Came here for this. I'm a handyman, but I have done some tree work.
> 10ft or higher.
I would not frick with it unless it is a VERY predictable and easy cut.
Anything under 10ft, just use either a saw zaw, a trimmer or chainsaw.
NEVER cut in a direction that is towards any part of your body and always assume the machine will get wild and continue past the cut. Also kickbacks can happen. ALWAYS use 2 hands on any power tools, never use one hand, especially a chansaw. Look at the potential swing of any falling limb, limbs can swing in a funny direction and hit you.
Sometimes there are things I can do myself but I pay someone else to do them because I don’t want to get hurt. Make sense? I’m paying for not getting hurt
Cut the piece of shit down and never pay again. I do. It's easier to drop them than trim them and what does not exist causes no problems. Overgrown trees rape homeowner wallets.
I live in Southern Louisiana and I'm pretty sure that Cajun babies born addicted to meth are hand selected for in-tree trimming instruction the way agile Chinese babies are picked out and sent away to learn gymnastics.
If a tree guy here has four or more teeth, he owns the company.
I’m convinced all the coal mining here has produced a race of small white men. I’ve never seen so many short men around here. I believe lack of sunlight and coal mining have produced short men
I’m 6’2 and I’m taller than most people here. I’m not native to eastern Kentucky though. More central
Can confirm, sometimes I get to a job, look up at the tree and it just looks so daunting.
Then I "go to the toilet" for a bit, come back out and feel like I can get through it.
I'm interested to hear if anyone diy tree trimming. My friend bought some gear and a climbing saw and said it was scary as shit. I don't know if he's done it since.
I just free climb with a hand or pole saw. I never had the need for more than that - but I never fricked with branches thicker than my arm. Maybe start there.
I had to bring down a 20 foot wooden sculpture at work and it was fricking terrifying. nearly took a super heavy branching piece to the face bc I was working alone and planned poorly.
If you're overweight climbing is terrifying because the climbers don't work right and you have to pretend everything is fine or else you're gonna lose your job.
If you're under 200 lbs, you're fine and just need to get used to and have someone show you the ropes.
I fell my own palm trees because it's too expensive to have someone cut them down and haul them away because palm trees are fricking awful
These are honestly enough to chew through most annoying tree bits. Plus it gets you away from chainsaws, being up trees with chainsaws and chainsaws on sticks- which will end with tragic and hilarious results most of the time.
Aye, I've got a 4m fox tools one. I can reach at most about 6m at full arm reach or 7m if I stand on something.
Anything taller or too thick is a professional job either way.
This. My Fiskar’s guy goes like 14ft, and my $50 HF pole chainsaw goes like 10ft or 12ft. Couple that with a decent size ladder and you can get a lot done.
Just be careful, I almost fricked myself up like a year ago on a shitty old 6ft ladder and the electric saw fully extended. Upside is the wife bought me a better ladder after seeing my head covered in blood when she got home.
Just to be clear: using any power saw while standing on any ladder is inherently risky, trimming trees from any ladder has all the same risks, and certain combinations of saws and ladders + tree trimming are a death wish and potentially more dangerous than climbing and working from the tree.
Even if you manage to complete a cut without the saw binding up and pushing you off the ladder or pushing you and the ladder over, or a shift in tree motion/position doing the same and/or causing you to drop the saw onto yourself, or a branch brushing you off the ladder or impaling you as it falls (possibly both), branches cut from a ladder have an amazing ability to hit the ground and pivot/bounce/sweep *perfectly* into the base of the ladder and upset the whole arragement.
2 years ago
Anonymous
^This. Trees are bad and when one needs trimming that's a sign to cut it down before it becomes overgrown and a threat.
2 years ago
Anonymous
t. this guy
2 years ago
KvD
Everything is risky.
But I’m sort of with ya. The old neighbor lady was thinking about buying one of the electric pole chainsaws and I told her not to do it, she would kill herself with that weight, plus the little chainsaw makes you want to chop big ass limbs. Also gotta try and get an angle above the branch so it doesn’t get caught when you cut halfway through.
2 years ago
Anonymous
I always use a handsaw and loppers when up a ladder, frick messing about with a spinning chain of death when trying to maintain balance 20 feet up in the air.
It's slow going but I can guarantee that if something bad happens it won't involve missing appendages
2 years ago
Anonymous
Bro, if you are that comfortable with a ladder? Awesome, more power to you. But I would still recommend a lifeline. >Learn how to tie a bowline on a bight and how to make a taught line hitch. Throwing a monkey fist or weighted line into a tree is a useful outdoors skill with a lot of applications. It is also not that hard to practice if you already have trees on your property.
