The Estimate Sheet.

[Jehinten]

Seems like a checklist would help.


I use tarps a lot, with the idea that its easier to clean a contained mess, easier and more thoroughly than without. Blowing firewood bucking chip right onto a tarp is so much easier than raking, shoveling, blowing, etc. Sometimes I"ll just tarp under a tree/ work area, and not rake. Fruit trees, Japanese maples, super manicured (anal-retentively manicured) areas. We have lots of gravel driveways/ roads. Getting saw chips out of gravel is too much work.

A couple large tarps under a pin oak prune might be ready to drag right to the chipper when you're done without sprinkling bits the whole way to the chipper, which then needs raking. Deadwood shatters. Even dropping branches onto tarps and clearing the chippable stuff periodically can save a lot of clean-up and better end product. Beware burning turf. Lightweight white tarps are an option. I use a lot of Brown/ Gray HD tarps.

When you're packing up, you can use tarps like packing peanuts. I stuff a couple over my half-dozen saw and Kombisystem powerhead, keeping it all from bouncing all over the place when encountering speed bumps, etc.

How many tarps do you go through in a year? I find doing this branches tear up the tarps. My boss thought if we’re going to ‘be rough’ on tarps why put out the money when cloth painters drop sheets were cheaper. If we’re going to just rip them anyway.

I haven't used this method a lot, but I have found that on dead tree removal that chipping is terrible. My last dead silver maple removal was so brittle that I was in the bucket truck and had to cut everything into small enough pieces to throw, no rigging. I parked a dump trailer near the truck and pitched all the limbs straight into it, only minimal clean up afterwards. The trailer was overflowing by the time I got done with the brush, but chunks of 12-18" diameter wood compressed the pile nicely and the brush softened the landing to prevent damage to the trailer. I don't see why it wouldn't work well for a trimming job as well, minus the big wood to compress the brush.