Took me 6 hours to prune one ancient oak. What's your worst time sink?

I ran into a 150 year old oak last month that had this massive cavity with a cable running right through it. I spent 4 hours just figuring out if the cable was live or dead before I could even start cutting. Then another 2 hours dealing with the structural cuts because the tree was leaning bad. Has anyone else ever had a job that took way longer than you bid it for? How do you estimate for hidden problems like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

mia_anderson17h ago

Took me 6 hours to prune one ancient oak" - man that sounds rough but I gotta ask, was the cable really that big a deal? Half the time those old cables are just dead phone lines from decades ago nobody bothered pulling out. I'd have grabbed my tick tracer and moved on in like 10 minutes. Plus with the lean, if it's been leaning that way for 150 years it's probably not gonna fall tomorrow. I think guys overthink these old trees sometimes. Don't get me wrong, safety first and all that, but 4 hours on one cable? That's like half a day for a single line.

ryanh7714h ago

I had a similar situation last spring with a big red oak and honestly what saved me was just calling the local phone company first. They came out in 20 minutes, confirmed it was dead line, and I had it cut and the tree done in under an hour. The cable thing can be a real headache but if you take five minutes to verify what you're dealing with upfront, it saves you from chasing ghosts all day. That lean on the oak probably isn't going anywhere unless a storm really hits it hard.