The dreaded Leylandii (Leyland Cypress) - what should I do?

r3nu4l

I bought a house earlier this year that came with approximately 50 trees around the property. Up to 40 of these are Leylandii. Now, these trees make excellent hedges provided they are properly looked after and trimmed.

However, the previous owner of this house let them grow up to about 25 feet before topping them and never trimmed the sides. Not only that but he decided NOT to top the four trees at the bottom of the garden that are beside a power line. These trees are up to 45 feet tall!

I have a couple of questions about these trees.

• If I decide to top the trees to 10 feet tall, will they survive that trimming?
• If I do top them like this, and trim the sides, will the growth near the trunk that is currently bare branch, redevelop green foliage?
• If I decide to get rid of these trees altogether, how much should I expect to pay?
• How on earth do I find a decent, qualified tree surgeon who isn't a cowboy chancing his arm by calling himself a tree surgeon?

The latter is really important because some of these trees are about 6 feet from my garage and I don't want them crashing down on that when they are taken down. More importantly, I don't want the trees near the power line falling the wrong way and taking that out!! So you can see why I'm keen to avoid some cowboy with a chainsaw who rocks up and says 'I'll take them out for ya boss!'

Any help or advice appreciated

SILVAMAN

At the moment they are babies.
Too late to trim as a hedge.
Get rid of them and plant either a nice laurel hedge, or a beech or hornbeam hedge.
I'm sure there's a directory of tree surgeons online-just google, and get them out to price the job. Ask to see their insurance, and if they claim affiliation to an organisation, call that body to verify.
If you have a stove or an open fire, leylandii makes great firing when dry.

arthur daly

Cut them at the top of ground
And replant as said above

arthur daly

Cut them at the top of ground
And replant as said above

Cowabunga

In looking for an arborist don't just be sold on if he has a truck and woodchipper. Ask for insurance and question his credentials and like was mentioned, affiliations. You wouldn't let an electrician wire your house without the right certs, so an arborist should be the same!! Good luck with the job though!

IH784man

Where you based

JohnBoy

The esb will seemingly take down wires to allow you do the work in safety, it's in their interests as well as yours.


We enquired through a man who was supposed to cut some trees for us a while back, but it turned out the ESB had someone booked to do maintenance in our area anyway and they came a few weeks ago one day and did it for us.


So I never got to find out what happens with the ESB taking the wires down for you.

r3nu4l

Thanks all. I'm in South Tipperary so would be looking for an arborist/tree surgeon who covers the area.

Will definitely be looking for insurance certs. Good to know about the ESB. Any idea what department I should be calling?

EDIT:

Also, if I take the trees out completely (likely now) am I better to grind the stumps down or try to dig out the stump and roots?

Cowabunga

r3nu4l wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm in South Tipperary so would be looking for an arborist/tree surgeon who covers the area.

Will definitely be looking for insurance certs. Good to know about the ESB. Any idea what department I should be calling?

EDIT:

Also, if I take the trees out completely (likely now) am I better to grind the stumps down or try to dig out the stump and roots?

Small point but the ESB won't take down the wires they will just de energise them, any damages to the lines and they will look for compensation. But that may not be an issue.

Cowabunga

r3nu4l wrote: »

Thanks all. I'm in South Tipperary so would be looking for an arborist/tree surgeon who covers the area.

Will definitely be looking for insurance certs. Good to know about the ESB. Any idea what department I should be calling?

EDIT:

Also, if I take the trees out completely (likely now) am I better to grind the stumps down or try to dig out the stump and roots?

Small point but the ESB won't take down the wires they will just de energise them, any damages to the lines and they will look for compensation. But that may not be an issue.

dosan145ex

I live in south tipperary you could have someone give a price to taken them down and and of set the cost doing so by them keeping the timber but the safe way of taken down would be use a track digger to control the way the tree is doing to fall. I have many years of experience in doing the job and this the most cost effective way of getting the best job done if you want me to have looking contact me by private message work can be shown as well . All so you will need to reestablished the boundaries around your house as you could be a loosing a lot of ground