Leylandii

Shirleyr

Shirleyr

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Shirley
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It was about 6 inches when my Dad planted it, it grew like a lollypop, innocent and rather nice. Its been growing and growing for 30 years and now its not so innocent. It just may in a storm crash into my greenhouse. Storms here are terrible, I know what the wind is capable of.
£150 to get a man to cut it down. Well, I don't use a chainsaw but I've started with a bow saw, I been at it for days and hardly got anywhere.
The trouble is there is not one trunk but two and they have there own trunks and when one branch is cut down its really heavy and then its the clearing, holiday homes are usuful for wheelie bins.
I'm going to have to get the man in the end or it will most likely be my end.:( Beaten by a Leylandii.

Nice tree you think.jpg Monster.jpg
 
Much easier just to fork out for the thing to be taken down and it all to be cleared away.
Not worth you doing yourself an injury.
A surprising volume of wood and weight in what seems like a small tree.
 
Leylandii aren't trees.
Just sayin'. :)
 
Fork, what sort of fork did you have in mind, the world's strongest man doesn't live here.
 
Shirleyr said:
Fork, what sort of fork did you have in mind, the world's strongest man doesn't live here.
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Fork out...as in pay for someone who knows what they're doing, to remove it. :)
 
I don't think that has any chance of being blown down Shirley ,even in a force 10 gale ,they are very deep rooted and the root system is very complex .save the money and spend it on photo gear instead .
 
A surprisingly dense wood for sawing, tends to be quite wet which binds a hand saw. If £150 includes taking it all away that's sounds a not bad price. It's messy stuff to take away in the car, the sap is very sticky.

Although you can use the logs for edging around the garden, and if very well seasoned it does burn OK - diluted with other wood as it burns very hot. It also burns green on a November bonfire, but very smoky. You wouldn't be popular with neighbours for a couple of miles downwind!

(whereabouts are you? might be a member close by with a saw, I've done a few friends trees for beer money)
 
Ironically, a whole row of them do make for an ideal windbreak. But like what has been said in here, allow them to get too tall and it becomes a huge job to manage, not to mention losing much needed daylight especially in the winter months.
 
The fact it has been there for 30 years and not caused a problem (other than possibly shading the greenhouse) suggests it is unlikely to fall now.

However, if it does fall and which ever way it goes it will do some damage to the greenhouse, it is probably going to cost more than £150 to repair/replace the greenhouse and get rid of the fallen timber, so I would be inclined to get it taken out.

As said the logs are no problem but getting rid of the more feathery bits can be a pain, unless you can have a garden fire.

Is the £150 to remove it everything, root too? If so, would they do it for less if they left the stump. It could make a great bird table or if cut low enough, a seat. However, £150 is not a bad price.

I agree with Ian, it is one of the best dense hedging plants if it is managed well, but it rarely is.

Dave
 
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I've got 4-5 of these at the bottom of my garden and they're about 30ft-40ft high!!!!

They were planted by previous occupants of the house and the neighbouring gardens have them too due to a small 4 storey block of flats that used to be there, however the flats were demolished years ago and have been replaced by houses.

When we moved in we paid £300 to have them lopped as they were blocking so much of our evening sun. Would love to have them completely removed as we've effectively lost 10ft of our garden because of them. Would dread to think how much it'd cost to remove them all but I think £1000+
 
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Russ77 said:
When we moved in we paid £300 to have them lopped as they were blocking so much of our evening sun. Would love to have them completely removed as we've effectively lost 10ft of our garden because of them. Would dread to think how much it'd cost to remove them all but I think £1000+
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If you had yours taken down, you'd be left with the brown ends of the neighbours trees.

If you're patient, with a good hand saw and ladders you can usually trim the side branches off working your way up the stem. Taking off as much as you can take to the tip or stuff into the garden bin (if you have one). That will leave you with the "totem" stumps which should be a much cheaper job to get removed. If they've been looped previously, everything above the lop should be relatively thin feathery stuff. It's the bulk of the green stuff that adds to the costs when you get someone in - it's a pain to handle and a lot of bulk/weight to shift. You can trade cash for time, taking several weeks to shift the stuff out of the garden a couple of loads each weekend. Or hire a skip. Or get imaginative with the garden, make some nice wide beds around the lawn, hire a chipper and you'll get a lot of mulch from the green stuff that will suppress weeds very effectively (do not dig it in, surface mulch only).
 
Alastair said:
If you had yours taken down, you'd be left with the brown ends of the neighbours trees.

