Crane slicing a home into 2

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It looks to me like the rest of the Whippin'Willie avatar of NETree's fame.

Around here, the first thing the crane operator does is have signatures that nothing is there fault. No cracked driveway, house or anything. We've sunk pads deeper than we shoulda, front ones deeper than back, not good!!

i really don't know why a crane was needed on this job, unless crane there for other work, or some other tree unseen.

i can see a crane operator might be better at figuring steel loading /balance; tree becoming a slippery specialty to them(ones i've worked with have been familiar with trees). But that is a lot of stick, for not very much wood; it seems it really didn't have a chance, so that might be more setup/crane operator(?) should have turned down job. 1 local small biz owner comes out and looks at each job before sending a crane out; most don't. But if crane failure came from ground failure, incorrect- no pad outriggers, not enough counter ballast, or just wayyyyyyy to low an angle to do realistic work, allow operator to work blind etc.; i think the crane operator should especially be focussed on.

i think the climber too should have insisted on eye contact or a 3rd radio man on ground that had an art going with the crane operator. If climber overloaded from impact or huge piece, s/he might carry focus fairly.
 
Over the last few months I've been doing a crane job a week seems like. I never tell the people to leave just because we are moving a log over the house. If the log is not secure I would never send it over the house or anywhere, but with a good cable choked on a log it is not just going to drop. Today we moved 5klbs logs over a house with the owner inside. The tree uprooted in a bad storm and landed on the house. We had a smaller 22ton crane today, but usually use the 40ton.

I wish I could get money for my wood, best I can get is for pine cut to 16.6' I can get $24.00 per ton. I usually just give it away to a sawmill. It costs me money to get rid of all oak, and live oak can cost a fortune to get rid of (the big + 50" stuff). I do have fire wood guys that take loads from me quite often, but I still pay dump fees too frequently (3 loads, $180 today).

Here is a little live oak nugget that the 40ton crane had to set in the back of my truck the crane operator said it was about 10tons. The walls on the back of the truck are 5ft tall, and the log was about 17ft long, and we cut a 3ft chunk off of the upper right side. No way would my loader have picked this baby up.

Greg
 
Originally posted by Greg
I never tell the people to leave just because we are moving a log over the house. If the log is not secure I would never send it over the house or anywhere, but with a good cable choked on a log it is not just going to drop.
Greg

No offense, but that's just frigging stupid.

There's alot more to keeping that log up in the air than just the cable.

Hope for the best, but always plan for the worst.
 
Could someone post a direct link to the news article? I looked for it on the link given this morning, but couldn't find it.

I did see a picture of it on the local news a couple of nights ago, so I have seen that. They didn't say what was being done, just that a crane had fallen through the house....

If anyone can post the link for me, that'd be great! Thanks....


Dan
 
What if?

Greg, removing the"what if" factor by having the people out of the house is a safety issue. If not today "what if" they drop a piece or break a cable tomorrow? I would remove a potential target if movable not because I don't know how/where to land a tree but to eliminate the "what if" every thing goes wrong? That target is no longer a target in the way. What if a rope or cable breaks? Do you get a do over? Seeing the boom laying on the ground and the slice through the house I'll bet the guy wants a do over but he doesn't get one.
 
Give me a break guys, I don't mind killing a customer every now and then, you know what they say when your time is up, it is up, if it happens to be a big chunk of wood falling through your roof, it just sucks to be you. hahaha!!!
Greg
 
With cranes crap sometimes just happens. A mate was doing a crane out a few years ago, the crane was on a driveway above the house pulling up hunks of Macrocarpa over the house.
The feet of the crane were rested on groups of railway sleepers that each covered about 5 foot square.
My mate noticed something was wrong when the crane was winching a big piece yet the piece wasnt rising. then he saw the boom coming down, he thought it was bending but it was the whole crane coming over.
It ended up ontop of the house, luckily nobody was inside.

What had happened was that a few decades earlier someone had dug a rubbish hole which was about 6 foot square and then filled in on top and it has perfectly grassed over. The rubbish rotted leaving a cavity right under where the cranes foot was holding which gave in causing the crane to tip over.

Really bad luck, but nobody was in the house so the results were limited. Its great to have confidence in your crew, equipment and systems, but its also good to identify and act on potential hurters when you see them.

"could you and your family be out of the house for an hour please? I would happily be under it myself but I would prefer to be 110% sure of your saftey."
Takes you 30 seconds to ask, tops.
 
some of the new young guns here in town had a bad crane day a week ago. Another crane came to the rescue. Power went out and a few holes in the roof. murphy's law dudes
 
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