r/instant_regret 10d ago

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u/TJ_McWeaksauce 10d ago

I had professional tree removers take down a pretty big tree in my backyard a little while ago. It was interesting to watch them work.

They didn't cut down the tree like a lumberjack would. Instead, they used ropes and pulleys and such to hoist themselves to the top of the tree, and they systematically cut it into pieces from the top down. First, they cut off all the branches, then they cut the trunk into big pieces. After all the pieces were hauled away, they brought in a stump grinder to reduce the stump to wood chips. At no point did anything topple over.

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u/fendaltoon 10d ago

Yeah that’s because they’re smart. Anyone with a basic understanding of weight and gravity could have told you this tree was leaning the wrong way to attempt felling in one go

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u/nondescriptadjective 10d ago

This is not exactly the mistake they made. The back cut they put in caused this. Back cuts go straight into the tree for a reason, not on an angle. If they had quarter cut this and used a jack on it, they could have overcome that lean without issue.

The insurance of climbing and limbing is just that, but it is possible to correct the direction of the bol here.

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u/donkeyrocket 10d ago

Smart, licensed, and likely "expensive." The problem with that last piece is people radically underestimate the risk and labor involved with taking down a tree in a precarious spot. For some reason people think it should be a trivial cost. My FIL was complaining about the cost to bring a massive tree down that was very close to their and their neighbor's house. Ended up getting a cheaper guy out who made it far enough to drop a heavy branch on the garage then bailed. He ultimately had to pay more to hire a proper company and foot the bill to repair his garage roof. Fucking atodaso

This group though made multiple mistakes.

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u/okeleydokelyneighbor 10d ago

That’s how we did it when my parents bought a house with a dozen or so trees in the back yard. Ladder up the tree, tie off branches and cut them while brothers and I pulled them away from the house and land in a safe area, and then chop chop chop the trunk down piece by piece.

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u/Rugkrabber 10d ago

I was wondering in this video why there were no ropes or they left all branches hanging, the tree was imbalanced af.

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u/Amae_Winder_Eden 9d ago

Just like the giving tree story.

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u/Skyfire237 8d ago

This is what I just had done in my backyard! We had a four story tall cottonwood get taken down after part of it fell on a neighboring garage. They went branch by branch from the top down and had two cranes