Concrete driveway waiver

[AmericanArborist]

Does anyone have a decent waiver they wouldn't mind sharing? I've got some work coming up and I was hoping someone would help a fellow buzzer out. I'm sure many people have one already. If you wanted you could PM me as well. Thanks!

 

[colb]

X2. I have one, but would like to see a better one.

 

[Mitch Hoy]

I am currently having some liability agreements drafted, I can share some of the general language next week when I get them.

Subbed a guy to do some crane work for me while I ran the ground show, and watched a trunk section almost hit a garage. Happened to do some work for a lawyer soon after...

 

[Mitch Hoy]

So what you are looking for is known as a “hold harmless” contract. The language is pretty generalized, contractor shall not be liable for damages caused by employees, operations, or equipment. You can go as broad or specific as you’d like. The important thing is the signature. Not only are you covered by a contract such as this, by signing it the customer is psychologically resigning the issue.

 

[ATH]

Are people really OK with their concrete driveway being crushed??? I understand that if there are already cracks in it and we may add a few more...is that what you are talking about?

If I were the client, I'd want something more specific than a broad "hold harmless" clause in the contract regarding the driveway. I don't want my drive with a few hairline cracks turned into a gravel drive by the time you leave!

 

[Mitch Hoy]

Personally, I will be using a hold harmless in conjunction with a smaller crane with multiple dollies, and lots of plywood.

 

[TreeCo]

Stay off of the driveway.

 

[AmericanArborist]

Are people really OK with their concrete driveway being crushed??? I understand that if there are already cracks in it and we may add a few more...is that what you are talking about?

If I were the client, I'd want something more specific than a broad "hold harmless" clause in the contract regarding the driveway. I don't want my drive with a few hairline cracks turned into a gravel drive by the time you leave!

Sometimes the only way to get a job done is with a crane and the only place to put a crane is on a driveway. Either I can charge enough to make money on the trees and replace their driveway, or they can assume some of the liability in case their concrete cracks from the weight of the crane. We have tons of plywood and alturnamats to use to do our best to keep from breaking a driveway but sometimes thats not enough.

 

[AmericanArborist]

Stay off of the driveway.

not really very helpful..

 

[Gorman]

Stay off of the driveway.

Me
“Doctor, it really hurts when I do this..”

Doctor
“Then don’t do that.”

 

[TreeCo]

not really very helpful..

As you suggested you could charge them enough to cover their broken driveway.

Then if you didn't break the driveway you could refund the driveway replacement amount.

 

[Chaplain242]

Do multiple quotes for crane-with-waiver/no-crane and let them decide. I do it all the time with complex driveways and heavy equipment. Let them take the sweat of consternation of cost effective maintenance - they built/bought the place and it should have been a factor in their aquisition.

Another option is to lay sandbags/soil/mulch over driveway to create a hydraulic pressure rather than point load. I have done this for bridges but not a long driveway as it is usually time consuming and expensive.

 

[Gorman]

Do multiple quotes for crane-with-waiver/no-crane and let them decide. I do it all the time with complex driveways and heavy equipment. Let them take the sweat of consternation of cost effective maintenance - they built/bought the place and it should have been a factor in their aquisition.

Another option is to lay sandbags/soil/mulch over driveway to create a hydraulic pressure rather than point load. I have done this for bridges but not a long driveway as it is usually time consuming and expensive.

This is the strangest thing I’ve heard someone do for ground protection. You mean lay down mulch and then plywood on top? Then you gotta clean that shit up afterwords. Got pics?

 

[JD3000]

Similiar to protecting a tree from heavy equipment.

 

[evo]

This is the strangest thing I’ve heard someone do for ground protection. You mean lay down mulch and then plywood on top? Then you gotta clean that shit up afterwords. Got pics?

Haven’t done that for a crane, but we dumped the load out of the chip truck with a layer of ply in the middle for a pad to bomb wood onto a shitty asphalt drive

 

[chiselbit]

I’ve done it a couple times, dumped 3 loads of chips in the asphalt driveway, did it over a period of days. Dumped the first 2 on the edges so they could still drive in and out, then on the day of the job dumped the third load in between other 2 and then dropped the tree across driveway onto the chip piles. No damages, homeowner happy he got the reduced price without crane. (Tree was too rotten to rig out) slight derail. Sorry.

 

[Chaplain242]

This is the strangest thing I’ve heard someone do for ground protection. You mean lay down mulch and then plywood on top? Then you gotta clean that shit up afterwords. Got pics?

Sorry no as I offered to do it but client balked at cost. I offered direction and they did it. Was sandbags in layers, I arranged the sandbags at their cost. Easier cleanup at end though.

In many situations I lean to sandbags but that is because plywood is expensive here so we don’t risk damaging it unless necessary.

 

[Chaplain242]

I’ve done it a couple times, dumped 3 loads of chips in the asphalt driveway, did it over a period of days. Dumped the first 2 on the edges so they could still drive in and out, then on the day of the job dumped the third load in between other 2 and then dropped the tree across driveway onto the chip piles. No damages, homeowner happy he got the reduced price without crane. (Tree was too rotten to rig out) slight derail. Sorry.

Done the same before too...

 

[ATH]

If I were hiring a crane, I'd rather pay to have mulch dumped on the drive and cleaned up rather than signing off on unlimited damage to my new concrete driveway....

 

[Fivepoints]

What sized cranes are you guys wanting to put on driveways? We have a 35 ton crane that weighs 65,000 lbs. We have cracked two already cracked driveways with it in taking down 140 trees with it since we bought it. We have also used a 70 ton link belt rental crane repeatedly that weighs around 100,000 lbs. We have cracked a couple of driveways with it as well. Even it doesn't turn a driveway to gravel.

There's no way I'm going to build driveway replacement into all of my prices as it would drive my bids up to the point of being non competitive. We have our driveway waiver ad part of our standard contract. We also point it out to clients as well.

You just never know when you will need it to cover you. I was walking off a clients front porch and the stone step broke under my weight. I'm 220 lb so I'm not huge. Someone had not put any mortar under that whole corner and the stone was a bit over an inch thick.