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Gardening

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Original poster

Tree Surgeons - how much?

40 replies

titchy · 09/05/2008 11:43

Never had a tree before so excuse ignorance! We now have a garden with 4 bloody big trees, a few smaller saplings and enough conifers to fill Centerparcs!

One tree we want rid of as it is blocking light into the living room and I think the roots are damaging a retaining wall. It is a fir tree of some description, about 30 feet high and 20 feet wide.

Does anyone have any idea what I am looking at cost wise for someone to cut it down and take away most of it (leaving us with the trunk for the fire in winter).

TIA!

OP posts:
hertsnessex · 09/05/2008 11:44

Around £1000+ at a guess. thats what we paid to have one big willow taken down last yr.

Original poster
titchy · 09/05/2008 11:45

Eek bloody hell! I thought a couple of hundred.

OP posts:
shouldbeworking · 09/05/2008 12:04

Dh has a friend who is a tree surgeon so pruning our trees costs us £50 and a couple of bottles of wine (we get rid of rubbish though)but I know we are extremely lucky. My parents paid £250 over a year ago just to have one tree pruned back.

ajandjjmum · 09/05/2008 12:06

It will be hundreds if it's a big tree, because they have to do in with the right equipment for H & S, and it can be a tough job!

laidbackinengland · 09/05/2008 12:07

We have a huge tree in our garden and the tree surgeon quoted £500 per day for a three day job. Needless to say - we are keeping our big tree !!!

MrsMuddle · 09/05/2008 12:55

It will cost three times as much as the worst-possible-scenario price that you have in your head. Very, very dear.

Original poster
titchy · 09/05/2008 12:56

Hmm maybe I shoudl retrain.... Thank you all - will break the news to dh later.

OP posts:
LooptheLoop · 09/05/2008 12:59

I've just paid £400 to have the top 30% removed from a Wellingtonia (like an American redwood tree so huge).

Involved working at height and was a day's work. Mind you, that's in the Midlands, hate to think what London prices are like.

Shop around.

hertsnessex · 09/05/2008 13:42

We pai £480 for 25% of the willow to be looped - 6 weeks later half comes down in strong winds and we have to pay £1000 to have it taken down and removed. i was not best pleased! plus our tree had a TPO on - so had to go through and get councils go ahead etc.....

bluesky · 09/05/2008 13:43

it is costly as their insurance premiums are very high now (or so my tree surgeon told me!)

we had a full days work, 3 men, very high up with all the ropes and harnesses and paid £1000 in the SE.

OsmosisBanana · 09/05/2008 13:45

My DH is a tree surgeon, will ask him later

Original poster
titchy · 09/05/2008 14:22

Cheers OB - we're Surrey so probably v. expensive.

OP posts:
maisykins · 09/05/2008 14:43

Whatever you do, get three or more quotes. There is an enormous variation in price - we were quoted £1500 by one, £1000 by another and ended up getting the work done for £600. We used some people called Evergreen, based in North Surrey if that helps. If you are just getting something cut down and taken away they cant make too much of a mess of it - if they are pruning you want someone who knows how to leave the tree in good shape.

Whizzz · 09/05/2008 14:46

"If you are just getting something cut down and taken away they cant make too much of a mess of it "
Ooooo they can if they fell it incorrectly and it falls on your house, your car, your neighbours, your kids.......also if they are cheap they might not have insurance.....

Whizzz · 09/05/2008 14:49

DH is a tree bloke (!) - he reckons it will be hundreds

SNoraWotzThat · 09/05/2008 15:05

We paid £250 for 2 qualified men to spend one day climbing and trimming 2 large holy trees and cutting back about 5 other trees, trimming 3 furs to a reasonable hedge and also taking out 3 fir trees about 20ft. Plus tiding some other bits.

I think we paid about £1000 for 3 days we first moved here and that included taking down a very large (+40ft) conifer that blocked the whole garden.

Check to see if your property is in a local tree preservation area.

FWIW I have replanted some smaller trees in their place.

OsmosisBanana · 09/05/2008 15:20

DH says it will need to sit for 2 years B4 you can burn it as it will leave sap everywhere in the fire.

DH reckons between £500 - £650.

He also says Surrey is FULL of tree surgeons so you should get a competitive quote.

Try Merrist Wood (Guildford) - they train students there and you might get a bargain.

MW is where he trained btw.

There you go.

hazelmum · 08/02/2009 13:36

Hi we thought this might help we used a company called Clearland Ltd a friend who runs a wood recommended them, they were very good, clean and professional and they logged our tree for us. The price they quoted us was very competative with all the safety paperwork and insurance, I think they have a web site, but we lost their card try www.clearland.org.uk they are based in Surrey. Good luck they did say to allways check the tree surgeons insurance as it is height restricted what ever that means!

scienceteacher · 08/02/2009 14:16

We had two trees heavily pruned a few weeks ago for £100.

We have had trees taken out completely before for around £100 each.

I think it is cheaper if they are able to mulch them onsite, so that there are no disposal costs.

scienceteacher · 08/02/2009 14:17

We are Surrey too.

Yole · 02/02/2011 23:03

HI ALL

my husband and I are self employed and will do many jobs but we also cut up faller trees branches ect and do lots of gardening work. we are the cheapest as we are not a company and will travel some distance to a job. we live in Bibury the Cotswold pleased contact us on 07903204873 or 01258 740 385 if you require a quote

THEBUFFALO · 10/10/2011 17:28

I CONTACTED A TREE SURGEON FROM S WALES AND HE WAS VERY REASONABLE, AND HE WOULD TRAVEL,HIS NUMBER WAS 07900105956 AND I THINK HIS NAME WAS EDDIE

Missjofl2013 · 27/05/2013 12:48

Hi Hertsnessex, did you have to replace the tree under the TPO or did it bring an end to the order? Thanks

eggsandwich · 27/05/2013 16:54

We have lots of establised trees in our garden, about 6 months ago we had to have our Lime tree, which was about 70 feet tall cut down as part of it fell onto our property during a very windy day, fortunately not much damage was done and the council gave immediate permission for removal as it was dangerous (tree had preservation order on it) and our tree surgeon charged £375 plus vat which is what he charges for a days work and it took him a day to cut down. We had more work done by the same guy recently at the same price, again three tree removals, and some tree crowning, all the chipping and logs were taken away as well. We found that tree surgeons do vary in price so you need to ring around for quotes, but we were given a list by our council of tree surgeons they preferred us to use on our tpo trees.

OnFoot · 27/05/2013 17:03

We had a large yew tree taken down recently and it was MUCH cheaper to get a builder to do it, than a tree surgeon. They put protection in place for the neighbour's garage just in case a branch fell (it didn't) and took it down bit by bit, disposed of it and dug out the roots.

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