tree triming by electrical company (sub contractor)

[LD1]

I don't think your expectations are too high. But that's based on my location, and my agreement with the power company. So regardless what anyone "thinks", it should all be in black and white in your agreement.

Around here, which is a rural coop for power, they chip everything up to about 4" diameter. Maybe bigger. (They have huge chippers).

Stumps are required to be cut low enough to mow over, and the big block of wood are to be cut into manageable pieces, usually around 25".

But 25" sucks if you burn wood. Too long for most stoves and splitters. And cut in half if too short to stack with the rest of your wood.

Whenever the trimmers are in my area, I always tell them, leave pieces as big as you can, and leave trunk hig as you can. IE, just get it clear of the power line so I can drop it without worry. Makes it easier to uproot and remove stump, and they don't screwed up all the prime firewood with odd cut lengths.

 

[ericm979]

How would I get a copy of that agreement? The existence of the easement was listed on the deed with all the others (i.e. the neighbor property has an easement to a spring dating from 1916) but there's no details.

Our utility Pacific Greed & Extortion uses the lowest price contractors. They consistently do the least work they can get by with so there'll be more to clear the next year. They don't take problem trees down, they just trim a few branches, butchering the tree in the process. It's good in that they usually don't leave much of a mess but the work they do is ineffective.

 

[aircommuter]

I have had many bouts with the tree trimming by their subcontractors. Once they had a contractor with a crew that didn't speak English, or at least pretended not to. They were cutting extra trees for their convenience, I called their office the next morning early and told them they needed to have English speaking people here, they told me the crew already left their yard, I said you don't understand, either you get people out here that speak English or I will have the sheriff escort them out of here. About twenty minutes later an English speaking supervisor showed up.
I another incident they were not chipping branches and leaving trees on top branches. They argued with me so I wrote to the utility's CEO. I started getting calls from various people, some trying say we only get so much per tree and so on. I finally said either you and I agree on how this is going to be done or we will have to get a third person to decide. They didn't want to go to small claims court again. I had sued them in the past for having a 5 day power outage because they didn't cut trees that were marked 2 years earlier. They lost. The bottom line is the least amount of work they can get away with the more profit they make. So don't let get away with whatever they want.

 

[Sigarms]

I don't think your expectations are too high. But that's based on my location, and my agreement with the power company. So regardless what anyone "thinks", it should all be in black and white in your agreement.

I've read the paperwork. It only states "clear" any trees in question. That's part of my issue. That's said, before any work begins, I inform the utlitly company that I expect the area to be clean of debris and any large logs laying and aren't moved or cut should be cut in 24" lengths so I can pick them up myself and move them in my truck. They agreed with me, but nothing in writing.

I expect the subcontractor to treat my land the way he would treat his land, with some kind of respect.

They said they would come back and clean it up. I just find it funny that they subcontractor made the comment "oh, I didn't think you owned that part". Like if no one owns it, it's ok for them to leave it looking like crap?

Keep in mind, the first time out here, I had to have them come back 3 times.

I'm guessing the next time out here, everything is put in writing or I don't sign anything.

Thing is, even if I don't sign anything, they can still do what they want.

 

[LD1]

Yeah, seems shady. Bit I'd try to get it I. Writing from the power company.

The way ours works is:

About. Month before there are gonna be trimmers I. The area, they send out a flyer to give you a heads up.

About two weeks prior, a member of the power company marks trees. Red paint is remove, blue is trim.

A few years ago, they had an elderberry bush marked red. As well as a healthy ash tree that was a good ways away from the lines marked red.

By marking I. Advance, it gives time to question before it's too late. so I had power company arborist out and questioned my elderberry bush. They thought it would "climb" the pole and cause issues. I educated them on that and assured them that if it somehow did start to climb the pole, I'd remove it. So he marked it out with grey paint to cover the red.

The ash tree, they said they were just clearing ALL within reach of the lines due to the ash bore. This tree was still healthy, so I requested it me trimmed instead. He agreed.

However, this tree had two trunks. A forked base so to speak. I wasn't home. They trimmed it all the way to the ground. So this 24" tree, with 2 12" trunks, was now just a single 12" tree out of the stump. I was pi$$ed. No chance at all of the tree surviving now.

Called power company back, arborist remember out discussion and was shocked as well. Made the tree trimmers come.back and remove the rest of it, and offered me a 6-8' tall tree of my choice to plant where I wanted.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I guess I am lucky. Our tree trimmers cut my cedars just the way I asked them to, fished out all the limbs from the branches, chipped it all up. They did let some limbs stay for over a week so I just pushed them all into a pile at the corner of my yard. A couple weeks later they came by with the chipper and chipped them all up. I had added some limbs to the pile from my yearly yard trimming and they got them all.

The chipper cant keep up with the trimmer so I have noticed that some limbs laid in the ditches for weeks before they got back to them. I think they were getting them from folks yards and driveways as priority and came back for the road way limbs later. Generally I have been happy with their work but I do watch them while working.

 

[Sigarms]

The way it works here is the ultility company shows up in their company truck and they tell you they're going to be doing some cutting, where and why.

After that, you don't really have a clue when they're going to show up and you're told they'll show up within the next couple of months.

This time, I dealt with a engineer because they were putting in a new pole.

 

[TheMan419]

I am so happy the power and gas easements run on the other side of the street.

 

[Soundguy]

around here, they come thru, hire a contractor, that contractor hires temp workers.. the temps come on your property and 'scout' your property, then come back and rip you off.

Last time the power lines got trimmed back here at my farm property ( I live down the road ). I went back the next day, and a brand new farm gate was missing, plus a couple other 'metal' items. I talked to the neighbor across the road from me. He said he saw the 'workers' in the neighbors yard next to him, who is on vacation ( diagonal caddy corner to me ).. he saw them walking around his farm sheds and lifting up the tarp on his boat. The fence and tree line was about 50-70 yards from where they were walking around.

Very unsetteling.

 

[ericm979]

I happened to run into the advance guy this morning, so I went down the ROW with him and told him what trees to take and what to leave. They'll be taking out some trees that I was planning on removing myself. They only chip stuff up to 4" so I will have some clean up to do but less than if I did it myself as I'd planned.

I wonder why only 4" when they have the big arborist chippers that will take entire trees? I'll chip what I can with the Woodmaxx but I may still have some fir that I'll have to find a place for. No one burns fir here, can't even give it away.