Newby - dead horse-chestnut

[Giel]

Hi all,

new member here from Holland. I used to climb professionally, since the last 8 years I am active in a completely different line of work, but still climb a few times a year for the fun of it.

Got a job next week involving a 20m (60ft) horse-chectnut that last had some leafs in the summer of 2008. It has a very wide crown and practically all limbs need to rigged. It has been dead for some time. From a visual inspection I think the wood is in fairly decent shape, but I have no idea how quickly it decays, and hence how structurally sound it still is. (I know this depends on loads of variables). Obviously, one needs to see the tree to make a good judgement, what I was hoping to find through this post is to see what the consensus on climbing this species in such shape is. Who has done this before and what were the experiences like.

Cheers,

Giel

 

[tree MDS]

Cant say I've cut too many of those that I can recall. We have alot of them around though... I would be very carefull with that one, I do know its some brittle stuff, sort of like white pine or poplar, just with more rot.

 

[blueatlascedar]

Do you have any pics of this tree to show us? I'm not familiar with horse chestnuts, we have chinese chestnuts in my area that are considered hardwoods, but as you mentioned many variables determine just how sound a tree is. Also bear in mind rigging can place extra force on the tree.

 

[Giel]

Do you have any pics of this tree to show us?

Not yet, but should have some next week. The scientific name is Aesculus hippocastanum, googling that gives loads of pics. Even in living trees the wood is indeed quite brittle. Wonder whether the brittleness increase quickly after dying or not. Anyway, will find out soon enough I guess

Cheers,

Giel

 

[Giel]

Well, got up the tree today and depsite the thing having been without much life in it for quite some time now the wood behaved nicley. Just crotch broke out during rigging, but a sling with carabiner that was placed under it caught it, so no worries.

No action pics unfortunately, just some stills of progressive stages opf dismantling (like to keep the groundie busy , so no time to take action pics).

Just the main trunk and a few top branches left for tomorrow. :greenchainsaw:

Cheers.

Giel

 

[blueatlascedar]

congrats on no problems or unexpected surprises. Dead trees are the trickiest to deal with IMHO.

 

[Hddnis]

Looking good.

Dead trees are the turf of experts and daredevils.(But I repeat myself.) lol.

More pics please!


Mr. HE

 

[StihlRockin']

Good idea about being smart and trying to get feedback on working with this dead tree.

Asking how long it has been dead is usually one of my first questions when I go about giving a quote. I learn from it and also know better how to deal with it.

StihlRockin'

 

[Giel]

Asking how long it has been dead is usually one of my first questions when I go about giving a quote.

That was my first Q as well, and upon hearing it was dead for over a year the quotation got adusted upwards (significantly).

Anyway, job's done, topping and taking the top section of the main trunk down and finally dropping the remaining 9m of trunk in one go, took another 2hrs this morning. I was a bit worried about the main trunk, specifically having the holding wood break off prematurely (the tree was leaning a bit towards the neighbour's shed). Anyway, we had the winch on her and another line running perpendicular to the felling direction tied into a neighbouring tree under a 45 degree angle. It went beautifully

Thanks for the tips, and I am so happy to have found this site! Lots of people doing tree work, fantastic!

Cheers,

Giel

 

[treeslayer]

I'm thinking about an Amsterdam trip around x-mas, you near there?

 

[Giel]

Yep, about 30km north of Amsterdam (Holland is so small that practically everything is close to Amsterdam ). Drop me a pm if you want to meet up for a beer (or 2).

Cheers,

Giel