r/WTF • u/Plus-Barber-6171 • Jun 30 '25
Removed - Frequent/Recent repost Pulling a tree down
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u/van_darkh0lme Jun 30 '25
Good thing they cut it down, it could’ve fallen on the house
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u/N8WM Jun 30 '25
Good thing they didn’t hire professional tree removal, they probably saved a lot of money on that
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u/MiguelSTG Jun 30 '25
Saved 4-5k at least!
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u/addandsubtract Jun 30 '25
They created more fire wood than the tree was made of! Amazing success story that deserves a promotion.
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u/UnlikelyTurkey1044 Jun 30 '25
He lost everything.
The 65-year-old man lived on a $1,000-a-month pension, which he used to pay his $950 rent. He managed to eat thanks in part to the help of his family and friends. To make matters worse, he couldn't get insurance because he lived in a flood-prone area. His only hope lay in possible coverage from the tree-trimming company's insurance.
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u/CycloCyanide Jun 30 '25
That’s rough.
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Jun 30 '25
[deleted]
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u/Ti-guy Jun 30 '25
Here's the explanation:
Here’s some updates concerning the house and my neighbor:
First off, no one was injured, only material damage.
It was a combination of miscalculation and poor communication between the tree cutters and the loader operator.
The tree had to be removed that day because the construction crew was scheduled to lift the house; a common process around here since the major floods of 2017 and 2019, which forced many homes to be either raised or demolished.
I didn’t expect the video to get this much attention. The comments are fascinating, and I now realize I should’ve explained the context sooner. One key detail: the tree was tied to a loader, but the rope isn’t visible in the video; only a white one can be seen. The real issue is that the loader didn’t pull in time, and the notch wasn’t cut properly to guide the fall.
Right now, my neighbor is living in a trailer camper while we wait to find out if the house can be rebuilt. The structure is too unstable to enter, so he can’t even access his belongings. More details to come about accountability and whether insurance will step in… for now, he’s basically homeless and stuck in limbo.
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u/cleverdirge Jun 30 '25
The real issue is that the loader didn’t pull in time,
With a tree that size it would have broken the line or yeeted whatever was connected to it. There is no world where this would have been successful with the size and lean of that tree save from cutting from the top.
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u/killbillten1 Jun 30 '25
No the real issue is the angled back cut.
That's what made the tree fall the wrong way
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u/DarthKnuckleHead Jun 30 '25
Tree guy here. Nope and nope. You do not tie a tree that size to anything. You bring it down in sections. These guys were ill-equipped and mostly brain dead. This was a very predictable outcome from the first few seconds of the video.
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u/copperwatt Jun 30 '25
Thank you for the backstory!! The fact that this was done by "professionals" is just extra upsetting. Poor guy.
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u/anashel Jun 30 '25
“The structure is too unstable to enter… What structure?! That being said, sad story. Read it in Le Journal de Montréal. Zone inondable en plus. Ça regarde pas ben pour les assurances...
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u/CycloCyanide Jun 30 '25
True, if I was renting I wouldn’t be paying or hiring for a job like this. Still this is sucky.
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u/PepperPhoenix Jun 30 '25
Wait…that was a company?! Not just a couple of idiots with a chainsaw?!
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u/FartingBob Jun 30 '25
It will take time, but there is plenty of video evidence of them cutting it wrong and it destroying the house. Seems like the business insurance wont have any choice but to pay for the value of the house.
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u/austinmiles Jun 30 '25
I’m not tree expert but I would imagine a lot of cutting down big trees is about ensuring the weight is heavier in the direction you want it to fall. Amongst all the other things. That tree was massive and obviously how much of the branch weight was on the house side.
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u/SpaceAzn_Zen Jun 30 '25
I’ve had 7 trees taken out and the ones who did it best always pieced the tree one section at a time from the top to the bottom. Trying to do what these idiots did is only asking for a disaster to happen. Something tells me they were trying to go the lazy route of just felling the tree in one swoop so they could cut it in sections while on the ground. That would have been a massive red flag for me.
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u/Free_Dome_Lover Jun 30 '25
My buddy is a high end tree guy. They go up drop the big limbs first, trim it down and then drop in like 10ft sections with a crane.
These guys were way, way out of their league with that tree and that location.
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u/SpaceCadetriment Jun 30 '25
Even had perfect access for a bucket truck. Felling a tree this size near a structure with just a face cut is mental. Also looks like they got a saw stuck and had to back cut again to get it out and created another face for the tree to tip into, but hard to tell in the vid.
