Polishing the Pile

[Blakesmaster]

anybody want to talk technique?

If I got a yard full of dead twigs and elm bark (the worst imo).....I will make a meeeelion piles....just pulling one rake's reach into a pile forming a clean circle......then move on to another ....and another and so on and so on.

Some of these rubes will pull a pile across the entire yard while milking the clock (I mean "polishing the pile")

I don't much care for that method. I find the part of raking that takes the longest is the final touch up where you're trying to get all those last little twigs and leaves into a shovel. Takes time. I start at the back corner of the yard and rake towards the chipper. When the pile becomes to large to efficiently continue hurling across the lawn with your rake pick it up and put it in a wheelbarrow or take it to the chipper. This way you only need to do the final cleanup once, right at the mouth of the chipper. You want to start a flame war over raking techniques, TV? I'm game. Let's DO THIS! lol

 

[tree md]

I don't much care for that method. I find the part of raking that takes the longest is the final touch up where you're trying to get all those last little twigs and leaves into a shovel. Takes time. I start at the back corner of the yard and rake towards the chipper. When the pile becomes to large to efficiently continue hurling across the lawn with your rake pick it up and put it in a wheelbarrow or take it to the chipper. This way you only need to do the final cleanup once, right at the mouth of the chipper. You want to start a flame war over raking techniques, TV? I'm game. Let's DO THIS! lol

I usually do it the same way. Always rake towards the chipper/truck, whatever you're hauling with. I continually have to pound this into new guy's heads. It makes no sense to rake in a direction away from your destination. What, are you going to carry the debris over the area you have just cleaned and have to continuously pick up small sticks and debris that you will invariably drop along the way???

I will start raking in the direction of the truck but I do make piles once the debris starts to get unmanageable. Then I rake it onto a tarp and drag it to the chipper/truck.

 

[treevet]

The ISA should have a raking contest lol.

My tech has evolved BM. I agree if light load on the lawn but when you got a heavy cover of chit then the small circle is the bomb. Usually then into a scoop shovel or tight tined pitchfork then into the tarp then straight into the bed.

We even (my law) often go over the lawn after raking with a tweezer style pick up stick and a small container like looking for a contact lenz. We get raves for clean up.

 

[treevet]

I usually do it the same way. Always rake towards the chipper/truck, whatever you're hauling with. I continually have to pound this into new guy's heads. It makes no sense to rake in a direction away from your destination. What, are you going to carry the debris over the area you have just cleaned and have to continuously pick up small sticks and debris that you will invariably drop along the way???

I will start raking in the direction of the truck but I do make piles once the debris starts to get unmanageable. Then I rake it onto a tarp and drag it to the chipper/truck.

yeah I am onboard with cleaning up the farthest spot from the truck then I like to get out of the back yard or have sections complete.

I am completely OCD on clean up. Lotsa clients never even look up in the tree on a pruning tree.

 

[Blakesmaster]

You guys both dig on the tarps, huh? I never got it. First guy I worked for at this game used that method. I think for the most part it's quicker just to load a wheelbarrow and move it out. You can dump it straight into the chipper instead of trying to throw a heavy ass tarp in the truck or emptying it into the road to handle again. Sticks always poking through the tarps, ripping them, no fun. I guess they can work on hedge jobs though...

 

[treevet]

You guys both dig on the tarps, huh? I never got it. First guy I worked for at this game used that method. I think for the most part it's quicker just to load a wheelbarrow and move it out. You can dump it straight into the chipper instead of trying to throw a heavy ass tarp in the truck or emptying it into the road to handle again. Sticks always poking through the tarps, ripping them, no fun. I guess they can work on hedge jobs though...

Dump em on the road.....aaaarrrrgggghhhhh

I am generally not going to put rakings into the chipper. A 10x12 tarp can take a whole yard sometimes. My dump will take rakings.....but it a half hour away.

We just added on to the chip box sides and now my Mack box is a full

18 feet long by
8 feet wide by
6 feet high.....

Mass stuff until we have to kill an hour plus to go dump at the mulch yard.

 

[tree md]

The real trick is to not have that many sticks to deal with in the first place. That is impossible most times if you're doing a dead tree but on live trees it's easy. Don't limb it to the point where you have tons of sticks and debris in the yard. I like to cut pieces on the ground to what I call "cut t handle" cut them into the biggest pieces that you can carry and get them to the chipper/truck, trailer, firewood pile, whatever. Then you can limb them further if need be or cut them into firewood pieces or whatever size you need to make them manageable. This cuts down on the number of trips you have to make and the amount of debris left in the yard to clean up.

 

[Blakesmaster]

My dump will take rakings.....but it a half hour away.
.

I guess that's our difference. Getting rid of clean chips is a breeze, a few wheelbarrow loads of rakings dumped in the back will kill a good chip spot pretty quick. Yeah, it's hard on the knives but they can be changed and sharpened which is easier than finding a new spot to dump.

 

[tree md]

And yes, I have found the tarp to be the fastest method. They will wear out pretty quick but the amount of time that they save more than makes up for it. No making a thousand trips with a scoop shovel or having to pick up the piles by hand and put them into a wheel barrel or can. I simply rake the debris right onto the tarp and carry it right to the truck. I will pick up multiple piles along the way. If it gets too heavy and unmanageable, get two men on it.

 

[treevet]

I guess that's our difference. Getting rid of clean chips is a breeze, a few wheelbarrow loads of rakings dumped in the back will kill a good chip spot pretty quick. Yeah, it's hard on the knives but they can be changed and sharpened which is easier than finding a new spot to dump.

I can relate to that Blakes and been there done that.

We got a good set up at a mulch processing facility and they will even take any wood if it cut up to 3 feet long even if it is > 3' dia .....right in the chip box with the chips and the rakings.

It all comes down to your dump set up.

But you never NEVER get away with throwing garbage in the box and dumping it anymore.

Hell I used to work with a bunch of Mexicans in the '70's that used take a burrito filled squeege right in the chip box when I worked for a big company in NJ.

 

[tree md]

We got a big green waste dump here that will take any wood, any size. It's free to the city residents. If you're a tree service and dump there regularly you have to set up an account with the city but it's still dirt cheap. They have 2 tub grinders going out there pretty much all the time. I have a few other personal dump sights besides the green waste. It all depends on where I am working and which site is the closest. I have a couple of ranchers who want me to dump to fill in low areas for them.

 

[jefflovstrom]

yeah I am onboard with cleaning up the farthest spot from the truck then I like to get out of the back yard or have sections complete.

I am completely OCD on clean up. Lotsa clients never even look up in the tree on a pruning tree.

A big blower with the raker helps,
Jeff

 

[jefflovstrom]

We got a big green waste dump here that will take any wood, any size. It's free to the city residents. If you're a tree service and dump there regularly you have to set up an account with the city but it's still dirt cheap. They have 2 tub grinders going out there pretty much all the time. I have a few other personal dump sights besides the green waste. It all depends on where I am working and which site is the closest. I have a couple of ranchers who want me to dump to fill in low areas for them.

What about palm, yucca, erythrina, oleander, phoenix, etc?
Jeff

 

[treevet]

A big blower with the raker helps,
Jeff

I am sure you're right but I have never been able to make myself buy a backpack blower because of the space it takes and what you get from it over a hand held relatively speaking.

I know it would get stolen because of the importance I feel for it.

 

[oldirty]

nothing beats a good backpack for cleanup. the dude i work with now hated on backpack blowers for the longest time. i couldn't understand it. i borrowed the stumpgrinders backpack blower for a couple days a few months ago. we now have a relatively brand new stihl br660 or some such. supposedly the strongest blower on the market. sweet.

i too personally hate the use of tarps. barrel for me for the fine chit then tossed into the back and bundles of brush and whatnot for the chipper. no road rakings in the chipper though! thats rule number one of raking.

 

[treevet]

Barrels and wheel barrows take up a lot of space.

I have been around the block a few times and most use tarps.

 

[oldirty]

throw the barrel over the jack stand and bungee it down?

 

[treevet]

pict. buddy?

 

[Tree Machine]

I'm a big fan of tarps. If I can get away with it, I tarp the whole area. In the summer, ya gotta be more careful, you can fry a lawn.

Also a proponent of raking into small circles, then dragging a small tarp around to get them. I use a light hand, ever so careful about getting gravel into the mix.

Almost always, I have a tarp laid out in front of the chipper as the lawn will otherwise take a beating here. Wooden chopsticks are a cheap and effective means of pinning down the corners. If on a driveway or street, no tarp beneath the infeed.

I have a small log arch I seem to be using more and more. Ideally I move out a limb as big as is humanly possible. I can move something out that would otherwise take 4 men, or you'd have to process it remotely where it lays and do the multi-trip conventional method.

I'm a major fan of the backpack blower, the biggest one you can get. If the material is lighter, I might blow into three zones where raking I would have done 6 or 8. I've gotten good at bending down to pick up a non-blowable stick without breaking stride on the blowing.

I'm working solo these days, so efficiency in the cleanup is always a make or break on the day. Without a good strategy, approach and execution on the cleanup. As Treevet says,

I am completely OCD on clean up. Lotsa clients never even look up in the tree on a pruning tree.

Leave them with a shoddy, incomplete cleanup, that's what they are left with, and this is the impression you permanently give them. The pruning is secondary when they're having to decide whether to cleanup after you, or see if their lawn service will clean up after you.

 

[sgreanbeans]

I prefer the blower and a couple rakes in front of it, moves the materiel across the yard real quick, all the way to the chipper/trailer or whatever we put it in.