Here you'll see some more photos of some recent jobs I've done lately in 2006/07 summer/fall.
Tree cutting...yard makeovers...eaves cleaning... garage cleanout/demolish.
On with the show...sorry, no video clips or music background tracks. If you feel at all dizzy while looking at the pictures, just close your eyes and the feeling will pass. (they say that at all the Imax shows)
(Harvard Avenue... River Heights backyard tree.)
Cutting a tree which is leaning and crunching a garage, is always a good thing!
Cost about $100 in this case. It was really leaning hard against the garage. I got onto the roof and trimmed the branches over the power lines (carefully) with my 20 foot manual pole saw.
Small pieces were cut to avoid bringing down the power in the entire River Heights areas. I cut the larger stumps and lowered them onto the roof and then the ground. You may notice that my ladder has the wings, which allow you to place a ladder against a house/garage and not crush the eavestroughs. In this case there weren't any eaves... but I just like using a ladder with wings sometimes. Its just me.
(West End area trees ..before/after)
This is a big ol' tree that I cut in mid November 06. It was blocking the neighbors HUGE satellite dish ...and it was hurting all the wires and the fence etc. It had to come down. Not easy, but both neighbors kicked in about $100 each to have it cut. I had to call the Hydro guys to drop the wires, Shaw and MTS (but MTS charges $75 for downing the wires and $75 for raising it plus per half hour yatta yatta, so I just cut around them.
(the neighbors side of the West End tree)
This is the after the cut and before cleanup shot. The money shot really. Showing that its a done deal in terms of the scary cutting part. Now I spend a while hacking up the big bits into smaller bits and hauling them away. The customer kept the big bits.
This guy? I don't know who he is but he insisted on holding the chainsaw and wearing a hat like Jack Nickolson in the 1970's horror movie, The Shining. Good thing hes not working for me :>
You can shove a lot of wood going to the dump into a mini van. Sometimes customers want to keep the wood for fireplaces..except if its Elm with Dutch Elm disease. You can cut down an Elm at ANY time of the year but you can only TRIM an Elm during certain times of the year due to the possible spread of the Dutch elm beatle etc. There are ways to cut off the bark and reuse the wood to make artwork (clocks, aboriginal paintings, carvings)
(Osborne Area .. tree cut down)
There was a big ol' tree betwix these houses actually ON and harming one house in the Osborne area. I took them down in November 06.
(River Heights B & B , hedge trim, makeover)
This was one of the yard makeovers I did for a bed and breakfast. I did the hedge trimming and reshaped the beds. I did not plant the flowers or build the house. I did polish the mailbox though.
(before/after shot)
This is a basic yard fixup in Wolseley. The customer was a little too busy to tend to the 4 foot high weeds and such. She was a teacher and the paperwork had piled up.... along with the weeds :> Charge $60 for the weed pulling, tree trimming, raking garbage, grass cutting...bagging, and alergist and cardiologist afterwards etc.
(same house in Wolseley)
This was the side of the same house above with the weeds. Luckily, I didn't find any snakes in the weedpile. But..I think I found Jimmy Hoffa. ;>
(Large historic house in River Heights)
This is the sprawling backyard of a house that I did grass cutting ($100 a month) and some serious tree trimming. Snow clearing per month is about $120 or $50 for a one time go over. 
This house also had a large tree right on the garage and causing major cracking in its foundation.
(garage near Wolseley)
This is a customer who wants to demolish the garage. The first step was to remove the contents into, in this case, a rented garbage bin. I spent the morning there hucking things into the bin (heavy wooden crates, bed frames, pails, etc) and putting steel onto the side for the customer. The cost about $70. You can put small trash out in the garbage if its packed properly. I will take stuff to the city dump for $60. Under all the garbage was a 1950s mint condition 4 door Ford car, not touched in the last 45 years. Its gone now. Who knew?
(house in Wolseley)
This is a typical one story house that I clean the eaves for $70. Many homes are 2 or 3 times larger and I generally charge around $100. (I don't do 2 story houses which includes 3 story houses:)
Sometimes I can clean the eaves on a bilevel..and yes, I do shovel snow off 1 and bilevel story homes if I can get on the roof from the lower end like a garage.
This heavy buildup of ice on the roof is called an ice dam. They were extremely bad last winter due to the freezing and thawing conditions. The cause is usually due to insulation and ventilation problems.
Ideally you should have an air tight ceiling with insulation so that warm air can not go into the attic space which should be cold. Warm air meets cold and gradually a buildup of ice starts at the eaves and it gets big...BIGGER...CALL THE INSURANCE COMPANY BECAUSE THERE IS WATER COMING IN THE HOUSE DOWN THE WALLS!!!
The ideal solution is to do a proper insulation and ventilation job which could cost $500- $20,000. Some simple solutions are
- clean the eavestroughs in Fall, so the water can drain properly before freezeup and you will avoid some of the ice dam buildup. Yes I do eaves cleaning. $7-$100 for one story houses
- clean the heavy snow off the roof several times a year so the ice dam can't form. I shovel snow off 1 story houses for $120
- you may wish to install heat wires along the roof/eaves to melt the ice as it forms (some roofers advise against it as it may reduce the life of the shingles...but this may be preferable to water down the walls and ceilings.
The worst case senario is that you have had ice dams for several years and now the moisture has turned to mould. An insurance claim will start with mould removal which will be at your own cost of probably $1,500 for the ventilation and removal equipment.
This house in Wolsely on March 3/07 had a pretty big, heavy dump of snow on it and ice dams were forming on the back end. The roof was fairly steep and the snow was crisp and slippery so I chose to clear it by getting onto the front porch and then going down and doing the main roof from the two sides with ladders and a 25ft extension rake.
It took a lot longer than just going onto the roof and a LOT of strenuous, repetitive arm raking ....but it was much safer. Call me a chicken but a tumble off a smallish roof into a fence post or neighbors gazeebo ain't a pretty sight! ;> Note the ladder is always firmly dug into the roof with two ladder wings in deep packed snow, and on the ground, also in packed snow with a block of concrete on top for good measure.
I use plastic shovels on the roof to move the snow from the top towards the eaves where it forms a fairly safe layer. I also use a plastic snow pusher at times to move heavy snow. Always in the direction of the shingles, and always very carefully as I look and feel for vents, satelite/cable wires, hidden land mines and possibly solar panels and holes in the roof...who knew?
(2 feet of snow on a flat garage in River Heights)
This is what I was dealing with in Winter 2005. Over 2 feet of snow on the garage and house. $120 to get it off the house and off the driveway. Far too much heavy snow to leave on there. Many houses were having leaks and front doors that could not open properly due to sagging roofs.
(Garage collapsed in Wolseley 2005)
Luckily, this customer had insurance for the $14,000 garage replacement. It did take about 7 months to get a new garage though. Simply too much snow on the roof and old age...and maybe not the best construction to start with. I've seen several nice garages in River Heights collapse as well
Well..thats the show.
Bye for now. Give me a call.
Don 951 - 8889