If you're patient, with a good hand saw and ladders you can usually trim the side branches off working your way up the stem. Taking off as much as you can take to the tip or stuff into the garden bin (if you have one). That will leave you with the "totem" stumps which should be a much cheaper job to get removed. If they've been looped previously, everything above the lop should be relatively thin feathery stuff. It's the bulk of the green stuff that adds to the costs when you get someone in - it's a pain to handle and a lot of bulk/weight to shift. You can trade cash for time, taking several weeks to shift the stuff out of the garden a couple of loads each weekend. Or hire a skip. Or get imaginative with the garden, make some nice wide beds around the lawn, hire a chipper and you'll get a lot of mulch from the green stuff that will suppress weeds very effectively (do not dig it in, surface mulch only).
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There is that about the neighbours' trees although I think I could live with that. I couldn't believe the amount of tree there was then they lopped them, the guys doing them said that they were nearly 20ft deep at the top!

At some point in the future I want to take the shed down and have a brick built games room/summer house/man cave/studio at the end of the garden so that'll be the time when I'll probably get rid of them completely (conservative estimate of 10 years time :LOL: )
 
The Man will probably just cut the trunk near the ground leaving the stump. If he is going to remove the roots then £150 is a good price.

Personally I would cut the upper branches off (leaving a long trunk for a lever) then dig a 1' wide trench in the ground around the trunk and every time you get to a root cut the middle out by cutting it with an axe at both sides of the the tench. Once you have gone all round give the trunk a wiggle to see if you have loosened it (probably not) and then repeat only going a bit deeper. It's not an easy or quick job but does get the stump out.
 
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Alastair said:
If you had yours taken down, you'd be left with the brown ends of the neighbours trees.

If you're patient, with a good hand saw and ladders you can usually trim the side branches off working your way up the stem. Taking off as much as you can take to the tip or stuff into the garden bin (if you have one). That will leave you with the "totem" stumps which should be a much cheaper job to get removed. If they've been looped previously, everything above the lop should be relatively thin feathery stuff. It's the bulk of the green stuff that adds to the costs when you get someone in - it's a pain to handle and a lot of bulk/weight to shift. You can trade cash for time, taking several weeks to shift the stuff out of the garden a couple of loads each weekend. Or hire a skip. Or get imaginative with the garden, make some nice wide beds around the lawn, hire a chipper and you'll get a lot of mulch from the green stuff that will suppress weeds very effectively (do not dig it in, surface mulch only).
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Think skip hire would cost a fair bit, whats the going rate nowadays
 
nog said:
Think skip hire would cost a fair bit, whats the going rate nowadays
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I think a mate of mine can get a large skip for around £200 "cash/mates" rates....... seeing what came off the top of them alone would have needed several skips.
 
Russ77 said:
I think a mate of mine can get a large skip for around £200 "cash/mates" rates....... seeing what came off the top of them alone would have needed several skips.
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Yeah the skip companies have high costs for the proper disposal of skip contentsl
 
Graham W said:
Taking the trunk out of the equation, there's at least three times as much "stuff" to get rid of than you think there's going to be.
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Yes indeed. The moment a tree falls the amount of wood, branches, twigs expands alarmingly.

Dave
 
That Leylandii doesn't look too tall, the conifer that my dad had in his front garden looked taller, the foliage at the bottom had to be in the region of 9ft in diameter too. I just cut back the lower foliage, then rested a ladder up the side of the tree, tied a rope around branches, pulled them down and cut them off with a saw working my way in towards the middle. Cut it down to a stump and after around 4 trips to the dump it was gone, all done in around 4hrs. The stump was another matter though, digging around it, it turned out to be around 3ft dia underground, cut through all the peripheral roots, but there was quite a thick one directly underneath. Took a lot of digging and sawing to get at that one. Two days later I managed to roll it out of the hole.
 
£150 to fell and remove would be a steal! Even better if he'll get rid of the stump as well.
 
nilagin said:
That Leylandii doesn't look too tall, the conifer that my dad had in his front garden looked taller, the foliage at the bottom had to be in the region of 9ft in diameter too. I just cut back the lower foliage, then rested a ladder up the side of the tree, tied a rope around branches, pulled them down and cut them off with a saw working my way in towards the middle. Cut it down to a stump and after around 4 trips to the dump it was gone, all done in around 4hrs. The stump was another matter though, digging around it, it turned out to be around 3ft dia underground, cut through all the peripheral roots, but there was quite a thick one directly underneath. Took a lot of digging and sawing to get at that one. Two days later I managed to roll it out of the hole.
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I might be able to do that it sounds doable (is that a word) you've done it in 4hrs, give me 4 months and I'll get back here with the finished results. I do tied a rope around the branches and pull them away from the greenhoue.
 
Nod said:
£150 to fell and remove would be a steal! Even better if he'll get rid of the stump as well.
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They never do these days, it cost me 60 quid ( for the pair) to have two large confers cut down and removed ( shredded)
they were about 7 feet x 7 feet, ( and the trunks about a foot across) they cut them to the ground. I then took a couple of days to split the remaining trunks with an axe and wedges.
I left them wedged open, to let the winter get at them and soften them. I then used a pressure washer to excavate around the roots and cut them off. ( a lot easier than digging with a spade! )
It took an hour or so (per) over a couple of days.
Of course with hind sight I should have got them to leave a foot sticking out, wrap a chain around the trunks and hook it up to the tow bar on the 4x4

Skips, the last one I had was £160 for a 6 yarder.
Its not that expensive to tip waste, but like everything else the government now want their cut, under the guise of making people recycle more.
Just the tax alone is £80 / ton! Where a couple or so years ago it was about a fiver.
 
