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Will Ayers

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Everything posted by Will Ayers

  1. I really wouldn't worry about how other tree firms think of you. Life's to short to worry about the "he said she said" malarkey. Besides unless you are naming your self, "Tree officer tree care" very few people are going to even know. I've never once done background checks on my competitors!! Again life is too short. The only way it will realistically give you any benefit is that you should know the law.... As for the van... as long as it's not an absolute skip of a van, just buy whatever you fancy. It's not a marriage, you can sell it if you don't like it. I have a single cab transit that runs a 1200kg payload, which isn't too bad considered, and we still run overweight most days! And as for the profit. Our first year was awful we spun about 6k profit, but year four we turned over more than year one within the first two months. Had to go VAT reg and had to employ a few guys. Living the dream. Still not making a massive profit but loving every minute. And that's working a four day week!!
  2. Yes. It's a difficult issue, but you need to be hard about it and refuse further works until full payment. As an employer I try and pay my guys straight away. When I was a subby I had a few guys that were slow and one that tried to get away without paying. I had to resort to small claims for one.
  3. Sorry...... East Anglia, Near Ely
  4. A client of mine is a big land owner, he wants to look in to producing wood pellets for biomass etc. he wants to explore whether its worth a punt at growing biomass in the less favourable part of his farm etc and also whether he can feasibly process and manufacture the pellets or whatever.... I just fell his awkward trees occasionally but he has come to me for advice. He wants to pay someone to take around the farm and offer advice etc. Any Biomass consultants worth there salt kicking around here? no chancers or armchair proffessionals he wants a true biomass geek who understands the ins and outs from tree to product....
  5. I never climb on a doubled line. I find it totally odd now. Gave my lads zig zag a go on a doubled line while we were doing some rescue practice the other day. The device is fine but I hated having to tend my slack and it's just so labour intensive.
  6. OMG I always say that the most dangerous part of our day is the commute but that wins hands down. What a shame, there's a big bill for someone. Will the operation get back up and running?
  7. You can redirect in a way that the piece your static redirecting on is supported by your main anchor. So when you load the redirect it shares the load with the main anchor. But it eliminates bounce.
  8. Jaysus. That is amazing work. What an awesome thing to be doing Reg. Does it matter where the tops go or are you just picking a hole in the forest canopy? Absolutely awe struck by the enormity of those trees and that work. Kudos to you!!!
  9. I'm probably not old enough to be in here but I feel it! After a decent knee injury a year and a half ago I decided I either needed to advance my climbing technique or get another job. So I bough a load of SRT gear and to begin with, I hated it. After a week I could see the benefits and after a month there wasn't any doubt. I'm probably not as fast up and down as someone 10 years younger on DRT, but I find I get a lot more done while I'm up there than most of the nippers, and normally hit the ground quicker than them on a big tree. So I'm doing something right! Don't be afraid of trying new things.
  10. Wowsers. That Birch is mega. I hope no one ever takes a saw to it.
  11. The Ely Plane tree. I used to sneak in to this garden, when it used to be an old peoples home, as a teenager and drink cans of fosters with mates while watching the ducks. It usually took the grounds men a few hours to find me before I was asked to move on. Now it's owned by a school that my eldest daughter goes to. So I took the excuse of an Easter egg hunt to sneak back in and have a look. It's only 100 m from my mothers house so I see the canopy all the time, but standing at the base of this tree is something else!!
  12. I often find I'm lazier with SRT as I can just lace up different tips as and when I need them. So only get in to the tips to get there rather than needing to to get great access elsewhere. Sometimes my TIP is massive but my dynamic redirects are tiny as long as there is loads of them. The trick for me is to make the working part of your line as short as possible without running out, this makes throwing new natural redirects in easy as you don't have to pull 50m of rope up.
  13. I'm hooked on this thread. But some of you have been true anchors.
  14. I think it's important to remember that at its most basic use, SRT is pretty much the same as DRT. You get a high anchor point and start work. Leave the HAAS in the kit bag and just use a foot ascender I only use my HAAS on properly long ascents in a free hang. Otherwise there is not much advantage and the faff outweighs the ease. Learn how to set anchor points quicker. This can be so much easier than DRT just bung a line over everything and base tie. Get to the top and tell groundy to unclip base tie to install tip tie. Don't be an old git who is stuck in his ways. This is how you can keep climbing while the DRTers will all retire due to their bodies failing.
  15. My Greenmech quadchip has a folding chute as you describe, but it's allowed as they have a switch which is engaged when the chute is up and won't allow you to run with the chute down.
  16. Pay for taxi or equivalent. A good employee will offer to pay you back but it's less money than you'd have lost if the lads drove him home.
  17. It depends on so many factors. If your blooming miles away I'd call a favor from people who may be able to give them a lift. If it's only a half hour round trip, one lad runs the guy home while the other carried on/looks after site. We've had to do this one or two times over the years. Both times the job over ran and ended up costing us something. But an emergency is an emergency. Look after your workforce and they will look after you.
  18. No, get the climbing ticket. Then the license. Plenty of people go right through an Arb career without the towing license. Even the best groundies need a climbing ticket to make their employment worth while
  19. I'm not racist when it comes to differing shades of orange. I have a complete mix of husky and stihl in my lockup. My husky 372 is an awesome saw. As is the 560. My T540 rocks and happily pills a bigger bar but my ms200t is more reliable. My 357xp is a clunky old girl, needs a new exhaust. But it rips through wood like a youngun. My ms441 simply rocks... My cute little 150 had some fuel issues but is back to full force now, handy little thing. And the list goes on. I had a client point at my husky 560 and say "what is that doing here!!" He was an old farmer. I said earning it's keep and doing well at it Ignore them. Just tell them your not racist to colours of orange.
  20. I've been climbing on my BDB for a good 10 full days or so now. And I absolutely love it. Self tends so smoothly after about 3m, always grabs, and is not too aggressive on descent. I bought some cougar orange from Nod and it runs far better than my blue tongue Kernmaster. The Kern was lighter so needed more height to freely self tend. And the Cougar is far more static so there is no yo yo effect. Mega impressed Gordon. Surpassed my expectations so far!
  21. thanks for all of your replies. I think the amount of money these guys have paid on their survey alone would more than cover the costs of remedial action to this tree. So money might not be an object for these guys, however we have to be certain that what we are doing is benefitting the tree and that we are minimising risks to third parties with tripping in the pavement. The "temporary" unit behind the tree looks like it has been there a decade and looks like it is there to stay. however I'm not sure this is detrimental to the tree, rather it is affording it some protection from one side while the other is open to mechanical damage from lorries and forklifts etc.... Im wondering wether to recommend placing bollards or a wrought iron fence or similar to keep people off this part of the path and otherwise leave the rooting area well alone. Either way something needs to be done to remove the risk of tripping, perhaps my photos didn't show the path well enough but this old girl has put some good waves in it. I would hate the remedial action to be the removal of the tree as a few hundred windows overlook this tree in an otherwise barren part of the site.
  22. So this tree is one of many on an industrial site which we have been asked to survey. I am not undertaking the survey personally, I have outsourced it to avoid a conflict of interest when I quote on the works arising from the survey. My Arb consultant wanted me to comment on the management of this one. The root area of this tree is obviously compromising the concrete and slabs etc around it. The tree itself is the only one visible from many windows so it's amenity is important, however management of the damage, and the risk it causes to pedestrians, is a must. We are wondering if it's viable to pick away the concrete and replace with something permeable and knee rail fence off the effected area. What are your thoughts? Other than fell and grind I know plane trees survive in central London with no rooting area exposed to permeable soil, that's not the issue here really.

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