Cost of cutting trees down and removing stumps

[Alcesalces]

The house we're buying has had 5 or 6 trees cut down on it. The stumps have been left behind. Along a boundary wall there are 8 or 9 mature trees possibly laylandai that are causing the wall to crack. It's clear the wall has been repaired multiple times. Does anyone know how much it is to cut trees down and have the stumps out too? Trees are probably 4 or 5 metres tall. Wondering how much we'd need to budget for the work.

Can't answer precisely but can give you an indicator, I had a large oak pollarded earlier this year, it was higher than the house and it was cut down to about 4m tall, all the branches cut into logs (which I kept), and the rest chipped and removed. Alongside that I had several (6 or 7) smaller evergreens (cypress, leylandi, etc) removed. I didn't get a lot of change out of £1000. All of them were diseased / unhealthy as the evergreens were 'miniatures' that had grown massively in a small garden and created a dark, damp, mouldy environment and the oak was on course to keel over and take out the neighbour's garage. Several people (general gardeners / landscapers), said they'd do it for less when I got quotes, but I used an arborist, mainly because they are insured and experienced and they have managed to salvage the oak and give it a second chance rather than just chopping it down.

We haven't done this for a while and apologies, I forget the figures but I also recommend getting in a specialist. We used a local tree surgeon who was v good, insured and worked well with the local authorities (there were local constraints we had to work around).

@Diamondnights we're definitely getting in a tree surgeon. DH is talking about a chain saw but that is not happening.

Thanks @BossBhean that's less than I thought to be honest. Slightly daunting buying a house with proper trees. Everything we have at the moment can be pruned with a decent pair of secateurs!

We had a tree removed a few weeks ago and the stump removed. It was about 5 metres tall and it cost 500

A lot depends on how accessible it all is. Would the tree surgeons have to come through the house, because there’s no side or rear access? That makes a big difference. If the trees are on a boundary, they need to be extra careful. How much space is there around the trees? It may mean bringing sections of the trees down piece by piece. Our quotes were around the 800 mark for one tree. But not leylandii.

We had a large mature tree pollarded recently and it was about £800 for one tree. We’re in the south east.

Be aware that the tree surgeon might advise cutting them down in stages to avoid heave, which is the reverse of subsidence. Those roots will be taking a lot of water out of the ground.

Our tree surgeon charges us 350 a day, which is a low rate, as we use them often, two of them come in, I’d say if you want the wood cut up and removed you would be looking at about three days work. The root grinding likely two days but that’s much more expensive.

Say you paid. 500 for the tree surgeons, and 700 for the root grinder ( you can get someone to do noth) I’d say yoire looking at about 3 grand.

The root grinding will be the issue, not the cutting down. We had some trees removed earlier this year - one cost £20, the other £190. (The latter was bigger, more complicated and required more care). But removing the stump would have more or less doubled the cost because of access issues - if you have wide access, they can get the machinery along the side of the house but in our case, they would have had to hire special equipment as the path was too narrow for what they would normally have used.

We ended up spending about £500 to have two trees removed (one a skinny and easily dealt with pear tree), two pruned and one reduced by 20%. No stumps removed. I’m beginning to think we got a bargain!

We had a large sycamore felled a few weeks ago and it was £1100. (London if that makes a difference). Took nearly 4 days!

Tree death makes me sad. The UK is heavily deforested as it is. Statistically we are worse than Brazil!

I had an Ash tree removed for £750 and the stump ground out for a further £400. Also London.

You may well find there is a reason the stumps are there - as a PP mentioned, removing them/mature trees can cause heave, which can be as detrimental as subsidence. So I would get it all checked first before doing anything.