working in the rain...

[TheLumberJack]

my 10 day forecast is 10 days of rain....right now its 68 and sunny...saturday morning says 30 and snow....

whats your policy on working in the rain?

i usually back off but i'm actually very very busy with 4 jobs i've recently won bids on.

only one of them involves climbing which i will wait on...the rest are blow downs.

Anything special you have to pay attention to regarding saws and wood in rain?

i've done some sawing here and there in the past in the rain but this would be the first time i pulled a 50 hour week in the rain...

thanks

 

[Tree Pig]

track machines if available if your running heavy equipment on the customers lawn, to limit (not prevent) damage. Wipe your equipment all down after your done (I usually wipe my chains off then make sure they get a good coating of bar oil before getting put up). Only blow downs so not as much of a worry about dropping a big section and having it stop 6 inches down in the mushy lawn.

 

[tree md]

The rain really sucks sometimes. This is the third day it has rained here this week. Today the rain was light but the 40-45 MPH winds are keeping me out of the tree. I hate working in the rain. I will do it if I have started a job already, the rain is light and there is no lightening. I hate getting my ropes caked with mud though and will always wash them after working in the muck. If I haven't started a job and been caught in the rain I will always postpone. It sucks working in wet climbing gear, ropes are heavier and it's harder on equipment. Plus it just plain sucks.

I would get a saw in each job to tie it down then postpone untill it quits raining.

We were doing one last year on a property where we had 90+ storm damaged trees to prune plus 7 or 8 removals. We did over half of the job and then the rains came. It rained for a month straight. Bad thing was we had rented a lift to knock these trees out quickly as there was plenty of room for access with a lift. No way to work on the property for over a month because the HO had told us he didn't want any ground damage. We were the second tree crew to work on the property and the first had driven their chip truck to the designated spot where the guy wanted the chips dumped on his property and gotten marred up in mud leaving huge ruts on the back portion of his land. We wanted to make sure that we didn't do the same.

Here's what we didn't know:

The guy was playing games and price shopping. That's why he hired us and discontinued working with the other tree company. We had given the guy a price by the tree which I think was like $88 a tree. That was for pruning and removals plus we had a charge in there for general clean up. I can't remember exactly how we priced it without going to my books but I remember that the grand total came to like $7500 and the guy talked us into doing it for and even $7000. As I mentioned, we had completed well over half the job before the rains came and we had to eat some cost of the lift because we couldn't use it on the wet ground. Well, while we were having the bad weather the guy continued to price shop and decided to hire an out of towner to finish the job at a lower price. We had collected $3500 for having completed over half the job but we had actually done most of the trees and the ones we did do were the most technical of the prunes and take downs. We never said a word about the man hiring another guy at a cheaper price but we did show up one morning about a month after the job was done with our signed contract and demanded that the man pay us our original asking price on the per tree basis for the trees that we had completed. He balked at paying us but his son was there and told the man that he didn't have a leg to stand on since it was right there in black and white on our signed contract. He told him to pay us and just move on. We collected $1100 more for the work we had done. I eventually found out what the first tree company had bid and done as well as the out of towner. The old guy was playing games and shopping for the best price even after agreeing to have the work done by each company.

Moral of the story: Get a signed contract!

 

[teamtree]

We will work in light rain.

We will finish a job in the rain, if it is safe.

Trees get slippery when they get wet. Generally not a good idea to work in the rain but you have to make money sometimes.

It is tough to send a crew home but does not make sense to work without making progress.

Use your best judgment each day everything will be fine.

 

[TheLumberJack]

as far as the saw goes, any special concerns when using it for a day in driving rain?


I'll be super careful but i've already pretty much decided i'll be out there working regardless....carefully of course.

 

[Tree Pig]

as far as the saw goes, any special concerns when using it for a day in driving rain?


I'll be super careful but i've already pretty much decided i'll be out there working regardless....carefully of course.

Go to Home Depot rent a Makita/Dolamr 7300 and let that get all mucked up.:chainsawguy:

 

[Blakesmaster]

You know what happens when a tree guy gets wet?




















...me neither.

 

[ozarktreeman]

okay chance of rain today dont want to get wet doin tree,s so do you bow out and go wading in spring river to catch trout or do you stay home where it,s nice and dry. hhmmmm ?


rutrope!

 

[Tree Pig]

You know what happens when a tree guy gets wet?




















...me neither.