And I agree with you, hand tools are preferable to use over a power tool innatree. Any and all climbing chainsaws are finicky and heavy. Even climbing with something like a Stihl 261 means a lot of wieght for reliability. >If you think the idea of running a saw on a ladder is scary to you? (NGL it is scary to me for different reasons) >Just imagine having to thread a climbing saw in between rigging lines and your life line. Now add a house butting up to the tree from the south. A fence 5 feet to the north. And 60 feet off the ground.
BTW I fricking hate most home builders, I really fricking do. If you want to see if a builder is looking beyond cashing the check? Look if the house is under any driplines of tree canopies. They cut roots for the foundation. And/or if the tree grew limbs over the house within 15 years? The roots are now trying to get into the foundation or drains from the house.
Self taught climber here. You gonna die or seriously hurt yourself. The fact that you said spikes and not a harness, well that concerns me.
You generally do not use spikes when you are just trimming out dead limbs or sections of the tree.
Also, if you do not know some basic biology of the tree species you're climbing, you can harm the tree as badly as it can harm you.
>shoes with spikes
only if u want to remove the tree
i would not recomend using them for a tree u want to keep
but i ve seen plenty of trees that have been climbed with spikes and they survived it
Former arborist here. It's possible but the average homeowner doesn't know how to chainsaw properly, use ropes or harnesses, or have any type of equipment to control the fall of the branches. Seen dudes break their skulls, knock out teeth, scratched eyeball, numerous chainsaw cuts, get entangled in ladders, and a guy who fell on a sharp sapling trunk he left and it went far into his calf.
The tree itself usually doesn't benefit from improper pruning and can even lead to failure later on (cut below the branch collar can make a cavity which can lead to limbs breaking off) or make the problem worse when the sucker branches bloom out because the tree is too bare.
That being said, unless it's an important tree, it's a giant plant and you own it. Cut away, post injuries and diy advice for whatever you break.
Knowing how to do it so you don't kill the tree is a good place to start. But you'll just moron hack away at it, and destroy it, like the rest of /DIY.
I've done my own tree work because I have access to a lift. I would never attempt climbing unless I had training first. It's very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
That's about 99% of cherry picker safety right there, the only times I've seen them frick up are some dipshit parks it on muddy ground and gravity does the rest. Its pretty spectacular though watching some fricking idiot hanging off an antenna 3 stories up and having a wee.
When you see that first thing in the morning rolling up to a work site, you just know its off to the worst fricking day ever
>saving $500
LMAO
Found the guy who's never hired tree removal pros who are bonded/insured and/or aren't just as likely to take your house out as a diyer.
If you need to trim a tree that suggests it's a threat to structure and should be removed instead so I drop everything that can fall on structures, power lines or vehicles. It's a breeze to preload trees with my winch cable, cut to holding wood then drive away (far out of range of the tree under any circumstances). I don't care for reliance on gravity and prayer when I can pull a winch cable by driving fast enough to pull trees the first third or so of the way down.
I've done it with 5 big trees in my front/backyard. Free climbed because (I also rock climb).
I used a Milwaukee M12 FUEL hatchet pruner ("6)
A Husky campers axe, (2) Fiskars handheld axes/hatchets.
Then on the ground I used a pole axe.
I have 1 more tree right now that is super tall, but I won't do it without a harness/rope.
I've used that M12 saw before, it's a really interesting tool the ergonomics are horrible but it has a pretty decent power to weight ratio for how small it is.
Sure. I do most of it myself, but not all. Anything that presents a danger to a structure that I cannot safely mitigate, I won't do. And anything that requires climbing, I won't do. But a chain saw, a pole saw and this ridiculous thing from Harbor Freight (which works damned well!) let me do 95% of my jobs.
It is, and it works. The red bag is a sand bag, for weight. You toss the rope over the limb, then use a back and forth sawing motion to cut the limb. It works great and you are limited only by your ability to toss the sand bag. It can be more difficult than you might imagine. The chain saw blade is sharp too. I've had mine for years and it gets used a few times per year.
It's one of those tools where the value to cost ratio is so insanely high it's ridiculous. In fact, that makes a good idea for a thread.
It's also easy not to frick up if you're as methodical and studious as I am, but best to learn on your own trees. No harm done as trees are just tall extremely annoying weeds to be slain before they destroy civilization.
