# Timmbbbberrr - Has anyone done DIY tree removal?



## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

I would love to hear about other DIYers who have tackled tree removal.

Hints, Helpful suggestions, Horror stories?

Let's hear it before I cut down a 70 ft+ Norway spruce that died last Oct. FYI: estimates for a pro to remove it ranged from $700-$1000.


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## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

> 70 ft+ Norway spruce


Ayuh,....

1 Question,.... What is within a 70' circle of the tree,..??


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## USP45 (Dec 14, 2007)

I did once, with my car!


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## Clutchcargo (Mar 31, 2007)

I started to, then a crowd of neighbors started to form; I realized then that I was in over my head and had a pro do it. If there is nothing around it then I say go for it. 
For my experience, The trees were close to my house. I had ropes tied to easier but still very large branches. There were three people on the ground trying to persuade the direction of the fall but once it started to fall, it's going in the direction that it wants to fall in.


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## so-elitecrete (Oct 27, 2007)

*that post asking,,,*

what's w/i 70' is good,,, easiest way's to attach a 3/4" line 36' UP the tree & tie the other end to your truck hitch,,, put tension on the line & cut it 3' off the ground in a normal notch cut,,, would suggest you use a line longer's 70' :laughing: don't ask me how i know this, i just know ! ! !

the 3' stub's left so you can pull out the stump easier,,, spruce's are fairly shallow rooted.


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## terri_and_jj (Feb 24, 2008)

if you are in a tight spot and are really worried about hitting something, (and your not afraid of heights) you can rent a man lift and make this job a lot easier. you can probably get a good rate for a weekend. you can cut this one down, trim some other trees, clean your gutters, wash second story windows...

when you are done you can swing by my house and take my christmas lights down


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## Double A (Sep 10, 2006)

terri_and_jj said:


> when you are done you can swing by my house and take my christmas lights down


What's with that? I thought the Christmas Season began with Easter this year?


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## jogr (Jul 24, 2007)

I'm a cheapo and try to DIY about anything and have done a few 35 ft trees close to houses but if that 70 ft tree is close to buildings, fences or anything else then I would consider the $700-1000 fees a pretty good deal. 

Unless you have a wide open area then a tree that big should be delimbed and taken down in pieces as suggested. I personnaly wouldn't feel comfortable up in a manlift 65 feet in the air and a lift that big gets pretty expensive to rent. But you may be more comfy with heights than me. 

Shorter trees I have directed the fall pretty easily by putting a chain up 15-20 feet high and either pulled with a 4wd truck or hand winched to another tree trunk while cutting with normal tree felling technique. Even then you have to evaluate the mass balance of the tree (and wind direction).


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## terri_and_jj (Feb 24, 2008)

manlift is probably cheaper than you think. even a 40 footer would make a big difference


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## johnnyboy (Oct 8, 2007)

.....


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## johnnyboy (Oct 8, 2007)

terri_and_jj said:


> manlift is probably cheaper than you think. even a 40 footer would make a big difference


I had all my pines and a big maple tree cut down by a pro, $700 for a big maple, $200 or so each pine. I kept the wood, they were all within 20 ft of my house...

My real purpose for posting though, was to post a picture of the advertisement I saw at the bottom of your post... I thought it was perfect for a DIY forum... apparently they thought so too...










  

Besides, I'm sure you have home owners insurance... that's why we have it... for when we drop a tree on our house!

I know a guy who recently removed a backsplash from his kitchen... and his cabinets all fell down!!! His insurance paid for the fine china.


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## Allison1888 (Mar 16, 2008)

*tree removal*

I cringe at tree removal prices, but am not brave enough to try it. One way around the high cost is to call around to a wide area to find someone hungrier for work. Also try to get to them before they get busy during the regular landscaping season. If you do it yourself, watch those power lines and the neighbor's house! Good luck!


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## jbfan (Jul 1, 2004)

I had one hit by lighting. Later on, another storm took the top out and left me about 30' to deal with. When I cut it down, I was good in all directions, but one. Right on top of my wife's new redbud tree. After MUCH TLC, the tree survived.


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## joasis (May 28, 2006)

Cutting a tree down of this size is not a DIY project. The weight alone could kill someone easily. A possible solution would be to call the state forestry service and see if they know of a sawmill in your area, then call them...someone would love to have the tree, and will be experienced in dropping it.


