New Neighbor

[treeman82]

There have been several people in my neighborhood selling their houses lately. I met one of the new owners this past week, guy seems nice enough. I was out during the day today, but when I came back this evening I went to cut my front lawn and a neighbor's lawn. Well I am walkin the mower back to my house and I see the people pulling brush away from the house. I put my mower off to the side of the road and went over to investigate. As I got closer I noticed 2 people up on the roof of the house with an 029 chain saw. They were cutting branches off of a beech tree which was right next to the house. The lean was to the house. I offered to help but they were already past that point as they had a notch cut about 1/2 - 3/5 of the way through the tree. They started to fell it soon after. The owner was on the ground with the saw and 2 people were at the edge of the roof pushing the tree off the house. I found this very interesting as well as dangerous. While I watched these people hap hazardly get the tree to the ground, I said a quick prayer. I wound up getting the tree job there as they want about 20 more trees cut (all small) I also got some landscape work to do. I am just glad that nobody got hurt when they did the work today.

 

[geofore]

new nut

The power has been going off once or twice a week on our street the past few months. Just a couple of seconds at a time. Yesterday I was out walking about 6:50am and I watched a bird land on a silver maple that has reached into the powerline. BOOM! and a brilliant flash of white light, the power went off all over the town for a few seconds. I notified the power company and then told the homeowner. A little bit later, the guy was going to cut the limbs back a little with his pole saw. I called the police to stop him. The power company went up and down the street and hung notices on everyones' doors they are coming to trim the lines. This guy's wife didn't want them to trim her trees and sent him out to trim it back a little before the power company's crew shows up. The police stopped him.
I asked the power company to make sure they remove the trees at pole 27/2, no trim, remove completely. What do you do when you see this? I don't care if the guy gets pissed off at me for the police coming at least he is alive.

 

[FBerkel]

I think you did the right thing to get involved; imagine how you'd feel if you watched the guy get fried like the bird did?

I've done it a couple of times. Once, it was the local guy with the "lowest price" ad in the paper. He was topping out a tree (for removal) from a ladder. Showed him how a rope and saddle might be a better idea. He is still alive, using rope now, though he still uses a ladder more than he should (fell on his back on top of a fence a few years back, lost six months of working time.) Sometimes there's only so much you can do...

 

[Kevin]

I just had job removing a couple of small birch trees from a triplex service wire and this forum came to mind as I recall a few telling others to stay away from the high voltage lines when working on trees but the insulated service wires aren`t a big deal.
Well it just so happens that the customer owned pole had a real lean on it and I wasn`t going to climb it or put a ladder against it so I went back to the shop and picked up a bucket truck to do the work.
When I started taking the branches and the top out of the tree I could see where the tree had rubbed through the heavy insulation and was resting against the hot conductor making the tree hot as well.
You would never see that from the ground.
The ground area at the base of the pole was mostly rock and coarse gravel so that`s the only reason I can see why it didn`t trip the breaker.
I wonder how many tree workers wear rubber gloves and use rubber blankets when working near power?
Be aware!

 

[SpikedSupra]

Scary Stuff

Although I am anxious to get my biz going and eager to get as much business as I can doing removals and pruning I WILL absolutely turn down a job and suggest a more professional service to do any of the dangerous powerline work or any work I feel apprehensive about. I am confident in my abilities to learn and do safe work but I refuse to put myself at that type of risk until I have been doing this biz for long enough where I will have gained much more experience or have had a serious professional teach me. When I start making some money in this business I would like to take some of the ISA classes to better myself as an arborist.

 

[kf_tree]

i hate working near power lines. in brooklyn most of the above ground lines are just green. the fabric insulation fell off years ago.
i was estimating a job once where a bare power line was in the tree, a branch just grew around it. i told the home owner wether i get the job or not, get the power company here before any one goes in the tree.
the power company by me is pretty good to work with. they'll kill the lines if prior arrangements are made.
an old timer i worked with told me a story of a climber pruning a tree over power lines. he said he did a great job never hitting the lines . but as he was lowering himself out of the tree he put his gaff's right across the lines. he said it blew his legs off at the knee's.
when power is around i priced the job high and hoped i didn't get it.
i once got zapped grinding a stump out. i hit the under ground power line going from a house to the garage. it was only buried about 12in down.

