# Safety while felling trees



## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

All,

I had an interesting weekend that turned out quite well but could have been much much worse. No one got hurt but I had a very stressful Sunday night worrying whether the back wall of my house was going to be intact on Monday morning.

I've felled some 25 to 30 trees in my life, a good 20 of them in the last few years. This past Sunday I had my first "uh oh" experience. 

I'd just like to tell everyone who hasn't done a lot of felling, get a professional opinion, at the very least, before doing it yourself.

I had a dead Tulip Poplar about 25 feet from my house that had started shedding bark all the way up the tree and that is a sign to me that it needs to come down. The tree is on the edge of some easement woods on my property and my intent was to drop it directly into the woods away from the yard. What happened, however is it fell about 70 degrees directly to the side of where I wanted, IE directly in the line between my house and my neighbors and got hung up in another poplar at about 45 feet. There was no wood left attached at the stump by the time this occurred. IF it slid down the trunk of the other tree, no problem, clean fall. If, however, the tree rotated in the slightest, the back wall of my daughter's bedroom (where her bed is) and our dining room (first floor) were the likely landing zone, with the wonderful side benefit of crushing my AC unit. 

I knew I could not handle it so I called in professionals as an "emergency tree removal". They came out and tried to clear it with traditional methods but wind kicked up and it was not safe. Strapped it to the living tree it was leaning against and called in a crane for Monday morning, hoping we'd be lucky. As I said, we were. 

With the crane, lowering the tree was only about a 30 minute job. Total cost over $2k though. Lesson learned. 

Luckily, this was the last tree I needed to clear to keep my home and family safe but it's not if these things get you, it's when. I did the cuts right but didn't account for the trunk density on the side where the branches used to be and it nearly cost me a lot more than $2k.

Be careful out there, everyone.


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## jeffreythree (Jan 9, 2008)

As soon as I saw the part about the tree being dead, I thought "Uh Oh". I am glad it just turned into a learning experience and not something worse. Hinges made of dead wood do some strange things, expecially when one part has been dead longer than another. I met a forester one time that almost all he did was cut dead trees of sites before logging began to protect others and equipment. It was his niche market. I bet the removal probably would have been around the same price whether you 'helped' or not, just less pucker factor would have been involved.


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Yeah, the tree guy said it would have been about $1k, which was about what I expected. It was only expensive because of the "emergency" fee and the crane, which probably wouldn't have been necessary if I had paid a professional originally. Possibly might have still been needed, but then the pucker factor would have been on his mind, not mine.


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## firehawkmph (Apr 26, 2008)

Glad you're ok Frank,
I don't cut down anything bigger than I can push over. I had a bad experience when I was building my first house when I was much younger. I was cutting trees on the lot by myself and got one hung up for a sec. It was tangled at the top with some other trees. I kept cutting into the hinge until I cut all the way through. It slid off the trunk and fell 90 degrees to the side instead of the back of the lot and hit the neighbors garage. A split second after it landed on the garage, a dead limb that it was supporting fell and grazed my shoulder and smashed my ankle. I had stepped around the trunk as the tree started to fall. If I hadn't, the limb which was about 6" diam, and about 20' long, would have hit me right in the head. I laid in the snow for about fifteen minutes till someone came out from one the houses. Rescue squad ride to the hospital, some surgery and I was ok. I don't use my chainsaw much at all any more, just once in awhile cutting a log into bowl blanks.
Mike Hawkins


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## cody.sheridan-2008 (May 23, 2010)

glad your fine man! I was getting concerned for a minute there!

I may start a thread on how to properly fell a tree and when you should get a pro... though I would only put the questions out there for others to answer as I have only felled a couple small ones in an area that was very easy. Who thinks this is a good idea? or has it been done millions of times?

Mind you I had a coral tree (bad timber and spread and fall like wildfire) that fell a few inches from a brand new aviary (I paid $2500 for it though they are worth about $8000). I watched it fall as my heart just dropped. It tought me one thing, prevention is the best fix. A few weeks later another fell in a simmilar spot though not as close to the aviary. I had just cleared the area the other one fell, to build my chook run... back to square one  :laughing:


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## frankp (Oct 29, 2007)

Thanks for the comments, everyone. Like I said, this seems to be one of those things that is "It's not if, it's when". Law of averages over the last few years dropping trees in my yard it makes sense at least one wouldn't go the way I planned. I've felled some 15 trees in my yard in the last 3 years. Most of them were smallish (8-10 inch diameter at chest) but a few have been moderate sized, like the one on Sunday (12-16 inch diameter at chest) and I've been very lucky so far nothing went wrong. 

I have to say I'm glad this was the last one... I'm a little gun-shy at this point to do any more.


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## Rick C. (Dec 17, 2008)

Frank, glad you didn't get hurt, been punched in the face by trees twice, if you remember it, it's something you won't forget.


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## phinds (Mar 25, 2009)

Sorry to hear about it but glad it wasn't worse.

Paul


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## beelzerob (May 2, 2010)

There's nothing like those "Oh [email protected]#[email protected]#!!!" moments to make the cost of hiring a pro suddenly seem reasonable. Had many of those myself.


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