jose

so i went back, thought id try some fairy liquid and stiff brush.

fairly helped but tbh mostly by turning the brush over and using the handle as a abrasive surface ( the brush was soft plastic so it didnt damage the wall but it was enough to take off the marks).

If i had sand paper i think that would have done it too as it just needed a bit more roughness that the bristles.

Thanks for the advice .

Cheers

Thanks for the response!

I will pop up and buy some and head over tomorrow!

cheers

Sorry if its been asked before, i searched but got 25000 hits none of which actually relating to the search!

the guys dragged branches down a alley with cream walls and left rub marks and the customer obviously not happy.

Whats the best method for removal? its not broken the paint.  i dont want to repaint as that will be a real ball ache!

I am sure i once heard the muck off type spray motorcycles guys use on the bikes is good but ive never tried before.

Many thanks

second the fsib22. less power ( 14hp vs 24hp or so) than a predator but 100x better build.

I was sceptical of the power ( or lack off) but has proved faultless and more than capable.

I also always had to measure the width of r access for the 460, never needed to once in the last 2 yrs or so with the fsi

HB20 is good but very large in comparison.

8 hours ago, kevinjohnsonmbe said:

What I draw from your last post is:

 

(a) totally appreciate your position - not ‘big’ enough to get sucked in and jeopardise other work. 
 

but

 

(b) iffum yome already doing work (assumed therefore to be a professional, reputable, reliable sort) why would the LA question your ability to provide a suitable mutual outcome. (It’s late it’s Friday night and I’m a couple of glasses in but I don’t mean that to sound critical of you, it’s meant to be critical of the LA.)

 

Hope that makes sense. I might be able to phrase it differently tomorrow ?

answer to b is that one hand doesnt speak to the other ( i hope i got the right saying).

I couldnt tell you the last time i met a TO around here. Plus everything is done via email and i am pretty sure they have admin staff who dont know people individually. Therefore they dont even realise i do work for them or of the quality ( good or bad) of my work. So the person that emailed back the response does know me from anyone else that may email in. I guess they take the worse case scenario and work on that. 

cheers

3 hours ago, djbobbins said:

If I was the homeowner I’d be furious, I think. We have a row of leylandii between the end of our close and the railway, on council land, massively overgrown and overshadowing the end house in particular. Can we get the council team to do anything about them (e.g. take 20 foot off the top and side them back)? Can we f... It took about three attempts to even get acknowledgement that it was adopted land. Fortunately I live five doors away so it’s not my specific issue, although I suspect it paints a picture of a general approach...

In the OP’s case, I’d love to say just get on, damn the consequences and do the right thing for the homeowner. What’s the worst that could happen - council tries to push for trespass, after the fact, because you’ve needed to access around the tree to do the work?

However, if you want to preserve a reputation, I thing hanging back, suggesting the homeowner lobby with relevant elected Parish / Town Councillors or a District or County Councillor or MP, saying they are at their wit’s end / it’s causing stress, don’t want to go to the press but feel there’s no other way of legitimately getting their concerns heard etc.

When this hopefully has had an effect and a better approach is in place (i.e. council agrees you can have access and prune sympathetically back to the boundary, or maybe even beyond to preserve shape of the tree with a reduced crown on that stem, then go and do the job with pride.

I hear you but i have a successful  business to run, family to feed, mortgage to pay. Am i going to potentially compromise or risk this ( took 20 years to get to this point) for a one off job? 

I do work for said council too. multiple times a year. Am i going to cut off this source of work? 

Afraid not.

I feel for the guy but its not my fight to go all out on. He is a grown man, home owner. So hes made educated choices in his life and would appear to be doing ok ( not cheap or easy to buy around here). So he can engage the services of a lawyer or other legal body or local councillor and go from there. 

Worlds a tough place and sometimes you have to pick battles. 

This one is not even close to the top of my list of things i am willing to give my energies to. Happy to give my advice and ask on his behalf a community that may know the answer but past that its down to him.

Life is tougher than some leaves and shade. 

But do keep the comments coming, always good to read them!

Cheers

2 hours ago, benedmonds said:

You probably mean wesellanyvans.co.uk we have recently brought a truck from them.

doh yes thats it.

Seems decent guy on the phone.

How was your experience? Shame as they have/had a black cabstar looks perfect for what i was after. Came in about 2 days after i bought the one i did.

was a firm in Leicester, we buy any vans.

They seem to have a few Arb tippers for sale. I was going to buy one but the truck had issues ( someone put ADblue in the diesel) and then another came up else where in the right colour so i went there in the end.

Worth a call.