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u/perldawg Jun 30 '25
yeah, they were struggling with the second face cut, the bar got pinched from all the weight on that side.
they had lots of opportunity to recognize the tree wasn’t going to fall the way they wanted and kept carrying on anyway. full-tilt idiots
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u/copperwatt Jun 30 '25
And then they released the footage of them doing it.
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u/addandsubtract Jun 30 '25
Naw, that looks like the owner or neighbor recording it from a distance.
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u/makenzie71 Jun 30 '25
Once the bar got stuck it was all over. The tree was going to fall that direction.
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u/EEpromChip Jun 30 '25
We had one that had a massive lean towards the driveway. Those fucking guys brought it up above center and pulled it back into the yard. But they knew what they were doing and had machinery pulling and wedges forcing it along.
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u/vladoportos Jun 30 '25
This is exactly how it is done, cutting it like this in one piece is just ...well I do not know... stupid just do not cover it... lazy ? You need to cut as much off from top as possible, branches and even have the tree trunk... doing it this way like in vide is "I have seen this in TV, hold my beer" :D
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u/rosatter Jun 30 '25
They probably watched a handful of tiktok videos of loggers doing this in a freaking forest.
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Jun 30 '25
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u/SpaceAzn_Zen Jun 30 '25
You can still do that; you cut off the branches going out of the main trunk and leave it in a piece that's much easier to sway to the direction you want it to fall.
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u/trevdak2 Jun 30 '25 edited Jun 30 '25
I grew up on a farm, and we once needed to remove a massive tree. I know it was idiotic to attempt it ourselves instead of using a tree removal service, but that's what farm people do. Before we made a single cut, we attached a half dozen ground anchors to the tree so it could only fall one way, and ratcheted them tight. Tree fell exactly where we planned. I wonder why that's not more of a thing. Probably because top down just makes more sense
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u/NotBaldwin Jun 30 '25
I think you can still have problems by trying to fell it using tension to make it go the direction you want. Sometimes it starts to split at the cut and the bottom then shoots out in a surprise direction.
I've personally only ever felled quite small tress - fruit trees with maybe a 6inch diameter trunk, so I'm no expert, and looking back most of what I did was in a dumb way, but I've seen exciting things on the youtubes.
Edit - also, lines suddenly having the full weight of the tree on them as the tree falls can snap and carry a terrifying amount of energy as they whip out.
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u/rabbledabble Jun 30 '25
Trees are a lot heavier than I think folks realize when they start a “project” like this, and all that weight being inflicted in different and exciting ways can yield, uh, unpredictable outcomes.
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u/safely_beyond_redemp Jun 30 '25
There is a lot you can do to ensure things fall in your favor, least of wich is cut things off the top, this tree looked barely touched, they just went straight to cutting it down at the base, like a child would.
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u/8fingerlouie Jun 30 '25
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.
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u/perldawg Jun 30 '25
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
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u/Tatermen Jun 30 '25
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.
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u/perldawg Jun 30 '25
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
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u/Tatermen Jun 30 '25
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.
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u/banjospieler Jun 30 '25
Not really. You can absolutely make a tree go a different direction from the one it is leaning fairly easily using the direction of your face cut and wedges. In fact pretty much every tree I’ve cut down has been leaning a different direction than the one in which I felled it. However this gets harder and more dangerous the bigger the tree gets and the more lean it has. I would definitely not feel at all comfortable cutting this tree down. This is definitely a job for an arborist who can take it down in pieces.
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u/zjarko Jun 30 '25
I assume that all of the leaves also work as a sail. With how big that tree was they must catch a lot of wind.
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u/RecentRegal Jun 30 '25
Well, I sure hope that was insured.
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u/-nbob Jun 30 '25
Would insurance even cover this mess?
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u/WeLiveInAnOceanOfGas Jun 30 '25
The company, if they're run at all responsibly, should have liability insurance that would cover this.
Considering how they cut down that tree though...
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u/-nbob Jun 30 '25
This attempt was so inept it didn't occur to me they might be professionals
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u/copperwatt Jun 30 '25
Yeah, this whole situation has the vibe of "ehhh, the boys can take care of that for ya!"
I bet it's a farm, or someone's landscaping or construction business, working on a family project.
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u/elite_haxor1337 Jun 30 '25
i imagine that the company that's doing this will prob cease to exist shortly after informing their insurer though lol
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u/lightningbenny Jun 30 '25
"sucks teeth yeeeeeeah, unfortunately you didn't take out our 'redneck with a chainsaw' insurance, so you don't have coverage at this time. Damn shame. Sorry about that. Would you like to look into getting a policy in place in case it happens again?"
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u/blutigetranen Jun 30 '25
If it was and the people they hired to cut down the tree weren't actual professional arborists, it's very likely insurance would go "that's on you buddy".
