OT: Down she goes!

I moved into a new (to me) home earlier this year, and I now have about ten different projects underway to enhance/improve it (paint the exterior brick to change color of the house; sand/paint exterior woodwork; build patio cover; install new patio door; rebuild flower beds; build back yard fence; sod bare spots in lawn, etc. I totally renovated the interior, including sanding/staining/poly’ing the wood floors, before I moved in.

One attractive feature of the house is that it sits on 5.5 acres of huge pine trees. Unfortunately those trees---the 50 or so that surround the house itself---are also a huge detriment. Tornadoes are a common occurrence here, and the idea of those giant yellow pines being hurled across my roof and into my bedroom is very unsettling. One tree, a 36-incher just a few feet from my patio, was not only intimidating but inconvenient and a nuisance (pine needles everywhere), so I resolved to take it down before I got much further along with the fence.

I enlisted a young friend to do most of the heavy lifting. We circled the tree with a half-inch wire rope about 20 feet up. I stretched the wire rope to another tree about 100 feet away, with a comealong taking up the slack. Chris began sawing and I kept constant tension on the comealong. It didn’t take that Stihl Magnum w/25-inch bar very long to do the deed, and the tree fell exactly where we intended it to. If it had fallen in any other direction the outcome might not have been cheerful. It almost ruined my day anyway: even though I was standing beyond the crown of the tree when it fell, I came within inches of being flattened by some five-inch limbs from a sweetgum that the pine swatted on its way down. They landed all around me.

Now, 49 more to go. The real problem I face should be obvious: it’s not difficult to take down a big tree, but what do you do with it once it’s on the ground? My John Deere TRACTOR will come in handy, I know.

Cut it into saw log lengths , and make lumber.That is what I would do with it now. Bruce

Most brick homes today are brick veneer and one of the reasons for a brick veneer is to reduce maintenance. Once you paint that brick you cannot go back, you have the privilege of painting it every few years.

Yup, have them made into lumber. Either use it yourself, or sell it.

Larry

I did the same thing in 95/96 just before Hurricane Fran... If I had not I still would be picking up limbs... I had 55 of'em took out he did it for the trees and cleaned up the mess... He used a small backhoe to remove the trees and did not damage the yard.

I would not paint the brick, I had the soffits covered in vinyl and the rest rapped in aluminium... It ran 3K I am done with painting but do have to spray it off a couple times a year with a bleach mixture....

I still have some of those large pines left away from the house in the front yard they are a P.I.T.A. I had quite a few more cut behind the house in the last few years and got some money out of them tho not much... I cleaned the mess up myself and had a ball doing it...

Looks like the trees and house have been there a while, I understand the real close ones, but lot of folk are gonna cringe at getting rid of all your trees as it sounds like, many of us wait a lifetime to get them to grow up nice like that.....

I never cared for painted brick, it destroys the beauty and the zero maintenance of it entirely. Can't go back again. But that is why its great to live where we do and folk can do different things and make a place the way they like it, not the way I would do it.

Probably learn sooner than later, everyone stands off well behind the direction of fall of a tree, not out in front of it as stuff tends to be on the fly in that direction, even far out away. I never liked a crowd (more than me is a crowd!) when felling trees, I can run and manuver and plot and plan; in a group setting things just get very nervous for me when people have different ideas and experience level.....

Nice pics, have fun with the place. Its an adventure isn't it?

Paul

The only reason ever as far as I am conserned for painting brick is if it is the soft brick and starting to decay to keep it from getting worse.

Get a Woodmizer bandmill & make lumber. When you are done you can sell the lumber and mill.

Nice tree, but I'm like you - getting older and the trees over the house are getting bigger. It's now or never. I can see the day coming when I don't need to be cleaning gutters four times a year. I've cut four that were close enough to get the house, and I have my eye on three more.

Stand behind them when they fall. Lots of shrapnel out in front. . .

Thanks for the comments, fellas. I'll respond to some of them as follows:

I may consider having a guy with a band mill come in and saw this log up. Problem is, they don't like to saw a log that's been close to a house. Too much risk of metal. Also, I have an Alaska mill for that Stihl. I might try it out. Anybody need any 60-foot beams? I don't need the lumber, and even if I did, I have hundreds more just like it. If I were 53, maybe even 63, I would get a Woodmizer--always wanted one. But I'm 73 and I just can't keep up anymore.

As far as destroying something that has grown this big and this beautiful, I agree that it's unfortunate. But this one, and another 20 or so, are too close to the house. They're approaching the end of their life span, too. My back woods are littered with huge pine corpses. standing and lying.

