Tree surgery?

LadyJean

Just found this thread and wonder if anyone can give me some idea how much it would cost to remove three rather tall sycamore trees from the bottom of our garden.

We have just moved here and I think they are much too tall and have also heard these are growing very near mains drain pipes.


We live on the outskirts of Norwich.

Any ideas please?

Welsh_Totster

Probably no help at all but we recently had a 30 ft willow removed from our front garden by a local arborist and I was pleasantly surprised by the price, it was only £110 and he did a lovely job. Everything was tidied up and youd never know he had been there (with the exception of the missing tree of course!)

LadyJean

Thankyou Welsh Totster


Our trees are at least 60 ft high - maybe even more!!

I could not 'hug' and touch fingers around the trunk of one of them
so maybe I should not be surprised if it costs several hundred pounds ? :eek:

Nice to know all was cleared up after removal

reynard27

If your requirements are relatively small I would suggest shopping around for qualified tree surgeons who are just starting out in their career. As mentioned earlier equipment costs etc are very high and this adds to the final costing of each job, however if your job can be done with limited equipment and manpower then a small scale business operation will work out much cheaper. My son is a recently qualified tree surgeon who is restricted to smaller jobs due to equipment and transport costs but he is far and away the cheapest option locally for suitable works (mainly because I do his groundwork unpaid!!!!).

Hippychick

I've just been quoted £150 a day for a tree surgeon to sort a large gum tree, I thought that was reasonable as he does work in Buckingham palace amongst other large contracts. He won't remove the rubbish but said he would chop up the branches for our chiminea.

He was a friend of a friend though so am wondering if he gave us mates rates?

emmyb42

I have been reading these posts with interest.

I have been quoted around £800,give or take a hundred, to fell a large willow tree that has grown to about 50ft in my very small garden.

I can understand the comments made about people being mean expecting to pay next to nothing for this type of work, but I am a single mum of three young children in a low paid part time job and it would take me 6 months to save £800. Therefore shorely I can try and haggle a little.

I am also worried because there is a very large oak tree with a presivation order on it 70ft tall 30ft from my house, and I am starting to get cracks appearing all round my windows and doors.

Is this a reasonable quote and would it be worth the investment?

DeDee

Hi folks,

First time poster here, and I hope I'm doing the right thing by waking up an old thread rather than starting a new one! (sorry it's long; key info in bold)

I have 4 smallish trees in a row in my back garden; they're like overgrown 'lollipop' trees - I think they are golden leylandii (Cupressocyparis leylandii 'Castlewellan Gold' looks closest). My partner and I are rubbish at gardening, and in the 3+ years we've had this house we haven't pruned them at all, and the outer two now overhang each of our neighbours' gardens. One of our neighbours asked us the other week if they could help us cut down at least one of the trees (the one overhanging their garden) in Spring, and we agreed.

I've had a man knock on the door this morning and offer to cut down the trees for £100. He said he was working in the area, and could see the worst-offending tree from the road. I said yes, but my partner is really anti cold-callers and is livid. I think £100 sounds like an OK deal given that we were going to cut down some of the trees ourselves.

Is £100 for 4 small trees OK? He won't have to climb up them or anything, and he said his crew would remove all waste. He gave me his card and I've googled him but nothing's come up - but then I realise not everyone has an internet presence! The one thing that worries me is he said he was working across the street today and that's why he noticed the trees, but there's no van or anything, and he was a bit evasive when I asked which house he was working for (I don't know that side of the road well enough to start knocking on doors!).

I'm happy to pay a legitimate person to take down the trees so I don't have to, but £100 is a lot of money for me (I'm already overdrawn) if he's some sort of chancer.

(one more question - my partner wants to keep the middle two trees (partly because they hide the back of the garden, which is a mess, and partly because we like the birds), but given that we're NEVER going to prune them and they really do seem to be leylandii, we should get rid and buy a little tree that will stay little - right?)

pimento

We have a man in the village who prunes and chops for us. I'd say that £100 is OK but is he going to leave you with a row of stumps? They're a right PITA to get out.

If you want the trees out, I'd get a couple of quotes for local companies. I'd never buy anything like that at the door.

Oh, and make sure they quote for stump griding as well.

sunshinetours

I'd agree with Pimento

If they are small then why not get the ones cut down yourself you want to take out. We had 4 large leylandi which were very overgrown and about 15 foot tall, taken out last weekend and the remaining trees pruned and shaped and it costs us over £500 so whatever you do, do something whilst they are still small!

Leylandi are fine if you prune them regularly and keep them shaped. If you let them run wild and they go "woody" then you will never get them looking nice again

If they are only head height then a simple saw at the base of trunk and a bit of cutting into smaller sections and then in the back of the car and down the tip. Job done? You don;t have to dig out the roots, they will not regrow and the stumps are pretty think if the trees are only small. We are just going to raise the level of the soil on ours to cover the stumps and plant in between them

£100 sounds quite cheap but it doesn't sound much more than an hour or two's job assuming that doesn't include stump removal (bet it doesn't)

Mojisola

The stumps will last for years in the ground. If you can, do the job properly and take them out now. Cut back the trunk to about 4' in height, dig round the base to expose the roots, use the stump as a lever to break the small ones and cut through the big roots. You'll be able to remove the bulk of roots this way and then you won't spend forever trying to garden around the stumps.