how much do you trust your falling skills

[booboo]

Murph:

I'm going to suggest that with a somewhat "less large" norway spruce, an open face and a larger amount of hinge wood that tree came down slow and the limbs poking the lawn were a very minor or non-event.

________________

Based on the photos, we'd have done that one the same way. Pretty straight forward to get a norway into that size gap, especially with a rope in it. We frequently leave all the limbs on conifers when doing flops and intentionally fell them slowly. The flexibility in the branches, especially in spruce, absorbs a lot of the impact and minimizes lawn damage if you fell it slowly. Also, it won't bounce or roll. And it's a lot faster limbing it on the ground.

 

[Treetom]

Good work , Murphy: I'd do the same. RB, the shed was sceduled for demolition, right?

 

[Adkpk]

This spruce laid down nice.

 

[Adkpk]

This guys bridge looks a little dicey. Not to mention...

 

[treeman82]

No problem. No pics of the bad ones I've done, but there were a few... 90 foot tulips that had to go between the house and a sugar maple... those were a challenge friends said I was crazy for doing it that way... but then again they are the type to hit a house with an easy tree. Then the big back leaning oaks over houses and sheds...

 

[murphy4trees]

the latest fall

Yeaterday had a 62' storm damaged tulip to drop.. top 30' blew out a few ago.. We've had a lot of soaking rain and lawn was still pretty soft... Customer asked me to hold off for a few days til it dried a bit as she had a lot of lawn damage when the last tree company came in to work in her backyard ( I also noticed spike marks on the back side of this 90' tulip leading to a flush cut on a lower limb, about 45')

Well I can usually adjust the schedule for such situations, but the phone has been pretty quiet and yesterday was the day for this job... There were actually five trees coming down, but the first was the only real challenge as all the rest could be laid onto the downed trees to prevent lawn damage..

I was about to walk yesterday, when I noticed a big stone in the yard, flush with the ground, 54' from the base of the tree. I used the throwline to both set a pull line and get an exact leasure of the height... Tree just fit into yard with no damage to shrubs etc.. I laid a the log from the broken top on the stone and dropped the tree. Impact on log was 2' from dead center on stone.. Almost no lawn damage... I two other smaller logs down to cushion the lawn from the degflection of the log..

Third pic is the final scene... Only made one climbing cut... the two logs at the top of the picture running left to right are from the same tree. Top is just above the rake with butt log just about on top of it... Had a couple of the later drops go considerably off the intended lay, but all within acceptable drop zones... You really have to be careful with tulip.. direction of pull, side lean and side weight can make a big difference...

The second drop clippped the corner of the 3' stump then came across the first log on a diagonal (which was intended) and flipped up in the air 10', broke the log in half, cracked both remaining halves, and sent the butt flying sideways so that the bottom of the log was out in the middle of the lawn, 15'-20' away from the stump. That is the second time I've ever seen a log jump off a diagonal cushion log.. The first one was oak and it didn;t crack so all the energy went into the bounce... It jumped 30' in the air, and landed 15' from the stump...

I underbid the job, but at least it was fun!

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The only thing I might have done was limbed the tree half way up,

Same here, I think it is faster and cleaner then getting those bottom limbs loaded up.

I can usually get a good amount of the bottom limbs off while the other guys are positioning the chipper

And it's a lot faster limbing it on the ground.

That depends on who is climbing it

This guys bridge looks a little dicey.

Time for Rog to poney up for a new saddle!

 

[(WLL)]

The spruce looks good, the one thing I would add is to nip the corners of the hinge on spruces. Just a little bit, it will stop the bark and outer part from pulling the tree sideways. Usually it is more of a problem when making the hinge close to the ground because of the root flare. But it happened in this case too. I have seen it happen and pull a tree 10 degrees to the side. Which in a tight situation could be a big problem. Just a little helpful advise..... Mike

^^^very good point^^^^i should read the whole thread befor i spout off.

