Bid that tree!

[evo]

That wee truck is parked alongside it for scale. Road is single lane… Guessing crown spread ~70’, ~28” but spread matters more.

I'm open to suggestions, what are your thoughts and bid? The client is having a new pier put in for $$$, the tree is touching the dock shed, bank is getting undercut beneath the tree from erosion etc etc

The new pier should be done end of Jan and will make for easier brush clean up (still not easy tho). Bucket could setup there, we only climb.

I would recommend pruning the dockshed from the tree. Maybe minor reduction of the lateral spread but not by much. Maybe 5%.
I’d look at thinning to stimulate interior growth as this tree is critical to the shore stability. The erosion would be significant worse if the tree wasn’t there.
Now if the undercut is significant enough to destabilize the tree and it did fail to the water this would actually naturally stabilize the bank. And mitigate further erosion. But likely not allowed due to the pier.
Maybe they should have the pier folks bring in a log or three and anchor them down with duckbills or chains to dampen any wave action and see if a few boulders above the high water mark could help? (Bulkheads and rock shore armoring actually contribute to erosion creating eddies on either end, scouring these and even hooking around the armorment thus worsening).
Now if this is a last ditch effort to keep the tree standing due to slope creep, or boarder line active failure super heavy boarder line topping can reduce leverage loads. BUT normal 10-15% reductions can increase the load on the root plate in high wind loads. You loose mass dampening so the wind is more akin to the big bad wolf. Or think of sky scrapers where movement is designed into the structure, accounting for wind loads and earthquakes.
I can’t tell if that is a bay or a river, maybe schedule for low tide and use the beach as a drop zone and bundle the brush and using a more favorable angle winch loads back up using the same tree as a gin. Attach a tagline to swing higher on the bank or the road itself.

Many times on jobs like this I will refuse to give a straight fixed price. I’ll do a hourly rate which is higher than my daily target hourly rate due to the complexities and sensitivity of the critical area, but an estimate of hours I think it will take. Most of the time I’m actually pretty close.
From my armchair and imagination I’d put around 2k-3.5k, but could be as low as 1k.
But this is assuming a 70’ crown spread and 28” dbh and about 60-70’ tall.

 

[evo]

I think this might be the first I’ve put up. Western red cedar, stocky tree about 40’ from the top of a 200’ cliff with nothing but a due west wind tunnel straight to the pacific.
The tree is about 40” diameter, and 70’ tall. 6 major stem reiterations and 3 with decay and one with a crack at the 90 bend. The main stem probably had a top break out and now has three tops. The union is about 16-18” dia with a significant crack straight through. Can burry a 13” handsaw to the hilt, and a wood pecker has poked around the crotch making an exploratory nest.
Targets are a hot tub, sauna, and house with solar panels. The tree is in two critical areas, shore line and steep slopes. Goal is to retain the tree and mitigate failure to the targets below
Ignore the flush cuts..
What is your specs and price

 

[oceans]

I think this might be the first I’ve put up. Western red cedar, stocky tree about 40’ from the top of a 200’ cliff with nothing but a due west wind tunnel straight to the pacific.
The tree is about 40” diameter, and 70’ tall. 6 major stem reiterations and 3 with decay and one with a crack at the 90 bend. The main stem probably had a top break out and now has three tops. The union is about 16-18” dia with a significant crack straight through. Can burry a 13” handsaw to the hilt, and a wood pecker has poked around the crotch making an exploratory nest.
Targets are a hot tub, sauna, and house with solar panels. The tree is in two critical areas, shore line and steep slopes. Goal is to retain the tree and mitigate failure to the targets below
Ignore the flush cuts..
What is your specs and price

Fractals can be tough to figure, mostly due to how long the horizontal portion is in relation to the more vertical. Assume a 20% dosage over the entire tree, prioritizing the reduction of any potential for rotational forces on the cracked union while accounting for exposure created by said reductions. 2 handed crew, 2 hours per stem plus cleanup, $3,800 plus client signs a waiver.

Giant roll bar over the house: Eight concrete footings, 16” in diameter and 5’ deep, supporting a 3/8” wall, 6” diameter core 10 steel cage over the residence and 2 more layers of metal roofing. Engineer, excavation contractor, crane, welder, couple grifters, $18,750.36

 

[Matias]

Fractals can be tough to figure, mostly due to how long the horizontal portion is in relation to the more vertical. Assume a 20% dosage over the entire tree, prioritizing the reduction of any potential for rotational forces on the cracked union while accounting for exposure created by said reductions. 2 handed crew, 2 hours per stem plus cleanup, $3,800 plus client signs a waiver.

