tree fall go boom

[doobes]

Wife calls on Monday and says "a branch fell on the deck".

I get home and this find this 

   

   

I've spent most of the day dealing with State Farm and a couple of contractors who came out to give me prices.

When the tree hit the little cantilever deck it broke the floor joist inside the house at a knot under the bedroom floor and buckled the plywood.

Could be worse. It could have been about 15 degrees to the North. Then we wouldn't be sleeping in that room 

[jteneyck]

You've got a months worth of firewood there.  Glad your house didn't take a direct hit. 

John

[Stwood_]

Wow. Yea that's a good size branch....
  At least it didn't hit your roof.

[Patsfan]

A branch fell?

Based on that, you are in a world of hurt if she calls and says, "I'm a bit peeved at you."

HTH.

[TDKPE]

Technically, what she said was true. 

She merely neglected to mention that it was still attached to the tree.

[EricU]

at one time, my sister owned a house that was built in the early 1800's.  There were a couple of trees with 6' diameter trunks.  There was one branch over the house that was as big as the one in the OP's yard.  I think if it was my house, I would have had it removed.  Sure, it's hundreds of years old. Still goes boom when it hits the ground.

[JosephP]

Can you show us the bottom (if it is still there) - and surrounding area.  I always like to see if I think I could have 'predicted' the failure.  Every fallen tree is an opportunity to learn more.

How long ago was the house built?

Is there a walk on that side of the house?  (if so, when was it built?)

Glad it wasn't uglier!  Sounds like that will be quite a bit to clean up as it is...  Best part is nobody was hurt!

[Snipe Hunter]

Whoa dude, that was close.

Was that deck on cantilevered joists?... And put some chimney caps / spark arrestors on that chimney.

[JosephP]

at one time, my sister owned a house that was built in the early 1800's.  There were a couple of trees with 6' diameter trunks.  There was one branch over the house that was as big as the one in the OP's yard.  I think if it was my house, I would have had it removed.  Sure, it's hundreds of years old. Still goes boom when it hits the ground.

I hear those kinds of comments a lot.  I encourage people to look at the whole picture.  If the branches have good attachment angles and are well-proportioned the probability of failure is very low.  That doesn't mean "no" probability, it means low probability.

Have you read any of the "Freakonomics" books?  They talk a bit about perceived risk vs. real risk.  One example is whose house will you let your kids play at.  "Billy's parents have guns...our kids aren't going there to play.  They will go swim at Sally's instead."  When you look at the numbers though, Billy's house is MUCH safer for your kids.  I'd say the huge branch over your house often carries that "less risk than you think".  Having said that, I also see dead trees with horizontal cracks hanging over a parking lot that the owner doesn't think is worth addressing.  USFS did some research and found that less experience tends to equal 'over concern' for otherwise minor defects.

[doobes]

Can you show us the bottom (if it is still there) - and surrounding area.  I always like to see if I think I could have 'predicted' the failure.  Every fallen tree is an opportunity to learn more.

How long ago was the house built?

Is there a walk on that side of the house?  (if so, when was it built?)

Glad it wasn't uglier!  Sounds like that will be quite a bit to clean up as it is...  Best part is nobody was hurt!

Here are photos of the root ball. It had been raining pretty heavily for this area for a couple of days and the ground was saturated. We had a similar situation about 5 years ago after what we affectionately called the snowpocalypse. We had had something on the order of 48" of snow over a month long period with no melting.  When the temperatures finally did moderate and the snow melted, the ground was similarly saturated and a tree next to my lot rolled over and fell on a neighbors house puncturing the roof.

   

   

This forum software is schizophrenic. The pictures in the original post were full sized shots from my camera.  When I tried to upload these two it whined at me that they were "too big", so I had to downsize them. 


House was built in '75.  There is a stone path next to the house.  It was relatively undisturbed. 

What you see in the background is a walkway on Reston (the community I live in) "Common Grounds". Reston has the dubious distinction of being the first "Planned Community" in the country.  Basically there are houses surrounded by common grounds for everyone's usage. It makes my lot seem much larger than it is, but the usage restrictions on the common grounds are pretty steep. When we bought the house, we thought the walkway was pretty cool.  Living next to it has proven to be less cool. There are a fair number of apartments nearby and we have a steady stream of fudge using the sidewalk to get to the walkway to walk their dogs. They literally have clear sight of the back of the property from the path.

Yea, in the global scheme of things, this was pretty minor.  A few degrees of rotation would have made a world of difference though. 


We lived through the aftermath of Katrina so this is a walk in the park.

Whoa dude, that was close.

Was that deck on cantilevered joists?... And put some chimney caps / spark arrestors on that chimney.

Yes it was cantilevered
.  If I replace it, it won't be anymore.  Both contractors that came to look at it said they don't recommend cantilever decks.  This one had been repaired in the past as the joists going into the house were fairly recent.

What's your opinion on replacing the deck resale wise?  We never used the thing.  The only time I went out there was to blow the leaves off. I'm inclined to replace the exterior sheathing to close up the holes and then put up a railing for fall protection.

We don't use the fireplaces.  LOML doesn't like the "smell" of burning wood.....

I'll make a note of the caps/arrestors though.