Woke up to this today. My son's on semester break and was getting ready to go to work this morning around 9am. He opened the front door, stepped on the porch and then said "dad, you probably want to see this". We had taken the puppy out around 4 am and I don't remember the front yard looking like this. A Christmas blessing in disguise, as there is typically another car parked behind his. Would have probably been 3 cars there tomorrow morning. Unlucky that I spent the day with a chainsaw, but incredibly lucky there was no significant damage. Everything in the house seems to still work, but I'll get the cables checked anyway. All our power/cable/phone, etc lines are buried. What were the chances this stupid tree would find them? 100% of course..
I am glad everybody and everything appears safe. That tree has been rotting a while. You are fortunate it did not land on the house. Here, we would cut the tree up for firewood to feed our wood stove. It is probably too warm down there for that. Enjoy the holiday celebration. The rest of the cleanup work cam probably wait, assuming the cable damage does not look too great.
I don't think those cable are buried to code. Code says 24 inches down, unless under a 4" or greater concrete slab, where a minimum of 6 inches is required.
+1 There is a reason why regulations are the way they are. Glad it happened today with only cable damage. No fire-log tv station for tomorrow though lol.
The photos don't really show it, but that is about 4-6 inches down. It was a broken off 8" diameter branch that punched down through the dirt. I guess the limb snapped off when it hit the ground and the short piece left on the trunk decided to run itself into the ground like a nail, and then pulled back up when the tree bounced or rolled. The house was built in the early 80's so I'm not sure if it's a code issue or more of an erosion issue. A bit more inspection and it looks like the large orange cable is actually something Time Warner ran for upgraded cable service as it matches the cable going into the box at the house. The rest of the wires look like one or two old style coax cables, telephone lines and maybe security lines or something. I don't see anything that looks like it could actually be "power" lines. Maybe my luck is still holding good, as all the cable/internet works and we haven't had a landline in the house for years.
Agreed. Does not look like power cable. You sure dodged a bullet there. Reminds me of the time we came home and found our pear tree laying where we normally parked the car. Whew!!
Using a wood stove reduces the electricity needed by our heat pump. Also, wood stove heat is much dryer and more comfortable. We have generally been using oak from trees cut down on our property.
Whew - that was close! The orange looks like the cable coax we have too. They never set those comm lines deep enough in my experience; I cut through one in the garden once! Damage to the insulation can give you an EMF leak and degrade your connectivity. The other wires don't look like power but you should be cautious. Looks like they were in a pvc conduit, and that is the white plastic that is broken? You probably should have the broken section reencased in a water-tight way so you don't get water into the system - it will run downhill and pool somewhere you don't want wires sitting in it - even if they are communications only. Homeowners insurance might even pay for the removal and repair if you want to file a claim, but depending on your deductible it might not be worth it. Many states have free services (ours in PA is "one-call") to mark utilities prior to excavation work. (They are free so contractors will use them!). You might look into that as a way to figure out what lines you have where. - Just looked it up for South Carolina - SC 811 – Call before you dig . Closed today but reopen tomorrow, and available to homeowners at no fee. Good luck!
LOL! No idea. We weren't home when the tree fell, thankfully. But it was no where near Christmas, so probably not.
