What have you broken so far?

[treeman82]

I know that we all try to be as careful as possible when performing tree work, however there is always that branch that was just too rotten, or you just took a piece that was a bit too big, etc. So come on and spill it... What have you broken while doing tree work? All other services set aside.

 

[DDM]

A bird feeder which was the only thing in the yard and guess where the 1st branch lands?
I always hated those See Rock City bird houses
And i tore a hole thru a screen.

{fingers crossed} i hope my luck holds out.
Unless you count my bucket truck I Dropped a Real
nice piece of fire wood on the cab the 2nd time i used it.That truck makes a good target my wife tells me i can drop a branch on it if its parked on the street and im working in the back yard.

 

[monkeypuzzle]

I put a softball size hole in a roof once.Had to repair a few water lines too.Chain link fences seem to be made a lot cheaper these days,along with everything.

 

[treeman82]

What have I busted up so far while doing tree work...? I dropped a really rotten 14" diameter maple on top of a dog house, didn't destroy the dog house, but it didn't walk away without a scratch either. I dropped a little POS rotten cherry tree on top of a wood pile cover. Broke a 2x4 and a piece of plywood. Broke some lawn fixture that a customer made, easily fixed. What else? Scratched up a car over the summer, $2700 of damage there. Probably some other stuff too, but not anything major.

 

[DDM]

Tree? did you Claim it on your insurance? or fork it out?

 

[treeman82]

The scratched up car? I-N-S-U-R-A-N-C-E took care of it. I just had to take care of a 500 dollar deductable. Funny thing is, that is the only thing I claimed this year, and I paid $2700 for my insurance before that deductable.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Matt let me know what your premium is next year.

I've done a cople chainlink rails, took down a service drop, put a branch through a metal shed. Done a few lawn orniments too.

 

[treeman82]

I think this coming year I will be going with the Hartford. Or at leas that is what my insurance agent is telling me. She said that I will get a better price from them, which is always a good thing. This is the only claim I have ever filed that got paid out. I had filed 2 other claims in the past, but on both of those claims I had been set up, and no money was ever paid out on them. The crappy thing is though that my current company is not renewing me come April. Got the non-renewal letter about 10 days ago. I only filed the one claim with them this year, and they always got their money from me too.

 

[DDM]

John? you took out an Electrical service Drop?
Tell us about that as far as the power company ect
that might be future useful info.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Well i had traveled a good distance so I decided not to make a stink about it, I usualywont work with them close.

the rigging line was redirected to tip out a stem, and it was cought on a small branch mid way. I told the guy grounding we needed to get that off for the next one i was taking because it would be a big tip. I had it tied onto a smaller lateral that was in my way. I cut this big tip out forgetting the this slack so the tips brusshed hard, when they should not have touched. Busted the conduit off without severing service.

Well it was a Saturday so the utility guy coming out to reattach costed $165. I split it with the company I was working for.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

One time, on a huge removal, I was just finishing up doing some sawdust vacuming in the lawn area and I noticed we had severly bent over several blades of grass. I straightened each one out and lucky the homeowner didn't complain!

 

[Toddppm]

I've replaced a few gutters and shingles

 

[Darin]

Mike, you lucky dog. I used to always get caught bending grass. I did hit a VW bug once though. The owners let me go. It already looked like crap.

 

[tshanefreeman]

Life's Ironic Moments!

Well, when I was thirteen years old, I fell about 15 feet out of a tree in my parents back yard. I thought I had broken my back........but once I got my breath back, I realized I was OK! Who would have thought that 10 years later I would be doing this as an occupation and hobby. Guess one never knows!

Shane Freeman

 

[Rob Murphy]

