Resistograph

sotc

Dormant hero!!
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
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So. Oregon
Been looking into possibly picking up a resistograph. Any of you have first hand experience with one or in depth experience? I would like to hear pros and cons of the device, how it may have helped your business, price structuring etc
 
I know 3 people who have them, its a service thats tough to sell. Futhermore, the data is difficult to convey to the tree owner, who ultimatley decide how much risk they are willing to tolerate.

Your in America, can ya say "Liability"?
 
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  • #3
May be early for one here, may be the right time. Thats a big part of the equation.
 
The closest one to me hasn't been used on any trees other than ones owned by large cities. I guess what that means is that "Joe homeowner" probably doesn't value the cost of the technology.

Interpretation on the images was an issue when I last looked into one. That was about three years ago. I am a tech weenie, and if the tools have benefit, or can pay for themselves I tend to buy. Hell right now I am getting my a$$ handed to me by the "grass whackers" turned "tree hacker".

If you can "sell" the usefulness of a resistograph go for it! Just be careful about how you convey the info to the client. Tree risk is a thing that can make the best arborist in the world look foolish IF a lawyer gets involved. Funny, all the ones I know of are owned by ASCA members! They luv sittin' in court! (up here anyway)!
 
If you get one, dont limit yourself to trees, there are lots of wooden things that decay. I know one arborist up here got hired to spec out an old wooden trestle bridge that was slated for renovations, somewhere in the neighborhood of 2500 or more drilling sites on the structure.... another case was a clocktower we had in our condo common area, it was on 8x8 posts and one evening as I passed by I saw a fruiting body on one post, let the manager know and an engineering firm was here within a few days drilling it to check the decay level..
 
I think the main clients would be municipalities who would want a verifiable process for evaluating risk of their trees. Definitely a 'go big or go home' type service.
 
IMO The average customer could care less if the tree is hollow. I have had two for example that just did not care. One was an elderly lady who had a very large hickory over her house. The trunk was maybe 40" or so was 80/85 % hollow that I could see with my naked eyes. The other guy was a cemetery owner and he had twenty trees that were hollow (also visual inspection) and did not want them cut. I think getting one would be more for my peace of mind than anything else. Maybe it would be useful to sell a crane removal but I think as a service alone it would be a tough sell to John Q. Public.
 
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  • #8
The closest one to me hasn't been used on any trees other than ones owned by large cities. I guess what that means is that "Joe homeowner" probably doesn't value the cost of the technology.

Interpretation on the images was an issue when I last looked into one. That was about three years ago. I am a tech weenie, and if the tools have benefit, or can pay for themselves I tend to buy. Hell right now I am getting my a$$ handed to me by the "grass whackers" turned "tree hacker".

If you can "sell" the usefulness of a resistograph go for it! Just be careful about how you convey the info to the client. Tree risk is a thing that can make the best arborist in the world look foolish IF a lawyer gets involved. Funny, all the ones I know of are owned by ASCA members! They luv sittin' in court! (up here anyway)!

Good post. Reading the results would be the hard part. I believe I will look into a class or somesuch and see if it is for me. I know of two municipalities that would definatly use it, just to what extent....
Pay me and I will sit in court all day too!
 
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  • #9
Paul, I realized that when I was watching their vids, its a whole new world out there!
 
I think the question I'd ask is "Can a Consulting Arborist make a living in my market?" If the answer is no, the machine will not pay for itself.
 
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  • #11
Thats kind of limiting. Theres is need for some consulting but the market is coming I believe. Consulting doesn't seem to be the kinda thing one just gets into. I feel that a working arborist needs their day to day experience to transition over
 
I know I could put it to work here. There are a lot of tree huggers that dont want to say goodbye to their trees. The average tree guys here offer removal as the first option to fix most tree problems. It would be great if I could SHOW them why I think their tree is fine.

I wouldn't use it so much to find the decay, I'd focus on using it to find the remaining strong parts of the trunk.
 
It is a great tool imo. Get the best one you can afford, and including the above highly informed posts, I would say it has been most benificial to me utilized for the home owners accociation crowd. I made it clear that I can only verify integrity at the testing site, not the entire tree. More testing sites, more money, if climbing was involved, a lot more money.
 
Excellent for termite assessment, but again, obviously, only at the testing site. GH, $5,000 should buy you a good one.
 
would be neat to show the tape to a client

see your tree is hollow
hard to sell
only a handful of folks would pay for its use
i was thinking an air spade 1st
 
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  • #20
Yes Nick, easy to store the info and transport into reports and such
 
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  • #22
Yeah but folks seem to balk at that, especially municipalities:D
 
I used one a couple of times at a gator park in St. Augustine, Saved one live oak by showing good sap and heartwood where there was external decay... thank god. It leaned right over the main gator pen. Did a gigantic magnolia too but nobody could interpret the results so we put lightning pro in it and left.
 
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