My turn to fess up...

[booboo]

Did a tiny bit of property damage today and I'm not happy about it.

We were taking down a good sized, 3 leadered black locust right on a property line, about 5' from the neighbor's screened in porch. I was stripping out some little junk on a leader that had to completely rigged out and was flipping the pieces off the bar. A small branch dove tip first and sprung back and popped a small hole on the porch screen and tore the plastic sheeting they'd winterized it with. Needless to say, I was not pleased. The homeowner was watching and I told him I'd take care of it as soon as I got done with the tree.

When I got down, I apologized and explained that we are professionals and that even minor damage is not acceptable and that I would take care of it. He said not to worry about it and a few minutes later asked for a price to prune some low branches off one of his trees to make a clear shot for his satellite dish. I told him that I'd do it no charge if he really was going to take care of the screen himself, which he thought was a good deal. It took me an extra hour since there were about 8 good sized branches that all had to be lowered because they were over a garden fence but it saved me having to go back to repair the screen, so it was probably a wash. Homeowner turned out to be really nice guy and even said he'd be calling for a price on a large maple removal after he cleared it with his wife, we'll see if he does.

I hate it when stuff like that happens, I haven't dinged anything in quite a while. It's not the cost of the damage, it's that the damage even happened. The good part is that I did get to take a couple of 40' tops out on the job and could have driven a stake with them!

Oh well...

 

[treesquirrel]

Hey you did the right thing. No shame in that.

We got some crews around here that if they destroyed some property they would likely get into their trucks and leave never to be seen again.

 

[frashdog]

Handled like a pro.. no shame (ain't scared to tell others.)

Where up state?

 

[TDunk]

We were taking down some hemlock trees for a guy a couple of weeks ago. We were taking down 12 trees (could have stood to have a few more taken down)..... but we already had a couple of trees on the ground and i was limbing this one about 30Ft. up to put a rope on it and pull it away from the camp (prolly didn't have to but ....) when i was limbing it i had a branch get away from me and "wham" butt first right throught the shingles..........mumbled a few choice words and told the owner i'd go get some shingles when i go and dump the next load of chips. He said don't bother cause as soon as we get done there's a contractor coming in the put a new roof on. The owner could've cared less, but ya still feel like crap that it happend though

 

[Rftreeman]

I apologized and explained that we are professionals and that even minor damage is not acceptable and that I would take care of it.

sometimes that's all it takes, I was cutting grass on a new account (I do lawn care also) and my mower blades caught the bottom of their chain link fence and ripped a hole in it about a foot wide and high, I was so pissed off because I knew better than run the way I was going. I finished the yard and then told the owner that I had damaged her fence and for her to come look at it and we would discuss what needed to be done, I was ready to call me insurance company but she looked at it and told me that because I was honest and acted as professional that I could just cut off the wire that was sticking out and fix it with some new wire so her dog wouldn't get out and it would be fine. I was afraid that I would lose the account before I even got started good on it but she ended up signing a 1 year contract for my services.

Moral of the story, it pays to be a professional & honest when you damage something.

 

[Magnum783]

You can read about my incident here on AS. I did the same thing call the customer and we set on a price and I built his shed back good as new. He even paid me some for doing the shed better than it was.
Jared

 

[hornett22]

don't feel bad.it happens to the best of us.

there is a guy in this area that does so much damage ,half of the stuff on his truck is lumber and different colors of shingles.i kid you not!

 

[booboo]

Where up state?

Lake George/Saratoga area.

Obviously in this biz, stuff gets broken every now and then, but it still annoys me because we're getting hired to do the work WITHOUT breaking anything. If I had the same tree to do today, I'd do it exactly the same way and this time the piece would likely fall right and there'd be no problem.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Several years ago I was doing some minor roof clearance on a Norway maple. Last tree on a big job. Little thing. I had been up in some huge ash deadwooding over their slate and the neighbors terracotta roofs.

The wind was gusting and this little branch, nearer to twig size, comes off the polesaw and gets blown but first into a storm window.

As soon as I got down I told the Mrs. what happend and that we would replace it or I could do some raise and thin on a few more trees. I would call the primary contractor, who was on another job to get some glass.

