Thinking about tree removal...

Clark1961

Clark1961

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Jus' helpin' Ted.

Use a service? grind on-site, leave chips for landscaping. Have huge pile of moldy, rotting wood chips.

Buy a chainsaw? Drop tree on leg, go to ER. Burn slash pile without permit, get visit from RFD then sheriff.

Buy D6? learn how to skin cat, tear hell out of future runway. Buy roadgrader to fix runway.

Start prairie fire to clear trees? Get lynched by neighbors.

Buy big damn chain? use new pick-up to pull trees down. Have insurance agent on speed dial.

Sell home? Buy home at an air park. No injuries or insurance claims.
 
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

:D


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My brother is in that business and I have been to many of his job sites. I have helped when there was storm damage and trees on houses and roads etc. I am pretty well a mans man when it comes to working outdoors. I say all that to say, if you need tree work, call a pro. I have a reasonable knowledge of it and I won't do it, I call my brother. I can fill up one hand of fingers counting people I knew who are dead or disabled from letting trees get away from them. So many ways for people and property to get damaged.
 
What kind of trees? I just dropped 30+ spruce trees that were over 100' tall. Pros did the tricky ones. They limb from the bottom up by climbing the tree and then cut into sections from the top down. Dealing with logs and slash is a lot of work. Dealing with my bottom-cut 100' trees on the ground is worse. Stumps? A big excavator is the tool for that.
 
16 inch Naval gun from WWII, they used them to fire into the jungle to clear places to land helicopters. Would blast 200 foot diameter hole in jungle and make a nice landing area. About 20 shells then some smoothing would give you a 3000 foot runway with overruns.
 
Mike Smith said:
My brother is in that business and I have been to many of his job sites. I have helped when there was storm damage and trees on houses and roads etc. I am pretty well a mans man when it comes to working outdoors. I say all that to say, if you need tree work, call a pro. I have a reasonable knowledge of it and I won't do it, I call my brother. I can fill up one hand of fingers counting people I knew who are dead or disabled from letting trees get away from them. So many ways for people and property to get damaged.
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+100. I HATE doing tree work. Chainsaws don't scare me, they have throttles and on/off switches. On the other hand. gravity and wind I have no influence over, and once you cut enough of the tree to make it start falling, what happens next is pretty much out of your hands. Pros have the equipment and the experience to get the job done correctly, and don't charge that much considering the service they provide.
 
PaulS said:
16 inch Naval gun from WWII, they used them to fire into the jungle to clear places to land helicopters. Would blast 200 foot diameter hole in jungle and make a nice landing area. About 20 shells then some smoothing would give you a 3000 foot runway with overruns.
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I think they use "daisy cutter" bombs for that now? BLU-82?
 
I just cut down some big honking branches overhanding my garage. Tree guys are expensive, but boy are they worth it. I could probably cut down all the trees in my back 40, but I could see getting hurt pretty easily too.
 
I usually do them myself if I'm sure I can make the tree fall in a direction where it won't break anything. Tree guys make an art and a science out of it and can make a tree fall on a dime. Me, I just want it to fall where it won't do any damage, and I have enough understanding of physics to be able to do that most of the time. If I can't, I hire someone who can.

As for what to do with it when it's down, I cut it into the biggest lengths I can handle, load them onto the trailer, and then take them off and pile them up at the end of the driveway with a "Free" sign on them. Usually they're gone within a few days. Lots of people need firewood.

What I won't do is let people come on to the property and cut it up themselves. I don't need the potential liability. My lawyer said leaving the logs at the end of the driveway for people to take away if they want them is relatively safe. Inviting people onto the land to cut a tree up with a chainsaw, not so much.

Rich
 
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If they are close to the house I call a pro. Far from the house or leaning away from the house I'll cut them down. I've used a chainsaw enough that I'm not worried about getting hurt. I'm cautious so I don't get hurt, but not worried about it. I have a neighbor that I won't loan my chainsaw, I like him too much to allow him to use a chainsaw; he bent the bar of another neighbor's chainsaw. :eek: If he needs something cut I'll cut it for him.
 
