How much would you expect to pay to have a large sycamore tree cut down?

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

In the south west? It's blocking out all our light

We had a large sycamore taken down a few years ago (Home Counties) and iirc it was the best part of £1k, as they had to have the rippling muscled bronzed sex gods tree surgeons up with all their equipment, and also they completely removed the stump which was almost as much of a palaver as the actual tree itself.

You may want to check with the council that it doesn't have a tree preservation order on it first.

Oh yes and they sawed it into manageable chunks for us to have cut into logs later.

How do you check for preservation orders?

Contact the Planning Dept. usually.

Phone your local council they will check if you are allowed to take it down.

the cost depends on what surrounds the tree, how close it is to building, boundaries, landscaping, and what the access is like to the site,

check anyone who you employ's insurance before they start, then ring the company and check the insurances is still valid, some people get the certificate then default on payments, and tree surgery can go really wrong sometimes.

Late autumn is the best time to remove it, this is the wrong time of the year, you may need to book a slot with a good team.

Why is this the wrong time?

Birds and their nests, for one

It's summer, it's habitat, if you do it in the autumn then everything has a chance to move on, do it now and you stop everything that is using it.

and it is far easier when the foliage has died back on it and surround foliage,

the wood is easier to cut when the sap has dropped,

tree cutting is a autumn winter thing if you know what you are doing.

in a garden you are far less likely to end up with accidental damage,

and you are far less likely to shock the other plants, if you do it when they are in winter mode,

It burns well if seasoned properly, but it will season better if cut in late autumn, it not a great wood to burn green like ash, but a good middling heat,

so many reasons, I'm sure I will remember more in a moment.

Nesting birds is one of the main reasons.
A good tree surgeon wouldn't fell it in the summer.

Can you tell I've never been responsible for a garden before?

JazzAnn, we had a large number of VERY large (and hideous) Leylandii trees and stumps removed last Nov. Used a company based in Surrey via the RHS website, to ensure they were reputable. They were extremely reasonably priced and highly professional. Very good safety culture etc. Try the RHS website as a starting point?

Regarding preservation orders etc, a good tree surgeon will do all that checking for you. One of my trees has a TPO, and the tree surgeon always tells the local council what he's doing and makes sure we're OK. He's only pruned the tree rather than felling it, but he says it saves him time as often people will call the council if they see tree work being done and at least then the council can say 'Oh yes, we know about that.'

Costs - we had some major pruning work done on that aforementioned tree and another one which had storm damage and it cost us £550 (about 5 years ago). As a previous poster said, it's the roping and lowering of cut branches properly which takes the time and money. I was shitting meself though, watching them swing from the trees with chainsaws in their hands..

One days work £350 with one tree surgeon. Two days work double that? Approach your local tree surgeon college?

Local tree surgeon college? How would I go about finding that?