How would you tackle this job

[swinny]

3 minutes ago, Tommygunn1992 said:

I'm not saying I know more, I am putting this post out there to get other people's thoughts on how we did it and how they might have tackled it for future reference so I can carry similar work out in future in a more safe and productive manner.

 

You're entitled to your opinion but the idea is not to come across as sour milk, HSE do have certain rules on ladder use and it didn't feel like the safest way to carry it out and if anything did go wrong would I be covered if reaching laterally off a ladder 20-25ft off of the ground with both hand on a chainsaw.

 

I appreciate the advice you shared and will look at the plank idea for future reference.

The ladder thing is more for trimming really. And your right about top of a ladder and cutting etc. 

 

Some will say occupational hazard etc

 

It was a shit grueling job but you got to the end. Each one will be different. Some will be a piece of piss walk through the top.

 

You will find also ones that have been repeatedly topped and or trimmed, the middles start rotting and snap under your foot! 

 

Conifer hedges are shit end of! Lol 😆 

[Dan Maynard]

I've done a few as a subbie which overrun, climbed out on top of one and I swear it looked like a tennis court it was so wide and green.

I think you just have to do your best, if it takes 4 days instead of 3 then that's not ideal but ultimately not your responsibility, you can only do what you can do, safely. Your boss can't climb to the top of each one to check before quoting, and they know that so they should have some contingency in the price.

Only other tip I could add to the suggestions made is sometimes on a ladder like that where it feels sketchy I will wear a harness and chuck a lanyard round something in the hedge, means you can lean against it and have both hands free for holding saw. Sometimes though you wouldn't hit the ground if you let go and ropes just get in a tangle and better off without.

I do think it's funny sometimes how there is no NPTC for these kind of skills but it's actually what you spend a lot of time doing. Heard some chaps today saying they had been required to do a blower ticket.

[woody paul]

Blower ticket O Christ here comes the jokes. 

[Tommygunn1992]

8 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

I've done a few as a subbie which overrun, climbed out on top of one and I swear it looked like a tennis court it was so wide and green.

I think you just have to do your best, if it takes 4 days instead of 3 then that's not ideal but ultimately not your responsibility, you can only do what you can do, safely. Your boss can't climb to the top of each one to check before quoting, and they know that so they should have some contingency in the price.

Only other tip I could add to the suggestions made is sometimes on a ladder like that where it feels sketchy I will wear a harness and chuck a lanyard round something in the hedge, means you can lean against it and have both hands free for holding saw. Sometimes though you wouldn't hit the ground if you let go and ropes just get in a tangle and better off without.

I do think it's funny sometimes how there is no NPTC for these kind of skills but it's actually what you spend a lot of time doing. Heard some chaps today saying they had been required to do a blower ticket.

Yeah this seems to be the harsh reality of doing tree work in the UK, I've done a number of them but this was the first this sort of size. I worked on the railway for a while, we didn't do blower tickets but did do strimmer, hedger, polesaw and chipper which seemed wild as we had been using them for ages anyway.

 

When I climbed inside the hedge I did take a lanyard but didn't use it and on the ladder it actually didn't cross my mind, I know lighting technicians and other trades are forced to attach a lanyard to the ladder but seems pointless if the ladder is sketchy, but I didn't think to hook onto the hedge off the ladder.

 

 

 

 

[Rich Rule]

This was a thread Dean started about 6 years ago.

 

Me and a mate decided to measure jobs like that in Misery’s.

 

1 Misery is equal to one man cutting all day up a hedge.  This hedge was 6 misery’s long and My mate had to go back for a bit more misery.

 

Thankfully, there are not a lot of hedges like this in Norway.  But I have have erased from memory the number I must have done before moving here.

 

 

 

[JaySmith]

Unfortunately in the UK hedges like these are the staple diet of many an arborist. They aren’t pretty, can be a right pain and lead to long hard days. Over the years I’ve done some crazy things with ladders and pole saws trying to reach the top or where the client wanted it cut. Often hedges like this need to be cut at a set height to screen adjacent land, windows, neighbours etc. If I’ve gone to quote jobs like this in work clothes I’ve climbed up inside to take a look, but this is often easier said than done at quote stage.

In my experience tracked mewps can work, albeit very slow and time needs to be allowed. I’ve used Genie boom mewps as well that track along whilst elevated but it all depends on the site conditions as they only like pan flat terrain. Sometimes it’s easier just to get into the hedge, brace yourself and throw your lanyard around something bigger than your middle finger! It is sometimes possible to negotiate cutting it lower whereby you can then walk the hedge as opposed to balancing on a shaky ladder but this depends on what the customer is trying to achieve.

Scaffold towers rarely work unless the ground is 100% level, picture below is one I had on the side of a winning pool which looked level but clearly wasn’t.

[Canal Navvy]

A scaffold tower built on the back of a trailer might have worked.

Can be built to overhang with a bit of ingenuity and firmly ratchet strapped down for stability 🙂

[JaySmith]

A scaffold tower built on the back of a trailer might have worked.
Can be built to overhang with a bit of ingenuity and firmly ratchet strapped down for stability [emoji846]

Don’t think we’d of got a trailer in there. The garden was multi level with narrow access and we had to carry the scaffold in and assemble. Looked at lots of options like tracked mewp (which the firm owned), Genie boom etc but couldn’t get anything in. Was a bit of a head scratcher. Ended up trimming up as far as we could with trimmer with multi extensions and the tallest ladders we had.

[up a tree]

Not a nice job, I agree. I would a stupid price quotation. I would of consider us a spider buck lift (cherry picker) should of been able to drive on to tennis courts even with wood under, and as much with chainsaw top handle. Ok the buck lift on track's are not cheap to hire but better than dead or hospital for days👍😀

[Haironyourchest]

Proper tripod ladder, for starters. Lanyard onto the ladder, better than nothing, then mulch the top to splinters with a polesaw.