Giant roll bar over the house: Eight concrete footings, 16” in diameter and 5’ deep, supporting a 3/8” wall, 6” diameter core 10 steel cage over the residence and 2 more layers of metal roofing. Engineer, excavation contractor, crane, welder, couple grifters, $18,750.36

I'm days away from forming up my foundation, and I would hire y'all in a heartbeat to do my concrete work if it could be done that cheap.

 

[Njdelaney]

Yeah I'm guessing that was an arbitrary number for the sake of the joke because that's closer to 100K in concrete work!

 

[Matias]

Yeah I'm guessing that was an arbitrary number for the sake of the joke because that's closer to 100K in concrete work!

yea, I was just wishing...

 

[oceans]

I'm days away from forming up my foundation, and I would hire y'all in a heartbeat to do my concrete work if it could be done that cheap.

Hope that all goes well. I’ll be in the same boat in another year, hopefully.

 

[Daniel]

This one took 105 minutes to rig and bomb the top, getting ready to drop, but the rest of the day to clean up, leaving only the but log and the stump to grind.

 

[data farm 26]

Just the pruning cuts of the left side.

 

[Neill]

Your work? Nice tree.
1550?

 

[data farm 26]

Yeah, my brother climbed it yesterday and I did some rigging. I put about that much on it but gave a little discount for scheduling in winter and paying with cash. Sooo glad I didn't have to climb this cwood, my bro made it look easy but I know it wasn't.

 

[southsoundtree]

Was he using a hook, like a Captain Hook?

 

[data farm 26]

No, he set a base tie with some pre-set redirects. Not insanely hard from the actual climbing point of view just some mental toughness required that I don't personally have right now.

 

[Matias]

That is a sweet lookin tree, and a nice job on the work.

 

[cory]

Rather judicious, tasteful cutting back I'd say.

What do you mean by preset redirects?

Did he cut and throw the stuff or do some roping to get stuff down?

 

[data farm 26]

That is a sweet lookin tree, and a nice job on the work.

thanks

Rather judicious, tasteful cutting back I'd say.

What do you mean by preset redirects?

Did he cut and throw the stuff or do some roping to get stuff down?

thanks, Cory.

I just mean that he first hit a nice high shot and set rope in main tip then hit a few more shots to get a nice high redirect above the work and then dangled down through the leader that we were reducing. So he just cruised right up to the work, just a bit of extra throwball time.

He hand threw a few pieces but for the most part rigged down pieces to me on the roof. Standing on the roof with these new vivo trackers was a dream!

I'm trying to do more spot pruning like that this year as opposed to "full prune" approach.

 

[Boomslang]

thanks

thanks, Cory.

I just mean that he first hit a nice high shot and set rope in main tip then hit a few more shots to get a nice high redirect above the work and then dangled down through the leader that we were reducing. So he just cruised right up to the work, just a bit of extra throwball time.

He hand threw a few pieces but for the most part rigged down pieces to me on the roof. Standing on the roof with these new vivo trackers was a dream!

I'm trying to do more spot pruning like that this year as opposed to "full prune" approach.

My brain comprehends these words, but it has no idea what it looks like.

 

[data farm 26]

I could probably do better with the description but I'm on empty after a long week, sorry!

 

[Matias]

thanks

thanks, Cory.

I just mean that he first hit a nice high shot and set rope in main tip then hit a few more shots to get a nice high redirect above the work and then dangled down through the leader that we were reducing. So he just cruised right up to the work, just a bit of extra throwball time.

He hand threw a few pieces but for the most part rigged down pieces to me on the roof. Standing on the roof with these new vivo trackers was a dream!

I'm trying to do more spot pruning like that this year as opposed to "full prune" approach.

I've thought about accessing that way, but haven't had a justification for it yet. If I were being called on to do some spot pruning vs a full prune, it would be the approach for sure. Glad to hear it was worth the effort.

 

[Stumpsprouts]

I've thought about accessing that way, but haven't had a justification for it yet. If I were being called on to do some spot pruning vs a full prune, it would be the approach for sure. Glad to hear it was worth the effort.

So what I’m hearing from this is that you’re letting the throwline do the hard work of getting out to places before you leave the ground. This is a very common practice for me now.. definitely falls into the category of work smarter not harder. Especially on large oaks, which I find myself in a lot.

You climb for a decade and you stop needing to prove you can muscle your way out to things. You save calories. Plus, you can get the climb done quicker and move onto the next thing. At first you think you’re wasting time by doing this from the ground, but as you get better with it, it’s certainly a net positive for productivity.