HappyHomeowner
ArboristSite Lurker
Fine folks, this is the first thread I've posted here and I am so thankful to have found this forum! I have already learned a lot here just by searching through stuff and wow this place is absolutely incredible. Today I am here to humbly ask for advice from the pros about how to handle some damage done by a professional tree company that came to our place recently to remove a tree. I am going out of my way not to come to any conclusions on my own here and to ask the pros what they would think is the right thing for me to do. In other words I'm trying not to be a big jerk and over-react about some damage done and also the fact the company's crew didn't exactly do what the company's project manager and I agreed on.
To set the stage here and start with the positive, I have used this company twice before with wonderful results. They are a really reputable local company and have always had good reviews, good ratings with BBB, good standing at Regional Building, etc. The entire team I dealt with this time was professional and polite as they always were before and the actual crew was careful and courteous and got a large three-trunk or "tri-dominant" Ponderosa Pine down without doing major damage to anything or anyone.
Now for the things that I am upset about (without knowing if I should be upset about them). First I explained and emphasized to the project manager who came out to bid the job that I didn't want super large sections of trunk dropped down on to the ground because I was worried about damage to the waste systems and sprinkler systems underground and also because each of the three trunks leaned in a really awkward and also dangerous direction towards something else such as fencing, other trees, landscaping, etc. We agreed that everything that wasn't safe to drop would be lowered.
When the crew actually came out I showed them the tree and asked if they got the information from the project manager and they claimed they did. They shared some strategy with me about how they would rig everything up to lower what wasn't safe to drop and then drop the rest. I thanked them and let them get to work. Again to start with the positive, they got the whole tree down without doing major damage and they always were completely careful as far as safety stuff, rigging, roping, personal protective equip, etc. I was really impressed. However after about a few hours of them out there I heard a loud thump in the house that almost sort of shook the house and when I went outside I saw that they had dropped two super large sections of trunk (26 foot long and 30 foot long) diagonally right down on the ground! On top of that one of the nearby trees was clobbered with about 8 of its biggest branches on one side totally stripped off! I was first worried about whether trunks that big dropped down could do damage to my house or anything underground and then I was upset with the actual damage already visible to the tree that got clobbered.
So with all that in mind I need to ask for advice from you folks. Is it at all possible that those dropped tree trunks did damage to the house which was 35 feet away from where the top of the trunks hit the ground? If it helps I used the log weight calculator that was linked with another thread here and have calculated each trunk to weigh between 1500 and 2000 pounds. Also what is reasonable for a HappyHomeowner (haha) to expect here as far as whether damage to other trees is "acceptable" or not? To be totally fair to the company (who again I absolutely want to portray here as legit and good and all that), the tops of all three trunks leaned waaayyy over the other trees and fences and landscaping and stuff so it wasn't incredibly easy to drop things without damage, but, that is exactly why we all agreed to lower what wasn't safe to drop. I'm sure from the perspective of professional arborists a 26 and 30 foot section of Ponderosa Pine is nothing to drop down but to me that seemed super heavy and had a helluva thump when it hit hard ground. And I'm also sure from the perspective of professional arborists that some collateral damage in some situations is inevitable. So again I humbly ask for advice here; I haven't talked to the company yet and am trying to avoid that before getting guidance here again just to avoid being a big jerk if this isn't really something to be totally upset about.
Thanks in advance!!!
To set the stage here and start with the positive, I have used this company twice before with wonderful results. They are a really reputable local company and have always had good reviews, good ratings with BBB, good standing at Regional Building, etc. The entire team I dealt with this time was professional and polite as they always were before and the actual crew was careful and courteous and got a large three-trunk or "tri-dominant" Ponderosa Pine down without doing major damage to anything or anyone.
Now for the things that I am upset about (without knowing if I should be upset about them). First I explained and emphasized to the project manager who came out to bid the job that I didn't want super large sections of trunk dropped down on to the ground because I was worried about damage to the waste systems and sprinkler systems underground and also because each of the three trunks leaned in a really awkward and also dangerous direction towards something else such as fencing, other trees, landscaping, etc. We agreed that everything that wasn't safe to drop would be lowered.
When the crew actually came out I showed them the tree and asked if they got the information from the project manager and they claimed they did. They shared some strategy with me about how they would rig everything up to lower what wasn't safe to drop and then drop the rest. I thanked them and let them get to work. Again to start with the positive, they got the whole tree down without doing major damage and they always were completely careful as far as safety stuff, rigging, roping, personal protective equip, etc. I was really impressed. However after about a few hours of them out there I heard a loud thump in the house that almost sort of shook the house and when I went outside I saw that they had dropped two super large sections of trunk (26 foot long and 30 foot long) diagonally right down on the ground! On top of that one of the nearby trees was clobbered with about 8 of its biggest branches on one side totally stripped off! I was first worried about whether trunks that big dropped down could do damage to my house or anything underground and then I was upset with the actual damage already visible to the tree that got clobbered.
So with all that in mind I need to ask for advice from you folks. Is it at all possible that those dropped tree trunks did damage to the house which was 35 feet away from where the top of the trunks hit the ground? If it helps I used the log weight calculator that was linked with another thread here and have calculated each trunk to weigh between 1500 and 2000 pounds. Also what is reasonable for a HappyHomeowner (haha) to expect here as far as whether damage to other trees is "acceptable" or not? To be totally fair to the company (who again I absolutely want to portray here as legit and good and all that), the tops of all three trunks leaned waaayyy over the other trees and fences and landscaping and stuff so it wasn't incredibly easy to drop things without damage, but, that is exactly why we all agreed to lower what wasn't safe to drop. I'm sure from the perspective of professional arborists a 26 and 30 foot section of Ponderosa Pine is nothing to drop down but to me that seemed super heavy and had a helluva thump when it hit hard ground. And I'm also sure from the perspective of professional arborists that some collateral damage in some situations is inevitable. So again I humbly ask for advice here; I haven't talked to the company yet and am trying to avoid that before getting guidance here again just to avoid being a big jerk if this isn't really something to be totally upset about.
Thanks in advance!!!