Do I need a tree man?

[Ferdinand]

I'm having a couple of trees out - they are the last two from a beach hedge I put in in the late 1990s. They were left for good reasons which are now over, and the larger is slightly taller than a normal house roof (so about 10-11m).

The two trees are arrowed in one of the photos.

There is a route for them to fall when cut onto paving, but it would need someone maintaining tension on a rope.

I'd welcome comments, is this tree man (for which I reckon two for half a day) or "competent with trees handyman" (probably with me pulling the end of the rope to guide the fall)?

In all honesty, I think this is one for a tree man and his mate, and beyond even a competent handyman due to the items around such as sheds, other trees and substation. And I think I am probably looking at £600-800 for a decent price. Access is OK.

Thanks for comments, and I would welcome any recommendations for a tree man in this area - which is Notts / Derbyshire border around Mansfield / Chesterfield.

If needed I can get better photos (eg from inside the garden) later today.

[Nestor]

I would recommend a professional and agree 2 person half a day.

One will climb and cut, the other clearing and chipping.

 

 

[ProDave]

Best of luck finding a tree man.  I had 4 look at mine, all gave a price and then did not answer their phone again or one kept giving a date to come and do the work and cancelled.

 

I am doing mine myself now.  With an 8" single handed electric chainsaw with extending pole to strip the upper branches off, then felling the now mostly bare trunk.

 

It's easy if you have somewhere for them to drop, you can fell them whole.  The tricky ones were the ones without room and had to be dropped in sections.

 

Only do this yourself if you are comfortable, or as I was, desperate.  Best of luck finding a tree man.

 

As I gave a WBS none of it goes to the chipper.  Everything larger than a finger diameter gets used for burning or the thin stuff for kindling, only the really small stuff got burned on a bonfire.

[Oz07]

Insured tree man. Like you say too built up around there. Ideally one with a stump grinder as well. Done and dusted in 1 day then. 

[carlos21]

very hard to tell if a tree can be felled, just from a photo,  only you know how good your felling cuts are!

what were you going to do with all the branches if you did it yourself? ( nice firewood), you could ask the tree surgeon to just quote to get it down and do the tidy up yourself if you were keen to keep costs down.

also felling onto paving maywell crack the paving.

carl

[ProDave]

Just an example of my inventive DIY tree felling.

 

These 2 trees, the right hand one had failed at the roots and was leaning over onto it's neighbour.  All the tree men that looked seemed to suck air through their teeth, but all agreed both need to come down.  I suspect none really knew how to do it.  To fell them in one go, it was likely the tops would reach the house or static caravan.  I suspect nobody wanted to climb a compromised tree to take the tops off.

 

My inventive solution was put up a scaffold tower next to the trees and working from that with my extended pole saw I cut the tops off.

 

That now just leaves the two mostly bare trunks to fell.  Now short enough that they won't reach anything they can harm.

 

Again not advice, just how I did it myself.

 

I would really really love a mini spider cherry picker for this sort of work, but silly money for something I would use once in a blue moon, so the scaffold has to do, even though it is a lot of work to put up for a 15 minute job then take down.

 

[Iceverge]

If you've got a reasonable head for heights and are willing to take your time and be careful you can do it yourself. Tree surgeons are charging around €1500/day near me for 2 men and a chipper. 

 

This was I think €175 per day. 

 

 

It's 12m reach but that's pretty much straight up so it's hard to chop anything higher than 9-10m without it falling near the base.  For your situation an 18m machine would be ideal..

 

Keep the cuts reasonably small and you won't go too far wrong. 

 

Get tempted to reach out cut something big that you can't quite control and it'll bite you. 

 

Trees are dangerous, we all know that but don't be too swayed by the "can't do that mate" "need a pro mate", "Need to pay a weeks wages for a days work mate". 

 

If you're sensible and confident have a go yourself. 

 

Edited 6 hours ago by Iceverge

[Spinny]

As it 'threatens' the sub station, maybe with a suitable bit of blarney the electricity utility company might take them down for you ?

 

Also check with council that you can cut and remove them - sometimes you need permission granted which avoids any friction if someone were to complain about your unapproved tree work. Some places are conservation areas where you can't just cut trees down, also there can be tree protection orders.

 

(Warstory: We had a beautiful mature and healthy tree at the bottom of our garden on the edge of a nursing home property. Provided screening and looked fantastic. One day I came back from work to hear chain saws buzzing - thing had been chopped down. Some old bloke in the nursing home kept complaining to the warden about the tree, eventually they got a tree surgeon in that proclaimed dangerous fungus found at base and chopped it down for a large fee. After local complaints the LA have now put tree protection orders on all the nursing home trees.)

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, Spinny said:

As it 'threatens' the sub station, maybe with a suitable bit of blarney the electricity utility company might take them down for you ?

 

Good call.  My neighbour had a huge tree right next to his bungalow, it would have flattened the bungalow if it had fallen onto it, and if you were in the bedroom next to it, it might be your last nights sleep.

 

But also across the road was the 11KV overhead line.  SSEN removed it for free when he pointed out if it fell down it would break their overhead line.