detritus21

From what I could see of the remaining leaf on the crown it looked a perfectly healthy tree. The only defect was tehe fruiting body. The tree was also in the most sheltered part of the campus so even though the wind was strong it was probably only affecting the upper 3rd of the canopy

I've had a look on google at other pics of Merip and from what I remember before I spread sawdust over it looks like a lot of the other pics of merip. This would explain the failure in the way it did along with the tree being planted on old building backfill.

I was too busy withdrawing the saw to get my camera out in time

The stump and part way through tidying. The stump where cut measured in at 4 feet dimameter. We jacked it back up into a more traditional position using a 3 tonne farm jack which did a fine job. The site as we were in the final throws of tidying. The wood was left on site so that it could be taken by the management company for use at home. I'd estimate in the region of 6 tonnes of timber as a minimum. The final method used for the dismantling of the tree went as follows. The tree as was originally is below Removed the two big side limbs small gob cut to angle the fall away from the building. Snedded up and chipped and logged. Next stripped the side branches using a combination of climbing and the MEWP. Once we got the MEWP into position it was easy. Stripped it up to the roof. Once it was stripped back took off the sections on the roof leaving an overhang of about a foot onto the roof. Originally tried lifting off roof using a chain wrench winch rated to 6 tonnes which did nothing at all. Realised that with the moment on the tree this wasn't going to work. The stem up to the roof was about 50feet and at an angle of 45 degrees was going to take alot more force than we could manage. It ended up being like Stephen Blair suggested in a way. MEWP as far away from trunk as possible and under cut to a point where the branch buckled and basically slid down the building 10feet. Then repeated it further down the trunk but went all the way through safely removing the tree off the building. This section was quite unnerving but was the best given the situation and took alot of nerve to do it knowing there was a lot of risk involved. It was obvious which way the trunk was going to go once severed it was just a case of getting the saw running and cutting. First time I've ever done such a big tree in that kind of situation but well worth it.

Picture of the roof. The branch through the roof was close on 6 feet long. The girl whose room was underneath was out on the tiles when it fell over. A lad came out wanting a suvineer for nearly filling his pants whilst playing his playstation when it hit On the floor. I'll explain the process used at the end. Only damage we caused was knocking hte cctv camera off the wall when I dropped a branch off and took a tiny chunk out of a window frame. The fungus at the base of the tree. Any ideas I'm no good on fungi.

These are the pictures of the process of bringing the tree off the roof. Just arrived finding the management company had ordered the most innapropriate platform possible well not quite could have been a scissor lift I suppose. After all the side branches had been stripped

We don't have the motorised valves. Just an old fashioned gravity system and central heating pump. We have two leak of radiators that are on all the time to prevent over boiling the system. They work at 10% of the overall BTU of the system. We are lucky as well one powercut in 6 years.

Its a Makita dcs9010 90cc. Fantastic saw a bit heavy but very good. Its running a 20inch bar at the minute but will cope with a 29inch bar just the same. I have a little dcs430 which is on a par with my ms250 only problem with that one is the chain brake design is quite weak.

There are a couple of decent sized trees to the left of the picture and a lot to foreground. I had also wondered about trying to lift it clear but thought it may be too heavy to shift that way but its not a true turning moment as the most weight is at the bottom unlike if it were a evenly distributed pole. I've stripped a fair bit out of it already its the top sections over the roof that really need stripping which will be with the help of a MEWP as there is a fair amount touching the building and it take some of the risk out of the equation, for me that is. I've got access to a couple of different pullers to aid lifting/pulling. You could easily get a mog with hiab in. I'm liking the different suggestions and solutions. What I'm really hoping for is take all the weight of and it lifts itself enough to clear the roof then it would be chogging down time. When I dropped the two big limbs there was a certain amount of lifting of the trunk just losing those two.

You'll be burning more green wood to get the same heat as seasoned as you have to boil off the water in the green logs so energy is taken up doing that.

