David Marrs Trees tree service on another Douglas Fir tree removal in Bellevue, WA. We put together a series of clips from the job showing the removal. This was a fun one! Check out the video for the before/after pics.

When there is a shed under the tree…

The tricky thing about this job was that a small maintenance shed was located a few feet away from the tree. Obviously, in such tight quarters, felling the tree whole is not a possibility. Furthermore, cutting the tree into small firewood sections from the top is also dangerous. Those small pieces could bounce after landing and hit the shed.

So we used a technique called “negative rigging” that allows us to lower large sections of the trunk down to the ground in a smooth, controlled way. This involves attaching a heavy steel device called a “stein”, which is a kind of bollard, to the bottom of the tree. An extremely strong rope is attached first to the piece of the tree being cut, then goes through a “block”, or large pulley attached to the main tree just below, then the other end goes down to the “stein” and gets wrapped around it. These wraps around the “stein” device add a lot of friction to the system, which allows a person on the ground to manage the rope and control the descent of the trunk piece to the ground.

let It Run

When lowering these big trunk pieces down, it’s important the guy holding the rope allows the rope to run quickly through his hands, thereby reducing the shock load on the climber. You can see in a couple clips in our video above that we didn’t have the friction calibrated exactly right. This meant David got a nice bucking from the shock-load of the piece coming to a stop. We got it right on the next ones!

Douglas Fir Tree Removal Bellevue

If you have a big, tall tree located somewhere near your home and you can’t cut it down, give us a call! Most of the time in residential areas, felling a tree whole is a very risky prospect. You’ll take a chance on hitting your house, your neighbor’s house, fence, or whatever else is around under the tree. Let us come in and surgically dismantle any trees that are in danger of falling, diseased, or otherwise problematic. Check out our tree removals page here.

And finally, just because, here’s the before & after.