Owen Tree
Service received a call on January 29th to look at a tree for a homeowner in Flint. The home was in
the area of Belsay Rd.
and Carpenter Rd.
The customer said that her 70 foot sugar maple was making noises and she was concerned
because the tree was only 10 feet from her home.
When the
Owen Tree arborist arrived at the location he inspected the tree and diagnosed
the problem to be three 15 foot cracks in the 35 inch maple trunk on three
different sides of the tree! The homeowner wisely decided to have Owen Tree
Service remove the tree the following day before it fell on her home. This was
a potential disaster waiting to happen.
Our tree
removal crew quickly assessed that this would not be a normal tree removal due
to the fact of not being able to have any shock load on the structure of the
tree because of the weakened condition of the tree trunk. A shock load is when
the weight of a tree limb or piece of wood is put on a rope that has been ran
through a tree crotch or pulley that is attached to an opposite section of the
tree to move the object from one side of the tree to the other. This technique
is used in most cases when removing trees or tree limbs over a structure.
Photo 1. One of the cracks in the tree trunk is visible on the left side of the photo.
The crew
realized that the first order of business would be to stabilize the tree trunk
to keep it together during the tree removal. This was done by using a 5 inch
ratchet strap, a chain and binder, and large diameter rope to secure the trunk
from splitting apart during the removal process. With this completed, the tree
was stable and ready to be removed. The first task was to alleviate the weight
in the top of the tree to lighten the stress on the three cracks that were in
the lower trunk. Once this was done the crew was able to rig and rope the
sections that were over the house.
Photo 2 & 3. As soon as the ratchet strap was removed the tree trunk fell apart.
Photo 4. The bottom of the tree trunk - looking towards the top of the tree.
This tree
removal went very well thanks to the Owen Tree Service team whose experiences
came together to make this job safe for everyone involved. A situation that
could have been a fallen tree on a house ended up being a complicated, but
uneventful, tree removal.
This
particular job shows the importance of having periodic tree inspections performed
by a qualified arborist. If you are concerned about the condition of any mature
trees on your property contact us for a Hazardous Tree Assessment or learn more
about hazardous trees at: http://www.owentree.com/Hazardous_Trees.html
