15 years of doing tree work and had my first property damage today.

Impaled a trunk on a post about 6" deep. Put a piece through a roof. Clipped a gutter or three. Took a section clean out of a wooden fence with the swing of a big limb. Took out the back of an aluminum shed. It's always been about the response after the fact. Let the client know, fixed the issue soon as possible to the client's liking. Then made a mental note to identify the cause and adjust accordingly. A lot of times it translates to the initial sale and being sure to account for the risk or target and what is needed to avoid the potential for damage.
 
cerviarborist said:
A tort attorney speaking at a class I attended explained that there's a "Pie" of liability in most tort cases, and every responsible party gets a slice, based on their degree of participation in the loss. In this case, the owner of the building might not have collected as much from the tree service's insurance as they might have, due to their own negligence in not bringing the wiring up to code.
Click to expand...
I would think that someone would be much more liable. The service should have been changed and grounded properly. I agree what if an act of nature put a limb there. The building inspector that signed of on the electrical is really responsible. Our legal system can be so lame!!
 
I mean damaged properties suck! By all means! Hard to sell if someone comes with a legit agency that knows the business in and out. When I got my first house 3 years ago I had a thorough look with 2 different agents to ensure the purchase was stellar, and I could sell my house afterwards if needed to relocate as an awesome price! Both of them gave me the green lights but since I'm hard to convince I contacted https://www.capitalsquare1031.com/about-dsts-tab-style/ and their approach to the whole matter was impressive! Not only they found few errors on the piping and electricity but also referred me to great chances by buying houses at much better prices thanks to the 1031 reit clause!
 
Last edited:
fastbub said:
I have had a perfect track record thus far. Sure I've dented some lawns and maybe grazed something with a limb and had to wipe a piece of bark off of it. But today I managed to swing a big Poplar top too far and a couple limbs hit a chain link fence section an bent it up a little. It is really just mis-shapen chain link, a bent top rail and a couple of brackets busted. Posts are fine and it was just the last two feet of an eight foot section.

I wanted to just crawl into a hole somewhere and die but I zipped down the tree and knocked on the door. Customer was totally understanding and we will of course fix the fence but I need some help so I stop beating myself up.

Tell me about your bad days so I feel less bad. Pleeeeeeze?
Click to expand...
You know what they say
If you’re in the kitchen long enough
You’re going to get cut and burned
Or you ain’t no CHEF
Not the best saying but so true
Or have to break an egg to have an omelette
that’s why I eat eggless omelettes lol
 
I mean damaged properties suck! By all means! Hard to sell if someone comes with a legit agency that knows the business in and out.
 
I don’t have any delicious disasters but it’s great to read through these. Before I made tree work my main gig I was removing a smallish compromised hemlock for my landlord. It had a dead top and all the tree’s energy was going lopsided into a heavy lateral extending over a residential urban street.

I was on a 200’ line from a big red oak then redirected through small upper branches on a mid-sized European beech. I was working solo in the earlier days of rope wrenching and a local climber who’d just finished his shift at the nearby Arnold Arboretum shook his head and wished me luck, “Don’t kill yourself”, as he walked by. At the time most climbers in the area did not know the system I was climbing on.

I got the dead top out fine and was working my way out on the big lateral to piece it out. A guy approached on the sidewalk below, “You need some help?”, I hired him on the spot. Turned out he’d done tree work in the PNW and was now in school in Boston. This was getting better, with his hand on a rigging line I could swing most of the piece back from over the street to the sidewalk. I couldn’t block off the street so I had him watch for oncoming cars and he gave me the go to make the cut.

As the kerf started to open a car came right at me, it had turned out of a side street and was on track to intersect with the swinging limb. The piece let go and the hemlock branch ends swiped across half the windshield and down across the passenger side door. The driver didn’t brake or swerve, just kept on going. The rest of the takedown was uneventful.
-AJ
 
I get one mulligan a year. It’s always small. Had the hinge break prematurely on an aspen and the trunk landed on the guy’s shed while he was watching. We just fixed it that weekend. Took four shingles, some flashing and a 2x4.
 
Gorman said:
I get one mulligan a year. It’s always small. Had the hinge break prematurely on an aspen and the trunk landed on the guy’s shed while he was watching. We just fixed it that weekend. Took four shingles, some flashing and a 2x4.
Click to expand...
That’s not too bad. I had a fairly new, young, and cocky climber take the corner off a shed with a side leaning Ailanthus last year. I told him the hinge would not hold, so he needed to piece it down further. Well, I left the site for a little while and when I came back he was just finishing his back cut. Tree started to fall, hinge failed as I expected, and he took the corner right off the woodshed. Fortunately that woodshed was due to be torn down this year anyway!
 
Reach said:
That’s not too bad. I had a fairly new, young, and cocky climber take the corner off a shed with a side leaning Ailanthus last year. I told him the hinge would not hold, so he needed to piece it down further. Well, I left the site for a little while and when I came back he was just finishing his back cut. Tree started to fall, hinge failed as I expected, and he took the corner right off the woodshed. Fortunately that woodshed was due to be torn down this year anyway!
Click to expand...
Hopefully the guy learned something about how that shit behaves. He probably would’ve been fine with most other species, but a face and back cut on an ailanthus is more like a vague suggestion of where it’s gonna go, give or take a few dozen degrees.
 