Awhile back when I was young and reckless I was working down the West Coast of Tassie in a town called Roseby a mining town. They have plonked the houses willynilly all over the place in a Euc forest. I was doing some removals in a gully behind the houses. One Euc I topped out at about 80' with 50' above me . Anyway there was a few smaller gums in this gully that I thought I could fall into a vacant block between two houses. I was cutting in the gully below the level of the block and slightly misjudged the direction of fall just enough for the foliage tips to catch on an insulated service line and pull it down. The tips had also brushed a boat and an old wreck of a car.
As I came up out of the gully I was greeted by the biggest, uglist, meanest miner and his wife (of similar nature) who was swearing , and cursing and coming straight for me.
It was at this point that I noticed that my two assistants were backing off from me with shrugs and wistfull looks on their faces.
I stood my ground and politely apologised as torrent of abuse poured over me. If it wasn't for my helmet face visor, earmuffs and the 066 chortling in my hand I am sure that I would have felt more intimidated. As it was he eventually calmed down and proceeded to walk towards his Aluminium boat ranting and raving about all the supposed damage down.
It was then that I noticed that the service line, which was still live, was crackling on the chainwire fence. The chainwire fence had a boat chained to it. The boat that the big burly miner was about to place his hand on!
A picture of me attempting to do CPR on 'His Ugliness' after his collapsing from being electrified was enough for me to shout out in my loudest voice.
"DON’T TOUCH THE BOAT"
As he turned back to me and again poured out his anger and abuse, the dark side of me thought ' maybe I should've let him touch it'.
Minor damage to building where service was attached. No damage to boat or wreck which by the way didn't stop him putting in a claim for them. I found out latter that his house had burnt down a week before under suspicious circumstances.

 

[underwor]

Many years ago, while removing a dead walnut for an uncle, I managed to lay it on a full tank of diesel fuel, which opened up like a tin can on one end and sent 300 gallons of bright red liquid straight up about 15' and then back down. Very scenic. The tree had so much metal in it that after the 3rd attempt at putting even a small notch in it, I said to heck with it, hooked it to the truck, back cut it and went like heck. Would have made it too if the back porch had been 10' further away. Worked 2 days baling hay and did not charge for the removal, so I think I got off cheap, just caught another 10 years of razzing from the uncle.

Had the chance of a lifetime to do considerable damage and blew it. Was topping off 2 large silver maples at a farmstead that was being bulldozed. Dropped every big chunk I could on the little house (old Sears catalog house) and did not even ruffle a shingle. Couldn't even destroy the front porch, with its skinny little posts, when the limbs slid off the roof. Next I hooked on to the 6 center supports of a pole type barn with my winch cable, sawed them mostly off and took off. (These were the raw materials for a playground addition in a local park.) The center of the roof sagged a little, but still did not fall. Some days nothing goes right!!!!

Bob

 

[Greg]

Just last week I was taking down a large laurel oak and had my borther working the porta wrap for the first time. I was rigging the oak down using a lagre sweetgum about 20 feet away that was allowing me to perfectly swing the oak over the pool and into the grass dropzone. All was well until we got to the heavy wood. A chunk about 700lbs didn't get the swing it needed and planted itself into the concrete decking around the pool. Luckily it was close to the edge of the deck so it only scrwed up a 9x4ft area that was easily repaired.
I also put a small hole and dent in a cheap rusted shed one time that turned into the biggest pain. I was able to push the dent out by hand, and sealed up the hole (really just a tear) with some aluminum roof sealer caulk. Well this was the neighbors yard from where I was working. The sweet little old lady who lived there thought this the perfect opportunity to get some free tree work. I told her I'd give her a $50 credit on a light trim of her live oak tree total price $125 -$50 credit, she would owe me $75. It took me 3 months to get that $75! When people owe me money I expect to be paid no matter how much it is and it really pisses me off when they don't. I started calling her every day until she finally mailed the check.
Greg

 

[Treebeard]

A firewood size chuck of elm when dropped oh....15 feet, will cause a stucco'd wall to explode. After the 1st wall I hit, I got really careful letting anything touch stucco

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I woulda just did the oak work gratis. She could have been a thorn in your side about the damage.

 

[rbtree]

One day, we were finishing up a small removal job, mostly doug fir and cedar. We were salvaging a few millable logs. I went up a 36-40 foot fir stick to bring it down a few feet more to straight merchantable wood. I was cutting a four foot piece, about 9-10 inches around, so 150 pounds or so. The chore being so mundane, I was daydreaming ahead to the next piece or whatever. I had one hand on the piece as I finished the cut. My hand was in the wrong plane and I lost the piece onto the roof about 10 feet down. It did just enough damage to require a lot of asphalt shingles to be removed in order to replace two plywood sheets. A friend fixed it the next day, which only cost me $650. The customer is a couple blocks from my home, and I have several other customers all around. But he was not displeased at all. Although his wife was a bit rattled, as she was nearby in a room below.

Been doing tree work for 28 years, and done bits of damage here and there, but never had an insurance claim.......



.......Knock on wood..........
:angel: