You Ever Work Solo?

climbingmonkey24

climbingmonkey24

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
United States
You ever do solo work even if you have an employee or employees?

Employee’s on vacation this week but I decided to keep working.

Interestingly when I first started I worked by myself doing everything, rigging and all etc. After having an employee for a while I appreciate the value he brings to the job site being on my own this week, especially in the heat and humidity.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
You ever do solo work even if you have an employee or employees?

Employee’s on vacation this week but I decided to keep working.

Interestingly when I first started I worked by myself doing everything, rigging and all etc. After having an employee for a while I appreciate the value he brings to the job site being on my own this week, especially in the heat and humidity.
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I started out working solo on the side until starting my own gig. Back then the most I would do is call up one of three friends for help, and paid them very well for having no experience in the trades let alone treework.
regrettably I still have a overhead with or without employees so when they have something going on like scheduled time off or unscheduled time off I just keep on trucking. But I always have a pool of smaller jobs that I keep in the que like small minimum pricing jobs that with the overhead of employees they wouldn’t be very profitable. But I can do these jobs solo while leaving the crew onsite (I’ll take off about 11am and come back from my solo job around 12:30). Giving the employees an hour before lunch and lunchtime without me. This can add upto 30% of the daily target. But it also gives some flexibility for unscheduled employee day offs, or if the pool turns into a pond we will just pick a day and try to blast through as many of these jobs as we can
 
Definitely. When I’m not doing quotes I’ll go out and take care of one man work while the crew takes care of the daily grind. Of course we all work together most crane days or large properties where a third climber is needed. The key is to not do jobs solo if it is a safety concern or if it makes more sense to wait until you have help. At the end of the day, that all comes down to scheduling.
I worked solo 80% of the time when I “Re-opened” my business May of 2020. The other 20% was using a couple subs that happen to be great friends as well. That all worked until I got busy. I’m quite introverted so working solo is a breath of fresh air for me.
 
I roll solo on 99% of my jobs, everything from pruning to removals. I like being responsible for every aspect of the job, from the bid to the rake, and enjoy the problem solving it takes to rig single handed. Some will say solo tree work is too dangerous, but then there are the inevitable accidents that take shape when crew is involved. Another plus of solo tree work: who gets the dough.
 
I'm solo about 95% of the time, in part because I like the ease of not having an employee to worry about and in part because good help is very hard to find in a market as tiny as mine. Recently I've been trying to have help like one day a week to cover larger jobs where I just CANT do it alone (running ropes, too much material to move, etc) and that is folks I sub from a friends business. Spendy but lets me get work done I can't otherwise, and I do enjoy the companionship on site.

Edit: That said I could keep help busy full time right now and it would sure make things physically easier on me....
 
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TreeVB said:
Definitely. When I’m not doing quotes I’ll go out and take care of one man work while the crew takes care of the daily grind. Of course we all work together most crane days or large properties where a third climber is needed. The key is to not do jobs solo if it is a safety concern or if it makes more sense to wait until you have help. At the end of the day, that all comes down to scheduling.
I worked solo 80% of the time when I “Re-opened” my business May of 2020. The other 20% was using a couple subs that happen to be great friends as well. That all worked until I got busy. I’m quite introverted so working solo is a breath of fresh air for me.
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Agreed, I actually love the working solo days, even if it’s mid way challenging to do so, but it really sucks when you have to work solo on a job you probably shouldn’t be doing solo
 
Lots.

Multiple, different colored lowering ropes. Midline attachments to pieces to be lowered.

Speedlines.

2 slings and a biner.


Double- whip tackle with slung and biner to clear a lowering line.

Wedging instead of pulling.

Spare, small gas and oil cans, and bar tool on my saddle, or a cs- 2511t and ms200t/261 if I'm wrecking a tall, dead tree.

Focused on lowest energy input.
 
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Working solo is not for me. I focus more when someone else is around... and tbh when someone is there to hold me accountable I make better choices, even an unskilled bud.

The other day I was cabling, solo. What if I dropped the electrical tape? Dang that would be an annoying reason to rap down and up. I’ll hire someone for a day if all they are doing is watching me work. Also y’all climbers really want to move all that debris when you hit the ground?? I’m stunned.
 
Lot of folks around here call for “drop and walk” jobs mainly because they are just concerned with the felling or the wife won’t let him do it [emoji854]
Awesome way to pick up a couple hundred bucks on a slow or bid day.
On some bigger jobs this summer, I have taken much advantage of the “LLC child under 18 employment” act that allows a sole owner/LLC to employ their child under 18 as a tax write off and with them paying no taxes.
My son and I have both enjoyed this opportunity to get to work together and though it’s not solo, it’s not like having an actual employee day in day out.
We take it slow, I have someone to help with rigging, and he’s learning as well.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
southsoundtree said:
Double- whip tackle with slung and biner to clear a lowering line.
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"Clear" = bring it back to you? Or, clear it out from getting stuck under brush? Can you describe this setup, when you have time?

climbingmonkey24 said:
I’ve played around with some solo rigging methods that allow you to retrieve your rope using a micro pulled and slings.
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This is one of the most painful parts of me doing solo work - if you have opportunity, can you describe your setup? I've taken to using a longer rigging rope, roping the first piece to the ground, attaching the next piece to the line (sling/biner on piece clipped into midline knot on rigging line), lowering the next piece, etc., until I'm out of rope. Works pretty well (except need to find a better midline knot that doesn't lock up like an alpine butterfly).

I regularly will set up a knot-blocked base anchor for initial ascent, which is then retrieved and converted into a canopy anchor with a short retrieval tail - I've wondered if something like this could be used for rigging, by using choked sling with a ring on it around the piece, then knot/carabiner-blocking the ring.
 
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