Now to the brick: the house looks kinda red in the photo, but it's actually body-part pink, with matching pink mortar. I'm not concerned about losing my man-card, I just don't like the pink. As for maintenance, I'm already having to power wash the green stuff and the black stuff off of it. Also, my other house down the hill is 18 years old. It is sided with Hardi-plank--also a masonry product--painted white. I've never repainted it, just washed it with a brush. Aside from insect stains, it's still white and tight.

Final word on maintenance: As I said, I'm 73. It'll be someone else worrying about that next paint job.

Nice job and you obviously know how to fell a tree. I had the same job last winter with ice storm damage and some trees too close to the house getting too big. I know you are happy to have that sucker on the ground.

Mark

I have a brother who did that. Bought a lot, built a house. Beautiful huge trees. Put in a pool. Cut down all the trees because the leaves were getting into the pool and because he was scare they would fall on him in a storm. Then he went to the local high end nursery and bought thousands of dollars of smaller trees. Within 20 years he was cutting those down too. Me? I sit under my massive old trees and enjoy life. If it is gonna fall on me then that is my fate. Be ironic if one fell on the house while you were cutting it down.

LOGIC TEST:

So all the huge trees made it most of 100 years in a place with lots of tornadoes without coming down yet? But NOW is the time, eh?

(quoted from post at 20:09:33 11/04/14) I have a brother who did that. Bought a lot, built a house. Beautiful huge trees. Put in a pool. Cut down all the trees because the leaves were getting into the pool and because he was scare they would fall on him in a storm. Then he went to the local high end nursery and bought thousands of dollars of smaller trees. Within 20 years he was cutting those down too. Me? I sit under my massive old trees and enjoy life. If it is gonna fall on me then that is my fate. Be ironic if one fell on the house while you were cutting it down.

LOGIC TEST:

So all the huge trees made it most of 100 years in a place with lots of tornadoes without coming down yet? But NOW is the time, eh?

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A pine tree has a short life span you harvest it are lose it there is no in between... .. It would not make me mad if I never had another one in my yard... I am blessed with them tho....

Well sir, old trees die off for numerous reasons, namely insects and yes they do fall. So sirrrrrrr you sit in your splendor and enjoy it. Personally, since I know of and see them do it, I don't want them adjacent to my house or shop.

Mark

With trees that big and that many I would be calling a logger and allow him to pay me to watch him cut them down and haul them off.

(quoted from post at 10:42:18 11/04/14)
Now to the brick: the house looks kinda red in the photo, but it's actually body-part pink, with matching pink mortar. I'm not concerned about losing my man-card, I just don't like the pink. As for maintenance, I'm already having to power wash the green stuff and the black stuff off of it. Also, my other house down the hill is 18 years old. It is sided with Hardi-plank--also a masonry product--painted white. I've never repainted it, just washed it with a brush. Aside from insect stains, it's still white and tight.

Final word on maintenance: As I said, I'm 73. It'll be someone else worrying about that next paint job.

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It sounds like your mind is made up but I will mention it in case anybody else is reading with similar thoughts: You should know that you can color/stain the brick work to a different shade. Obviously going darker works best but you can also change the shade. In your case, going from the pink shade to a fuller red is very doable. You can even stain just the joints if you want the pink out of that and can live with or want to keep the pinkish color in the brick. Doing just the joints is easy but takes time so you would want that to be a DIY project, if you had to pay somebody for that it would break you. And worst case happens and your staining the brick fails, you were going to paint anyway and it will be covered up.

As for your age, I agree that alot of your future maintence wont be "yours" as this could be the last time you do it but you may want to think beyond the maintence part of it and think about how the bottom line will affect your heirs. Even if you never have to lift a brush again you may want to consider the reduced value of a home you pass on to your loved ones. Weather that person/persons keeps the home or sells it, painting the brick is gonna put a hurt on its value. If a person is real lucky, they may be able to pressure wash it or sand blast it but thats a little pricy and doesnt always work. Tearing off the brick and replacing them on a house that size would cost as much as a good used truck. Thats alot of money to waste just because you are not happy with the color and aint worried about the maintenance of painted brick.

Anyway just thought I would throw it out there, there are some other pretty good options available.

Greetings to a fellow Louisianaian, John. Yes, I have already talked to a timber guy. They won't touch trees up around the house--I'll have to take them down myself.

I appreciate your thoughts, Rich, and I will take
this info into consideration.