 

[Toddppm]

Scary stuff for sure, I've been turning down more and more work if it's near a power line unless it's the feed to the house and we can have it disconnected. No more bidding high , cause I don't want if they do accept! Watched a guy doing bucket work over some lines and drop a small limb across the triple lines. Nice big blue electric BOOMMMM! He saw it as it happened but couldn't lift the bucket up fast enough, came down and laid on the ground for a while.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I've never called on a person, but if see trees growing into transmission lines I will report it. I've flagged trees for customer. Tell then that the power company would most likely remove them, give me some ribbon and call them up.

 

[geofore]

new nut

Power went off again and now the TV is dead. The power company is supposed to be here Monday. I have twice wittnessed others drop trees through the power lines taking out all three top and lower neutral line. Loud BOOM both times and the power off all over town. Anything closer than 8' to the wires and the power company will send a crew if you call them. I've got two buddies both worked for the power company if anything gives me cause for a second thought, I get one of them to come look at it first. One of the tree services here, Ken Tarter, Tarter Tree Services, worked as a tree cutter for the electric company. He uses rubber gloves and a blanket. I thought everyone had a pair in their truck, don't you??? Even my neighbor down the street, exlineman for the power company, now has his own heating and air conditioning service, has them in his truck.
Have you given up your steeltoed shoes for the all resin toed shoes yet? How many of you are still using the wire fliplines too close to the power? One mistake is all it takes. Fiberglass ladders or aluminium? How many of you know the conductivity of your ropes?
Things Forrest should know before he climbs?

 

[treeclimber165]

Re: new nut

Originally posted by geofore
Things Forrest should know before he climbs?

But he has THREE WEEKS experience dragging brush! Why wouldn't he be qualified to climb trees? With a chainsaw?

 

[DDM]

I had to drag brush for 12 weeks before i got to climb a tree Much less with a chainsaw.

 

[treeman82]

I think I dragged brush for about 2 or 3 months before I got to climb, and all that was, was just go up the tree once. Didn't get to climb with a chain saw till much later. Dragged brush for the better part of 2 or 3 summers. The guy I worked for would put me up into a tree here or there just to run a rope, or get some experience going up. I think I was at my peak after climbing for 3 1/2 years. I got a lot of experience on my own as well as from watching others. Forrest... SLOW N' LOW! Would hate to hear that you thought everything was ok your first time up, go up 50' and fall for some stupid reason (gaff out / tie knot improperly)

 

[Greg]

lecktricity scares me!! I won't climb trees with power lines laying on them, or work within 10 feet of the high lines. I won't even bid the job I'll tell them to first try to get the electric co. to do it for free -which they usually will, or give them the names of a few of the better tree co's in town that are safe. I think that one of the biggest problems us tree guys have is that when we don't want to do it, especially for reasons like we are discussing, we just jack up the price hopeing that they customer will take a lower bid. That has gotten me in over my head on a number of occasions. The last thing I want to happen is to brush a power line and get my fancy wrist watch all screwed up due to a power surge.
Greg

 

[kf_tree]

i think greg kind of hit the nail on the head. just as a customer gets to choose who they hire. a tree company get to choose who they work for. there has been many a time i asked for my card back and walked away declining the job. more times because of a bad vibe from the customer than the tree though.

 

[SpikedSupra]

Slow N Low

Words to live by. You dont even have to worry about me and powerlines because the situation will never occour. Like I have said before in threads I am not going to try and jump into anything difficult with the little climbing experience I have. I'm only going to stick to the small pruning jobs until futher experience is gained. If I get a call on a job that is near powerlines I will refer them to a local professional service in Orlando other than wherever Brian works. Speaking of Brian....Did he say something??