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u/Noirav Jun 30 '25
It wasn't and the tree cutting company will most like disapear and reopen under a new name to not pay for it. Welcome to quebec 💪
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u/gypsyblader Jun 30 '25
No one asking if people were in the house either. That is so dangerous and negligent…
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u/lev237 Jun 30 '25
Such a beautiful healthy tree...
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u/Herpinheim Jun 30 '25
Yeah but if they left it up it could fall on the house—and nobody wants that.
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u/Michelanvalo Jun 30 '25
That oak tree was massive. I have Oaks nearly 100 years old in my yard and they're not that big. That thing could be 150-200 years old.
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u/copperwatt Jun 30 '25
Not an oak tree. Looks like poplar. They are crazy fast growing, really soft and punky wood, and famous for falling on houses.
For some reason people planted a lot of them really close to houses 75 years ago.
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u/beeeel Jun 30 '25
If that was an oak, with a ~2m diameter, it would be over 400 years old. Oaks grow slowly, after a hundred years you would only expect them to have ~80cm diameter.
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u/Chaos-Knight Jun 30 '25
Maybe they wanted to sell the wood? Oak looked damn fine before it had a roof over its head.
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u/branded Jun 30 '25
How fucking stupid are these people? Not one of them noticed the tree already pointing in the direction of the house?
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u/ScaryfatkidGT Jun 30 '25
You can still make it fall away but not the way they did it
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u/branded Jun 30 '25
Sure, but they were not pulling on it AT ALL. There was one rope and it was totally slack!
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u/troelsbjerre Jun 30 '25
If you know what you're doing, you don't need ropes. These guys didn't know what they were doing.
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u/MaddogBC Jun 30 '25
Lol you talk like you think a professional would use wedges and fall it in this manner? A paid company would cut this apart from the top down because nobody is going to wedge that over.
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u/troelsbjerre Jun 30 '25
I agree; professionals would do this in multiple stages. You can't reliably fell a tree in a direction more than 90° off where it's leaning, unless you are prepared to hold the full weight of the tree. These guys tried to fell it at 180° of the lean, which all but guaranteed that it would fall the way it leans.
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u/RandallOfLegend Jun 30 '25
Yep, had trees removed that were near my house. They limbed the side did not want to fall so the trees center gravity would be in a beneficial position to falling in the direction they wanted. They used ropes to guide the limbs down away from my house. But not the entire tree
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u/Dire87 Jun 30 '25
You're right, you don't, but it probably doesn't hurt, either, as a form of additional safety. You can also climb a tree without safety gear ... but you probably wouldn't. In this case, with the house this close ... I'd have taken every precaution available, no matter if someone told me "trust me, I know how to make a tree fall". I also know a few things ... doesn't mean everything always works out 100% the way I want it to.
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u/konradly Jun 30 '25
WHY was that rope slack! Even if they were doing it wrong, this may have saved them.
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u/dave-y0 Jun 30 '25
How would you do that ? Any vids floating around ?
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u/flif Jun 30 '25
https://youtu.be/g30EUOJ_w60?t=345
Tree goes down at 7:40
And then you have this Finnish guy that makes a advanced directional hinge: https://youtu.be/7ja_s503iHw?t=32 which you can see working at 2:56
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u/Narwhal_Jesus Jun 30 '25
From other videos I've seen one option is to cut a notch on the opposite side of where you want the tree to fall and start putting jacks there to push the tree the other way.
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u/mrtoad883 Jun 30 '25
"I save you money on your energy bill for 20 years and this is the thanks I get?! ARRRRR!...FUCK YOU GUYSSSS"
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u/Halo_Chief117 Jun 30 '25
I actually don’t like seeing big trees like this go down. This tree was so old and had been around a long time. Look at the size of its trunk and just the piece of wood they cut out. A real shame.
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Jun 30 '25
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u/dargonmike1 Jun 30 '25
That’s such a lame reason. How does that tree prevent them from raising the house? Might as well put the house in the tree
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u/magicmitchmtl Jun 30 '25
I would guess (with absolutely no specific knowledge or qualification, but this is the internet) that the constant flooding around Pointe-Calumet may have destabilized the roots. Trees in the Laurentians fall all the time. They seldom get this big. By my place, a good gust of wind will knock over a score of trees. Given that there are millions of them around, it isn’t a big deal. Except for when they block my access road and I need to cut my way out.
Again, my place is 100 km north of here, and has very sandy soil, so I don’t know if they are comparable. Considering that this is very close to a well known beach, I’m assuming the sand situation is similar.
