Cost of removing 30ft leylandii?

davidlizard

We too had about 30 of them, each around 30ft tall. After getting a quote of £4500 to remove them, we dropped them ourselves and burnt them.

We chopped down the trees - some in one go, others in bits. We chopped them so there was a 5ft stump left in the ground, with all branches removed to give plenty of leverage. We got about 4 stumps out during a day using a mattock and a lot of effort/swearing, so gave up digging them out manually, hired a mini-digger (cost around £180 for a weekend) and ripped the remaining stumps out during a morning. The digger was then used to dig 18 or so holes for concrete fence posts.

We chopped the trees up into manageable sizes and burnt the lot one bonfire night - 40ft flames for the best part of 5 hours, and everyone has said that is the best bonfire they have ever seen, even if the street looked like pompeii the following morning. Leylandii burns nicely! Not environmentally friendly but when the nearby woods were on fire for 3 days, a few of my trees would not make much difference. The neighbours all have sizeable bonfires anyway.

Failing that, another option is to chop the tops off them to get them initially to a sensible height to get some light into the garden, chop the "offcuts" down to manageable sizes (chainsaw, bowsaw and loppers will do the job) and take them to the dump if you are not permitted a bonfire. Do all 30 have to come out in one go - e.g. you could take them down at a rate of 2 or so a month, chop them up and take them to the dump

We still have a few left, and I took the top 10ft or so off a couple of weekends back (after checking for nesting).

The job is a lot less daunting that it looks. Put a rope round the tree when felling it to make sure it goes the right way. Good luck!

System

Both my neighbours have been through this. The guy who has done it, climbed up as far as he could/dare go, tied rope to a particular branch and another guy held it in readiness to guide down when the guy up the tree started sawing. This worked fine. Some small branches were removed as he made the intital climb, to make steps.

The guy on the other side, is about to follow the same procedure.

Just ensure you have sturdy shoes, maybe gloves, a variety of saws. secateurs come in handy.

With the tree partially down, you have to face the issue of "what now?". I think forward planning comes in here.

I would ask any neighbour that is likely to benefit from the tree removal, if you could use their wheelie bin for cut-up branches. You might like to ask if they could do with a complete branch, as with the smaller branches removed, you have really useful long straight lengths.

If the above fails, you may be faced with several long lengths. I would simply saw them to 6/8ft lengths, and lay them at the end of a garden and allow wildlife to do with as they may. What I have done is to cut lengths, create a point at one end and use as a stake, and hammer them into the ground, they then act as perching/landing pieces within my wildlife area.

and finally, within a 24hr period, in our garden we saw, a hedgehog,frog,newt,sparrow hawk,sparrow,starling,blackbird,wood pidgeon,collard dove,tit,greenfinch,dunnock and crow. I don't think that's too bad.

withabix

The longer you leave them, the taller they grow.

If you haven't got the time (or the cash) to do the job right now, stop them getting any taller by killing them.

This can be done using a hand saw. Cut two rings through the bark around the circumference of the tree, making sure you get down to the wood. Voila - dead tree.

My next door neighbour has 6 of the horrors at the end of his garden.

Leylandii don't tend to come down with the "You've Been Framed" effect, demolishing your house, as conifers are 'conical' trees with only minor side branches, they get much, much lighter the higher up the tree you get.

As long as you pull them away from anything that might get damaged using a rope, you should have no problems.

Deciduous trees (and other non-conifers) are the ones which will knock your house down, as they are top heavy, with major branches.

wackyjacobeany

thanks all for your suggestions. My husband is going to start on the rainforest sorry garden at the weekend. sorting out the side of the house to clear a space to drag them through.

p.s its not to late if you want to pm me to offer these beautifull babies a home:j :j :j :j

philgee

NEVER climb a ladder to use a chainsaw unless you know what you are doing and have all the safety gear (Kevlar trousers etc)!

If you have to climb the tree to cut the top before felling, then use a bowsaw. Much, much safer, just takes longer!

I felled 6 leylandii about 10 years ago, bowsaw at the top with a mate pulling on a rope to ensure they fell in the right direction. Then chainsaw at the bottom.