gotta love concrete in the tree

[superjunior]

Had a fun takedown last week. A massive red maple - about 6 ft at the base and up to about 16 ft then split into 2 main trunks. Maybe a 75 ft tree. We had our work cut out for us and luckily the neighbor wanted all the smaller wood. We only had to chip the brush ( a lot ) and remove the big wood. All went nice and smooth, until I got down to the main trunk.
I knew we couldn't take the trunk in 1 shot where the crane was, so I figured an easy two picks. Hooked it up and began my cut when low and behold, concrete! F##K !!!
Put a new chain on and tried taking a smaller chunk a few feet up and guess what, more concrete
So...
I grabbed a different saw and tried making a cut a few feet below my first one and.. yup, you guessed it :bang:
So...
Let's try taking this big fatty in 1 cut, worst thing is we set it on the ground if the crane doesn't like it - of course the crane would not pick this bad boy ( as indicated by its moaning and groaning and blowing a hydraulic line )so we set it down on the stump and tried to figure out plan B, and it's starting to get dark..After about a half hour of beating with a sledge hammer and spud bar, we managed to get one of our few remaining saws in there to make the cut. What a pain in the but! It was pitch black out when we rolled into the shop but got the job done.

 

[lxt]

Had that happen to me & after going through what you did I put it in my contract that any foreign debris that will not permit us to finish the job i.e. concrete, rebar, nails, fence post & other non woody material will result in contractee being responsible for cleanup of such with no penalty suffered by the contractor!....off the top of my head this is the basic read.

I was in a neighborhood where it seemed as all the trees had cement in them & on top of that to save on the cement....the Idiot filled the hollow with whatever, bricks, rocks, rebar.............even had a bar bell & a horse shoe in one (big sycamore).

This is why I always get a contract signed, I have a debris clause & it has literally saved me numerous times.....at least it lets you re-negotiate if the HO insists they want it all gone..........I jack the price through the roof & then go rent the necessary tools to do the job..........if I gotta play with wood & cement...I want top dollar & then some!


LXT.............

 

[ozzy42]

I feel your pain man.
We've all ''been there ,done that '' bound to happen when you do removals.

What I did on the last one I had with concrete was take the dremel sharpener to every other cutter,cut a litle more ,rinse and repeat.
No sense in sharpeneing all the cutters if you're going to destroy the edge in a few minutes.

 

[superjunior]

Had that happen to me & after going through what you did I put it in my contract that any foreign debris that will not permit us to finish the job i.e. concrete, rebar, nails, fence post & other non woody material will result in contractee being responsible for cleanup of such with no penalty suffered by the contractor!....off the top of my head this is the basic read.

I was in a neighborhood where it seemed as all the trees had cement in them & on top of that to save on the cement....the Idiot filled the hollow with whatever, bricks, rocks, rebar.............even had a bar bell & a horse shoe in one (big sycamore).

This is why I always get a contract signed, I have a debris clause & it has literally saved me numerous times.....at least it lets you re-negotiate if the HO insists they want it all gone..........I jack the price through the roof & then go rent the necessary tools to do the job..........if I gotta play with wood & cement...I want top dollar & then some!


LXT.............

not a bad idea, I might have to add that to my contracts as well

 

[Blakesmaster]

not a bad idea, I might have to add that to my contracts as well

I have it in my contracts. Though I've hit concrete numerous times I've yet to charge an HO extra. Part of the job when working residential, IMO. It's mainly there to get them to speak up if they know concrete or other foreign material is present. It does, however, offer protection should it be SOOOOO bad that I couldn't cut around it and need to bring in heavier equipment to move larger pieces.

 

[superjunior]

I feel your pain man.
We've all ''been there ,done that '' bound to happen when you do removals.

What I did on the last one I had with concrete was take the dremel sharpener to every other cutter,cut a litle more ,rinse and repeat.
No sense in sharpeneing all the cutters if you're going to destroy the edge in a few minutes.

not as handy as you ozzy, last time this happened to me I lost my cool and told the customer the only way I could finish the job was with a gas can and match..:smile2:

 

[superjunior]

I have it in my contracts. Though I've hit concrete numerous times I've yet to charge an HO extra. Part of the job when working residential, IMO. It's mainly there to get them to speak up if they know concrete or other foreign material is present. It does, however, offer protection should it be SOOOOO bad that I couldn't cut around it and need to bring in heavier equipment to move larger pieces.

yep, it happens and boy is it a buzz-kill.
Maybe we should start carrying jack hammers on the truck

 

[mattfr12]

Last one i ran into i the concrete was filled up almost 12 foot so i actually ended up digging it out with a backhoe i had to take the stump out anyways but was a real PITA.