MasterBlaster
Administrator Emeritus
See? No lawyer could make a case against that, could they?
Not unless their first name was Kenny...
One I walked from
- Thread starter sotc
- Start date
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Not unless their first name was Kenny...
Burnham
Woods walker
Burnham
Woods walker
My services at drafting consultation reports may well be available in the future, peeps...keep it in mind 
SouthSoundTree
Treehouser
Burnham, without meaning this is a negative way, have you used both a drill and a resistograph on the same tree? I don't have the years of experience that you do. I find a lot more shades of gray revealed with the resistograph.
What about making the case for retention in an area with valuable targets, say for example of a historic or old-growth tree? Recommending removal is easy. If something goes south, and you recommended removal, you're covered. That is, unless your percentages are off. Are you really measuring as you drill?
What about making the case for retention in an area with valuable targets, say for example of a historic or old-growth tree? Recommending removal is easy. If something goes south, and you recommended removal, you're covered. That is, unless your percentages are off. Are you really measuring as you drill?
Burnham
Woods walker
Fair point Sean, regarding removal being the easy call, liability-wise. And not taken negatively in the least. And really, that post was at least 50% spoof 
.
Answer, no so far as trees. Bridge stringers, both manufactured gluelams and old fashioned natural logs, yes.
Here's the way I see it. Shades of grey do not exist when calling wood sound or not...it either is completely sound, i.e. full resistance to either the drill bit in my hands or to the resistograph in yours, or it is not. If it is not, I don't trust it to count for support, and I don't consider the "grey" as "sorta" sound. If the point of the analysis is to justify retention if possible, I especially would only consider fully sound in that quantification. "Grey" doesn't make the grade, in my mind. Maybe conservative, maybe just chicken.
And hell yes, I'm measuring. Stop the bit at the first hint of lessened resistance, mark the bit with a lumber crayon, pull it and measure/note, clear the spoil from the bit grooves and rub it between your fingers, evaluate...reinsert, run in another half inch, pull and evaluate the spoil again.
Nearly all pathologists, people who study this stuff hard, have never felled a tree, have never put the theoretical up against the real outcomes of trying to make a hinge function. Pardon my arrogance, but in this, I am pretty much as qualified as most of the doctorates I have rubbed shoulders with over the last 20+ years. And the smart ones I've worked with listen to me a least a bit.
.Answer, no so far as trees. Bridge stringers, both manufactured gluelams and old fashioned natural logs, yes.
Here's the way I see it. Shades of grey do not exist when calling wood sound or not...it either is completely sound, i.e. full resistance to either the drill bit in my hands or to the resistograph in yours, or it is not. If it is not, I don't trust it to count for support, and I don't consider the "grey" as "sorta" sound. If the point of the analysis is to justify retention if possible, I especially would only consider fully sound in that quantification. "Grey" doesn't make the grade, in my mind. Maybe conservative, maybe just chicken.
And hell yes, I'm measuring. Stop the bit at the first hint of lessened resistance, mark the bit with a lumber crayon, pull it and measure/note, clear the spoil from the bit grooves and rub it between your fingers, evaluate...reinsert, run in another half inch, pull and evaluate the spoil again.
Nearly all pathologists, people who study this stuff hard, have never felled a tree, have never put the theoretical up against the real outcomes of trying to make a hinge function. Pardon my arrogance, but in this, I am pretty much as qualified as most of the doctorates I have rubbed shoulders with over the last 20+ years. And the smart ones I've worked with listen to me a least a bit.
SkwerI
Treehouser
I'm going to agree with Burnham here. In our business you're basically looking for live wood vs dead or decayed wood. I've evaluated quite a few trees but never drilled one yet. If the tree is an imminent danger then there are almost always other external signs. Bad trees here will uproot rather than snap at the base of the trunk in most cases. I think of the resistograph as a CYA type of tool and not really interested in owning or even using one on our trees here in Florida.
