In article ,
"Ian_m" writes:
A friend removed about 7 house tall leylandi, with my help. We managed to
cut them inititally at about half way point, pulling the top over using a
rope. Then halved again and finally cutting at the bottom. Didn't take long
at all and all sheds, fences and nearby house were neatly avoided. Oh if you
trim away the area where you are going to cut its a lot easier.

There was a row of leylandi-like trees belonging to my neighbour
along our boundary. House changed hands, and I asked if they could
be pruned or taken down. It turned out that new neighbour's son
is a tree surgeon (or at least something related to forestry).
He did pretty much what you said, except having got them cut to
about 1/2 height and removed all the substantial foliage, he then
used a rope from the top to a digger, and pulled the trunks over
sideways to remove the stumps. They did leave big holes in the
ground though, which I've been emptying my garden waste into
ever since.

BTW, it is very important the rope used for this has virtually no
elasticity, or imagine what happens when you get pinged with a 50'
heavy elastic band. I saw this happen when some tree felling was
going on in the grounds of a former workplace. The rope snapped,
and the loose end shot across the road and smacked into a building
on the other side with a very loud crack, fortunately high enough
up that it was above the roofs of the cars driving past. There was
someone from the council parks department on scene to inspect the
work, and he had it stopped instantly and the contractors removed
from site.

--
Andrew Gabriel