Jonny said:
Hopefully the guy learned something about how that shit behaves. He probably would’ve been fine with most other species, but a face and back cut on an ailanthus is more like a vague suggestion of where it’s gonna go, give or take a few dozen degrees.
Click to expand...
He did. He needed knocked down a couple pegs, and it worked. He’s become much better now, and listens a little more when I make a suggestion... Those trees really are terrible, especially this one with so much side weight, I was surprised it did not fall even further sideways than it did actually.
 
Reach said:
That’s not too bad. I had a fairly new, young, and cocky climber take the corner off a shed with a side leaning Ailanthus last year. I told him the hinge would not hold, so he needed to piece it down further. Well, I left the site for a little while and when I came back he was just finishing his back cut. Tree started to fall, hinge failed as I expected, and he took the corner right off the woodshed. Fortunately that woodshed was due to be torn down this year anyway
Click to expand...
Reach said:
That’s not too bad. I had a fairly new, young, and cocky climber take the corner off a shed with a side leaning Ailanthus last year. I told him the hinge would not hold, so he needed to piece it down further. Well, I left the site for a little while and when I came back he was just finishing his back cut. Tree started to fall, hinge failed as I expected, and he took the corner right off the woodshed. Fortunately that woodshed was due to be torn down this year anyway!
Click to expand...
I always try not too second guess my guys in the sky so I think they respect my opinion

But the view from the sky is different from the ground and that’s why they make the big bucks and I trust their opinion

pisses me off when I’m right and things go wrong
Don’t happen often
They’re pretty damn good
 
VenasNursery said:
I always try not too second guess my guys in the sky so I think they respect my opinion

But the view from the sky is different from the ground and that’s why they make the big bucks and I trust their opinion

pisses me off when I’m right and things go wrong
Don’t happen often
They’re pretty damn good
Click to expand...
I try to do the same thing, and I let me guys make mistakes sometimes, as long as they won’t hurt anyone or do too much damage. Break an old fence rail now and then? Not a big deal, and they usually learn from it.

We don’t have too many mistakes anymore either, but they do still happen once in a while.
 
Reach said:
I try to do the same thing, and I let me guys make mistakes sometimes, as long as they won’t hurt anyone or do too much damage. Break an old fence rail now and then? Not a big deal, and they usually learn from it.

We don’t have too many mistakes anymore either, but they do still happen once in a while.
Click to expand...
Oh yeah
 
Several years ago I watched my former business partner swing a apple tree top into the house service drop. Tore off the soffit bent the mast but no sparks or fire.
This spring I had a diesel spill, split return line on the lift, basically dissolve a driveway. I ended up replacing a 6'x11' section of asphalt.
In this biz you eff up you fix it you don't tuck tail and run. There is a reason our premiums are high it's high risk work shit can happen at any time.
 
Jonny said:
Hopefully the guy learned something about how that shit behaves. He probably would’ve been fine with most other species, but a face and back cut on an ailanthus is more like a vague suggestion of where it’s gonna go, give or take a few dozen degrees.
Click to expand...
Not just that, it's really deceptively heavy. We don't have them here, but a few hours north of here there are a few.
I found out that they're dumb, weak trees on the same day that I found out that they give me a rash. I didn't break anything, but I had a scare in that little tree.
 
SomethingWitty said:
Not just that, it's really deceptively heavy. We don't have them here, but a few hours north of here there are a few.
I found out that they're dumb, weak trees on the same day that I found out that they give me a rash. I didn't break anything, but I had a scare in that little tree.
Click to expand...
It is a bit heavy, at least when it’s full of water. Dry it out and it weighs nothing.

Interesting that they give you a rash, my mother also is allergic to them - I grew up thinking they were Sumac based on her rash, but learned later that they are not. We don’t have sumac here, but we sure have Ailanthus!
 
Reach said:
It is a bit heavy, at least when it’s full of water. Dry it out and it weighs nothing.

Interesting that they give you a rash, my mother also is allergic to them - I grew up thinking they were Sumac based on her rash, but learned later that they are not. We don’t have sumac here, but we sure have Ailanthus!
Click to expand...
I’ve only seen it called ailanthus or tree of heaven online. I’ve never met a local tree worker that doesn’t call them sumac. I’ll correct them sometimes and usually get a good eye roll.
Granted I don’t know every local tree biz. There’s probably some that know better.
 
Jonny said:
I’ve only seen it called ailanthus or tree of heaven online. I’ve never met a local tree worker that doesn’t call them sumac. I’ll correct them sometimes and usually get a good eye roll.
Granted I don’t know every local tree biz. There’s probably some that know better.
Click to expand...
Same here, except all the publicity about the Spotted Lanternfly has a few of the public actually calling it the right thing - of course every tree with a Lanternfly is now “one of those Heaven Trees”...

Many local tree services are just as clueless too, we removed two “Sumac” trees recently for a gentleman with a doctorate in plant science!
 
Jonny said:
I’ve only seen it called ailanthus or tree of heaven online. I’ve never met a local tree worker that doesn’t call them sumac. I’ll correct them sometimes and usually get a good eye roll.
Granted I don’t know every local tree biz. There’s probably some that know better.
Click to expand...

They can get scary big. There was three in a row on a state road over a couple tiny houses near the university of Rhode Island. Averaged about 38” or so dbh. They kept falling apart and missing the houses. It took the state years to finally remove them.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom