That elm I cabled last spring just let go in the wind and took out a fence

I'm still kinda ticked about it. I put three 1/4 inch steel cables up in that big American elm behind a house in Maplewood back in April, did all the hardware right, torqued it proper. But I guess the union point I chose was weaker than I thought, because a gust last Tuesday snapped the whole upper leader right off. It came down clean and smashed through about 30 feet of their neighbor's cedar fence. Now I'm on the hook for the repair and the homeowner is giving me the side-eye. Has anyone else had a cable anchor fail on a tree that looked solid during the install?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_matthew16d ago

Did you drill test holes or probe the branch union before sinking the hardware in, or did you just go by visual inspection? I have had a couple failures traced back to hidden decay at the attachment point that looked sound from the outside. Sometimes a quick peek with a small bit will save you a major headache later.

jamesm4816d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah @hall.nina is right about checking the shavings, that little trick has saved me a few times too. It's funny how that applies to other stuff like checking the oil on your car or even testing a pizza dough before you commit to baking it. You always get a better outcome when you poke around a bit before diving in headfirst.

hall.nina16d ago

Had a similar thing happen with a red oak a few years back. Now I always use a 7/16 drill bit to test the wood at the chosen anchor point before doing anything else. If the shavings come out dry and crumbly instead of long and wet, I pick a different spot. Saved me at least twice since then.