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I Spent $6,500 On Some Old Wood


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Expensive weekend.

So, there's (well, there was) this old oak tree along my driveway. It had to be anywhere between 100 and 150 years old and it had been on borrowed time, probably for decades.
When I bought this house it was a nice, big tree, but now 25 years later, it had grown to a behemoth with limbs reaching up and over my roof.  What's worse is the area where the trunk emerged from the ground had swelled with several bowling-ball shaped protrusions, the tell-tale sign that ants had moved in and taken over.  One day they would have their way and the tree was going to go down.
Further inspection showed that it was hollow at the very top and if one found the right spot at the base, he could take a rod and push it right into the center of the trunk.
It had to go.

Peace of mind is priceless, but believe me when I tell you, I've spent twice as much as this on old wood at times, and I enjoyed it a whole lot more.

 

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                                                                                     KIZ , My brother in law went through a very similar situation here some 10 years ago and I don't remember the exact figure for the cost of the tree removal at that time but it was definitely NOT cheap. That tree of yours was a ticking time bomb waiting to fall. Its down now and you,your family and your home are safe. You can't put a price on peace of mind. 

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Daaaanng. Yeah that one had to go. The heart wood was mostly gone. Seen a lot of trees like that, AFTER they fell.  We used to have a lot of trees like that around the house where I grew up. They all either fell down, or had to be taken down.

Unfortunately they had been hollow for quite some time, and before my parents bought the house, they had been filled with cement.

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There was an oak tree in my yard that had limbs with 80 rings or more.  It was hollow, too.  One day lightning hit it and it started burning inside.  The hole at the bottom allowed oxygen to be drawn upward making it work like a rocket stove.  Tree removal was a lot easier. 

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And my asshole brother had a big oak next to his driveway that was 'in the way' and cut it down. A PERFECTLY HEALTHY OAK. Dumb ass. More than one of us wanted to beat him.

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7 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Did anyone give an estimated weight on what came down in that video.  Being hollow had to take some weight away, but there was still a couple of tons there. 

Is a lumber yard paying anything for that tree trunk? 

No to all questions. The trunk was pretty hollow, but it made a pretty sizeable crater in my neighbor's yard when it touched town.
You may not be able to tell, but it had been leaning toward his house, so he will gladly fix his yard and keep his mouth shut. I saved his life.

By the way, this is not the first 100+ year old oak I had to take down in a years time.

There was another at the back of my property which was just as large and had (unbeknownst to me for at least a year) been struck by lightning.
The dude who lives in the house behind mine got concerned and pointed it out to me because the side of the tree which showed no damage was the side which faced my house. The other side was pretty much dead. Oh, and it was leaning toward his house.

So, get this...
The tree guy comes to cut down this tree (the lightning one) and knocks on Man Bun's door (oh yeah, I forgot to mention asshole neighbor has a man bun and I can't remember his real name, so...) as a courtesy to tell him that enormous branches and logs will be falling on his lawn and this might tear it up some.  Man Bun isn't home, so my tree guy goes to work tearing down the tree.
As he expected, Man Bun's lawn had some fairly big divots from falling lumber.
Man Bun returns home that night to see the tree gone (a tremendous relief to him) and some craters in his lawn.
He sees me milling about in my back yard and approaches our fence.
MB: "You took that tree down, huh?"
Me: "Yeah, sure did." (...the sound of $4,000 being thrown out into the street still wafting in the air).
MB: "You know they dropped some logs and stuff on my grass. Messed it up a bit, but it's ok. I can level it back off and throw some seed down. No big deal."
Me: "That's good. Sorry about that."
MB: "Well, I would have appreciated a heads up, though, you know?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
MB: "I mean I would have appreciated a heads up that they were going to be working on my lawn and that it would get a little messed up."
Me:  (He has arrived at my edge) "Well, they knocked on your door and you weren't there.  I suppose I could have sent them home but I opted to prevent a tree from falling on your house."
Man Bun gave me an "Ok - take care" or something like that and went back to tending to his stupid fucking fire pit or picking up his dog shit, but that was pretty much the end of the discussion. Come to think of it, that's the last time we've spoken.

But, that's over TEN grand that I've spent in the past year to take down trees which were dead or dying and leaning away from my house.