Only ones I won't cut myself are the ones that need to be brought down vertically. I've never lost control of one, but I did watch a tree service drop a huge pine on my neighbor's roof once. I felt really bad for the guy. I did this one not long ago.
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We've felled plenty of trees before. Yep, you gotta be careful with them. In Ohio we had some trees where we called a tree service, and some where we did it ourselves. Depended on the tree and the location. We had a lot of trees where, if felled wrong, they'd land on the house or on other things that would cause a big expense. So in those cases, the tree service was well worth it for their ability to make the trees fall in the exact spot that they want, whereas when I cut there's going to be a much wider range.

In our case, the trees we're looking at are all pretty simple, and there's nothing around to worry about hitting for any of them. Keep people far out of the falling zone, which will be very wide. Then drive over with tractor and pick up or drag them away (our front end loader has hydraulic spikes on it - great for picking up logs/trees/etc.).

Getting the stumps out, that's another question. First step is getting the trees down. We'll probably wait on pulling the stumps until after we build the structure, which will give them time to decay some. Maybe do that trick of drilling holes in them, fill the holes with potassium nitrate, and then burn 'em.
 
If you just cut this shape < into it won't it fall that way ->
 
Any saw mills around?

Around here if you have good sized trees it's not hard to get rid of them.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We've felled plenty of trees before. Yep, you gotta be careful with them. In Ohio we had some trees where we called a tree service, and some where we did it ourselves. Depended on the tree and the location. We had a lot of trees where, if felled wrong, they'd land on the house or on other things that would cause a big expense. So in those cases, the tree service was well worth it for their ability to make the trees fall in the exact spot that they want, whereas when I cut there's going to be a much wider range.

In our case, the trees we're looking at are all pretty simple, and there's nothing around to worry about hitting for any of them. Keep people far out of the falling zone, which will be very wide. Then drive over with tractor and pick up or drag them away (our front end loader has hydraulic spikes on it - great for picking up logs/trees/etc.).

Getting the stumps out, that's another question. First step is getting the trees down. We'll probably wait on pulling the stumps until after we build the structure, which will give them time to decay some. Maybe do that trick of drilling holes in them, fill the holes with potassium nitrate, and then burn 'em.
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We have a couple of poplar stumps that were from trees felled a couple of years ago. They've hardly decayed at all. I'm wanting to put grass in where they are, and I'm going to call in the tree service and have them ground. It will leave a pile of shredded poplar, but I can cart that off with no problem.

You can rent stump grinders, and I think you'll find that's by far the easiest way to deal with them.
 
FormerHangie said:
We have a couple of poplar stumps that were from trees felled a couple of years ago. They've hardly decayed at all. I'm wanting to put grass in where they are, and I'm going to call in the tree service and have them ground. It will leave a pile of shredded poplar, but I can cart that off with no problem.

You can rent stump grinders, and I think you'll find that's by far the easiest way to deal with them.
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I didn't mean that they'd shrink down - I know that takes way longer than a couple of years. But it does make them more dead, which can make them easier to get rid of.

Either way, chop first, remove stumps later.
 
I like the D6 cat idea, can dig a water landing ditch too.
 
A neighbor down the street felled a tree in his yard earlier this year. Managed to drop it right onto his 2 and 5 year old sons. That was a bad day.
 
weilke said:
A neighbor down the street felled a tree in his yard earlier this year. Managed to drop it right onto his 2 and 5 year old sons. That was a bad day.
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Guy crashed a 421 a few years ago, killed his entire family (wife and 5 kids). That was a bad day. Lots of other guys crashed airplanes since then, too, killing their families. Those, too, were bad days.
 
FormerHangie said:
+100. I HATE doing tree work. Chainsaws don't scare me, they have throttles and on/off switches. On the other hand. gravity and wind I have no influence over, and once you cut enough of the tree to make it start falling, what happens next is pretty much out of your hands. Pros have the equipment and the experience to get the job done correctly, and don't charge that much considering the service they provide.
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Lol. My first lesson in CG was felling a tree. Big ol' maple tree. Picked the spot where it should fall. Checked to see which way the tree was leaning. Licked finger and stuck it up to check wind. Failed to see how much of the tree up high was growing out opposite the direction of 'lean.' Cut notch, back cut, chain pinches, creaking splitting sounds. RUN. It did the ol' 'widow maker' split up the trunk, twisting and CRAACCCKKKKK!! Missed the barn by inches.
 
