Ground Maintenance Contractor in St Andrews

Site Clearance Projects - Our Approach - Example Barratt Homes East Scotland

Ptree Surgery and Groundworks are engaged in ground clearance work that requires a number of trees to be removed from an area that was earmarked for development.

Heavy Duty Tree Felling

The felling of these trees required us to use some heavy duty tree felling tools and equipment that we have at our disposal, such as this 48 inch bar felling saw.

These are monster saws that are easily up to the job of dealing with these mighty trees. Safe felling requires great care and precision.

So, the key objective for our teams when felling big trees like this is to ensure we properly determine the direction of fall.

What is referred to as the hinge is the most important factor in ensuring safe and clean felling.

The hinge is the unsawn part between the directional notch and felling cut that works like a normal hinge, thus guiding the tree down to the ground. 

Tree Forwarder Forestry Vehicle

Once the trees were felled and all the chipped waste was removed from site, it was time to make use of a Tree Forwarder Forestry Vehicle.

The largest of these class of vehicles can handle 25 tons.

The tree Forwarder with its quick boom movements provides greater productivity. and with its rotating and levelling cab the operator can get a 360-degree view of the surroundings you want us to work within to ensure safe, efficient log loading.

Felled logs will be taken by the Forwarder to a roadside landing point where an arctic lorry will come and load up with the timber to haul it away.

Heavy Duty Timber
Skeletal Trailers

The felled logs will be removed using heavy duty timber skeletal trailers.

If you consider the terrain to be an obstacle these trailers with reinforced chassis and heavy duty off-road suspension are capable of getting into awkward locations.

This is another good reason to consider hiring Ptree Surgery and Groundworks because we are familiar in being able to operate and organise logistics across all terrain types that we may be required to enter into.

This picture clearly demonstrates just how tough and robust these trailers are.. and look at the size of some of these tree logs!

Tree Log Processing

Ptree Surgery and Groundworks are contracted to do commercial clear cutting for Barratt Homes:

The work is focused around some very large trees in a heavily forested area which have to be felled and then removed by our loggers right down to their stumps.

But what happens to those felled trees after they are loaded onto those skeletal trailers and hauled off site? Well these logs can go off for processing. 

As you can imagine there are tons of waste wood and timber that is disposed of every year. Waste wood and timber will end up in recycling plants for processing.

The wood can be loaded into a powerful wood shredder that breaks the pieces through a variety of processes.  

The various sizes of wood can be applied to different uses. The oversized pieces are re-circulated and the fine material is used as animal beddings.

The size in between the two is used in broad mills. So nothing we are cutting down is being wasted.

Collection of Wood Waste wood and timber is disposed into landfills if there is no recycling plan available.

In the case of the load that left this site it went off to be cut down into firewood, which will contribute to someone's log burner during the winter months.

Ground Clearing Maintenance Services from Ptree Surgery and Groundworks

As qualified Trees surgeons, we have been carrying out tree felling in Fife and around the Tayside region for a number of years. Apart from ground clearing work like what we do on the Barratt Project Tree Felling may be required for other reasons such as

Tree is diseased
Tree is damaged beyond help from a storm
Trees have fallen onto surrounding trees causing a safety issue

Trees have to be felled using the correct skills and equipment that is where Ptree Surgery and Groundworks come in, especially when safety issue, this is what we are trained for. 

It may be necessary to fell a tree for other reasons.

A tree could be causing damage to surrounding property or other environmental situations.
A tree could be too close to a house or other building, then the roots become an issue with the foundations - subsidence could occur.