Given a choice between amatuer hour operating a chainsaw and hiring someone at an okay price is no choice. A mistake with a chainsaw can change your life and not in a good way. Lots of guys (most!) that own chainsaws and know how to "operate" them DO NOT know how to operate them safely.
8/10 weather
- Thread starter baller21
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Given a choice between amatuer hour operating a chainsaw and hiring someone at an okay price is no choice. A mistake with a chainsaw can change your life and not in a good way. Lots of guys (most!) that own chainsaws and know how to "operate" them DO NOT know how to operate them safely.
I consider myself above average with regards to "handiness" and DIY stuff. I do not **** around with taking down a tree, especially in an urban area. Way too much risk and skill needed to do it safely.
Quick anecdote: our neighbors needed a tree taken down. They got a quote that was like $1000. Tree wasn't too big, but it was between two garages, a house, and a power line nearby. They had a friend tell them she'd do it for free. Shortly after she started, there was an ambulance there. She had roped off a branch and when she cut it, it came flying back and drilled her in the leg. Cut her thigh down to the tendon. They called the pros after that.
I took down an ash tree in my moms front yard, after I got it down, I realized it probably may have been better to have hired it, but I had three directions to go with it and probably be fine. The dumbest was climbing the tree and roping myself in the tree as I dropped branches. I had dropped several over the years, but it was still a little more intimidating having a house about 20 foot behind you.
Own one but not a great one. Would have gotten help from a family friend that works in the city forestry department but who knows when that was going to be. He was actually supposed to help us take down my parents big ash tree this past weekend.
Tree was probably 50ish feet tall and dying. somewhat surprised it didn't come down to begin with.
With evergreens, if you can find a guy with a dozer, they have more of a taproot style root system that allows dozers to basically just pop them out of the ground.
I live to the north of the pool and we got power on from 9:30 to noon today, then it's been out since. Ours was also on for an hour Wed night.
A family member in the area got power one day for 1 hour, 4 hours the next day, and then full on the next day. So maybe tomorrow is your day!
7 day tape delay? If this had been a nor'easter we'd have wall-to-wall coverage from the minute it got close to the east coast for a least a week afterward.
Saw a post on FB that power is struggling to come back because nothing was turned off in houses. Too much load when they flip the switch.
Report from Clarence Iowa.
Clarence is on US 30 about 35 miles E. of Cedar Rapids. Population is right at 1,000.
Got power back today at 2:45
Went off at 1:10 Monday.
I haven't been to Cedar Rapids. But my brother lives there. He expects power back on tomorrow. SW side near Johnson Ave.
If you didn't see this town on Monday or Tuesday you have no idea what it was like. I honestly estimate 90% of the properties in town have at least some kind of damage. At LEAST some lost shingles, siding, etc. Plenty of trees on houses, garages, buildings and vehicles.
I was luckier than most. Lost some soffit on the west side of the house. Basically it blew up under the eave in 3 or 4 places. And the middle of a 35 foot tree in the front yard was down. And a large branch off of another one.
A Concrete block car wash was blown to bits. A building blew off of it's foundation. Watched a trampoline rolling across my front yard and smash into the neighbor's garage. Nobody could get out of the neighborhood at first. All 3 streets were blocked with downed trees. Big-ass trees. Most of the streets were open by dark but there was **** everywhere.
Two of my brothers came up to help on Tuesday morning. Got the trees taken care of. My father had purchased a generator in the late 1970's. I knew one of them had it but didn't really even consider asking about it because I knew it was not running. Well, turns out my one brother that had it had done a carburetor rebuild and it was in running condition. So he brought that and 10 gallons of gas. It is a small one - only 2000 watts, but was enough to keep the refrigerator running and one lamp at night.
The city and people went to work cleaning up and getting branches off the power lines. They kicked ASS! Lots of lines down and poles broken off. By yesterday the town itself looked 100% better. Like I said, unless you saw it on Monday or Tuesday (or live in a similarly decimated town) you cannot imagine what it was like. I'm 64 years old and I've never seen anything even close to this.
Alliant was not around the first 4 days. Came in on Saturday late with a few trucks. Yesterday they started at one end of town and started replacing poles. Followed by line crews. By late last night they had most of it visually repaired. And today at 2:45 the town came on!
Clarence is on US 30 about 35 miles E. of Cedar Rapids. Population is right at 1,000.
Got power back today at 2:45
Went off at 1:10 Monday.
I haven't been to Cedar Rapids. But my brother lives there. He expects power back on tomorrow. SW side near Johnson Ave.
If you didn't see this town on Monday or Tuesday you have no idea what it was like. I honestly estimate 90% of the properties in town have at least some kind of damage. At LEAST some lost shingles, siding, etc. Plenty of trees on houses, garages, buildings and vehicles.
I was luckier than most. Lost some soffit on the west side of the house. Basically it blew up under the eave in 3 or 4 places. And the middle of a 35 foot tree in the front yard was down. And a large branch off of another one.
A Concrete block car wash was blown to bits. A building blew off of it's foundation. Watched a trampoline rolling across my front yard and smash into the neighbor's garage. Nobody could get out of the neighborhood at first. All 3 streets were blocked with downed trees. Big-ass trees. Most of the streets were open by dark but there was **** everywhere.
Two of my brothers came up to help on Tuesday morning. Got the trees taken care of. My father had purchased a generator in the late 1970's. I knew one of them had it but didn't really even consider asking about it because I knew it was not running. Well, turns out my one brother that had it had done a carburetor rebuild and it was in running condition. So he brought that and 10 gallons of gas. It is a small one - only 2000 watts, but was enough to keep the refrigerator running and one lamp at night.
The city and people went to work cleaning up and getting branches off the power lines. They kicked ASS! Lots of lines down and poles broken off. By yesterday the town itself looked 100% better. Like I said, unless you saw it on Monday or Tuesday (or live in a similarly decimated town) you cannot imagine what it was like. I'm 64 years old and I've never seen anything even close to this.
Alliant was not around the first 4 days. Came in on Saturday late with a few trucks. Yesterday they started at one end of town and started replacing poles. Followed by line crews. By late last night they had most of it visually repaired. And today at 2:45 the town came on!
Trying to help you think positive. At least it’s not January. May sweat, but not going to freeze to death.
Question for those who know. Are building supplies readily available. I know due to Covid that many people were doing home improvement projects and things were a little light.
crap,man I’m slow. We are building a third stall on our garage and just wondered if our bid will hold.
crap,man I’m slow. We are building a third stall on our garage and just wondered if our bid will hold.
One of the more interesting items damaged I have seen. My sisters kitchen cabinets are now crooked and won't close leaving us wondering if the wind shifted or twisted the house some.