Dont wear spikes on a tree youre pruning, youre gonna frick your tree up. Its exclusively for removals. The bear minimum you need for gear for tree climbing is a saddle, a rope, a lanyard and the ability to tie a blakes hitch. Thats the bear minimum not including the actual skill to do it and know how to limb walk. Likewise a climbing saw, handsaw, and polesaw. If you have to rig branches out youre fricked. As a general rule removing more than 30% pf a tree will probably shock it and potentially kill it (this doesnt imply dead wood) When making a cut, make an under cut first and then a top cut so it doesnt tear. When cutting a branch off as cleanly as possible do that leaving a stub left and when making your final cut dont cut into the collar of the branch. Also dont diy your trees if you dont know what youre doing and have to actually climb them and call an arborist
Tree trimming from the ground is doable. Climbing and rigging are extremely risky especially with only one person.
I sawed my thumbnail in half from the nailbed to the tip of my nail while I was 20 feet up in a tree. Still have a ridge in my thumbnail from it.
Came here for this. I'm a handyman, but I have done some tree work.
> 10ft or higher.
I would not frick with it unless it is a VERY predictable and easy cut.
Anything under 10ft, just use either a saw zaw, a trimmer or chainsaw.
NEVER cut in a direction that is towards any part of your body and always assume the machine will get wild and continue past the cut. Also kickbacks can happen. ALWAYS use 2 hands on any power tools, never use one hand, especially a chansaw. Look at the potential swing of any falling limb, limbs can swing in a funny direction and hit you.
>never use one hand
So stoked all these power tool companies are putting out one handed sawzalls and tiny pruning chainsaws.
What's the left one?
Looks like a reciprocating saw to me
Sometimes there are things I can do myself but I pay someone else to do them because I don’t want to get hurt. Make sense? I’m paying for not getting hurt
This. Anything dangerous or that involves exposure to fumes, dusts, or weird chemicals is for Mexicans. My health is important
Tree trimming guy wants 2 grand to top the tree.
Cut the piece of shit down and never pay again. I do. It's easier to drop them than trim them and what does not exist causes no problems. Overgrown trees rape homeowner wallets.
>Am I missing something?
Meth
Most professional tree trimmers are usually on a lot of meth
I live in eastern Kentucky and can confirm this
I’m not on meth
I live in Southern Louisiana and I'm pretty sure that Cajun babies born addicted to meth are hand selected for in-tree trimming instruction the way agile Chinese babies are picked out and sent away to learn gymnastics.
If a tree guy here has four or more teeth, he owns the company.
I’m convinced all the coal mining here has produced a race of small white men. I’ve never seen so many short men around here. I believe lack of sunlight and coal mining have produced short men
I’m 6’2 and I’m taller than most people here. I’m not native to eastern Kentucky though. More central
>I’m convinced all the coal mining here has produced a race of small white men
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/how-a-worm-gave-the-south-a-bad-name/
short people tend to grow up stunted due to poor diet and chronic parasite infection.
>I’m 6’2 and I’m taller than most people here.
Well yeah no shit beanpole
Interesting, we're all on acid or shrooms in the UK
My brother is an arb guy, as far as I know he isn't on anything.
He does get oddly excited when he finds clusters of porchini mushrooms growing
Some of the fly-by-night guys are. I’ve been in the industry for 8 years and the majority are alcoholics and potheads.
Can confirm, sometimes I get to a job, look up at the tree and it just looks so daunting.
Then I "go to the toilet" for a bit, come back out and feel like I can get through it.
I'm interested to hear if anyone diy tree trimming. My friend bought some gear and a climbing saw and said it was scary as shit. I don't know if he's done it since.
Like I said, I’d pay someone else to do it. Unless you can get to it easily. I’m getting to old to risk my body like that.
Climbing isn't something I'd try to learn watching YT videos. It's a week long course exclusively to climb at a very basic level
Yes, mentioned it in the recent "What's the most dangerous DIY project you've done?" thread
I just free climb with a hand or pole saw. I never had the need for more than that - but I never fricked with branches thicker than my arm. Maybe start there.
I had to bring down a 20 foot wooden sculpture at work and it was fricking terrifying. nearly took a super heavy branching piece to the face bc I was working alone and planned poorly.
If you're overweight climbing is terrifying because the climbers don't work right and you have to pretend everything is fine or else you're gonna lose your job.
If you're under 200 lbs, you're fine and just need to get used to and have someone show you the ropes.
I fell my own palm trees because it's too expensive to have someone cut them down and haul them away because palm trees are fricking awful
What's wrong with palm trees?
They are fricking awful
Because:
I don't trim mine but cut many down. No tree should be in falling distance of any structure or power lines. Firebreaks should be generous.
It's easy to fall trees with some study (BC Faller Training vids are based Canuckistan training).
