There was a limb down on my Son's house...so we removed it!

My Son bought a house to rent, about 90 miles away from here; because he could pay cash for it! He intends to rent it, but with all of low cost properties, it needs a lot of repair. We got a call from his neighbor up there, that a limb was down on his roof.

We went up there as fast as we could, and found this:

The diameter where it separated from the tree was about 16 inches, so it has to come down ASAP!

The first step is to remove as much weight as possible:

Cutting off All the smaller branches that are not protecting the roof from the major weight is step one. I find that an electric chain saw is best for this, because it simplifies the process. A gas saw will do fine, with careful handling.

The goal is to reduce weight as much as possible:

When the limbs are removed and tossed down, we had remove about a fourth of the weight, deliberately leaving the small branches under the limb to act as protection!

The last step is to remove the remaining wood from the roof:

There are two ways to do this. The first is to lift the limb off of the roof with heavy tackle, usually tied up into the parent tree. The second is to cut it, and repair any damage caused when it slides down. We had the gear to do both, but decided to use the second method for speed, since we already had repair shingles on site.

We used a 10 inch pole saw to get distance from the danger zone, even though the limb was about a foot in diameter where we decided to cut it. Randy was the cutter, while I watched for sag and widening of the cut. When the gap began widening, we both ran for safety; and it landed right where I WAS standing! It slid down the small branches we left on, with no added damage to the roof. We passed up supplies, and my Son began repairs; while we began clean up.

The limb was almost too large for the electric chainsaw saw:

The part at the odd angle towards the garage, is the piece that was on the roof originally.

We started cutting it up for disposal:

The limbs in front of the garage were the ones we cut off of the roof, and you can see the diameter of the main limb will be a tough job for the little (16") electric chainsaw. This is where we got lucky, the neighbor that had called us asked if he could have the wood! Then he volunteered to help cut it up, and haul it off.

We said absolutely, and started packing up tools. By this time, my Son had the roof repaired and water tight; so the rain coming in the next day was no longer a problem!

One less problem....

👍🤔😁🤠