Leylandii in property about to buy

tim_n

I've put an offer on a house which has several large Leylandii at the bottom of the garden. They are on our property and they're pretty scraggily things until they get to about 15ft where they suddenly bush out.

I'd like to take them down and replace them with fruit trees.

The only problem is that the neighbouring houses overlook our garden. I don't really care too much about this, however as we're in a bungalow so it's fairly difficult to look in anyway. They might however.

I currently intend to pop over before I buy and ask the neighbours opinions on having them down - there's no chance of me leaving them up, but if they're really against me removing them, I'll replant them with less scaggily ones. The neighbours already seem to have put up fences around where the trees are and they have north facing gardens, so the trees must block out most of their light.

Any ideas on cost or anything I've not thought about?

Greatgimp

I'm sure they'll rush to lend you a saw!

tim_n

Bit tall for an amateur to take down. I'd happily use my bow saw or felling axe but they're at least 50ft and top heavy - so I'll probably need a professional

WestonDave

In both houses I've owned we inherited one or more Leylandii trees. In the first one it was a hedge - when we had it removed (after discussion with the neighbours at which they were more than delighted to see them replaced by a fence) they were making our contractors cups of tea etc whilst we were out at work leaving them to it.

In our current house we raised the issue of getting rid of the one scraggy tree on the boundary between us - she came round with their electric chainsaw and helped us cut it down! When we saw them next they said they had woken up the next morning to their upstairs being full of sunlight, and had never realised how much light it was blocking out. We cut this one ourselves - took the top off about half way up to avoid a massive length/weight when it came down, tied a rope around it, cut most of the way through and then when we were ready pulled it over under control. Then took the bottom half down.

ETA - at 50ft I'd have got someone in as well - this was about 20 ft!