Cost for trimming down a load of monster Leylandii trees

MrMarvelous · 1 Jul 2019 at 21:44

How much would it roughly cost to trim these monstrosities? I'm talking to about the neighbours fence height. They have no interest in gardening so have let them get out of control, blocking sunlight getting in my rear garden.

Squid Vicious · 1 Jul 2019 at 21:50

Burn it with fire.

Sorry can't help more but I also have a leylandii which is starting to get out of control so subbing to this thread.

Last work I had done was taking out half a dozen big trees, that was a couple of grand and took 3 tree surgeons 2-3 days to do.

May have some issues taking them down if birds are nesting.

koolpc · 1 Jul 2019 at 22:00

Have you asked permission to cut them down?

Got to cost at least £250 maybe more if you want them disposed off too.

kinobestew123 · 1 Jul 2019 at 22:21

It doesn't require any special skill taking those down. If you can't do it yourself, maybe find some labourer types who you can pay a day rate to. They'll have them all down in a day easy. Getting the stumps out would be a different matter but it doesn't sound like you need that doing.

MrMarvelous · 2 Jul 2019 at 21:01

koolpc said:
Have you asked permission to cut them down?

Got to cost at least £250 maybe more if you want them disposed off too.

I have yes and the neighbour is fine with it.

kinobestew123 said:
It doesn't require any special skill taking those down. If you can't do it yourself, maybe find some labourer types who you can pay a day rate to. They'll have them all down in a day easy. Getting the stumps out would be a different matter but it doesn't sound like you need that doing.

They're absolutely huge though, nearly 3 storeys high.

beachBOYken · 2 Jul 2019 at 21:17

Your neighbour not chipping in with the cost to remove them?

I feel your pain, my neighbour also has an extremely unruly garden and never cuts anything back, so we have to keep an eye on some stuff otherwise it gets out of hand, luckily he doesn't mind as well, but its annoying when you have neighbours like this who don't care for a garden.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 3 Jul 2019 at 08:49

Cutting them down yourself isnt going to be hard.
(Get a set of very good steps, or a small platform in order to tie the tree to guide it which way you want it to fall (you may need to let the tree decide if its leaning

The issue with those trees is going to be the disposal, thats going to be a lot of green waste.

kinobestew123 · 3 Jul 2019 at 11:00

MrMarvelous said:
They're absolutely huge though, nearly 3 storeys high.

I tackled some at the front of my house that looked pretty much identical to those. Very tall too. They're made up of lots of little branches and are fairly light. You just cut one branch at a time and pull and it will come out. They're not like a massive trunk that weighs a tonne.

BigBoy · 3 Jul 2019 at 11:47

kinobestew123 said:
I tackled some at the front of my house that looked pretty much identical to those. Very tall too. They're made up of lots of little branches and are fairly light. You just cut one branch at a time and pull and it will come out. They're not like a massive trunk that weighs a tonne.

This get a good bowsaw or small Chan saw and goto town on the lower reaches (just remember branches stretch upwards) one branch at a time, it will get easier as the branches open up.

psd99 · 3 Jul 2019 at 11:55

just wondering are these your trees? if not why are you paying for this work. your neighbour should be paying

looks very high

R3X · 3 Jul 2019 at 12:20

Totally agree with the above, the leafy dark green make it look far worse then it maybe is.

A wired reciprocating saw could mow through a lot of that if not the whole lot.

Once you do a few sections at a time it would either lighten the load or reduce the work or cost for laborers too.

BigDannyO · 3 Jul 2019 at 13:00

If you're going to do it yourself just don't do it with bare arms, that stuff itches like a mofo after a day cutting it back

skyripper · 3 Jul 2019 at 13:15

Do those trees belong to the neighbour [ie. they own the property] or are they renting [and the landlord will go ape when discovered]?

200sols · 3 Jul 2019 at 13:22

skyripper said:
Do those trees belong to the neighbour [ie. they own the property] or are they renting [and the landlord will go ape when discovered]?

I wouldn’t care myself, if the landlord doesnt like it they should maintain the garden properly.

Semple · 3 Jul 2019 at 13:31

psd99 said:
just wondering are these your trees? if not why are you paying for this work. your neighbour should be paying

looks very high

From what i'm gathering from the OP's post is that the neighbours aren't bothered about the height of them, it's only that they're blocking sunlight into the OP's garden. So more a case of if OP wants more sunlight then he's gotta pay to have those trees chopped down.

As others have said, if you're good with heights then rent a small chainsaw and a good set of ladders. If they're three stories high then that's going to be a lot of waste to dispose of though.

Syla5 · 3 Jul 2019 at 14:31

MrMarvelous said:
How much would it roughly cost to trim these monstrosities? I'm talking to about the neighbours fence height. They have no interest in gardening so have let them get out of control, blocking sunlight getting in my rear garden.

From what I can work out that's roughly 7 trees.

The last tree work we had done was something along the lines of

12 Trees @ 22ft removed to ground level £550
14 Trees @22ft reduced by 6ft £380
Stump grinding £380
Timber Processing £150

Then add vat on top, all in for us was £1.7k

This was carried out by a Tree Surgery company.

In your case you are looking at getting 7 trees reduced by 6ft-8ft and get the timber processed, and you could very likely find a general gardener to do it. I would say you are looking at between £350-£500 max.

You could do it yourself, but be prepared for a lot of runs to the tip, before the last bit of work, we had reduced all the trees ourselves by at least 6ft. It took 15 trips to the local tip to get rid of all the cut off.

psd99 · 3 Jul 2019 at 15:41

just burn it all once you have taken it down lol

beachBOYken · 3 Jul 2019 at 15:48

psd99 said:
just burn it all once you have taken it down lol

I would just dump the lot in the garden the trees are in, if they don't care for gardening I don't see why they would be bothered with a pile of branches.

Syla5 · 3 Jul 2019 at 15:59

psd99 said:
just burn it all once you have taken it down lol

It will take a long ass time to burn! very long.

200sols · 3 Jul 2019 at 16:07

Syla5 said:
It will take a long ass time to burn! very long.

And being freshly cut it wont burn properly and will smoke like hell.