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Cobra said:
Just the tax alone is £80 / ton! Where a couple or so years ago it was about a fiver.
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Landfill tax shouldn't apply to green waste. It shouldn't be going to landfill.
 
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Cobra said:
Of course with hind sight I should have got them to leave a foot sticking out, wrap a chain around the trunks and hook it up to the tow bar on the 4x4
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But use a chain, NOT rope... I've seen a series of photos from an occasion when someone used a KERR (Kinetic Energy Recovery Rope) to extract a stump. it did the job but when the stump came free, it followed the line of the rope and ripped the roof off the Range Rover to the back seats - the driver was lucky to be alive (and apparently actually DID need brown trousers!) Seen similar shots of a situation where the rope was being used for its designed purpose (recovering vehicles stuck in mud) but the hitch on the stuck vehicle ripped out of the (rotten) rear cross member of the chassis. In those pictures, the hitch went through the rear screen, rear and front headrests and windscreen, all on the passenger side. Follow through wasn't mentioned in that tale but was probable! The old farmer's trick is no longer possible (and is also very inadvisable in an urban or even village situation.) 1/2 a stick of dynamite under the roots!
 
Shirleyr said:
Fork, what sort of fork did you have in mind, the world's strongest man doesn't live here.
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Llyr Hughes just down the road from you is pretty freaking strong!

http://www.l-h-strongman.co.uk/

Beware the tree surgeons - the college in Dol decided to chop down some big tall trees for fear that they would destroy the greenhouse and polytunnel if another storm like last winter's hit, only the tree surgeons winch broke and managed to do what nature had failed to do and drop the tree on the polytunnel!
 
Cut the stump as low to the ground as possible drill holes (10mm ish) as deep as you can all over the stump surface. Cover it with a good old dose of Epsom Salts making sure all the holes are filled, cover it with some thick black plastic and secure, cover with soil.
The salts will prevent any regrowth, kill the roots and the stump will eventually rot away.
 
Alastair said:
Landfill tax shouldn't apply to green waste. It shouldn't be going to landfill.
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I know, it was a general comment on the cost of skip hire.
Some waste is very cheap to tip, like soil, hard core, ( some is even free) they pound this (Hardcore) into the access roads for the landfills.
But if they charged the hirer £80 / ton tax, lots more people would find other way of disposing of "stuff" so they have increase the hire costs across the board, to cover all eventualities.

That said, I spend a lot of time on landfill sites / recycling plants / CA sites / composting sites. And your'll probably be disgusted at the amount of green waste that actually does go to landfill.
As its "light" it's cheap to tip, and can be more cost effective to tip than to take it to a composting site.

Nod said:
But use a chain, NOT rope...
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Cobra said:
Of course with hind sight I should have got them to leave a foot sticking out, wrap a chain around the trunks and hook it up to the tow bar on the 4x4
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:p
 
Indeed, :p but while most people can lay their hands on a length of rope, fewer can grab a suitable length of strong chain!
 
Nod said:
fewer can grab a suitable length of strong chain!
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Just look around the "hood" there are plenty of strong chains hanging around the necks of chavs :D
 
Not sure I'd use gold plated brass chain to pull a tooth let alone a tree stump!
 
Nod said:
Not sure I'd use gold plated brass chain to pull a tooth let alone a tree stump!
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Just use the chav then (y)

:D
 
Find someone with a boat, these type of folk always have chains, like your pirate friend (the one with the dogy avatar) steep, he may have a boat, he's into sea thingy's.
 
Sorry for the slight thread derailing, Shirley - it nearly always happens once the sensible advice has been given!

On a serious note, if the £150 includes felling and removal, I would go down that route rather than the DIY one. Felling the thing safely won't be that easy and disposing of the thing will be a PITA!
 
Its nice to see a thread taking off, I like to read the posts. I took a liking to that little pirate person:D his was one of the funny threads.
 
You're doing the right thing by getting rid of it!
I have a serious dislike for leylandii due to having a very long and high hedge all the way around my garden. I've got someone coming in the next few weeks to take the top 3rd of the height off and it's costing about £800 :( And it's just going to keep growing afterwards :grumpy:
 
I helped a friend cut up and dispose of 4 big lenladii that came down in a storm a few years ago. I had to bin my gloves and trousers afterwards because of the sap! When it came to pulling one of the roots out with his land rover we snapped several ropes and eventually used a chain.
I'd pay somebody to do it.
 
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