It may be a mare of a job but it should be well worth it My biggest issue is the main trunk. Its coming down one way or another. I've been told extra damage won't matter but I'd prefer it to be fairly neat (the building that is)

There is another tree not far behind the tree in question which could be used as a likely anchor point. My worry will be regarding rope breaking strains and the weight of the tree.

That was the other option. The only problem I can forsee is the anchoring of the top for when it is freed off the building. The root plate is still semi attached to the floor but only in the direction of the lean. Working from a MEWP would make the job a safer proposition than being on the stem when its tethered. The tree is 3 feet diameter at the base and then split into 3. Two limbs we've removed already its the main central one that remains. This is this is a good two feet diameter and where on the roof is down to three stems at about 8-10 inches each. I suppose the worse that could happen if the tether was to not be as good as it should would be it would end up hung a bit lower down the building. This would probably cause less damage than winching the trunk off in one. I'll probably make a final call when its been stripped of all its branches from the upper crown.

It will most probably damage the building. There is already a fairly significant amount of damage to the roof and upper part of the wall. The situation is far from ideal. You could possibly use an all terrain crane but this would require the removal of other trees for access. If anyone has any other suggestions I'm more than willing to take them on board.

Am finishing it next week. Its in a secure position at present. Mewp to strip it out and close to edge of roof and then its sever the butt end from the root plate and winch it off like a hung up tree.

Apparently there was a survey done a couple of months back and the tree was "ok". I'll get a picture of the fruiting body when I'm back there next week to finish the job.

Got called to this job in Liverpool on a Uni Campus. The phone call went along the lines of come and have a look the job is yours. I can see why they had done the have a look and its yours line. Large Oak 3 feet diameter ripped the root plate out and landed on the building. The roots were rotten and a small fruiting body could be spotted on the base of the tree. Will be finishing it off next week with a Mewp and taking it down as a hung-up windblow tree as there is no access for a crane. The tree is on the front page of the Liverpool Echo from last night but couldn't get hold of a copy.

Liverpool Hope at Aigburth. Going for another look this morning.

I've had two to do. One was a hybrid Poplar that was heaving the ground as I went pricing last night. That was down by 1pm and gone. Then went and had a look at another very large oak that has ripped the root plate out and subsequently the top of the tree is on top of a uni halls of residence. Not quite sure how I'm going to get the top off the halls yet. There is no access for a crane and the tree is at about 45 degrees. Will start stripping it out tommorow and work out how to get the top of the roof witout destroying the building when I get there. I have pics which I'll post of both

Stoves with back boilers can kettle if you get them proper hot. Basically the water gets close to boiling and causes the banging noise. Can also happen to the hot water cylinder if you get it hot enough. We've no anti gravity valve fitted in our system so if we have a power cut the radiators up stairs will still be on and reduce the risk of the system boiling its self. The thing to do also is shut your damper right down so the system shouldn't be as hot.

I fitted my own heating Aarrow Stratford Boiler. We burn both anthracite and wood. Once the water is warm, which takes about 20mins to get it warm enough for the pump to switch on, it doesn't burn masses. The stove has been on pretty much all day today and we have gone through a small bucket of anthracite and a net and a half of logs. As the logs cost me nowt its maybe cost a couple of quid to have the heating on for the last 12 hours

Cavers generally use a Rack for long descents.

Gri Gri will only work with that length of rope as the weight of the hanging rope will open the Cam or at least I think that is what happens. The petzl stop is only rated for maximum decent of 200m on a single line A figure 8 would work but the rope will twist like mad. I would think a rack would be the best option as you can put different degrees of friction on it depending on weight.

Newburgh was where I have been so essentially Parbold. A house with some posh lychgate at the front. I did strip the front of a house in Parbold last year. The ivy came off as a big mat. Its still sat on my yard.

I've just been and priced one similar to strip the front of a house of virginia creeper and ivy. The client couldn't understand why my price was so high. I hate ivy.