I really hope this is a joke post because I am tired of reading suicidal posts on PrepHole.
t. a real Black person in that Tree Work game
okay, so no.
get a telescopic handle with a pruning saw attachment.
These are honestly enough to chew through most annoying tree bits. Plus it gets you away from chainsaws, being up trees with chainsaws and chainsaws on sticks- which will end with tragic and hilarious results most of the time.
Aye, I've got a 4m fox tools one. I can reach at most about 6m at full arm reach or 7m if I stand on something.
Anything taller or too thick is a professional job either way.
* sorry not Fox, "Wolf Garten"
This. My Fiskar’s guy goes like 14ft, and my $50 HF pole chainsaw goes like 10ft or 12ft. Couple that with a decent size ladder and you can get a lot done.
Just be careful, I almost fricked myself up like a year ago on a shitty old 6ft ladder and the electric saw fully extended. Upside is the wife bought me a better ladder after seeing my head covered in blood when she got home.
Shitty ass 6ft wooden ladder that was older than me
get one of those collapsable scaffolds
I got this bad boy now. It goes real tall even in A-frame mode, or I can set it like a right angle on one side, or 23ft straight up and down.
Just to be clear: using any power saw while standing on any ladder is inherently risky, trimming trees from any ladder has all the same risks, and certain combinations of saws and ladders + tree trimming are a death wish and potentially more dangerous than climbing and working from the tree.
Even if you manage to complete a cut without the saw binding up and pushing you off the ladder or pushing you and the ladder over, or a shift in tree motion/position doing the same and/or causing you to drop the saw onto yourself, or a branch brushing you off the ladder or impaling you as it falls (possibly both), branches cut from a ladder have an amazing ability to hit the ground and pivot/bounce/sweep *perfectly* into the base of the ladder and upset the whole arragement.
^This. Trees are bad and when one needs trimming that's a sign to cut it down before it becomes overgrown and a threat.
t. this guy
Everything is risky.
But I’m sort of with ya. The old neighbor lady was thinking about buying one of the electric pole chainsaws and I told her not to do it, she would kill herself with that weight, plus the little chainsaw makes you want to chop big ass limbs. Also gotta try and get an angle above the branch so it doesn’t get caught when you cut halfway through.
I always use a handsaw and loppers when up a ladder, frick messing about with a spinning chain of death when trying to maintain balance 20 feet up in the air.
It's slow going but I can guarantee that if something bad happens it won't involve missing appendages
Bro, if you are that comfortable with a ladder? Awesome, more power to you. But I would still recommend a lifeline.
>Learn how to tie a bowline on a bight and how to make a taught line hitch. Throwing a monkey fist or weighted line into a tree is a useful outdoors skill with a lot of applications. It is also not that hard to practice if you already have trees on your property.
And I agree with you, hand tools are preferable to use over a power tool innatree. Any and all climbing chainsaws are finicky and heavy. Even climbing with something like a Stihl 261 means a lot of wieght for reliability.
>If you think the idea of running a saw on a ladder is scary to you? (NGL it is scary to me for different reasons)
>Just imagine having to thread a climbing saw in between rigging lines and your life line. Now add a house butting up to the tree from the south. A fence 5 feet to the north. And 60 feet off the ground.
BTW I fricking hate most home builders, I really fricking do. If you want to see if a builder is looking beyond cashing the check? Look if the house is under any driplines of tree canopies. They cut roots for the foundation. And/or if the tree grew limbs over the house within 15 years? The roots are now trying to get into the foundation or drains from the house.
Self taught climber here. You gonna die or seriously hurt yourself. The fact that you said spikes and not a harness, well that concerns me.
You generally do not use spikes when you are just trimming out dead limbs or sections of the tree.
Also, if you do not know some basic biology of the tree species you're climbing, you can harm the tree as badly as it can harm you.
>shoes with spikes
only if u want to remove the tree
i would not recomend using them for a tree u want to keep
but i ve seen plenty of trees that have been climbed with spikes and they survived it
>it is 100$ for the shoes with spikes and some rope.
Don't forget a buttplug to protect your ass from getting fricked again.
Former arborist here. It's possible but the average homeowner doesn't know how to chainsaw properly, use ropes or harnesses, or have any type of equipment to control the fall of the branches. Seen dudes break their skulls, knock out teeth, scratched eyeball, numerous chainsaw cuts, get entangled in ladders, and a guy who fell on a sharp sapling trunk he left and it went far into his calf.
The tree itself usually doesn't benefit from improper pruning and can even lead to failure later on (cut below the branch collar can make a cavity which can lead to limbs breaking off) or make the problem worse when the sucker branches bloom out because the tree is too bare.