Won't you be MY neighbor, mothafukka!

 

4 minutes ago, Tortious said:

Did you at least tie a yellow ribbon around it?

I was wondering who would be 1st.

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1 hour ago, kizanski said:

No to all questions. The trunk was pretty hollow, but it made a pretty sizeable crater in my neighbor's yard when it touched town.
You may not be able to tell, but it had been leaning toward his house, so he will gladly fix his yard and keep his mouth shut. I saved his life.

By the way, this is not the first 100+ year old oak I had to take down in a years time.

There was another at the back of my property which was just as large and had (unbeknownst to me for at least a year) been struck by lightning.
The dude who lives in the house behind mine got concerned and pointed it out to me because the side of the tree which showed no damage was the side which faced my house. The other side was pretty much dead. Oh, and it was leaning toward his house.

So, get this...
The tree guy comes to cut down this tree (the lightning one) and knocks on Man Bun's door (oh yeah, I forgot to mention asshole neighbor has a man bun and I can't remember his real name, so...) as a courtesy to tell him that enormous branches and logs will be falling on his lawn and this might tear it up some.  Man Bun isn't home, so my tree guy goes to work tearing down the tree.
As he expected, Man Bun's lawn had some fairly big divots from falling lumber.
Man Bun returns home that night to see the tree gone (a tremendous relief to him) and some craters in his lawn.
He sees me milling about in my back yard and approaches our fence.
MB: "You took that tree down, huh?"
Me: "Yeah, sure did." (...the sound of $4,000 being thrown out into the street still wafting in the air).
MB: "You know they dropped some logs and stuff on my grass. Messed it up a bit, but it's ok. I can level it back off and throw some seed down. No big deal."
Me: "That's good. Sorry about that."
MB: "Well, I would have appreciated a heads up, though, you know?"
Me: "What do you mean?"
MB: "I mean I would have appreciated a heads up that they were going to be working on my lawn and that it would get a little messed up."
Me:  (He has arrived at my edge) "Well, they knocked on your door and you weren't there.  I suppose I could have sent them home but I opted to prevent a tree from falling on your house."
Man Bun gave me an "Ok - take care" or something like that and went back to tending to his stupid fucking fire pit or picking up his dog shit, but that was pretty much the end of the discussion. Come to think of it, that's the last time we've spoken.

But, that's over TEN grand that I've spent in the past year to take down trees which were dead or dying and leaning away from my house.

Won't you be MY neighbor, mothafukka!

 

I was wondering who would be 1st.

Yep, unless you are a real-deal, 5th degree black black belt bad-ass in some marshal arts discipline or flipping a fried shrimp into my mouth from across a large grill in a Japanese restaurant with a spatula - you probably don't carry off a man-bun well.  A few do, but they are certainly the exception.

FYI - man bun's around here are frequently refereed to as, "Douche-knots" and those with them on top of their head usually can be found tugging on a "douche-pipe" (gigantic vape pen) surrounded by other their hipster brethren.

I'll bet money, marbles or chalk that your neighbor buddy has a beard, wears skinny jeans and thinks his group of other neck-bearded friends are the first one's to "discover" PBR as a good beer??    Just a hunch.

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In the Dakota’s we affiliate man buns with bed wetters... runnin round under mama’s skirt...  Baseball caps and cowboy hats... now that’s ok!!

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$6500? Wow! We had a 100 year old oak that the PO of the house built the home's deck around that started dropping branches on the roof, so it had to go. The tree service had to rent a crane to lift the trunk over our house, and I think that was "only" $3000.

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I had a hundred year oak sitting about ten feet from my home proper.  We had four hurricanes in just weeks.  Some may remember.  I tell the story that I experienced waking up and being standing next to my bed with no recollection of how I got out of bed!  Hurricane Charlie took down the canopy.  Two thirds of the tree remained.  Power lines and all cable/internet was knocked out for blocks each way.  Some cable weasel knocked and told me that I'd be responsible for the cost of restoring the fiber-optic cable destroyed by my fallen tree.  I used the term "act of god" and he looked confused.  I escorted him off my property.