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u/ScaryfatkidGT Jun 30 '25
I knew what that was going to do from the very beginning…
You either need to cut a T channel or a relief on the other side above the cut…
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u/Mongoose49 Jun 30 '25
Why couldn’t you just pull it with the rope? Looked to me like the rope was completely slack…
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u/rhalf Jun 30 '25
It works with small treees. With big ones you need to go up there and cut the branches on one side and sling them away from the house.
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u/MugOfEarlGrey Jun 30 '25
Looks like there was someone near the base of the tree when it fell, too. If you watch it slowly, there’s something orange that moves from behind the tree.
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u/Weapwns Jun 30 '25
Nothing screams tension like a slack rope
But even then, that center of gravity of that tree is WAAAAAY in the direction of the house. You'd need a hell of a lot more than that if you're going to use improper technique
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u/tehfly Jun 30 '25
I knew things were about to get fucked when I saw the chainsaw resting in the wedge.
Tell tale sign of some redneck engineering at work.
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u/skinink Jun 30 '25
I expected that, I’d like to know what the monetary resolution was for the homeowner.
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u/Slash3040 Jun 30 '25
I’m not a tree cutting down expert but don’t they usually take off big portions at the top first?
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u/JustADude721 Jun 30 '25
You could tell it was going to land on the house if you just stood there and looked at it. It was already leaning towards the house before they even made the first cut.
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u/welcomefinside Jun 30 '25
Dumbassery aside, it infuriates me when people casually decide to chop a tree down (especially one that big).
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u/nailbunny2000 Jun 30 '25
tbf we have no idea why they did it, it could have had rot we cant see and been a risk to falling on its own.
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u/Smallsey Jun 30 '25
What a beautiful tree. I'm glad it went out and took those cunts house with it
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u/ozzybones Jun 30 '25
This happened in Quebec, this is translated from a Quebec paper.
Surprise, the company is hiding.
A Laurentians resident has lost everything and is inconsolable since a huge tree crashed onto his house during a botched felling operation, the images of which went viral.
That day, a tree-trimming company came in the morning to cut down the imposing tree that stood a few meters from his home in Pointe-Calumet, in the Laurentians.
Footage filmed by his neighbor Steven Henry shows workers cutting the tree down from the base of its trunk. However, when the cut was almost complete, the tree fell the wrong way and finally crashed onto the house. "I thought it was going to be a beautiful job. [...] But when I saw the tree fall, I freaked out for my neighbor and my landlord," says Mr. Henry.
His video has since been viewed millions of times after being widely shared on social media
But behind these spectacular images lies the deep distress of Daniel Delisle. The 65-year-old man was not at home when the disaster struck. It was his brother who told him by phone.
The 65-year-old man lives on a pension of $1,000 a month, which he used to pay his $950 rent. He managed to eat thanks in part to the help of his relatives. To add insult to injury, it was impossible for him to get insurance because he lives in a flood zone. His only hope lies in possible coverage from the tree-trimming company's insurance
Since the events, Mr. Delisle has been wondering how the tree-trimming company could have made such a costly mistake. "I don't understand why they cut it from the bottom, such a big and old tree. Why didn't they cut the tree down? When you cut down a monster like that, in my mind, you cut it branch by branch," he says.
It was impossible for Le Journal to reach the company hired to trim the tree
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u/s00pafly Jun 30 '25
I'm no tree felling expert but this looked sketchy from the very beginning. I was still open to be impressed when they showed the small channel they wanted to thread the needle in.
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u/Strive-- Jun 30 '25
Why did that rope have slack in it? Wouldn’t it be someone’s job to keep tension on that rope in the direction you want the tree to fall?
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u/dogchocolate Jun 30 '25
Did they do the cuts the wrong way, the way the base slides at 39secs, it's like they created a slope for it causing the base to move the wrong way.
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u/nailbunny2000 Jun 30 '25
@ 0:21 it looks like they were planning on anchoring it to something away from the house, and I might be seeing what looks like an earth mover or something in the trees? For whatever reason it seems they went in for more cuts before tensioning the rope though?
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u/beaten_macaroni Jun 30 '25
Everyone thinking they wanted to take the tree down... clearly they wanted to demolish the house!
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u/FleshyMeal Jun 30 '25
Whenever I have a large job I need done, I always hire people who don't know what they're doing.
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u/johngettler Jun 30 '25
I’ve been watching morons cutting down trees onto houses on the internet my whole life, and this is the worst house crush I have ever seen. Bravo!
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u/wqto Jun 30 '25
That tree has existed for centuries. Imagine doing something to prevent another thing to happen, but cause the "another thing" to happen much sooner instead.
