Root rot and high wind tonight.

Burrapeg

Burrapeg

Been here a while
Location
Puget Sound
Blowing like hell here right now and right after dark lost one of my big firs onto the top of my Land Rover. Smashed my brand new roof tent and broke a couple windows in the land Rover, caved the roof in, etc. Still runs however. Glad it was the vehicle and not the house or shop.
tree1.webptree2.webp
 
Wow, that’s no good! I’m glad to hear it missed the house though. Think positive, now you can buy a new Land Rover!
 
Reach said:
Wow, that’s no good! I’m glad to hear it missed the house though. Think positive, now you can buy a new Land Rover!
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Probably not. A new one is about 90 grand! (And none of this is covered by insurance). Wow, still blowing hard. A limb just hit the roof while I was typing this.
 
Pretty good blow eh? We’re you in the area for the big November storm we had a few years ago?

Take some close ups of the roots! Was it laminated? If so be sure to take a good long hard look at the others within rage. Should look like this, FBF109C7-8F94-4A41-AD2F-340289FA0228.webp3423B494-6128-4E6B-9074-67B007732185.webp
 
Burrapeg said:
Probably not. A new one is about 90 grand! (And none of this is covered by insurance). Wow, still blowing hard. A limb just hit the roof while I was typing this.
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That’s unfortunate. I’m sorry to hear it’s not insured for that either. Wow. Hopefully nothing else gets broken in all that wind!
 
JeffGu said:
I'm betting homeowner's insurance carrier will call "act of god" on that one.
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Wonder if the root rot would change that? I just condemned about 30 trees on a double lot due to LLR.. it’s getting much worse with the PNW droughts aka climate change (act of man, or act of hubris)
 
Although I agree with your premise, I'm fairly certain that few, if any, insurance companies give a rat's ass whether a god, some space fairies, Santa Claus or oil companies are the actual cause. I think that they just don't want to pay for anything that doesn't fall within a narrow range of things that aren't very likely to happen. If it ain't on the actuary tables, it's in the fine print... we no pay, Bubba.

Still, you'd think somebody with a few hundred kilobucks would take a chance on this and sue the shit out of an insurance company, just to set a new precedent.
 
evo said:
Pretty good blow eh? We’re you in the area for the big November storm we had a few years ago?
Take some close ups of the roots! Was it laminated?
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Yeah, I have been here on Lopez for 35 years this year. Seen a number of good blows. Worst was 1990; the island lost several thousand trees and a number of barns, etc. I will get a better look at the roots tomorrow in the daylight and get some photos. Thanks for the pics, Evo.
 
First time a tree goes on the house, you might be fine, if it's not something that an average person 'should' be able to see and get a professional to do their due diligence.

I had a $150,000 ballpark claim for a tree slicing the house in half. The insurance company called to ask about root disease. I returned the voicemail telling the inquiring party that the tree pulled up a 10' deep root hole (very sandy soil, well drained, having less root plate, and more fibrous roots than normal) with 'clean' roots, and that I specifically pointed all this out to the onsite-adjuster. Never heard any more.

This 'micro-burst' was ruled an "act of nature".

The one neighbor of a customer on the next block wanted to hide behind insurance for a huge, all-but-dead doug-fir, 1000-2000 needles maybe. I told him I'm not a lawyer, but my 5 year old can tell you it's very sick and dying, and I'd bet the insurance company would look at it as negligence.
 
Pennsylvania is a little odd when it comes to things like falling trees. The commonwealth here is considered “no fault”, which means that you cannot be considered negligent for allowing a tree to fall over on your house that you knew was a hazard.

The insurance company still has to pay to remove it, even if it is a very well documented fact that the tree was going to fall and crush the house in the near future. We look at several trees a year that way, where the homeowner simply doesn’t want to spend the money because it’s cheaper to pay the insurance deductible after the tree lands in the living room. We just write up a very strongly worded letter that says that the tree will fall over soon, to protect ourselves from liability, and wait until they call when it does fall.
 
Reach said:
Pennsylvania is a little odd when it comes to things like falling trees. The commonwealth here is considered “no fault”, which means that you cannot be considered negligent for allowing a tree to fall over on your house that you knew was a hazard.

The insurance company still has to pay to remove it, even if it is a very well documented fact that the tree was going to fall and crush the house in the near future. We look at several trees a year that way, where the homeowner simply doesn’t want to spend the money because it’s cheaper to pay the insurance deductible after the tree lands in the living room. We just write up a very strongly worded letter that says that the tree will fall over soon, to protect ourselves from liability, and wait until they call when it does fall.
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That’s a lot of work for no work
 
evo said:
That’s a lot of work for no work
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It is, but I would rather attach a letter to a quote to save us from liability than get sued because there’s no documentation when something does happen. We also have a consulting arborist we use sometimes for things like this, and we bill for this service, so we don’t always lose money on these non-projects.
 
Got a photo in between the rain this morning. Definitely some kind of root issue. Rather fuzzy and unhealthy looking. Blloody shame about my new roof tent - $2800. down the loo. Land Rover is still driveable but looks like hell now and a busted window in rear also sun roof in rear buggered and roof partially caved in. This was a heavy tree and would have totally flattened the back of the vehicle except four or five big limbs dug into the ground just as the tree was landing on the car and stopped the tree right there. I lifted it off with a 3-ton come-along to another big tree and drove the LR out of the way til I can cut everything up for fire wood,
roots.webp
 
Burrapeg said:
Got a photo in between the rain this morning. Definitely some kind of root issue. Rather fuzzy and unhealthy looking. Blloody shame about my new roof tent - $2800. down the loo. Land Rover is still driveable but looks like hell now and a busted window in rear also sun roof in rear buggered and roof partially caved in. This was a heavy tree and would have totally flattened the back of the vehicle except four or five big limbs dug into the ground just as the tree was landing on the car and stopped the tree right there. I lifted it off with a 3-ton come-along to another big tree and drove the LR out of the way til I can cut everything up for fire wood,
View attachment 64514
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Certainly looks like LLR! The photos I took were with a hand lens up to the cell phone camera, to show the cinnamon colored fuzz which is diagnostic of LLR
 
Evo, is there a danger this stuff can spread to my other firs? I have one about 30 feet away and another about 50 feet distance, both smaller than this one that fell. Can I dig down around the roots and look for the rot? How did you know to condemn those 30 trees? What are the signs?
 
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Oh yes! It spreads via root contact in the soil which is why you need a positive ID
Sending you a pm with my phone
 
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