Tying up and rigging trees between houses

[Shamrock Lawn Care]

I have a mostly mowing and landscaping lawncare business however every once and a while one of my clients will have me take down a tree or two for them. I heat my house with firewood and so do my relitives so i am more then happy to take the wood off of there hands. I have been cutting up trees my whole life and have spent thousands of hours using a chainsaw and have a very experianced crew. I recently had a guy ask about me taking down 9 dead ash trees in a row between two houses. The houses are on ether side about twenty feet in ether direction so there is a forty foot gap. Im planning on renting a bucket truck to take it down however I dont really know what kind of ropes and pully system I will need or where to buy it from. Any help would be greatly appretiated exspecially links to videos of people actually tying the ropes onto the tree. And before any one asks I am fully insured with alot of damage insurance, and I talked to my insurance agent and everything would be covered. Also please don't say "leave it to the pros" because i need the money and the wood.

 

[BC WetCoast]

OMG another one.

How tall are they, ie will the bucket reach the top?
Are there wires to worry about?

If you can reach the whole tree from the bucket, grab the small pieces with your hand and cut them with a handsaw. Once they are tipped back far enough so you are sure that they won't hit the houses, cut them off with the powersaw and let them drop. If they are bigger limbs, just cut firewood sized pieces. Same for the mainstem, just cut firewood sized pieces and throw them down. Once it's down to a reasonable size, attach a rope to the top and fall the peg.

Rigging isn't something to learn off the Interweb. Once you're up there, trying to remember how to tie the knots, figuring out where to put the pulley, teaching your "crew" how to run ropes property, you'll be much faster, just cutting it down in firewood sized blocks.

Small pieces = small risk = small damage

Send some pics

 

[Zale]

If you want to see videos of a pro taking trees down, look up Aerial Arborist. He's somewhat unconventional but has only hospitalized himself once.

 

[pro94lt]

Lawnman do you a actually realize what you just asked??? Read it again and think if a 5 year old was wanting to take control of the white houses lawn with a Poulan weed eater but he didn't really know how...

 

[nubeadude]

yeah not a good idea to learn rigging between houses. mess up bad enough and.you lose a client, money and rep... just something to think about. if you cant see how it comes apart maybe you should pass.

 

[CanopyGorilla]

Leave it to the pros.

 

[isaacvent]

Just tell the home owner to have an actual tree service come and put it all on the ground safely, then make your money on the clean up. By the time you rent a bucket of some sort and buy rigging ropes, blocks, slings, ports wrap etc you won't actually make much money anyway. Im all for learning new things, but I have to agree with the above comments. Removing that many trees that are dead between 2 houses has a steep learning curve. You should make friends with a tree service anyway. I have used a landscape company for clean up before and they kept all the wood and did all the raking at the home owners request.

 

[Zale]

Call AA.

 

[Shamrock Lawn Care]

Thanks for the advice. I guess i should have added more detail. First off the bucket lift would reach about five feet higher then the trees (I used a math formula with angles and stuff to measure the height, seemed like it was pretty acurate). Also the home owner does not want the work to be done for several months so i have some time to figure out how im going to do it. I was planning on going out to my relitives farm and strapping my self into a tractor bucket and practicing tying up and cutting branches and the main trunk and lowering them to the ground on some dead trees. And if it gets to be time and i don't feel like im going to be able to do the work safely then of course i will pass on the job. I realize it is a big job but i don't need to go super fast things are usually pretty slow in the fall for me and even if it takes me three or four days i will still make ok money.
Taking it down in firewood sized peices makes sence, do i have to worry about the pieces bouncing all over the place? I was thinking about putting sheets of wood on the yard to protect it.

 

[old_soul]

problem is, renting a bucket truck for four days will eat all your profit out of the job

not to mention somebody getting hurt...........it's not as easy as it looks man

 

[lewis16]

My man, I can use a milling machine and have many hours of time one one, but that doesn't make me a toolmaker. Practice makes perfect so you will need to get hands on with the rigging. No chance you could sub contract some
Chaps in to top and fell the trees and you clean up and keep the wood?


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[timberjak]

Sounds like if you get enough bids, someone will come come do it cheaper than you can or would want to do it for.

Tell them to leave the wood.

No worries then. You could be doing your regular job making money.

A good experienced arborist most likely would not type out this type of job description in enough detail for you to do this work. That leaves the other tree guys to inform you.

I would not give rigging advice to a novice with this many obstacles.

Good Luck




Timberjak

 

[climbhightree]

I question the insurance bit. You said you talked to your agent, and he said your covered. But tree liability insurance is completely different than landscaping insurance. From my understanding landscape insurance does not cover large trees, or any climbing/rigging of trees (if can't be done from a step ladder, it is too big).

Is it just you doing it alone? Or will you have employees there too?

If you bring employees, once again you are going into a completely different workers comp bracket.

How do you plan to clean up the brush?

Hire a professional. Let him deal with the hazards...he is covered for it and has the experience. He will do it faster and safer, because he has the right equipment. You can still have the wood. Money wise...if you get hurt or damage a house you will be out more then you would have gained.

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[Shamrock Lawn Care]

My insurance covers it because i put down that 15% of what i do involves tree trimming and similer jobs. Thanks for the advice everyone.
I will have 3-4 people there helping me.
i was told to leave the brush in a pile so that the home owner can use it for bone fires over time.

 

[Toddppm]

Sounds like if you get enough bids, someone will come come do it cheaper than you can or would want to do it for.

Tell them to leave the wood.

No worries then. You could be doing your regular job making money.

A good experienced arborist most likely would not type out this type of job description in enough detail for you to do this work. That leaves the other tree guys to inform you.

I would not give rigging advice to a novice with this many obstacles.

Good Luck




Timberjak

Get quotes from other companies and tell them you'll be there for the job. I'm a climber and when I started out I did this to get somebody to take a tree down coved in poison ivy since I didn't want to lose the job of taking a bunch of others down. I would bet money you don't have insurance to take down trees, my agents used to tell me I had coverage also, make them put it in writing. I get audited every year and have to break out every service.

 

[Zale]

My insurance covers it because i put down that 15% of what i do involves tree trimming and similer jobs. Thanks for the advice everyone.
I will have 3-4 people there helping me.
i was told to leave the brush in a pile so that the home owner can use it for bone fires over time.

You'll be in my prayers.

 

[Shamrock Lawn Care]

I know my insurance covers it, i take down trees for clients roughly 2 times a month, some times 6-7 trees at a time so i made sure tree removal was covered. Thanks for the help everyone, i ended up finding some good videos on you tube.

 

[KenJax Tree]

Be sure to post pics......we like pics

 

[rarefish383]

I'm sorry, I don't want to be rude. As soon as you said you could use the wood I said "Oh no, working for dirt cheap because the wood has value." The first thing you learn in tree work is that the wood has no value, it's a necessary evil. We charged $85 per man hour. In our area that was a pretty close to standard rate. If I could leave the wood cut up in fireplace lengths for the customer, I'd rather do that than make $85 an hour, times three, for a three man crew, than haul it away. Nine dead Ash trees. Most Ash trees around here aren't too big, kinda tall and skinny. But, I still wouldn't touch one of those for less the $750 per tree. If they are big, a thousand and up. You could be describing a 5 to 10 thousand dollar job. I sure hope you're not doing it for $1500 because you have 10 cord of good Ash wood in it. I really have nothing to constructively help you, sorry. All I can say is be careful. But, if you are practicing in the bucket of a front end loader on a farm, careful is not in your vocabulary. Good luck and God bless, Joe.

 

[Shamrock Lawn Care]

Alright thanks im charging a lot more then 1500$. The trees are only about 45 feet tall and 18 inchs at the base because there growth was stunded by a lack of sun and water due to other trees and the houses. Most of that height is small branches and not the main trunk.
When i said i was going to "strap my self into a tractor bucket" i ment it, im going to put a harness on and hook my self into the bucket so i cant fall out.
Also thanks for the info on pricing.