heavy rigging off that tree the day before it fell if I needed to. Since then, every time I'm rigging any weight, I think about that Oak. Scary!

Rick

 

[flushcut]

About 4 or 5 years ago,in the month of May, I got a call from a friend wanting me to look at a tree that had just fell on the neighbors house. It was a huge Red Oak about 36"+ DBH laying on this nice single story home, and even had branches hanging over the far side of the house, even though the tree was still more than 45 degrees upright. The tree was in full leaf with no signs of die-back on the branch tips or any large dead branches. The wind was a light breeze at most, yet the tree just laid over as if it had been cut. The bottom of the trunk looked like a dull pencil point. No roots of any real size or their remains were visable on bottom of the trunk. It was as if they had all rotted away in a matter of days, since our last storm went through. The weirdest thing was the total lack of rot anywhere above the dirt line. It looked so good, I would have been willing to do heavy rigging off that tree the day before it fell if I needed to. Since then, every time I'm rigging any weight, I think about that Oak. Scary!

Rick

girdling root

 

[treeclimber101]

About 4 or 5 years ago,in the month of May, I got a call from a friend wanting me to look at a tree that had just fell on the neighbors house. It was a huge Red Oak about 36"+ DBH laying on this nice single story home, and even had branches hanging over the far side of the house, even though the tree was still more than 45 degrees upright. The tree was in full leaf with no signs of die-back on the branch tips or any large dead branches. The wind was a light breeze at most, yet the tree just laid over as if it had been cut. The bottom of the trunk looked like a dull pencil point. No roots of any real size or their remains were visable on bottom of the trunk. It was as if they had all rotted away in a matter of days, since our last storm went through. The weirdest thing was the total lack of rot anywhere above the dirt line. It looked so good, I would have been willing to do heavy rigging off that tree the day before it fell if I needed to. Since then, every time I'm rigging any weight, I think about that Oak. Scary!

Rick

I think about trees a lot after a storm , but I have only heard of 1 instance of a tree failing at the base during removal , but that was because the guy removing it took a top almost half the size of the entire tree . It is scary when that gets into your head , at that point I am looking for another tree to hang from . These threads are always a good reminder to be aware of what your working in .

 

[Vendetti]

This 80ft. pine that was up rooted looked Healthy except for the honey bees that lived in a small canker about 40ft up. It had heartwood rot from the roots to just past the that canker. The hive colonized about 4ft. of the cavity. You can see the honey cone and the canker in the third pic.

 

[treeclimber101]

This 80ft. pine that was up rooted looked Healthy except for the honey bees that lived in a small canker about 40ft up. It had heartwood rot from the roots to just past the that canker. The hive colonized about 4ft. of the cavity. You can see the honey cone and the canker in the third pic.

I actually successfully moved an entire hive , that was in a black walnut tree 3 years ago , I loaded the 4 ft piece in the truck , didn't damage the hive at all , I called a local guy who had great Interest in it , the next morning my truck Inside and out(the cab) was covered in what I would say was more than 400 bees , they had starting moving the hive already to wood bin we had close by and for some reason quit 2 days in and left , the bee keeper finally came over and told me somehow we lost the queen , what a shame , we did eat honey like fat bears right outta the hive , it was awesome . Took my alergies away for almost a week .

 

[Vendetti]

Bees didn't make it. The tree wiped out the power line and gas meter and the bee hive rested just about. It was too bad.View attachment 265207

 

[Toddppm]

This Oak looked fine above ground, no rot at all in the trunk. We had actually rigged some branches from another tree next to it earlier this summer. There wasn't a whole lot holding this thing up, almost all of the roots were rotten all the way around.

 

[expertech]

Climb it. I have climbed trees so dead every branch I cut off on the way up made me feel a little better. You don't really need a lot of good wood for a tree to be perfectly safe to climb. You may want to keep the weight balanced of what is removed so that weight load isn't shifted too severely. Dead rotted trees can be scary but this is what we do.