Lightning struck trees died. HO's Insurance coverage?

[SouthSoundTree]

Please share experiences with:

1) lightning struck Doug-fir barely alive after strike 8 months ago. Two adjacent trees were also killed by the lightning, seemingly from the grafted roots. They are fully dead. Removal considerations...

2) HO's Insurance paying for removal

3) HO's Insurance paying for loss of value due to removal of (3) 40"x 110' Doug-firs. Valuation for such trees.

I would hate to lose the job (former coworker, but not someone I know) by Insurance Co. requiring three bids. I could be the last bid perhaps, but the homeowner has no stake, either way. If he's not paying personally, except a deductable or something, he would appreciate saving $2K, and might show such appreciation one way or the other. Never know. He could be shopping around, too.

 

[jalegre0]

if a friend, give him estimate, then tell him after handing him your bid if one of these guys come in lower than me let me know i'll see if i can beat. 9 out of ten times when homeowner says insurance job other tree companies always bid high. So in your case bid medium.
*** Also ask how insurance company wants estimate written, sometimes they only alot a certain amount of $ for removal of debri(usually $500)

 

[SimplyArbor]

Guide for plant appraisal is great! I can lend you mine in a a week or two... Its actually really basic formulas for tree valuation and since the trees are still standing, its basically plug and go.

I generally expect payment once work is complete and HO is reimbursed by the insurance. Most ins. co's will pay up to $500 of 'cleanup' and then cover 'rigging and removal safely'. See if you can get some insight to the ins. policies on that to best help of the acquaintance. So if it's a $2800 job, $500 is the cleanup and $2300 is climbing/rigging.

I would definitely charge for the tree valuation. You may have an upper hand if the other co's cannot produce a basic tree valuation that can be backed and verified by the ins. co.

As for the lightning strikes, i've only done a handful of lightning struck pines. Be wary of root damage and structural cracks in the stem. If it blasted them hard enough to kill adjoining trees, there is likely some structural weakness going on. Crane?

 

[jalegre0]

Guide for plant appraisal is great! I can lend you mine in a a week or two... Its actually really basic formulas for tree valuation and since the trees are still standing, its basically plug and go.

I generally expect payment once work is complete and HO is reimbursed by the insurance. Most ins. co's will pay up to $500 of 'cleanup' and then cover 'rigging and removal safely'. See if you can get some insight to the ins. policies on that to best help of the acquaintance. So if it's a $2800 job, $500 is the cleanup and $2300 is climbing/rigging.

I would definitely charge for the tree valuation. You may have an upper hand if the other co's cannot produce a basic tree valuation that can be backed and verified by the ins. co.

As for the lightning strikes, i've only done a handful of lightning struck pines. Be wary of root damage and structural cracks in the stem. If it blasted them hard enough to kill adjoining trees, there is likely some structural weakness going on. Crane?

thanx for explaining what I was trying to say.

 

[old irish]

Sean, as far as the value of the Doug Firs goes, I believe that $600 per thousand should put you in the ball park. That would be delivered to the mill. If they are high quality old growth (tight rings, straight etc.) you might go higher to a specialty mill for beams. Hauling costs would probably be 25% depending on distance to mill. Use a self loader truck. But you probably knew that. You can use Scribner's to scale the logs, or estimate the scale.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Pat, I'm talking loss of property value, not log value. The property loss value could be thousands per tree, plus there are the logs. One tree, the direct hit is a firewood tree.

Will be craning likely.

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[SouthSoundTree]

Yay Tapatalk 4

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[SouthSoundTree]

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[Reddog]

I have never seen an ins company pay for a tree removal alive or dead standing, if it was laying on the house then they may pay.
Still standing and it is the owners problem.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I agree.

 

[RopeArmour]

I have never seen an ins company pay for a tree removal alive or dead standing, if it was laying on the house then they may pay.
Still standing and it is the owners problem.

I agree. Lightning strike in conis almost always manifests as spiraling dieback, like a spiral staircase.
My guess the causal agent is something else.
The power of the sun is some crazy crazy.

 

[stehansen]

I have been involved in a couple of insurance cases and the insurance co would pay for any repairs to the house. If the tree was laying on the house and presented a hazard they would pay to remove it, but the payment was limited to $800.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

I'm figuring that a lightning strike might be an act of god that will be something that constitutes a loss of property value. The dead trees are from a direct, acute incident by a force of nature.


HO is not a friend. He emailed me yesterday saying he wanted the bid, as he had other bids in, and wanted to know what I needed to do the job. Haven't heard whether he's contacted his insurance agent. I put in a moderate price. Enogh to make money. Easy crane set-up and they don't know/ have a map of the drainfield. The trees are up on two foot retaining walls, build after the trees (burying the trees butts). He doesn't really care about the retaining walls. Bombing onto raised bed is a possibility, if you want to move all those rounds, individually.

We'll see.

 

[Reddog]

Here the specific trees would need to be on a ins rider to be covered by a property lose value clause. Just like jewelry and firearms have very low limits under the standard clause.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Erik did a valuation for a pine that was damaged in a storm. I don't know the outcome. I was surprised at the value of a smaller pine 40'ish.



My neighbors work for State farm, wife a vehicle adjuster, husband a house/ property adjuster. I'll ask them about it.

 

[Tucker943]

Insurance companies dont pay for standing dead trees. We'd all be billing a portion of our annual work out to insurance companies if that was the case. Lightning strike being an act of God doesn't bear any weight. You could call any tree ailment an act of God. Figure insurance right out of the game and go from there. If anything, an insurance agent could look at that dead tree and demand the HO have it down promptly at the HO's expense. I wouldn't even let the insurance company know its there. That will bite the HO in the butt.

 

[Tucker943]

Ive also never head of insurance companies paying a HO for a value of a tree if it comes down.

 

[sotc]

Like Reddog said, if the tree isn't insured, they won't pay for the removal. They actually may tell homeowner to have the trees removed at his expense or they won't cover him knowing he has a higher risk of loss

 

[SouthSoundTree]

HO said insurance company gave him a fixed amount per tree, but not enough to cover half of $3875 bid price. He said via email that this situation is what he expected. I don't know what that means.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

They cover them here if fire damaged....

 

[SouthSoundTree]

As the lightning struck tree has large branches 360, it will be hard to set down with a non-limbed crane pick. I'm thinking of speed lining the limbs and craning the wood. The trunk looks mostly intact. Any input on this plan. There is a minimal horizontal distance to get to the chipper. This should minimize side loading. Once half to two third of the way up, it will be cut and chuck.

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[Thillmaine]

Did a hemlock 4-5 years ago that was lightning struck with a crane. When the pieces got set on the ground, it splintered into kindling vertically. Not sure how comfortable I'd be doing those trees craneless, even if there was no rigging. Why are you objecting to setting pieces down with the braches still attached? Too much time to set it down and cut limbs off? tryin to save some money on the crane?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Perhaps there isn't much of a LZ to work with.

 

[SouthSoundTree]

Big landing zone. My groundie(s) are not that adept at cutting stuff like that proficiently. Its got 4-6" x 25-30' branches sticking out 360 degrees. I could limb it fine on the ground and ride back up, but thought limbing would allow an in-tree inspection, cut down on clusterfooks when $200/ hour is ticking away. I don't want to have to do all that , but it might be the easiest way.

I suppose I could choke a line to the tree and rap out on a figure 8/ ATC each time. Easy on, easy off, easy on, rinse, repeat.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Many times, especially with multiple pines, I'll strip them to a snag then have the crane come in and airlift them out. Other times, whole picks. Every job is different...