Or if buying a standard tipper the Southern commercial sales down towards Brighton area is where i ended up getting mine. Awesome customer service. They had some brand new Man tippers which i gather are rebadged Grafters. 

Worth a call at least!

On 25/11/2020 at 16:11, Nimby said:

Honestly, I despise threads like this.

 

As a TO I would meet the property owner and advise that we, the Council, will carry out works by reducing the encroachment as much as is deemed suitable (for the tree and the resident).

 

Looking at the photo, I could advise that this is priority work and get it done asap depending on if there's any other works in that area needs doing as well.

   

If only it were that straight forward.

I encounter households day in day out that are crying out for 5 minutes to talk to the TO but they refuse to do so. Will not meet anyone and come and go seemingly in the night to asses the trees.

Yes i think the council should have addressed this tree many years ago. It is their tree as they so clearly pointed out so they should remedy it!

But around here unless you scream for blood so to speak the council is deaf to all. it seems to react as opposed to being proactive. 

Personally i do do work for the council , am on they local buy with confidence scheme with the local council but i dont think the people making the decisions even know this.

As said i dont mind as i dont live there but i do feel for the people that do.

All i can say is id wish we had more approachable TO 's like you Nimby.

pretty sure i heard on the news today that road tax revenue is down massively due to low tax rates for new efficent cars so they are looking into ways to claw it back.

So for interest this is the response i got from the council. I personally have decided not to proceed as i felt i was put between a rock and a hard place and tbh i dont need the grief!

cheers

You will receive a response from the tree service at a later date but we are short staffed at the moment with a lot of enquiries to reply to.  As a general advisory at this stage please note that The Council would not endorse shearing off to the boundary  or works beyond the property boundary. For the avoidance of any  doubt neither would it permit access temporary or otherwise from its land which includes access for vehicles, machinery or climbing for the purposes of doing so.

In carrying out any common law pruning we would expect any professional company advising their client to apply sympathetic arboricultural best practice pruning principles  to any  parts of the tree within the limits of the client’s legal boundary to avoid damage the tree/s or seriously affecting its health, safety and future management by the Council as the tree owners.  To carry any works to the contrary leading such damage would potentially result in  criminal damage to Council property and the risk of legal proceedings.

The Council expects any professional company to apply good arboricultural practice, especially to third party trees and operating as such has a  duty in this respect.  Therefore if a client requires anything to the contrary we would hope that this would be declined in the interests of safeguarding it’s professional integrity and reputation as much as the tree’s health and promoting good arboricultural standards.

Not unless it can fit through a garden gate.

But even then it has to cross council land. 

But thanks for the input.

Which in fairness they are correct, which is why initially removal was the preferred option. 

A reduction with keeping the tree looking half decent simply wont achieve anything of and use.

As said its not my problem as i dont live there and i dont want to fall foul of the council. I work and live here and have worked hard to create a good reputation which im not going to risk for a 1 off job. 

I have a couple of days away from the pc and its kicked off!

Personally i love the idea of the caravan boys set up.  added to the mix he will get a new fence thrown in when the old one is smashed up!

Yes someone said put the onus back onto the council. It is their tree which tbh has been left, basically not pruned ever by the looks of things. Not sure about else where in the country but around these ways if nobody moans then nothing is done.

Customer was adamant for it to go, then once i told him that the council said no only to boundary then he was dead set on that. I cant see him wanting it tip reduced by 2-3m or what ever the council think is appropriate as it covers the whole garden and even 3m back will still be right over.

No idea when they moved into the property. They are in their 30's so id guess not that long.

Often people maintain the grounds around their property here as the council come by about once every 3month so if you want it short u do it yourself.

Also they have a side gate. weather or not this is legal access or not ive no idea. bet the owners dont either.

what i recieved from them:

The resident has every right to exercise Common Law but the effect on the tree will probably be dramatic & damaging.  Unless you can convince your client to moderate the pruning to a substantial crown-shaping the Council is unlikely to give you permission to enter Council land to carry-out pruning.

The ironic thing was they were the ones that said cut back to boundary , then they changed their mind!

The thing is i can drive a mewp up to the tree, i can also drive a car or truck there. to me its the "we wont let you on our land to do the work " bit. So they going to hold the home owner to ransom so to speak that unless he does the spec they want they will stop all access!

As said its really not my problem, i can walk away but i would like to know for any future similar situations.

The other side of my thoughts are that the tree isnt under aTPO and i can cut it the boundary line, stuff them im not breaking the rules. But im crazy busy so not going to but i would think some would.

