Sycamore removal

dstimber

dstimber

TreeHouser
Joined
Jul 5, 2015
Messages
590
Location
NW Tennessee
I have 2 young very healthy sycamores to remove coming up. Anything special to watch out for? It?ll be my first time dealing with one aloft.

7f26a4e8ddea074b6abdfde539a82f91.jpg


First one has a 10x15 drop zone.

9b09f7aa209c09c4d9cdf78a64a1ceb3.jpg


The 2nd is pretty much out in the open.
 
The wood is heavier than it looks. Hinges very nicely. Your cuts will want to peel if you're not careful, use your undercuts profusely. Many people are allergic to the sawdust.
 
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  • #4
Luckily I don?t think I?m allergic. We saw a lot of it in the mill. Pretty stuff rift and quarter sawn.

I know all to well about them being slick. Busted my tail once taking a short cut across some logs while it was raining.
Poplar in the early summer when he sap is up and the bark falls off the logs is by far the worst. Couldn?t tell you how many times myself and others have takin a spill on that stuff.
 
Also thin bark and dense wood. Make sure your spurs are sharp and be mindful of getting a good bite when you spur in.
 
With that slick bark I prefer to put my RB up high with a marl close to my rigging point on the piece being rigged. Never lost one yet that way and I’m not about to do it differently. And yes it’s heavy dense wood. With the trees not in bloom yet you’ll be ok. They actually get a fibrous growth on the bottom of the leaves (plus those damn seed pods) that are almost fiberglass like. There is a fancy name for them which escapes me at the moment. Have fun,chip it up, collect the check! Clean your chipper air filter afterwards because even in winter there seems to be those hairs on embedded in the bark
 
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  • #8
Thanks for the input!

What do you guys think about these roots.
Customer wants them gone but I told him it would be very expensive. He owns a big construction company. I told him it would be cheaper if his crew could dig them up. And just have the stump ground

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Both trees are this way
 
My stump guy would skim the surface roots with the stump grinder. Doesn't take that much longer and he doesn't charge me much extra.
 
Just chase them out with the grinder as said.

Get one of those mattocks for slicing and chopping out bits and bobs as well.
 
Denver, what is your plan of attack with the long branches in a tight drop zone?


Can you pull the gate post and fence section to access with a truck, or is there a drag through that gate or otherwise? Is that a double gate for the garage?

Chipping, brush hauling?
 
Surely he would just cut them shorter?

Working residential in London, you nearly always had to piece a limb out to make it fit or rig and control it. Over here you just seem to have the luxury of cutting at the collar nearly everytime.
 
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  • #15
I may have found another good stump guy close to me. I talked to him and he seemed very interested. He is a retired tree guy. Not sure on the size grinder he has but it?s a larger Carlton tracked machine. Prices seemed very reasonable too. So I may give him a go on a few jobs.

I?m weighing my options on the longer branches on the sycamore in that tight square hole. Either cut them short or tip tie maybe, notch on top and let my ground guy stand them up With a pulley set up or rope jack. Not sure yet. None of the branches are big. 3-4? tops at the collar.... if that big. Leaning more toward rigging the tip , cut short then drop what?s left over.

I?m going to stage brush by the drive way. If it can all go in 1-2 trips with my dump trailer I?ll leave the chipper at home.

The fence can go. The owner is planning on a brick fence after the trees/stumps are gone.
 
Big city residential work is really tough mentally I reckon, late starts because of traffic jams, telephone/power lines, abandoned cars, greenhouses, stoner groundies, wanker neighbours, horrible drags round houses, nowhere to take a piss, a different challenge to mega stuff of course but once you’ve done it for a wage most things are easy in comparison.
 
Gotta agree with you there Mick. Most of my tree career has been in cities. London in particular.

Some of the trees are bigger here but they seem to be a fair bit easier... Maybe I am just more chilled due to the lack of traffic, wanker neighbours, stoner groundies, horrible drags and stuff.

Or probably because the money is much better here, so I just get on with it and don't let the shitty stuff get to me. I know I feel a lot less stressed now the family and I are out of South East London. ;)
 
That seems like a waste of time. Just tie it half way out and cut it off, let the end drop and lower it. In 40 years of tree work I've never stood up a limb, unless it was already nearly vertical and it was just easier to tip tie it and lower.
 
Also, if you have a chipper then my suggestion is to use it. Shortly after buying my first chipper I had a small job cleaning out broken limbs and hangers at a bank. It was a 2 hour job with about 15 trees, nothing bigger than 2" diameter. I had just picked up my new dump trailer so I figured it wasn't worth bringing the chipper and chip truck. We could throw everything in the dump trailer, easy peasy.

What a mistake that was. My guy spent the entire 2 hours stomping limbs into the trailer. That was the last time we left the chipper and chip truck at home. If you have an entire removal then IMO you will double your brush handling time by leaving the chipper at home.
 
Devils advocate here, since you have access to more iron than the typical starting out tree co, if you have something like a grapple truck or mini ex with a grapple, you can simply bypass the chipper completely. If not, shoving branches in a trailer really sucks, so maybe a chipper.
 
I have 2 young very healthy sycamores to remove coming up. Anything special to watch out for?
Click to expand...
I found the hinge quality a little deceptive for a such strong wood. The fibers are tough and hold well the load, but the hinge breaks free sooner than expected. You can get some swing but don't rely too much on it for target clearance.
 
Second on the hinge not holding too long. I have to do one like in your first pic Wednesday. It's very dead and limbs are already breaking out.
 
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