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Stop trusting that crack in the trunk, here's why
I been doing removals for 8 years out of Portland and I keep seeing guys eyeball a trunk, spot a hairline crack, and call it a day. Last month I had a 60 foot maple with a crack running up the south side, looked like surface stress, but when I got the bucket up there the whole thing was hollow past the first 12 feet. That crack was the only sign the heartwood was gone. If you see a crack that runs vertical and connects to a branch union, do the mallet test before anyone climbs. Hit the trunk with a hammer, if it thuds instead of rings, walk away and get a pro with a resistograph. I know it adds time and the boss hates it, but I watched a 40 footer split sideways and snap a crane cable last fall, cost the company 14 grand. Has anyone else seen a crack lie to them like that, or am I the only one who's getting paranoid about it?
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miaprice20d ago
Had a silver maple in Beaverton two winters back with a crack that ran from about 4 feet up to the first crotch, maybe 18 inches total. Customer swore it had been there for years and never got worse. I tapped it with my mallet and got that dead thud sound, not the ring you want. Brought in a guy with a resistograph and he found the center was mush for nearly half the diameter. That tree was leaning toward a garage with two cars in it. The mallet test takes 30 seconds and has saved my butt more than once. Bosses complain about the time until something goes wrong, then they forget real fast. You're not paranoid, you're just paying attention.
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