Cheers

Got a customer that has a oak overhanging badly over his garden. Its a split stem at the base and one half is virtually all over his garden.

Its a council owned tree but no TPO or conservation area. 

Customer wants it down ( and will pay) but the council said no way.

They did say however he can cut back in accordance with common law.

Fine he says i will will have it cut back to the boundary line.

They now come back saying this is too much and he has to reconsider a less drastic reduction or else they wont allow access to the tree.

The tree spans the whole width of his garden and anything less doesnt do him any good. See the picture below. 

Access is via a open grass area and adjacent foot path. No barriers etc and its not a council fenced off area in anyway. 

I personally dont have anything to gain or lose ( except lose a job but rather that than fall foul of the council) but i would like to know can they do this? 

any advice welcome as not sure how to advise then to proceed.

Many thanks

could be mistaken but thought i heard ford are doing new transits with a limited slip diff and 4wd?

may be interesting to see what thats all about

FSI b22 

Awesome machine. i ran predators for years, had a 450 and  460.

Good but flimsy. Ate belts and guards at a stupid rate and the cable system is beyond useless.

Had good dealings with Max who used to work there but the owner  lets just say i will leave it there.

FSI is build like a tank, havent had to change a belt or guards in nearly 2 yrs. Its a smaller engine which i was worried about but its proved its self so many times to be enough! 

Dean at Global sells the Bandits, kindly gave me a demo on a few, i didnt personally like the HB20 , but it was a more than capable machine, the ZT is a animal, just couldnt make the numbers work for me at the time otherwise id have got one. 

Hes a really sound guy so give him a shout.

ive not done it yet but often though about glueing or some other way to attach some rubber to the bottom.  Ideally the kind of rubber they use for stump grinder guards.

Then it would last forever!

Not sure if this is the right place to ask but apart from tip master where can i get some rear light guards for a Vauxhall Movano ( aka renault Master).

Tipmaster is £210 for a pair which seems pretty steep!

i dont have a welder and some rebar or else id know one up myself!

Based in Berkshire

Cheers

21 hours ago, Dan Maynard said:

£80 ?

Zero missing.

you would think so but he actually told me £90 , when i said it may be a mistake he clarified it was £80+VAT.

But yes £800+VAT wouldnt be a million miles off what they are worth!

I am not negotiating.

In fact i often say can i have their number as i could sub them in and make good money off them doing all the work!

On 09/07/2020 at 21:24, Stumpy Grinder said:

£350 would be about right, but I wouldn’t be taking any grinding away! 

still too cheap surely. Ive seen the big grinders in action and seen it destroy a 4 ft beech and a 6ft chestnut stump in 20mins while the operator sat on a bench ( remote control) but it cost him £40 in fuel just to get to site ( his van that is)and a fair amount of time setting up.

And a full set of teeth was about £400! plus machines fuel. Not to mention the investment of god knows how much to buy the machine and oh mans wages to operate.

on a side note quoted for a pair of stumps, be a decent day ( Ash and hornbeam ) 3-4 ft each. Crap access so small pedestrian grinder.

Guy came back today on email saying i was too much. He got a quote of £80+VAT. 

doesnt even cover the cost to go there! teeth and fuel alone is got to be £40+, mans labour got to be £80-100.

Wear and tear? 

i told him to get some more quotes as it cant be right!

Well i went for it, had the briefest of plays today.

Straight off its no replacement for a ms261 or equivalent sized saw.

More a battery 2 handed version of a 201 i would say.

So far like it but as said i used for a few minutes before i had to run up a tree.

I think perfect as a smaller ground saw but cant see it going up a tree much because if im sending down the 201 i want a bigger more grunty saw to replace it!

But never know until you try it i guess!

Cheers

HI all.

Got a silly desire to get one of these.

Dont really need on as have a couple of ms261's that just dont die which is great but really fancy a battery one.

I  have some battery hedge trimmers which are great.

Thing is the saw with the promo offer ( 2 bat and charger) is £656 +VAT. i could buy just the unit alone(285+) but the batteries i have are old so may lead to a bad experience.

SO has anyone got one? is it worth it or will i be let down? I run a small tree team, not a home owner. Love to actually use it to chog down mid sized timber if possible amongst other things.

Cheers

Well after been off this week from tuesday i am told by the HR company i employ and the accountant that if i can work then i must. If i can work this makes myself and my guys not eligible for the Coronavirus job retention payments ( we are all employees).

But non of them know for sure as the gov advice is vague. 

If we were in Ireland then i would know for sure as its non essential work.

So back to work from tomorrow. 

If anyone knows otherwise please enlighten me!