 

[Blakesmaster]

okay chance of rain today dont want to get wet doin tree,s so do you bow out and go wading in spring river to catch trout or do you stay home where it,s nice and dry. hhmmmm ?


rutrope!

I don't fish, so I guess, stay home. lol. In all honesty though, I actually LIKE working in the rain. Yeah, it's a PITA but it gives a feeling of...what's the word I'm lookin' for here...necessity/urgency/importance to what I'm doing. Maybe immediacy is what I'm looking for. That being said unless it's necessary, urgent, or extremely important to get the job done, I'll sit my ass in my chair quite happily, thank you very much.

 

[TheLumberJack]

I don't fish, so I guess, stay home. lol. In all honesty though, I actually LIKE working in the rain. Yeah, it's a PITA but it gives a feeling of...what's the word I'm lookin' for here...necessity/urgency/importance to what I'm doing. Maybe immediacy is what I'm looking for. That being said unless it's necessary, urgent, or extremely important to get the job done, I'll sit my ass in my chair quite happily, thank you very much.

i get paid when the jobs done...that's my necessity/urgency/importance!

so no one's answered the one real question i need to know....any special concerns on saw maintenance/care/use in the rain?

 

[capetrees]

I have zero problems with working in the rain. Time constraints make me do it, the owners schedule and my monthly bills. I've never had any issues with my saws getting wet and the chains stay clean and rust free. To "put away" the saw generally means overnight or maybe two days and thats not going to sieze anything.

One thing I don't like to do is climb in the rain. Too slippery for that usually so most if not all my rain work is cutting and dragging on the ground. Never had a problem with the chipper either unless the wood gets dragged through the mud or worse, the sand. Thats one really great way to dull the blades. Wear the right gear and prepare to sweat probably as much as if you weren't wearing gear.

 

[tree md]

Never had any problems with my saws in the rain. I just do the regular maintenance on them and have had no problems. I have had problems with the chipper shoot getting plugged up working in the rain.

 

[Highclimber OR]

If I didn't work in the rain on a regular basis I would not have enough work to survive. A guy I used to work with used to ask me if I wanted to climb in the rain, at which point I would laugh at him and say "If you don't wanna work in the rain then perhaps you should move to California". Working in the rain is one of the stipulations of working outside for a living, so those of us who live in heavy rain states just have to live with it. BTW the saws and everything runs the same in the rain, the only thing that sucks is the fine cleanup for the most part.

 

[tomtrees58]

rain days no work the tree will be there the next day tom trees

 

[tree md]

If I didn't work in the rain on a regular basis I would not have enough work to survive. A guy I used to work with used to ask me if I wanted to climb in the rain, at which point I would laugh at him and say "If you don't wanna work in the rain then perhaps you should move to California". Working in the rain is one of the stipulations of working outside for a living, so those of us who live in heavy rain states just have to live with it. BTW the saws and everything runs the same in the rain, the only thing that sucks is the fine cleanup for the most part.

Makes sense. We have little rain here throughout the year, Spring being the exception. We can usually wait it out here. Lol, It's kind of like the working in the wind thread. Here the wind always blows. If you don't work in it then you just don't work. Plain and simple.

 

[Tree Pig]

water doesn't bother this guy apparently.

I never thought tree work PPE would include a flotation device.

 

[BC WetCoast]

Also coming from a rainy area, we work in any condition. Yesterday, it was 0*C (32 farenheit) rain and sleet. All crews out and no change in planned work. You climb if you have to.

The only problem we find is that over time, water builds up in the gas jugs when they are left out which can cause water problems in the saws etc. Also fine clean up (raking and blowing fine material) can be more of a pain.

Other than that, proper raingear, stay-dri pants and shirts (no jeans) and you are comfy.

To quote the saying I give my Scouts all the time regarding camping in the rainy cold weather - cotton kills. Wear wool or fleece.

 

[TheLumberJack]

well then..in honor of you rough and tumble northern and northwestern fellas i will be putting on my goretex tomorrow and working for 12 hours...should be fun!

 

[PurdueJoe]

Only thing I would do is try and leave the air filters to dry out some place over night. That was our biggest PITA when working in consecutive days of rain was the air filters get all clogged. Its real bad if you leave them in the back of a pick up. That being said only times I climb in the rain is when I was up in the tree before it started to rain and there is no lighting. Granted we have all been there you have maybe have another 15 minutes left in the tree before you're done and a storm rolls in fast with high winds and lighting. Then, you do what you gotta do. What I have found is that its bad being up in the tree during the rain but its even worse when you are the ground.