Spring is nearly here and it’s the perfect time to trim any branches before they really take off and bloom. They may be in the way of the electrical wiring connecting your home to the street electricity supply.
Keeping trees is beneficial to our homes and cities, but they become liabilities when they fall and injure people or damage property. It is our responsibility to understand and address the risks associated with trees to keep our property safe and prolong the life of trees within it.
Here are 5 reasons to trim our branches:
1. 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Rule
The main reason for trimming your branches is to comply with the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Rule. This rule allows anyone who owns a parcel of land within an identified 10/50 vegetation clearing entitlement area to clear trees and underlying vegetation, like shrubs on their property. All this can be done without seeking approval. A person can clear trees 10 metres and surrounding vegetation 50 metres from the external walls of the referent building.
To know more about the 10/50 Vegetation Clearing Rule, click here.
2. Safety
Trimming branches is important in maintaining the overall safety of the area around our homes. Clearing your property off dead branches lessens the potential fire danger. Disposing of debris on the ground is important in keeping roads safe for pedestrians and in stopping dead plant matter from moulding and rotting, which attracts insects. Removing of dead matter on the trees by trimming them not only keeps away wood-boring insects which weaken the tree and eventually cause it to fall; it also helps make room for the tree to grow new, healthy branches and leaves.
Another reason to remove overhanging branches is to be rid of the obvious threat of them breaking and damaging the roof or building. The overhanging branches can also allow wildlife to gain easier access to the building, posing more safety risks to your family.
3. Avoid electrical hazards in storms
So many electrical hazards that come during storms can be prevented if we just trim our branches. The penetrating rains will turn the ground soggy, and the strong winds will beat the trees down, especially the shallow-rooted ones. By trimming the dead parts of the trees, we can eliminate the possibility of dead and broken limbs falling off and harming people or destroying properties they would land on. We can also prevent them from flying off and causing power outages or turning into dangerous projectiles.
4. Aesthetics
We cannot dispense with the effect of the outward appearance of a nicely trimmed tree. There is an aesthetic value in grooming our lawn and keeping our trees somewhat uniform in size. Removing rotting leaves, dead shoots, and unhealthy branches can give a handsome, healthy look to our lawn; but this can be a tricky fix, so a cherry picker might be an ideal, better way to do it. In this case, a level 2 electrician would be best fit for the job.
5. Doing it yourself can be dangerous
While it’s true that anybody can rent a chainsaw and a pickup truck and go to work on their own tree, the biggest caveat to this is that you will always worry whether the job was done right. Attempting a DIY job is especially dangerous because of these potential injury threats from:
- falling tree fellers
- electrocution
- injury from tools
- rotting wood
To avoid unnecessarily injuring yourself, it is better to call on licensed personnel to do the job for you. These professionals know when and how to shut off power lines at the source, have specific protective outfits and safety protocols, and hold themselves responsible for any on-the-job injuries they might incur, thus leaving you fewer things to stress about.
Trees falling and causing power outages can also be very inconvenient especially if it happens on a weekend or public holiday. You will have to look for an after-hours level 2 electrician to remedy the situation, which can be quite taxing as it is difficult to find one, and it can incur more expenses. It would be ideal to prevent this from happening altogether, but should a need arise we at Hornsby Electric can help you out with this contingency.
We have a qualified team of local electricians that can trim any overhanging branches in your home. Give Hornsby Electric a call today on 9477 2550.