Worth it or Not?

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Berner

Berner

Feeling the Heat
Feb 1, 2012
388
Eastern, MA
I've got a few large coniferous trees on my property that I need to take down. They run about 80 to 90 ft tall and are 15-25 feet from my house. I live in a pretty tight nit community. If I attempted to take these down myself I would definitely be putting my house in danger and probably two of my neighbors houses as well.

With my tail between my legs I might start shopping around for a tree company to come and fell them for me. Would you guys keep this wood for burning or have them haul it off? I know burning Pine isn't ideal and from the looks of these trees I would have a LOT of it.

Initially I think that hauling any wood off is a waste. At the least I could use it for outdoor fires. On the other hand I don't have all the room in the world for wood storage and frankly storing 3 years worth of hardwood is going to be challenge.

What would you do? IMG_0298.jpg
 
Cut and keep . . . they should season up in a year. Great for shoulder season fires or camp fires.
 
Looks to be a type of spruce; not the greatest heat output but it's in your yard and it will be good shoulder wood. If you have room for all of it keep it, if not keep some and let the service take the rest. I don't know that you could sell the logs for lumber because they're "yard wood" and mills don't like yard wood. That's because of the chance of hidden nails and the like in the wood can damage equipment and injure employees. There was a day when those trees would have made some nice masts for sailing ships in your area.
 
Tell your tree guy that you will gladly take several loads of oak/locust/maple etc from his last and future job(s) in exchange for taking away your Norway Spruce. And then pay him to cut the trees down.

Those trees are going to cost a lot more to get on the ground than they are worth as fuel. Use them to gain a long term relationship with a tree service.
 
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I have burned some Norway Spruce and it is pretty nice for quickly heating up the stove and flue. I'd keep it, especially any parts of the trunk that are free of knots. From the pics it looks like there may not be much of the trunk that doesn't have knots, but I'd still keep it.

The large lateral branches of Norway Spruce have smaller branches that hang down vertically, making the branches look sort of shaggy. I can see those vertical branches clearly in the photos. Also, the large cones of Norway Spruce are distinctive, but I don't see any in the photos.
 
Living in the land of soft woods like I do I would be keeping it but in your post you said you were tight on space. For me that would be the deciding factor. If you need the space for better woods then it might make sense to only keep a portion of it. One other thing to consider is that when you burn soft woods you never have to be three years ahead because it will season in one year or a bit less. I burn Lodgepole Pine and Larch and at the beginning of the season Im sitting on a season and a half of -20% mc wood which works well for me on my smaller lot.
 
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Thanks for your input guys. I'm going to shoot to keep it. I don't know exactly how many coords that is going to tally up to but we will see. As long as its not excessive I think I will be able to make it work. Besides it just means I will need to burn more which is a great problem to have!

Next question. I would imagine a tree company to come in with a crane will run thousands of dollars. Has anyone rented a boom lift to take down tall trees close to houses? I watched the town do a large oak this fall and he made it look pretty easy. Granted he was a "professional" but how bad could it be?

In total I have these three Norway Spruce's and two tall Oaks. All trees have a large hazard potential and will need to come down via crane or boom lift. My neighbor had one large Oak taken down for $1800. Yikes! I can't imagine what they would qoute me for 5.
 
The hardest thing there is all those branches. That is the trouble with pines and spruce and cedar etc; the all have numerous limbs to contend with so take about 3 times as long to cut one up.
 
Berner said:
Next question. I would imagine a tree company to come in with a crane will run thousands of dollars. Has anyone rented a boom lift to take down tall trees close to houses? I watched the town do a large oak this fall and he made it look pretty easy. Granted he was a "professional" but how bad could it be?
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One of my neighbors did this and it went pretty smoothly. He had a few standing dead trees close to his house, rented a boom lift, clamped himself in and went to town. It was only a few hundred bucks including delivery and pickup and I've got to imagine a tree service would have been a few thousand. If you can get someone to help cut if up as it falls to the ground that will be a lot easier.
 
tcassavaugh said:
how about renting a bucket trailer lift and taking them down in sections right where they stand, probably less than a bucket truck and should make taking them down a lot easier and cheaper too http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=bucket trailer lifts&qpvt=bucket trailer lifts&FORM=IGRE. i'd probably keep it but then again, i understand the need for space.
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Those bucket trailer lifts sure look sweet. Having a few moving arms would probably be helpful compared to the boom lift which have just one large one.

I have some friends that would relish in the opportunity to catch parts of trees as they fall from the sky.
 
Berner said:
Those bucket trailer lifts sure look sweet. Having a few moving arms would probably be helpful compared to the boom lift which have just one large one.

I have some friends that would relish in the opportunity to catch parts of trees as they fall from the sky.
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trailer lifts, in general, suck.... just imagine sitting in a bucket at the end of a fly rod.... I've used pretty much all of them... and while they all vary in their amount of terror.... they all suck. I would vastly prefer for my behind to be in the basket of a proper boom.. or "snork" lift...
 
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Berner said:
I watched the town do a large oak this fall and he made it look pretty easy. Granted he was a "professional" but how bad could it be?
Click to expand...
Granted, I'm probably more cautious than many, but this seems like the quote you read right before someone wins a Darwin Award.

