Removal of silver birch tree?

keith969

Before I go to the bother of getting people in for quotes, anyone have an idea how much it is likely to cost to have a silver birch removed (i.e. cut down and stump removed too)? It's about twice the height of the house - maybe 10m - and the trunk is about 30cm diameter near the base. Thanks.

glasgowdan

£2-300ish, 2men x half day.

keith969

Thanks, that sounds about what I'd hoped.

tired_dad

having had this work done on several occasions over the last few years my main advice is that this is one of the few things where I have had wildly differing quotes. Had a tree done 2y ago with 2 quotes in the £2000 range but got the work done for £900.

I was stunned by the quote differential.

With regards to the response from glasgowdan. I suspect quotes will vary wildly from region to region. In London getting 2 workmen out for that kind of money would not be easy.

glasgowdan

Lucky the OP isn't in London then.

A birch tree with a 12" trunk isn't a massive job. Branches are slim and relatively light compared to other trees. It's also an easy tree to stack once cut up a bit.

Money_saving_maniac

I was quoted £300 - 400 for one probably at least twice the girth of that.
Was pleasantly surprised.

tired_dad

didn't see the location of OP hence my mentioning quotes in London.

I suppose the jist of it is to get 3 quotes from local peeps. Go with the one that seems appropriate with the right balance between price and competancy

LUHG1878

We have a silver birch in our back garden just a bit bigger, probably not by much though. Our one is more than 60 years old apparently...

We were quoted £4,000 to take it down, the guy said they'd need to hire a cherry picker, 2 man job etc etc

I wasn't that keen to take it down in the first place, it was actually my 75 year old neighbour over the fence that wanted it down, so I told them just to leave it.

My neighbour was the one that called the company out to quote, I only found out a few days before they arrived. He's lived in the house his whole life and he just really wanted it down, for whatever reason, but no way was I prepared to pay that to bring down a tree that i'm perfectly happy with.

glasgowdan

Did the guys have a distinctly non-local accent? I've seen a few geordies in particular driving around Glasgow tutting and aah-ing at trees in people's gardens trying to get them to pay to have them butchered.