God is Mad at Me Again

[ROAD Soldier]

No boat bucks for the next 2 years thanks to Gods latest temper tamp trine. When will that guy learn to take a joke .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM9UUwdjHVI

[RobertB]

$8500 seems awful extreme. My guess is that your tree guy is insisting on using a crane - understandable since the tree is split. I have had my tree guy (in MD north of DC) bring a large crane and work on 6 trees for way less than what you are quoted ( I have a full lot of large oak trees). Are you paying a premium based on high demand? Might consider fastening a heavy chain in place and waiting several weeks while getting other quotes.

[gyroplanes]

I don't know much about these things, but it almost looks like it would be cheaper and easier to take down the wires temporarily, and fell the tree in that direction???

After a storm here, we were quoted a silly high price to take down a limb that had cracked. During the night, it fell in my yard and the city hauled it away for free.

I guess your deity likes me

[pokerrick1]

First of all - - - CONRATS on making Admiral!!

Second of all - - -I have some swampland I'd like to sell you!

You need to get more quotes OR find a way to do some (if not all) of it yourself, I'd rent some equipment (including a log cutter - - - you won't need wood for the fireplace for a few years) throw a men only tree party; and let the macho guys do their thing! Force the tree to fall away from the house and the rest is just work.

When boat bucks are involved - - - the need is to be creative - - - you can't waste boat bucks

Rick

[mastreb]

I think it's worth paying a professional to do anything that has any significant likely hood of killing me, such as roofing or removing trees.

[zoneboy]

No boat bucks for the next 2 years thanks to Gods latest temper tamp trine. When will that guy learn to take a joke .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM9UUwdjHVI

Have you checked out your home insurance, they might at least cover part of it. I had a tree about that size smash through my fence only doing a small portion of damage as well as destroyed my rusty, holey above ground pool that was already garbage, and they gave me around $1,500 to have it removed. Perhaps, seeing your predicament they could offer to give you more.

Edit:
Left out pool part.. I don't think it contributed much to the overall payment though.

[ROAD Soldier]

Simply put the people that removed my tree had the only equipment around these parts that could do it. I had three other contractors show up and run scared after seeing what would it take. The cheapest route would have been to let the tree hit the house then have the insurance pay for it. I didn't want to go through the hassle of not having a house for that long. Also due to the situation around here with to amount of work for tree service people and the freak-en Maryland Wildlife Conservation regulations is why it costed so much. After watching the contractor take down the tree I and my wife a truly lucky to be alive. Just when 3 foot sections of that tree hit the ground it shook the house. The trees here are much heavier than in Colorado where the biggest and heaviest one there is a cottonwood tree. Take 3 feet of this oak tree and tree feet of a cottonwood tree of the same diameter and the oak tree will be 3 to 4 times heavier. The split was aiming for our bedroom. Now the suggestion was made to chain it and wait for the tree service people to be less occupied and get a better quote, well I got news for you that is what I was doing but the split was getting larger each day regardless of how many straps I put on it. Time was running out and the next big windy day/night or storm would have done it in. Lessens learned here:
1. Dont buy a house with large trees close to it that don't have good directions to make them fall.
2. Read all state, property and wildlife conservation laws prior to deciding what property to buy. Maryland is much more regulated than even the Commonwealth of Virginia which I use refer to as the Communist-wealth when I lived there. The eastern states in general are so much more regulated than Colorado and I think Maryland is the worst one.

[Catigale]

People's Repulic of Taxachusetts takes the cake for best reg stories IMHO , but the EmpiREgulation state of NY isn't far behind...

....but I will take umbrage at your suggestion to buy a house without trees....one of the most beautiful things in life...plus they give us bags to put over our heads when needed

[RobertB]

I am going to guess you live near water if the state is in your face about trees. Interesting that they let the sections fall, when I have had large trees taken down, they actually used a crane - not a cherry picker. The guy with the saw was lifted by the hook to the tree - not sitting in a basket. End result, the tree was lowered gently to the ground in large sections where it was cut up.

[pokerrick1]

The cheapest route would have been to let the tree hit the house then have the insurance pay for it.

I like it!!!

Rick

[Uncle Jim]

If it was that close to the wires the power comp, MDOT or another agency might have removed it. I grew up in Alexandria, Va with an acre of old white oaks. we'd loose one every few years and most of them would be taken down for us. If anyone wonders about how difficult (read expensive) it is in MD to remove a tree, just look at all of the power still out in DC and MD. You cannot even trim a tree back even if the branches have grown around the wires or the wire grown into the trunk itself.


btw, if it had fallen the branches would of cushioned most of the impact, might have lost a window and part of the porch.

[Boblee]

The predicament you found yourself in is exactly why I removed the trees from around our house and new shed, sure we have regs here to prevent removing trees so just didn't tell anyone when I was going to do anything but lopped them first and then progressively lopped them until there was nothing left to prune , did get a proffesional in to do one in the front yard as it was a bit close and tall but from memory that only cost a couple of hundred dollars for the cherry picker (big one).
Our eucalypts are a very dirty tree and drop branches fairly regularly and not something you want around the house especially when they get taller, commonly called widow makers when camping.

[Russ]

I have one tree in my yard. I think I'm cutting it down now.

[Sea Wind]

Sorry to hear that. With the big storm last year, the tree closest to the house fell right between the house and the shed, it only took down one section of the fence and damaged some of my neighbor's yard. We were pretty lucky. At the time the insurance said that it was not going to cover it as the deductible for this kind of event was 3% of the house value. Then, one day the insurance called saying that it was going to be covered with my regular deductible which is less than boat buck and I got a nice check on the mail, it even covered repairs for the fence which I did myself. My tree was completely down on the ground, so I could have done it myself if I had the time, but I got quoted to take down the next tree next to the house which is healthy at the moment for 4 boat bucks, it is about 50 feet tall.

Sea wind

[robbarnes1965]

First of all - - - CONRATS on making Admiral!!

Second of all - - -I have some swampland I'd like to sell you!

You need to get more quotes OR find a way to do some (if not all) of it yourself, I'd rent some equipment (including a log cutter - - - you won't need wood for the fireplace for a few years) throw a men only tree party; and let the macho guys do their thing! Force the tree to fall away from the house and the rest is just work.

When boat bucks are involved - - - the need is to be creative - - - you can't waste boat bucks

Rick

Sound like the advice that would come from a guy who's handle is "pokerrick1"

Honestly, though, tough call. I think you did the right thing but I do think it was expensive. I had to have a similar tree removed between mine and my neighbors house years ago. I was lucky enough to get a retired Hydro Quebec guy who went up the tree with a chainsaw on branches the squirrels were scared to go on. With the chainsaw and a guy on the ground with a line to direct the branches, those guys precision dropped every section. There were craters where the parts came down.