While trees have many advantages, including providing fresh air and maintaining a cool climate in your home, sometimes they may be at a place where they aren’t wanted or tend to overgrow the allocated space. Having an overgrown tree beside your house can create many inconveniences, including damaging your home and attracting animals such as raccoons. The only remedy for a tree causing inconveniences is to cut or trim it. But how do you conveniently cut a tree without destroying your house? Here are some steps.
Create a Plan
Do not just wake up and decide to cut down the tree without having a plan. You have to study it, its size, the branches, and how it will fall once cut. All this is to avoid damaging the house and other things around it. In most cases, when cutting trees, they tend to fall on the weighty side. This situation means the tree will fall where it has more branches, leaves, or fruits, if any. If the tree is leaning, then it will fall on the leaning side. According to professional cutters from anjtreeservice.com, the height of the tree also matters. If the tree is tall, you might cut it and fall into the neighbors’ properties. You have to balance all the aspects right, so as when cutting; you don’t damage the stuff around it or cause more inconveniences. If the task seems complicated, you can seek professional cutters’ services, especially on more giant trees.
Prepare the Site for Cutting
After creating the plan and confirming you can cut down the tree, you have to prepare the site, and here is how. First, you need to remove everything surrounding the tree, including any placed furniture, cars, decorations, and landscaping. It is recommended to remove all things surrounding the tree and not where the tree will fall as sometimes things don’t go the projected way. After removing the objects, make some restrictions so as no one will come closer while cutting down the tree. You can secure the areas by putting marks or boundaries and alerting people nearby that you are cutting the tree. It would be best to prepare the tree by cutting long and dead branches first, to avoid breaking up and splitting when the tree falls.
Have an Assistant
If it’s a large tree, it’s crucial to have an assistant checking on the tree’s movement and direction while cutting. This checking increases safety measures since you will know how the tree behaves and its ultimate falling position. The person watching the tree cut should alert anyone if the tree takes the wrong direction when falling and must point out any abnormalities during the cutting process. They should evacuate the cutter to safety in case they sense the danger when the tree is falling. The person checking should also stand a few Metres away to avoid being affected by the falling tree.
Cutting the Tree
Cutting the tree is the primary process of this task. It must be taken with care to avoid accidents, which might cause injuries and damage to properties. To cut the tree and cause it to fall in the targeted direction, you need to make a V-cut on the tree where you want it to drop. This cut makes the part weak, making the tree lean on this side. Cut quarter-way to the trunk at an angle of 45 degrees. After creating a V-cut, only the uncut part will be holding the tree. Make the second and the third V-cut below and above the initial V-cut until the tree starts bending. When the tree leans, cut the other side to release the tension, which will make the tree fall in the direction you wanted. Ensure there is no strong wind since it can affect the direction of the fall. You can also use other cutting processes, depending on the size and formation of the tree.
Finalizing
After cutting down the tree, you can chop off the branches and trim the logs into smaller pieces for easy clearance. Ensure you handle the stems and leaves with care, especially if it’s a tree with thorns or harmful leaves. Check out for insects too. Ensure everything gets disposed of appropriately according to the set bylaws.
The above simple process is for a single tree that isn’t complicated and can be done by anyone. However, if having large, challenging, or many trees, it’s advisable to seek the services of a professional tree cutter who will ensure all processes are applied effectively, including disposing of the cut trees. We hope the guidelines will be of help if doing it by yourself.