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## HandyPete (Mar 23, 2008)

Pay $700 - $1000 bucks to cut a tree down? :no:

That said, I agree it's a really dangerous job to do but, a telescopic lift can do a lot to improve safety! 

yep, lift, experienced chain saw operator, ropes, doing small pieces at a time, PPE and lots of planning....

- pete

BTW...Do the job during the week when the kids are at school and the neighbors at work!


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## NateHanson (Apr 15, 2007)

joasis said:


> Cutting a tree down of this size is not a DIY project. The weight alone could kill someone easily.


Given the quality of the advice in this thread, I'd have to agree. Felling a tree is not rocket science. But it's not something to do for your first time on a 70' tree, alone, with buildings nearby. My dad grew up felling trees and driving a logging truck through his childhood, and I've learned how to cut trees from him. Starting small, and working my way up as I got older. I've been doing it for 15 years, and I'm still very aware of how a poor decision can cost you an expensive saw, or much worse, your life, and I think carefully before taking down a large tree. A big tree weighs a few tons. All that weight is way way up in the air, and you're going to make it fall down. It's a risky proposition. Definitely worth some respect, and worth learning how to do properly.

If you've got a decent saw, start with reading the manual. It should have a decent primer of tree felling techniques. I've noticed that my Husqy manuals have 5 pages or so about the various cuts used to fell trees of various sizes, and basic info on how to do it safely. It's no substitute for actually learning those techniques from someone with experience, but it will give you an idea of how it's done, so you can learn something while you watch a professional do it. With a tree that's standing straight you can pretty reliably make it fall in the direction you want it to by the way you make your cuts . . . and not by parking your truck up against it. :whistling2: 

IMO renting a lift, still with no idea how to fell a tree is just asking for more trouble. What the heck are you going to do with a 40' lift? Cut off the top 30' of the log from the lift? Hope that the saw doesn't hang up, and that the 1000 pound log just happens to fall away from your perch on the lift!? :huh:

Also, you'll need a saw with a bar as long as the diameter of the tree (yes you can fell a tree wider than your bar, but that's yet another technique). If you've got a 14" Poulan from HD, then this is a bad idea, skills or no skills. 

You can try calling a logger, but if the tree is in close quarters it won't be useful to a mill, as it will have to be taken down in small sections. If there's enough space to fell the tree whole, you may be able to find an independent logger who will fell it for free, but it's probably not worth it for him to come fell and transport a single log to the mill. Cost of fuel alone will be more than what he can sell that log for.


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

Update: The guy who mows my lawn (he's cheaper than buying a mower and paying for gas!) says I should be able to get a tree co (with insurance, he added) to fell the tree and then stump it less expensively. He said a lot of the cost of an estimate is for removing the wood.

Once it was down, he said he could delimb it, cut it up and haul it away.

PS. I have a STIHL.


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## Brik (Jan 16, 2007)

Yes I have. But I do have a somewhat of a horror story too. 

I was taking a limb down for a friend. It was close quarters between two houses. The limb was going to be roped to the ground. Pretty simple, or so it seemed.


below the limb were my friends prized petunias. Actually I have no fricken idea what kind of weed it was we just needed to protect them at all costs.

I rig up the limb and have a long line secured to the truck an plety of room to lower using the truck. My friend insists that the ends of the branches might reach the object of his affection below. I say nah, he says ya.

Against my better judgement he gets me to tie off different that how I wanted so the limb will swing more to the side instead of lowering straight down.

Long story short - I mis-estimated the weight on either side of my tie off point and the limb sea-sawed and swung into the neighbors house! DT&^&%$

Now a half hour project turned into an all day project replacing siding, a couple of wall studs and some interior paneling!

I knew better and I should have just walked away.


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## Vermonster (Mar 4, 2008)

Best advice in this thread is to call around local tree removal companies, and always ask if they are bonded (insured). We are in the process of doing the same thing with an old pine and actually found a guy that is reasonable and an arborist. 

If something bad is going to happen - let the other guy's insurance pay for it...


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## lanispet (Mar 25, 2008)

NateHanson said:


> IMO renting a lift, still with no idea how to fell a tree is just asking for more trouble. What the heck are you going to do with a 40' lift? Cut off the top 30' of the log from the lift? Hope that the saw doesn't hang up, and that the 1000 pound log just happens to fall away from your perch on the lift!? :huh:


i was pretty curious about that myself! 

The question that's still outstanding is how close this tree is to something that you don't want demolished. It makes a considerable difference. 