At least get a couple of quotes before you decide to do it yourself. Someone here also suggested to me earlier that you could ask the tree service for two quotes, one would be the total package, and the second would be "they drop it, you clean it up." When I talked to a tree service, this made a big difference in the prices I was quoted.
 
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I'd cut it all up & keep it. The wood I'm burning this winter has a lot of softwood in it, and it's burning good. As I speak, actually. Not as much BTU/volume, of course, but BTUs are BTUs.

And, I would also cut up a lot of those limbs & keep most of them too. Slap together a sawbuck out of whatever you can, and pile the sawbuck full of the limbs in long lengths as you go. Strip off the green stuff, and the ends, of course. Then when the sawbuck gets full you can cut to length in no time. You'll have a nice pile of smaller fire-starter type stuff, and a lot less stuff to have to haul away.
 
In general I'm a pretty cautious guy as well. With two little ones now I'm even more cautious. However I'm also cheap. I will be contacting a few tree companies and report my findings. If it is close to the boom lift in price I will pulling the trigger on the crane/tree companies but my gut tells me I will be pricing out boom lift rentals soon.
 
No offense intended, I hope you know. You might be AS cheap as I am. :)

If you decide to do it yourself, ask as many questions here as you can think of -- there's an amazing knowledge-base here if you choose to tap it.

And, of course, just be careful.
 
Berner said:
In general I'm a pretty cautious guy as well. With two little ones now I'm even more cautious. However I'm also cheap. I will be contacting a few tree companies and report my findings. If it is close to the boom lift in price I will pulling the trigger on the crane/tree companies but my gut tells me I will be pricing out boom lift rentals soon.
Click to expand...

I'm assuming you live in a suburban area where there are more trees then people heating with wood and the tree guys dump wood. If so use that work that you have to give someone to your advantage. Use it to gain a relationship. Find the guy who is willing to give you wood on an ongoing basis. A steady stream of rounds each year to replace what was burnt the previous winter or load of log length every other year is a pretty good dividend. Don't even worry about watching that spruce go into a chipper or what a lift would cost to rent. Get the guy who will keep giving you wood.
 
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paul bunion said:
I'm assuming you live in a suburban area where there are more trees then people heating with wood and the tree guys dump wood. If so use that work that you have to give someone to your advantage. Use it to gain a relationship. Find the guy who is willing to give you wood on an ongoing basis. A steady stream of rounds each year to replace what was burnt the previous winter or load of log length every other year is a pretty good dividend. Don't even worry about watching that spruce go into a chipper or what a lift would cost to rent. Get the guy who will keep giving you wood.
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That's a good bit of advice there.

Back in the 90's before I started heating with wood, I had 3 people that would take all I could produce. I would get the tree down and chip all the brush. I could leave all the wood lay and they would come right out to the job site , cut it up, load it onto their own trucks and trailer's and leave. One of them went so far as to rake up the yard so I didn't need to go back. It saved me a lot of time with cutting and loading wood and they were tickled to have all that free, easy access wood.
They were a bit disappointed when I started heating with wood in 2003. :(

Talk to a couple companies in your area and offer to take their wood. Just make sure that if you tell someone you're going to take it, do it. If you don't follow through, you'll be regarded as unreliable and they won't call you again.
 
Berner said:
However I'm also cheap. I will be contacting a few tree companies and report my findings. If it is close to the boom lift in price I will pulling the trigger on the crane/tree companies but my gut tells me I will be pricing out boom lift rentals soon.
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When you're pricing things out, consider how the math would look if it takes you three times longer to do the job safely than it would an experienced pro. Piecing down five trees by yourself could take a while, and the lift rental costs could easily grow beyond your plans.
 
Is there any of your neighbours burning wood? if so you can always 'offer' them some as a good will gesture. Sometimes it's nice to help others as well - you never know when you might need a favour or 2.....::-)
 
paul bunion said:
I'm assuming you live in a suburban area where there are more trees then people heating with wood and the tree guys dump wood. If so use that work that you have to give someone to your advantage. Use it to gain a relationship. Find the guy who is willing to give you wood on an ongoing basis. A steady stream of rounds each year to replace what was burnt the previous winter or load of log length every other year is a pretty good dividend. Don't even worry about watching that spruce go into a chipper or what a lift would cost to rent. Get the guy who will keep giving you wood.
Click to expand...

Great advice. I do live in a suburban area where there are more trees than people heating with wood. However everytime I see a crane I stop to see if they want to dump the wood at a nearby house. Everytime they take it back to their yard to split it and sell it as "seasoned" firewood for $350 the following fall.

There are some people in my area that burn for ambiance and sadly they are the type of people who enjoy paying $350 a cord. When there is a will there is a way so I will keep on looking.
 
Jon1270 said:
When you're pricing things out, consider how the math would look if it takes you three times longer to do the job safely than it would an experienced pro. Piecing down five trees by yourself could take a while, and the lift rental costs could easily grow beyond your plans.
Click to expand...

This is true. I think the most costly thing about renting a boom lift is getting it there and having it picked up. I am optimistic that with help I can probably do all 5 in a weekend if not a long day. I watched a town DPW crew of 3 (one guy in the bucket truck and two on the ground) put down a 50' oak in an hour.
 
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