I paid about $4,500 to have the tree removed.  I think it was about $800 to grind the stump.  That stump was five feet across.  It was reported to be the largest tree in our town in the paper.  You could see that tree from over two blocks away.  The aforementioned canopy covered about two thirds of my home.  When it rained, it took ten minutes for significant rain to hit my drive way or my roof.  I miss that damn tree.

I only have one live oak left on my property.  It's survived 100mph plus winds. 

I have two clients that specialize in tree work.  It's always fun to watch how much money they make after a hurricane.  Oaks live in fear of the wind  here in Central Florida.  But not on my property.  They don't live at all.  Not anymore.

 

 

 

 

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Our first house years ago had 99 year old Black Walnut tree on the west side of the house beautiful tree. It shaded the whole house we rarely had to run the AC in the summer it shaded the house so well. Then we had a huge spring storm came thru the area and lighting split in half. one half landing on my house the other half fell across the side street on top of my neighbors truck. I was lucky insurance covered everything new roof, siding and window's. Had 3 tree service company's bidding on the job they all wanted the wood. A few on members may know of the storm because it hit there home town of St Peter MN so much harder than it my little town just west of them Nicollet.

 

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Tree work is expensive, and for a reason. Beware of ‘cheap’ (unless it’s a close friend or family member in the biz.) There is mucho danger from both life and possession perspectives... Lots of guys have been killed taking down trees, which is why you hire the pros. What’s your life worth? More than $10k, I’d say. It sucks, but now it won’t nag the hell out of you until it falls.

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5 hours ago, geoff_hartwell said:

Hahaha 

Were there any guitars involved?

Corrected: How many guitars will be made out of it?

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That's a bummer.  When we purchased our home it had a 120' oak tree in the front yard, they charged me $1,000 to take it down because they sold the wood to a lumber mill.  The tree guy said there are so few trees around that are large and healthy anymore the wood is very desirable for flooring.   I simply didn't want to deal with the leaves. 

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16 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

That's a bummer.  When we purchased our home it had a 120' oak tree in the front yard, they charged me $1,000 to take it down because they sold the wood to a lumber mill.  The tree guy said there are so few trees around that are large and healthy anymore the wood is very desirable for flooring.   I simply didn't want to deal with the leaves. 

So you recognized that tree for all that it was worth like John Denver suggested years ago, didn't you? 

 

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2 minutes ago, Ed Rechts said:

I feel ya. I have a family of trash pandas living in the large oak in my backyard, and I'm tired of dealing with the overwhelming cuteness.

What's the average rental fee for a chainsaw capable taking down a tree this size?

 

trashpandas.jpg

Taking a tree down that is over 30' in height is a professional job that normally requires climbing.  If you just drop a big tree, it is very difficult to aim it correctly and when it hits the ground you have a lot of lawn damage as a result.   A tree guy climbs up like a squirrel and drops the limbs, then the trunk in 36" sections unless it is being harvested.  Our tree was taken in over 20' lengths with a crane to preserve the wood and to get it onto an 18-wheeler flat bed.  

I've witnessed MANY chainsaw mishaps in 30+ years of the equipment rental industry. 

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Once the limbs are cut off it becomes clear which way the tree is most likely to fall.  What seemed straight may actually be leaning. 

One time I helped someone who had a crew take down a large tree.  When pulling on the rope it was made absolutely clear not to yank the rope, just consistently pull.  Trees can snap backward if you yank the rope. 

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13 minutes ago, Steve Haynie said:

Once the limbs are cut off it becomes clear which way the tree is most likely to fall.  What seemed straight may actually be leaning. 

One time I helped someone who had a crew take down a large tree.  When pulling on the rope it was made absolutely clear not to yank the rope, just consistently pull.  Trees can snap backward if you yank the rope. 

You cannot win against gravity.  People convince themselves three 160lb guys pulling on a rope against a 5,000 lb. tree will be sufficient.  

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44 minutes ago, Studio Custom said:

I've witnessed MANY chainsaw mishaps in 30+ years of the equipment rental industry. 

I just remembered someone who died taking down a tree.  I was acquainted with him in the early 80's when he supplied a PA system to some friends' band.  The guy's family owned a lumber mill, and he had taken down many trees over the years.  One came down, knocked him over, and rolled on top of him.  Everyone who knew him said he knew what he was doing when he took down a tree. 

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