The first tree i felled (only the second time i'd used a chainsaw) was a 40' live oak that was maybe 25' from my house, and slightly angled towards it... but it had also been dead so long that it had no branches whatsoever, and i had a full 180 degrees of safe area to drop it. i used a whole bunch of 3/8" chain, some 1-ton ratchet straps, and some splitting wedges to help put it down where i wanted it. Came within about 15 degrees. In a tight suburban yard, that would have been a whole different story.


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## Kyle (Sep 12, 2006)

Hold my beer and watch this...


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## Mr Chips (Mar 23, 2008)

joasis said:


> Cutting a tree down of this size is not a DIY project.


 
*Says who ???* 

Cutting down trees is easy.


with no experiance or training i cut this one down all by myself.....:thumbsup: 












( not really me... and if it was I certainly would have destroyed pictures, negatives, and even camera)


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## joasis (May 28, 2006)

Great picture! Not only can property damage be considered, but a few years ago I read a news story about a blow down tree...and the HO got out the chainsaw and proceeded to cut it up...when he sawed across the trunk, the root ball rolled back into the hole...and his young son was down in the hole, out of his sight......he paid for this folly with his son's life. Very sad....


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## NHERal (Mar 24, 2008)

Yup...

















it helps when you have toys to "persuade" the tree









if your worried at all about the direction of the fall, best spend the 500+ to have it downed...plus you dont have to worry about the clean up...but then again the fire wood is nice 









Sorry been playing with the camera


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## Leah Frances (Jan 13, 2008)

*Tree Removal Update*

Last week I had another tree service come out to check out my dead Spruce. Assuming their insurance checks out - I am going to bring in a Pro. He wrote an estimate to remove 6 trees and grind all stumps for $1200.

He will leave the burnable wood in "fireplace lengths" (maple, mulberry, and holly - hopefully, by the time we can afford to get the fireplaces working it will be nice and dry). And he has a lumber mill friend who might be willing to mill the spruce for me.

Like I said, *as long as his insurance checks out*, I can't justify DIY'ing it at that price.

Now I've got to pay someone to spray the hornets living in one of the dead trees.:laughing:


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## Potomac101 (Dec 18, 2007)

About 10 days ago I decided to cut down a dead tree, app. 40', that was about 20' from my house. I've done this before, but I'm no pro so I went online to read up on the process. 

I sized up the lean of the tree and determined that it was very well balanced. I tied a rope to it about 20' up and tied the other end to a nearby tree - maybe 35' away. Rather than use the perfectly good chain and a come-along that I have in the basement, I settled for just using the rope . The funny thing is that had I been advising someone else, I would have insisted that they use the chain/come-along.

I notched the tree in the direction I wanted the tree to fall, made sure that I had escape routes, and cut the back side of the tree toward the notch. The tree did not move - at all. It didn't settle back on the bar nor did it lean toward the notch - nothing.

With the tree perfectly balanced and only "hinge" left, I was REALLY sorry that I hadn't used the chain and had some wedges ready.

I had intentionally picked a windless day, but I still wasn't comfortable leaving the tree for even a few minutes. I ran around to what I was thinking of as the "kill zone," grabbed the rope, pulled down hard, and ran like hell. Without hesitation the tree came right on over.

I did a lot of this correctly, but with something like this, "most" is not enough!

I told a neighbor what I had done. He tried to explain to me how he had recently cut down much larger trees and dropped them in directions opposite to their natural lean without using ropes/chains etc. It involved placing the notch about 45 degrees around from the direction you want the tree to fall and then cutting into the notch from the side. I guess that as the tree falls, it swings on the partial hinge in the desired direction.

Does this work and can it be done safely?


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## Brik (Jan 16, 2007)

Potomac101 said:


> Does this work and can it be done safely?



I'm not quoting the technique because I'm not positive you described it correctly. But yes, a tree CAN be felled in a direction other than its natural lean (to a point). I know a guy who can drop most any tree on a dime. He does it for a living, every day, for 30+ years. I have read discussions on this technique at Arborsite (a forum for loggers, arborists and chainsaw guys). I have seen it done. I would not do it personally if it would cost more than the hassle of not having the tree where I wanted. If structures needed to be avoided by using this technique then leave it to the pros.


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## NateHanson (Apr 15, 2007)

I agree with Brik. The technique you're describing does work, and I've used it with a pretty good success rate, but like Brik I would not attempt to fell against the lean if there was a house at stake. I'd leave that to the pros, and there are plenty of those up here in timber-country. 

Nate


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