Challenging rigging job

tomthetreeman

tomthetreeman

Participating member
Location
Rhode Island
We had a 'macroburst' here in RI three weeks ago, and got quite a bit of storm work. Here's a job that would have been a snap with a crane, but access was tough and cranes were freaking BUSY. Used the GRCS, two manual MA lines and a stay to get this bit off of a client's roof. We used a new technique, rigging some of the end pieces off of the tensioned line using a sling with a prussic and steel biner, which wound up working really well because there were zero overhead rigging points.

Tom
 

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Yeah, the lines were a beeotch. There was actually direct contact prior to the pictures. Bucket is 62' WH. Oh, there were skylights, too! We had previously cabled the other parts of the tree, but didn't cable this lead, as there was no defect. The tree is salvageable, and they are keeping it, house is for sale, so I may need to be brought in to talk to a potential buyer about risk.

Tom
 
tomthetreeman said:
Yeah, the lines were a beeotch. There was actually direct contact prior to the pictures. Bucket is 62' WH. Oh, there were skylights, too! We had previously cabled the other parts of the tree, but didn't cable this lead, as there was no defect. The tree is salvageable, and they are keeping it, house is for sale, so I may need to be brought in to talk to a potential buyer about risk.

Tom
Click to expand...
Nice work Tom. Just don't try to lure the potential buyer into your van would ya?
 
tomthetreeman said:
Yeah, the lines were a beeotch. There was actually direct contact prior to the pictures. Bucket is 62' WH. Oh, there were skylights, too! We had previously cabled the other parts of the tree, but didn't cable this lead, as there was no defect. The tree is salvageable, and they are keeping it, house is for sale, so I may need to be brought in to talk to a potential buyer about risk.

Tom
Click to expand...
What defects deemed cabling necessary Tom? If the rest of the tree was cabled and the one that wasn't failed ,yet didn't show defect,does that make you feel like from seeing this, that maybe cabling changes the way the tree reacts in a wimd event and that cabling even a lead that seems healthy and strong would've been beneficial. Specially due to the targats involved. Guess what I'm asking is if next time in similar situation do you think you'll cable that one lead?? Just trying to gain some perspective and knowledge here, thanks.
 
Really good question, I have been wrangling with it myself. This storm packed 90mph winds, and this particular area was hit super hard, so my assessment of the situation is that we can't predict everything, so I still won't over-cable. I do wonder if the leader that broke would have moved and reacted better if the others weren't cabled, but if I had to do it over again, I still wouldn't cable that leader. There was no rot, inclusion, or defect, I think it was just bad luck with regard to wind direction and load.

Tom
 
Cool thanks . I liked the rigging too being as it ripped.. 90 mph is heavy for sure. If needed to be climbed I would've felt confident walking on that if a good over head t.I.p was available. With all those well placed, tensioned lines it looked steady.
 
tomthetreeman said:
We had a 'macroburst' here in RI three weeks ago, and got quite a bit of storm work. Here's a job that would have been a snap with a crane, but access was tough and cranes were freaking BUSY. Used the GRCS, two manual MA lines and a stay to get this bit off of a client's roof. We used a new technique, rigging some of the end pieces off of the tensioned line using a sling with a prussic and steel biner, which wound up working really well because there were zero overhead rigging points.

Tom
Click to expand...
Right ...micro is not the word.
Local climber bud went down to help owner bud down there. They had a crane for several days. Must be nice...I mean fun.
 
The inclusion of the main co-dom is begging for a cable ... that failed lead was probably quite tip heavy and reaching for the open sky.. looks like a lot of the lower limbs had been stripped (lions tailing)... making that lead a (particularly) good candidate for tip reduction ( as is every big heavy lead over a house).. it's amazing how few 1-2" cuts on the branch tips can prevent storm damage, removing the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back...

The idea that the cabling the main lead altered the movement in the top, making the lead that ended up failing more susceptible to failure is debatable.. Without seeing the tree I'd guess that yes maybe it did... However there is no debating the benefits of tip reduction on a lead like that.. At least not with me.. maybe the PhD types would like to debate it.. And it's a piece of cake if you have a bucket truck that reaches... if not.. you gotta climb...

For those that don't own a bucket truck and don't want to climb, I;d suggest finding someone that does have a bucket and saving those pruning jobs up, kind of like saving stumps up before renting a machine.. then get the bucket and go bang all the tip reduction work out in a day.. it can be plenty profitable and a good value for the property owner, and of course a very good for the trees...
 
The tree is already cabled, and we had done some EWR on the lead that broke about 2-3 years ago. EWR is almost always in our proposals. The tree wasn't really lion tailed at all, although it may look like it in the photo. This was a pretty freak storm, winds directly out of the west, and this property is on a hill facing west with about 3/4 mile of open water right there. The winds just barreled across the bay. This particular area (Bullocks Point) got wrecked for that reason.

Tom
 
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