42", 148 ft BCottonwood over top of 'house

[ArtB]

$25K FOR REMOVAL!!!

Just for fun, if I'd had a pro remove the BC of the original post, what would I likely have been quoted? Did get an offer from Pete of Evergreen who dumped chips regularly to come over with his big 54" saw to cut it just to see it fall (after it was cable rigged), but the neighbor wanted to cut it for 'old times sake'.

It took about 7 hours to get all the cables up and rigged and to run hinge stress angles and calculations, about 1/2 hour to fell, probably looking at another 2-3 hours to clean up.

All the risk to the buildings was own risk, so no liability except rebuilding <G>.

 

[rbtree]

Well, Art, there aren't many companies that are knowledgable at falling the tree as you did, especially the one you mentioned....Ha...plenty of stories abound......

I'm not sure if I would have done it as you did, if asked to do the job as I saw fit, not having heavy equipment or big cable. Maybe we could have done it, if I had a 30,000 lb no stretch line long enough, and a good rigging point for a lowering device to be set up to apply tension. I don't know if we could have applied enough force with a Hobbs. If the line was at 100 feet, and the back lean created a center of mass back say 10-15 feet, then the line force needed would likely have been well under 10,000 lb? Now, with the GRCS in my stable, it will be easier to apply lots of line tension.

The other option, climbing and rigging the tree out, if the center rigging point was acceptable, then dropping the trunk, with no cleanup, probably would have only taken 1/2 day, so figure $1000. The tree was tall, but didn't look to have any mature huge heavy limbs?

Edit, I just looked at the pics again, and don't like the looks of the tree structure for rigging branches out with any semblance of safety, to the buildings below or the climber. And, if falling it, would it have been strong enough at 100-110 feet to support the pull line? I like your lower tie point and cable rigging better.

 

[ArtB]

Thanks for the reply.

Used double 5/8 wire rope for main line, blocked to double 1/2", and that blocked to 3/8 of 10kip winch (or dozer drawbar), but used the winch, so had 40,000# available at about 70 ft height. Had the 5/8 and 3/8 cable myself, borrowed 500 ft of 1/2', figured had over 1000 feet of wire rope totally involved. Finally rolled up the rope yesterday, took and hour just to respool all the wire rope.
When I cleared the road into the house 30 years ago, usually hooked up at about 40 ft up (ladder on top of dozer ROPS) and pulled up to 36 inch DBH DFir and root ball out all in one shot. Used an old D2 Cat at the time. Could still pile and burn the stumps and root ball then.

 

[rbtree]

I spotted this carnage in my neighborhood a couple years back. Found out the guy had pulled the trees over with a semi. He used a bucket truck to get a high tie point. In this pic, it looks as though he tore off the gutter.

 

[rbtree]

On this tree, he made some cuts, moved the bucket away, then ripped the heck out of the tree....Judging by this huge down rip, I'll bet the top barber chaired wildly....a wonder no one got hurt.

 

[Peter Pan]

I don't want to sound pecamistic but wheres the other 50 feet of that poplar? It looks to me 90 feet to the very top.