She said "good thing it did not go through the stained glass!" We went through what I was willing to do and she agreed. It was a half hour of polesaw work, most ly corrective thining for structure on small trees around the yard.

She was happy, my primary was happy, so I was happy.

Stuff happens, if it can be fixed or straightened most people will feel they got a good deal.

Quite often they are surprised that I admit and feel bad that "something so small" happened.

I find that doing something extra is usually the best. If you just knock a few off the bill, people feel cheated.

 

[Treetom]

Once every decade..,.

Last week I was nosing my bucket truck into a yard right up close to the house; I hit a little depression in the lawn and rolled into the gutter, which bent. (I never did like the gas and the brake pedal being so close together on my '94 Ford) On the other side of the house I was roping down a limb over the roof with the client watching. I'm thinking, "Gotta make this look good." I had the rope set, and a good notch cut, with one ground man holding the rope. As I start my cut my new helper also grabs the rope and puts an extra 280lbs of pressure on the rope. The slack in the rope flips up into the saw chain and the limb hits the roof, another gutter bent. The homeowner says don't worry about it and to bend the gutters back into shape. I apologized to him and said I'd make the necessary repairs. His wife is not so understanding. She wants everything back to how it was before I started, no splices in the "seamless gutters." New gutters, 60-foot long, both sides of the house = $450.00. Murphy's law: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

 

[Joshua]

I'm thinking, "Gotta make this look good." I had the rope set, and a good notch cut, with one ground man holding the rope. As I start my cut my new helper also grabs the rope and puts an extra 280lbs of pressure on the rope. The slack in the rope flips up into the saw chain and the limb hits the roof, another gutter bent.

I dont get this..? Can you explain more clearly what happened ?

 

[Sunrise Guy]

It's good to know you're not alone, man. We all hate even little things going wrong. In this profession, though, there are so many of those kinds of things just waiting to bite you in the @##. I was doing a take-down last week and a branch I had rigged swung a tad too low as it came off and cracked one of those darn cement roofing tiles in half. I immediately came down on my rope, knocked on the owner's door and told him what happened. He told me he appreciated my concern and added that I didn't need to worry about it as he was having the roof redone in a few weeks. I did the plastic garbage bag repair cover and tuck, and finished the job. The owner was great and told me he would have us back to keep his trees in good shape. I have found that if you let the owner know what has been damaged, as soon as the damage occurs, most of the time he/she will thank you and let it slide or happily allow you to repair whatever minor ding you may have caused.

 

[M.D. Vaden]

Nice way to handle it. At least it's minor.

Since 1988, my damage was a crack in a 3/4" pvc pipe exposed on soil top, and one $8 mailbox that I dented with a branch. I replaced the other 3 rusty mailboxes too, only because the new one I replaced made the other ones look weird. So 3 neighbors got new $8 mailboxes.

 

[pbtree]

You handled it well! We have all been there at one time or another...

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I dont get this..? Can you explain more clearly what happened ?

Sounds like the rope got cut when the groundy tightened up the rig.

 

[Treetom]

Joshua,

The rope was set up so that one gound man could control the weight of the limb. Because of the positioning of my bull rope, any excess pulling on it would tighten the slack that ran across my notch, thus lifting the rope into my chainsaw blade. As I started to cut the limb, an additional employee (who weighed 280-lbs American) also grabbed the rope and pulled, which caused the rope to be pulled up into the blade of my 372xp Husky. So the limb fell flat on the roof, the butt end bending the eaves trough. (gutter) The new guy (who is the same 280-pounder) had been learning to rope down limbs earlier with great success and just got a little over-zealous.

 

[treesquirrel]

I feel pretty lucky as my worst property damage to date is to my own vehicle but the home owner was watching so it was a huge embarrassment. Broken winsheild from a limb which deflected off another tree on the way down.

Only other stuff has been some minor gutter damage, one broken window, and running over a sprinkler head with my chipper which was completely covered in grass clippings so it could not be seen.

All this over the course of the last 7 years makes me feel pretty good. Now if I could keep from dropping logs onto my own head I'd be even better off.