Cuprager wrote:

Father in law has about 9 of these massive trees in his back garden.
They are a bit taller than his 2 storey house and sit at the back of the
garden... there is a lane behind his garden about a cars width wide.
There is a greenhouse in front of the trees. You know whats coming next,
dont you! He had a quote from a tree surgeon to remove these trees, the
price was about 1k. Quite a lot of cash. The question is, is it a
diy'able job to take these down? The fears that i have are in their
rough order...

1. The height, how do you get 'up' high enough to lop the tops off?
2. Confined space to fell them. Should you rope them into the garden or
the lane... what about the greenhouse!
3. I dont think i would be comfortable with a chainsaw at height. Would
a bow saw or similar be ok?

All comments welcome please!!


Took one of similar size down with just a bowasaw. They are not hard wood.

If you can fell in one go, thats the easiest.

Fosrt thing to do is make up a cride protractor at 4 degrees and use
that to estimate where you can get it to fall.

Then yoo need a pair of ropes tied off to something that will make sure
it goes that way. These do not need to be that high up teh tree - a
ladder will do to get sya 10ft up.

Cut a wedge ouit exactly in the direction you want it to fall. Tesnion
the ropes a bit - a mate standing BEYOND where you are CERTAIN the tree
will go is ideal.


Then start your main cut a little above where the notch on the other
side is.

Stop as SOON as there is any sound of cracking and splitting or the cut
opening up. If a good tug on the main rope doesn't bring it down, cut a
bit more and try again. The important thing is no to be near the bole
when it goes. And to constrain it so it cannot fall anywhere else.

We pulled down a couple of 10 meter sycamores like this a few months
back. Leylandii are nothing like as bad. They don't have such hard
branches, the weight or the crown spread.

Neverteheless, be sensible. Its not hard to do, but its easy to make a
mistake if you just go at it gung ho.

Careful approach, attention to detail making sure everything is utterly
correct before you cut, and accurate cutting will do what you want.


There are no tree felling 'accidents' - just stupidities, mistakes,
taking of chances etc.

Oh - with my one I then leveled the stump as besst I could and lit a
fire on top.

Enough of it burned for me to safely put a load of hardcore on top and
make a drive.




TIA
Gerry