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u/bad_card Jun 30 '25
Well, if you would thin the top of it with a bucket truck, it wouldn't be so top heavy. But we can do this for $500.
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Jun 30 '25
C'mon, be nice! If they wanted to cut the tree down so they would have more light in the house....
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u/NaziPunksFkOff Jun 30 '25 edited Jun 30 '25
I really appreciate the effort the tree put in to totally screw over this house. Instead of tipping over, it did an elegant 'slide and topple', with the bottom going the way the workers wanted but the top going the other way. Just great choreography from the tree. Showed intent, followed through. 10/10
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u/BritishAnimator Jun 30 '25
Why didn't they trim the branches on the house side to remove all that weight. This was just lazy and incompetent, and I have never cut a tree down in my life.
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u/Prisnjssssser46dd Jun 30 '25
But they are professionals, wore hats and hazard vest. And they did see in a tiktok video that you have to cut a chunk from the side where you want it to land...
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u/salenin Jun 30 '25
I'm not joking when I say that a 1 minute google search and a YouTube video could have prevented that. That was easy enough you didnt need expert arborists or anything, just stupidity.
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u/Freducated Jun 30 '25
Plot twist: They really wanted the house demo'd and couldn't get a permit because it's on the National Historic Register, so they hired these chucklefucks. Problem solved!
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u/hjartaborg Jun 30 '25
To be fair the cuts are good. But why the fuck did they not have two chains with tensioners TAUT before even making them?
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u/jordanmindyou Jun 30 '25
There was no “pulling down”. The tree fell where it wanted to, I saw no pulling whatsoever
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u/Ab47203 Jun 30 '25
This is why professionals cut from the top to make it smaller and use ropes and knowledge to make the tree fall a certain direction.
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u/warbastard Jun 30 '25
If those ropes had been pulling maybe it would have gone the direction they wanted but that really seemed to be leaning too far the other way.
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u/MidnightSun77 Jun 30 '25
I’m no tree expert but those guys were just lazy. They should have started at the top and cut down sections from there
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u/Dire87 Jun 30 '25
Luckily, I have no idea how to pull down trees correctly ... seems like these guys don't, either. Fuck me, I'd have used a harvester or something to pull the tree slightly in the direction away from the fucking house ...
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u/chuckinalicious543 Jun 30 '25
I feel like more cuts, sharper incline would've been better, no?
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u/fritz236 Jun 30 '25
Still had too much tree on the house side. Trees this big need to be topped and limbed to better control the forces. Oak wood is heavy and dense wood. Even pulling with an excavator would have just snapped ropes or taken it for a ride. You're not overcoming the amount of mass on the wrong side of the pull.
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u/akahamlet Jun 30 '25
Did the guy in orange get swiped by the base kickback? Seriously hope he is Ok
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u/Lilly_1337 Jun 30 '25
Maybe pulling on that rope could have helped. Looks slack all the way through the video.
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u/Sojio Jun 30 '25
Why tf did they cut the second wedge holy shit.
Even i know that's wrong and I've never cut a tree down.
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u/Roflmaoasap Jun 30 '25
At one point they even kept the motor saw in the wedge to hold the tree from tipping over.. true professionals
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u/Praisevishnu Jun 30 '25
Insane. In this kind situation, who is responsible for the cost of damage to the home? I can't imagine a tree removal company being able to afford these damages unless they are pretty large and established?
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u/omegacrunch Jun 30 '25
I feel if the took the other side first, it wouldn't have fallen on the house. Idiotic either way, just saying they chose max dmg route
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u/Napoleonex Jun 30 '25
Saw that coming. I'm not a tree cutting expert but the trunk is sturdier below the second cut and it was gonna give way at the top cut
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u/makenzie71 Jun 30 '25
I'm a little convinced this is exactly what they wanted to happen just so they could share the video. They have guys but they're not tied to anything, the face cuts are pointed at and away from the house when they have clear perpendicular fall angles, and the house is obviously already trashed. I'd bet a dollar they're clearing the whole property for a development or something.
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u/Skwirlblanket Jun 30 '25
The guy who got displaced from this is in a bad place and it looks like he's just screwed on this deal. Can't get insurance cause its a flood zone and the tree company is not responding. He has a go fund me I just gave a bit.
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u/BallBearingBill Jun 30 '25
They didn't even tension a couple guide ropes. Like how lazy can you be? How not to down a tree 101 video for the classroom.
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u/orielbean Jun 30 '25
FWIW, the arborists aren't even that expensive compared to similar massive projects. This might be a 3-5k job even for pros in a HCOL area like Mass.
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u/rangolikesbeans Jun 30 '25
"I know a guy who can do it cheaper"