Mark Wileman

My grigri accepts 11m rope as the maximum, so on 13mm it's almost unusable.

Evening, Do any of you have experience of, or have sub contracted out chipping/grinding responsibilities to third parties? I understand my audience here is mostly tree firms with chippers/grinders or the relevant tickets to hire and use them, I am just trying to think of small ways to wiggle into Arb in my area without starting up on my own. Majority of my work will come from freelance groundieing/climbing but I was thinking of offering a chipping/grinding service directly to clients or on a subby basis to gardeners/landscapers/builders as they wouldn't have the necessary insurance/qualifications to hire such machines. Also my plan would be to do this without a tipper, instead using a pick-up and chip into the back; realistically is a pickup too small to be an effective chip moving vehicle? Oh, and what rates have people had experience with? With a 6" chipper costing 100-120 a day to hire I'd have to be around the £200 mark to make it worthwhile. Thanks!

Fell it to 6ft and chainsaw carve them a pissing cherub or something. Or just fell it and never come back, selflessly sacrifice your reputation to save the feelings of the elitist Arborists who think certain trees are beneath them

Do you work for a company that shares it's name with a popular Islamic political movement by any chance?

I don't know who "A cut above Tree Services" are, but they have a nice page on their website about conifer reductions. http://www.acutabovetreeservices.co.uk/conifer-reducing--trimming.html I've only been asked to reduce a conifer once in my vast experience of 6 months, luckily I convinced the client that a removal was the best course of action!

Oh, and I got charged four days pay once for not signing a piece of paper saying I gave something to someone else

The MOD are terrible for common sense, I nearly got charged once for taking a radio antenna apart to fix, as I had "tampered" with it they tried saying I was liable for the damage, despite it already being fooked.

Have you rang around the local firms offering yourself up for some work experience? I did just that about 20 miles north of you and got a job out of it! Even if you don't get the job offer, you'd be surprised how much you can learn just by being on site and watching, and getting your face known as a hard worker will mean your first on the list of guys need a hand. Good luck! PM me if you have any specific questions about Arb in South/West Wales, I'm pretty new myself, but I can pass on the little knowledge I have

Thanks, just wanted to get my head around the "norm" before I go chat to him about the exact terms of my sub-contracting/employment.

Good morning, I have some bone questions to ask about sole-tradering, the HRMC website seems to just focus on building trade sole traders in the subcontracting context. - If the tree work is nothing to do with a building development etc then I do not have to be part of the CIS scheme? - As a non-VAT registered contractor I don't include VAT anywhere on my invoices? - I invoice the company I'm working for the full amount of my labour, and receive the full amount (it's up to me to sort out my tax)? - How much % of the year can I work for the same company without losing "self-employed" status (included in this is, if some of work during the year is PAYE to a seperate company is that included as "working for someone else" even though it's not a sub-contracting context? Thanks in advance.

Nice reduction!

**In my uneducated opinion** The crack is in the heartwood that is no longer really serving any purpose by the looks of things. This looks like possible abiotic physical damage done when the tree was a lot younger, the occlusions are well developed, confirming this. I'd agree with you on the fungi part, Alfred's cakes that feed off rotting deadwood, and as you can see that the deadwood is no longer serving the tree structurally, the fungi isn't really part of the equation. Was the tree recently fire damaged? Honestly I don't think this tree is as close to collapse as it might look.

And no doubt it'll be there waiting for him. He's asked for some advice on entering the Arb industry, not asked us to make his life decisions for him.

Get off my porch!

I'm doing a BSc Urban Forestry, hoping to balance climbing/consultancy over the next 10-15 years and then just alter the ratios as and when I feel. Long term I want some cushty graduate six figure Forestry Commission gig! Oh, and the Army Reserve let you play soldiers until your 55, which is nice pocket money

Invest in your blokes, send them on CS45! http://www.nptc.org.uk/assets/documents/58721840985443fb87d1920d0e3feb4c.pdf

Thanks Kevin, I forgot about this thread!

I'd consolidates a lot of the different job hunting sites and is good for cold calling Company owners, slightly more professional way that a Facebook message, at least!

Yeah of course, don't go spinning dits about your helicopter removals in Queensland to land a job.

I'm pretty heavily tattooed and the only questions I've ever had about my tattoos I've turned into jokes, I imagine it's the same type of client that will nose through their blinds at tattooed tree workers as they would non-white tree workers, and our aging fascist community is a dying breed; literally. However; tattooed, black, brown, white, straight, gay or ginger I do think we should make an effort, as i'm sure most firms do, to present ourselves smartly and not keep wearing that polo-shirt that got attacked by a silky last summer.

To the OP. The ProClimber course does look good, and if you can afford to invest that much in your own training then go for it! I'm just starting out, and have spent hours and hours working out how to punch into the industry. It may just be the situation in my area, but it seems everyone who's been at the game for a while wants to try and "branch out" on their own to make the mega bucks. Obviously a lot of these new business' fail due to the competition of their previous employers! I would recommend setting yourself up as a sole-trader, and freelance out to all the small firms that don't have enough full time blokes to do big work. That way you don't end up grass cutting when the work dries up and gives you the opportunity to learn from a variety of blokes! Some here might say that in order to be a freelance climber you need years of experience and need to turn up able to run the site etc... but in my experience so far I would disagree, hard-working guys will always be needed on site, so long as you are proactive and safe, you'll be making people money without them having to pay your pension/holidays and will therefore keep employing you! It's also a lot cheaper to buy yourself all your PPE and a couple of saws than re-mortgaging the house to get that brand new van & chipper!

Hi Lynher, when are you running your next UA course?

Anyone had any experience with Rock Machinery's "Venom" 3.4inch chipper? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYQ7vasOhts

Is the Arb directory still up and running and receiving traffic?

Still need someone John?