That being said, unless it's an important tree, it's a giant plant and you own it. Cut away, post injuries and diy advice for whatever you break.
What would be some good mimimum knowledge to properly prune back a tree?
Knowing how to do it so you don't kill the tree is a good place to start. But you'll just moron hack away at it, and destroy it, like the rest of /DIY.
I've done my own tree work because I have access to a lift. I would never attempt climbing unless I had training first. It's very dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.
How big is your tree?
why the frick would you climb the tree when you can just rent one of these for a day?
This was my plan unless someone tells me it's a lot not dangerous than it looks.
Avoid power lines and park on hard, level terrain is about all. I'd love an excuse to rent one but I remove all problematic trees.
That's about 99% of cherry picker safety right there, the only times I've seen them frick up are some dipshit parks it on muddy ground and gravity does the rest. Its pretty spectacular though watching some fricking idiot hanging off an antenna 3 stories up and having a wee.
When you see that first thing in the morning rolling up to a work site, you just know its off to the worst fricking day ever
you're gonna frick it up. you could spend a thousand dollars and still frick it up.
I crave content of dudes totalling their homes cutting down trees themselves. Is saving $500 worth being homeless?
>saving $500
LMAO
Found the guy who's never hired tree removal pros who are bonded/insured and/or aren't just as likely to take your house out as a diyer.
If you need to trim a tree that suggests it's a threat to structure and should be removed instead so I drop everything that can fall on structures, power lines or vehicles. It's a breeze to preload trees with my winch cable, cut to holding wood then drive away (far out of range of the tree under any circumstances). I don't care for reliance on gravity and prayer when I can pull a winch cable by driving fast enough to pull trees the first third or so of the way down.
>Am I missing something?
Yeah the skills to do it without killing/maiming yourself.
Cutting trees is easy. If you just cut it into small pieces and drop them. Also ropes are for moron. Get your ass a lift or a ladder.
I've done it with 5 big trees in my front/backyard. Free climbed because (I also rock climb).
I used a Milwaukee M12 FUEL hatchet pruner ("6)
A Husky campers axe, (2) Fiskars handheld axes/hatchets.
Then on the ground I used a pole axe.
I have 1 more tree right now that is super tall, but I won't do it without a harness/rope.
>Then on the ground I used a pole axe.
What are you referring to as a pole axe?
oh crap, I meant a tree pruner/saw! I have this one.
>Then on the ground I used a pole axe.
I hate when I get attacked by a knight when trying to prune my trees
I've used that M12 saw before, it's a really interesting tool the ergonomics are horrible but it has a pretty decent power to weight ratio for how small it is.
Those powered loppers are sort of spendy, but surprisingly powerful. Some had extensions that could be added. Might fit the bill.
Sure. I do most of it myself, but not all. Anything that presents a danger to a structure that I cannot safely mitigate, I won't do. And anything that requires climbing, I won't do. But a chain saw, a pole saw and this ridiculous thing from Harbor Freight (which works damned well!) let me do 95% of my jobs.
Is that a chainsaw on a rope?
I can't even be mad, that probably DOES work pretty well.
It is, and it works. The red bag is a sand bag, for weight. You toss the rope over the limb, then use a back and forth sawing motion to cut the limb. It works great and you are limited only by your ability to toss the sand bag. It can be more difficult than you might imagine. The chain saw blade is sharp too. I've had mine for years and it gets used a few times per year.
It's one of those tools where the value to cost ratio is so insanely high it's ridiculous. In fact, that makes a good idea for a thread.
brilliant, I might use a lacrose stick and a ball to get some height.
It's the liability, friend.
It's super easy to frick it up.
^Wisdom.
It's also easy not to frick up if you're as methodical and studious as I am, but best to learn on your own trees. No harm done as trees are just tall extremely annoying weeds to be slain before they destroy civilization.
Dont wear spikes on a tree youre pruning, youre gonna frick your tree up. Its exclusively for removals. The bear minimum you need for gear for tree climbing is a saddle, a rope, a lanyard and the ability to tie a blakes hitch. Thats the bear minimum not including the actual skill to do it and know how to limb walk. Likewise a climbing saw, handsaw, and polesaw. If you have to rig branches out youre fricked. As a general rule removing more than 30% pf a tree will probably shock it and potentially kill it (this doesnt imply dead wood) When making a cut, make an under cut first and then a top cut so it doesnt tear. When cutting a branch off as cleanly as possible do that leaving a stub left and when making your final cut dont cut into the collar of the branch. Also dont diy your trees if you dont know what youre doing and have to actually climb them and call an arborist
Amidoinitrite?