Possible damage from impact of felling a large tree close to a house.

[Treetopflyer]

Old truck tires work great for dropping heavy sticks over certain areas as long as you hit the tires

 

[southsoundtree]

Straw bales too

 

[Daniel]

A scenario like this with a basement, retaining wall, pool, bluff, etc is something I'd watch out for, especially dropping the trunk parallel to the wall.

It's the same logic as being wary with heavy equipment or outriggers around the same structures. The general guideline is to stay at least as far away from the structure as the depth of the structure. Saturated soils have lower shear strength, meaning that cone of influence/angle of repose is more shallow, needing more distance from the void.

The load being spread on a larger area helps while point loads are more aggravating.

If he's falling it directly away from the house or up to 45 degrees, the chances of anything happeneing to the house are zero. The chances of it happening when falling right next to the house are one in a million... and the use of padding logs would spread the weaight out away from the house. What I like to do to protect lawns, drives etc.. is to set up the padding logs so that the log hits and bounces or rolls afer impact... when the log hits and comes to a dead standstill, all that force is directly transfered to the ground... when it hits and slides, the difference in lawn damage is noticeable..

There is one guy around here who repais building foundations for a living... He told me, he likes to use a crane guy because the impact of fallign trees won't damage the house..... I'm pretty sure his is concrete, not block... you do you... but I know better.

 

[southsoundtree]

Old truck tires work great for dropping heavy sticks over certain areas as long as you hit the tires

I've dropped rounds into tires and stall mats once, way back.

Pavers beneath.

Tying tires together may help.