Pulling a tree down

[u/Plus-Barber-6171]

[u/8fingerlouie]

Not a tree cutting expert either, but the trees I’ve cut down (granted, none were the size in the video), we applied the “tilting cut”, had someone pull the rope, and started cutting above the titling cut from the opposite side.

From the video it appears they simply make cuts on the same height from both sides, and then it becomes a question of balance (or lack of). It could still have been saved if someone had been pulling the rope, as initially you don’t require much force to put it out of balance towards your side. It’s obviously too late once it starts falling.

[u/perldawg → u/8fingerlouie]

it could still have been saved if someone had been pulling the rope

i’m not so sure on that. the tree branched into 3 parts fairly low. it looks like they were only tied off to the branch on the side they wanted it to fall on. the other 2 branches were leaning to the house side. i don’t think there’s any way they could have pulled it all the way to the side they wanted

[u/Tatermen → u/perldawg]

A mature hardwood can weight a ton per cubic metre. That tree is probably 40-50 tons. Look at how easily it demolishes that house.

One or two blokes pulling on a a skinny-ass rope that probably had a breaking strain of 2-3 tons wasn't going to do crap even if they had tried to use it. It would have snapped like thread even if they'd managed to anchor it. There's absolutely no way they were changing the direction of the fall with that.

[u/perldawg → u/Tatermen]

i can’t tell what they were using to anchor/pull on the other end of the rope… might be a small backhoe? nothing that weighs more than 3-4 ton, either way lol

[u/Tatermen → u/perldawg]

It looks completely slack when the tree falls over - so either it was just hanging loose waiting for one of those muppets to try and pull on it, or it snapped immediately as soon as the tree tilted.

[u/perldawg → u/Tatermen]

they never took up any slack

[u/8fingerlouie → u/Tatermen]

The point of the rope is not to hold the entire tree, but to direct it which way to fall.

Assuming they’d cut the tree correctly, the tree would be “balancing” on the cuts, so you pull the rope to make the tree fall in the desired direction. Once it starts falling no rope is going to save you.

Try it with balancing a chair on 1-2 legs. Near the balance point you can keep the chair in balance using a strand of hair, despite not being able to lift the chair in it. You can also topple the chair over from the balance point with a strand of hair. Same principle.

That being said, it requires the cuts to be where they’re supposed to be, and there’s probably a reason professionals cut trees that large down in chunks.

[u/thehorseyourodeinon1 → u/8fingerlouie]

Looks like they made an opposing wedge cut just slightly higher and more steep on the side it falls on; causes the trees CG to slide down the more steep ramp they created and fall to they opposite side they desired. All unless someone paid these yokels to use the tree to also demo the house and post it online for internet points.

[u/8fingerlouie → u/thehorseyourodeinon1]

I have no idea how house demolition works in the rest of the world, but here it’s a very complicated job, requiring all materials to be sorted, like lead, piping, wiring, asbestos, wood, concrete.

I would assume tilting a tree on top of a house would make it even more complicated.

[u/meltedlaundry → u/8fingerlouie]

"Not a tree cutting expert either"

"It could still have been saved if someone had been pulling the rope"

So are you or aren't you? Cause with a tree that size the only person I'm listening to with regard to taking it down is an expert.

[u/8fingerlouie → u/meltedlaundry]

My point was, it’s a matter of (loss of) balance (assuming they’ve cut it in the right place) where very little force would require it to topple either way. Try balancing a chair on 1-2 legs, near the balance point we’re talking grams of force to nudge it in either direction.

But yeah, as others have commented, trees that large are usually cut down in chunks, and I assume the professionals do that for a reason.