 

[Labman]

None of the people taking money here ever seem to drop a tree. That could be just as well because some of them aren't pros. I see a lot of topping.

 

[Mikecutstrees]

None of the people taking money here ever seem to drop a tree. That could be just as well because some of them aren't pros. I see a lot of topping.

I'm not sure what you mean by "Taking money" but me and my crew limbed up a 32" norway which was "topped" about a month ago by lightning and looked like a giant splintered mess. The top was completely hollow from another strike which fried the lightning protection years ago. We dropped it on 3 tires two sheets of ply and a big piece of pine. Hit almost dead center. Between that and the limbs cushioning it no lawn damage. The owner wanted to saw up the butt logs. So it was a good day and a good drop between the well head and a norway maple to the left. House behind. So yeah WE DROP TREES!

 

[(WLL)]

This guys bridge looks a little dicey. Not to mention...

at-least it matches his sneeks. lol

 

[Mitchell]

hinge wood

The spruce looks good, the one thing I would add is to nip the corners of the hinge on spruces. Just a little bit, it will stop the bark and outer part from pulling the tree sideways. Usually it is more of a problem when making the hinge close to the ground because of the root flare. But it happened in this case too. I have seen it happen and pull a tree 10 degrees to the side. Which in a tight situation could be a big problem. Just a little helpful advise..... Mike

Good Job

I might be miss reading what your saying Mike; I would not recommend cutting off the outer hinge wood ever [except with heavy leaner's.] The outer sap wood is where the strength to control the fall is maintained. If the stump as the pictured is what you are commenting on, the snipes from the stump are caused by to much holding being wood left. Which is also how barber chairs can be created. More wood should have been cut in this case. I was not there of course, but that tree looks like it could be felled with out ropes. If a MA /heavy pull is applied it will cause the hinge to break early which might also cause the tree to slab. Apply less pull or stay in and keep cutting as it goes over.

Another thought on limbing the tree half up first; I would suggest less branches will plant themselves or bind up with all the branches left on. The fall will be slower and the tree will land with more cushion. If the tree could be felled with out ropes you could likely have it felled and mostly limbed in the time it took you to get all your climbing gear on.

 

[HolmenTree]

Reminds me of a white spruce removal job I did last summer in our cottage country. A cottage owner stopped a utility line clearing crew to look at his 90ft spruce,30" at the stump . The crew quoted $1200 to take the tree down,chip and haul away limbs/top and leave 24" blocks on site,no stump removal. The cottage owner calls me, I quoted $500 plus $300 for two 50 ft poplars which he added on when he heard $500 for spruce. [Now these are tightly spaced forest trees so not alot of limbs] My worker an I had the job done in exactly 2 hrs....$800 !
Used the Stihl 066-28", felled the spruce with wedges and pulled the poplars with bigshot/line/rope and maasdam puller. Five of his neighbors were so impressed that they gave me over $10,000 in work to follow, which took 3 long days but profitable for me and my small outfit.

 

[Labman]

I'm not sure what you mean by "Taking money" but me and my crew limbed up a 32" norway which was "topped" about a month ago by lightning and looked like a giant splintered mess. The top was completely hollow from another strike which fried the lightning protection years ago. We dropped it on 3 tires two sheets of ply and a big piece of pine. Hit almost dead center. Between that and the limbs cushioning it no lawn damage. The owner wanted to saw up the butt logs. So it was a good day and a good drop between the well head and a norway maple to the left. House behind. So yeah WE DROP TREES!

Perhaps I should have worded my post differently. I have no problem with competent people making a living by doing tree work most home owners lack both the skill and equipment to do. I admire those skilled enough to make a nice job of it. I am sorry if I offended anybody.

I certainly was offended by the tree butchers 2 of my neighbors hired that didn't seem to think I should complain since they only did minor damage dropping limbs from their bucket truck on my property.