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luvflyin said:
Lol. My first lesson in CG was felling a tree. Big ol' oak tree. Picked the spot where it should fall. Checked to see which way the tree was leaning. Licked finger and stuck it up to check wind. Failed to see how much of the tree up high was growing out opposite the direction of 'lean.' Cut notch, back cut, chain pinches, creaking splitting sounds. RUN. It did the ol' 'widow maker' split up the trunk, twisting and CRAACCCKKKKK!! Missed the barn by inches.
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Yep, that matters a lot. That's also the benefit of felling trees in a big area where there ain't much else to hit besides... other trees. :)
 
Yeah, if I do the trees I want gone in the back yard I'll get up there somehow and cut them from the top down. Odds are I'll just call someone. Taking those kinds of risks to save that kind of money is just plain stupid.
 
steingar said:
Yeah, if I do the trees I want gone in the back yard I'll get up there somehow and cut them from the top down. Odds are I'll just call someone. Taking those kinds of risks to save that kind of money is just plain stupid.
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I would agree fully if you had trees that needed felled that were top down deals. No interest in climbing trees and doing a top down felling procedure. We had a few trees in Ohio that needed to get cut down that way, and we called in the pros for them. Spent a good bit of money on professional tree fellers when we were there.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I thought they were going to catch the tree so it didn't damage the soil?
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A few years ago I was driving past someone trimming a large branch off his front yard tree. I was parking nearby, so I watched. He was very careful to cut so the limb wouldn't hit his house - the plan was it would drop straight down. Unfortunately, it dropped in such a way that the far end hit the ground, and the tree end cartwheeled over it and landed on top of his car.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I didn't mean that they'd shrink down - I know that takes way longer than a couple of years. But it does make them more dead, which can make them easier to get rid of.

Either way, chop first, remove stumps later.
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My experience with stumps is that if you cut down a living tree, it takes 1 - 4 years to completely die, and another year or two after it dies to really dry out. By all means, give the drilling, fertilizer, and burning thing a try, but if you don't get the results you like, don't forget about the stump grinder. Granted, a 25 hp grinder will cost upwards of $300 per day, but it gets a lot of work done quickly. If you're planting grass on top of the stump site, you want to grind it 8 or 10 inches below the surface, and it's very difficult to do that without a grinder.

 
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FormerHangie said:
My experience with stumps is that if you cut down a living tree, it takes 1 - 4 years to completely die, and another year or two after it dies to really dry out. By all means, give the drilling, fertilizer, and burning thing a try, but if you don't get the results you like, don't forget about the stump grinder. Granted, a 25 hp grinder will cost upwards of $300 per day, but it gets a lot of work done quickly. If you're planting grass on top of the stump site, you want to grind it 8 or 10 inches below the surface, and it's very difficult to do that without a grinder.

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Appreciate the PIREP there. We'd also thought about seeing what kind of pricing we'd get for paying someone else to do the grinding since we've got a good number to grind.
 
Old stumps rot and the ground will continue to settle for years. The same is true if you bury tree debris. At least that's true where I live. Digging them out is what I do, and a medium tree will leave a root wad that can consume most of a day on my little 30hp New Holland. A big excavator will be worth the hourly cost because they can do a crapload of work relatively quickly. But heck, it's only a runway.:)
 
Earlier in the week, tree guys were working in our neighborhood and one was going door to door, drumming up more business. We had pretty large hickory tree close to the front of our house that had recently died, so we had been talking about taking it down. This was about 20 years ago and they wanted $1000 to take the tree down. I declined their offer. Friday afternoon they were in my next door neighbor's back yard and when they were wrapping up the same guy that had come around earlier, knocked on the door again. He said "we'll take that tree down and cut it up for $350 cash, right now. I said get started, Ill go to the bank and be back in a minute. When I got home they had already started and most of the lower branches were on the ground. The guy then started swinging from the rope, from branch to branch, one side of the tree to the other, cutting branches as he went. I stood with my neighbor in his front yard, both with our jaws dropped, having never witnessed such craziness. It was pretty amazing. When all the branches were down, he started on the trunk, a four foot section dropped, and another, and another. The guy repositioned his safety lanyard and leaned back for his next cut, and he fell. It was like he was unconscious, no screaming, no arms flailing, he fell backwards from about 35 or 40 feet up, making a little more than 180 degree rotation he landed in the pile of branched head down, waist bent, legs out. Oh fuk, as I ran over there I though, dead guy in my front yard. His torso went between the branches, his neck was cocked with one side of his face against the ground, there was no movement. The guy working with him yelled 'Steve' and then said 'He's my brother. All the sudden Steve took a big breath and then started moaning. He started to attempt to push himself up and I told his brother to keep him still while I call for an ambulance. I opened the front door and my 5 year old said 'daddy, why'd the man throw his clothes out of the tree?' LOL, kids do say the darndest things, no time for that. A neighbor had seen what happened and a ambulance was already on its way. Steve was pretty angry about having to remain in the position he was in until the ambulance got there, then put a small backboard and neckbrace on him and carted him off. His brother finished cutting down the tree and left. The next day, Steve shows up at our front door in a cast, sore all over, but only a broken leg, I never would a thunk. He apologized... that seemed weird. About a month later we got a lawsuit, claiming our failure to maintain the tree lead to his accident. We turned it over to our homeowners insurance agent. Several weeks later we got a call, the suit had been thrown out. The hospital had considered it an industrial accident and automatically drug tested him. He had cocaine in his system. They also said he was epileptic, and shouldn't have been climbing trees. His is Steve Spaulding, last I heard he still operates Spaulding tree service, licensed, bonded, and insured... my ass. Oh, I forgot, he was charged with scamming an elderly person not too many years ago, never heard the outcome.
 
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Stewartb said:
Old stumps rot and the ground will continue to settle for years. The same is true if you bury tree debris. At least that's true where I live. Digging them out is what I do, and a medium tree will leave a root wad that can consume most of a day on my little 30hp New Holland. A big excavator will be worth the hourly cost because they can do a crapload of work relatively quickly. But heck, it's only a runway.:)
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Point taken on that. So how would you recommend going about it? I still feel like cutting the trees down ourselves makes it easier to do something else with the stumps (whatever that may be), but I could be wrong.
 
weilke said:
A neighbor down the street felled a tree in his yard earlier this year. Managed to drop it right onto his 2 and 5 year old sons. That was a bad day.
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He let his 2 and 5 year-olds stand within the felling circle? Wow, dumbazz indeed.

Too bad it didn't fall on him instead of the kids, might have saved a lot of future pain caused by his dumbazzisms...

...unless, of course, there's something I'm not understanding about WHY the tree fell on his kids.
 
timwinters said:
...unless, of course, there's something I'm not understanding about WHY the tree fell on his kids.
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I wuz gonna reply something along the lines of purty good shooting to get both with one tree but then thought better of it.
 
Is there anything around that the tree can fall on? If not, send me some photos, I might get a wild hair, come out and cut it down for you. I drop trees all the time.

It'd be a fun trip!

James331 said:
Any saw mills around?

Around here if you have good sized trees it's not hard to get rid of them.
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Depends if Clark's tree is an "urban tree" or not. Around here sawmills won't touch urban trees because there's too much of a chance that there's barbed wired, nails, etc. in it that will trash their sawmill blade. Also, there's typically way too many branches on urban trees (i.e. knots in the log) to allow the logs to be of much value. Those are Midwest hardwood centric comments...have no idea what Clark has.
 
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Felling live trees doesn't bother me too much. Dead ones scare the hell out of me, no telling what's gonna fall where.
 
PaulS said:
16 inch Naval gun from WWII, they used them to fire into the jungle to clear places to land helicopters. Would blast 200 foot diameter hole in jungle and make a nice landing area. About 20 shells then some smoothing would give you a 3000 foot runway with overruns.
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Of course that is dangerous, foolish and way over kill.

Call me when you do this, I'll bring the beer.....:lol::lol::lol:
 
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