Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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So, There’s A Big Tree That’s Way Too Close To The House

In the words of Cher… “If I could tuuuuuuuuurn back tiiiiiiiime. If I could fiiiiiiiiiind a waaaaaaaay. I’d plant this pretty oak tree not on top of the house.”

Back Deck

No doubt it started out a lot smaller, but it grew, and with it grew the danger of it messing with our house. So when the home inspector crawled out from having assessed the roots and their proximity to the foundation, we were sad (but not surprised) to hear him say “this tree has got to go.”

Even if we could somehow do a root-growth-suppression-rain-dance to get them to avoid the house’s foundation, we couldn’t deny that about 50% of the tree’s canopy was precariously suspended right over our house. So even if just one branch came down in a storm, it would most likely damage our new roof.

Trees1

And it would be a lot worse than that if the whole thing came down. We’ve seen some pretty bad storms over the last couple of years here…

Irene Tree On House

We even saw a tree come down on the house right behind ours in Hurricane Irene back in 2011.

Irene Backyard Neighbor Cru

So once we knew we needed to remove the deck tree, we seized the opportunity to take a closer look at other trees on the property that we feared were dangerous/dying with the help of an arborist friend and some notes left by the inspector, which ended up identifying a few other troublesome trees, including three in the front and another one in the back near the deck. Those in particular were too close to the house (and too big) for comfort or had holes/rot in the base or were partially hollow (YIKES!) which meant they could come crashing down a lot more easily than healthy, solid trees could.

Trees2

We had actually used this crew way back in 2007 at our first house, where we had a crazy giant split tree that was dead in the middle. They’re called Shady Tree Service, and William is the head dude. He’s a really nice guy and I feel like we’ve watched each other grow up or something. He wasn’t married back then, and now he’s married with two kids. Of course John and I have since tied and knot and had Clara (and Burger) so it was fun to catch up with him.

It’s a pretty hardcore job if you ask me. Dude, there’s a man up there – even higher than the house. You know, just swinging a chainsaw around.

Trees3

Here’s William in the bucket, taming the lower portion of the deck tree. There’s actually a whole lot of math going on in tree work (angles, momentum, trajectory, etc) – you know, just to make sure nothing swings INTO YOUR HOUSE, so it’s pretty amazing to watch.

Trees4

This was the view out of the guest room window. No zoom here, this is just how close the tree was (and how careful William had to be).

Trees5

It was also crazy to see how hollow some of the trees were. This picture doesn’t do this any justice (one Clara and approximately four Burgers could have fit into the hole).

Trees6

Here’s an “after” of the back, now that those two trees are gone. Still leafy, but less tree-on-house action.

Trees11

And here’s a front view when we bought the house…

House Cul De Sac

… and the front view now that those three are gone. It’s a more dramatic difference than I think we were expecting (we were so hoping we could keep at least one of them) but we’re glad they’re taken care of and we don’t have to stress every time we hear that a storm is coming. It has also let more light into the house, should help us grow more grass to fill in our patchy hair-plug-ish yard, and is going to help keep our new roof dryer (which lengthens its life) along with discouraging any more rot in our siding and trim (we already have some of that to deal with).

After Tress Front

So a few thousand bucks later (ouch), those five trees are gone and we have some nice peace of mind. Tree removal costs definitely vary by the size of the tree, how hard it is to get to (will they need a crane, etc), and where you live. But a general range for getting a medium sized oak tree down that’s near a house in our area might be between $1K-$2K. If you add others, each additional tree tends to be a lot less since a lot of the cost is just getting the crew and machinery out to your house. So you could get a $1K quote for one tree, but negotiate a $3K total to get five of them taken care of (especially if a few of them are smaller/easier to wrangle).

Oh and I have a few tree negotiating tips:

    1. get a bunch of estimates if you don’t already have a favorite tree guy (we didn’t get others this time because William’s the best and every friend we recommend him to confirms that his prices are always better than the rest)
    2. make sure they’re licensed and insured (seriously, I wouldn’t mess around with this because it’s such a dangerous job)
    3. if you’ve used the company before, you can score a better price by reminding them you’re a repeat customer
    4. save competitor coupons (in our area some tree folks put out coupons and most of them will honor someone else’s to get the job themselves)
    5. in general whenever I negotiate (John hates that part, so it’s all me) I like to smile after they toss out an initial number and say “is that your best price?” (then I just shut my mouth and listen, which usually results in some amount of money off, free stump grinding, or some other perk)

As far as projects go, this might have been Clara’s favorite to watch. She loved gazing at the wood chipper, seeing the guys up in the trees, and standing on the stumps. This one’s the big deck tree, which she loved most of all. We thought about leaving some of the stump on the deck to create a table base, but the location would put the table a bit too close to the house for it to be functional.

Trees8

So instead, we decided to “keep” the tree in the form of a few fun little stepping stones that I asked the guys to cut before hauling the rest off to be chipped/recycled as mulch.

Trees9

Those might look like you could lift them up and place them in that clean little line, but they each weighed a ton and could only be moved with the tractor that the guys had for hauling stuff, so it was fun to watch them shove them all into place with heavy machinery.

And how about this for an epilogue? Remember when John mentioned that we have some deer friends at the new house? Well, apparently they like us, because they love to sneak up on us. Take this shot for example. I was taking after photos of the trees gone and John saw this one hanging out right behind me. I didn’t even notice.

Trees14

And then I did, and I took this picture. Sherry Petersik, wildlife photographer.

Trees15

Then Burger barked and off it ran. So evidently we live in Fairy Tale Forest. Thank goodness we still have a bunch of leafy trees around to maintain the title…

Trees16

Anyone else getting trees limbed up, trimmed, or removed? Couldn’t you watch a 24/7 show of people doing it? If HGTV’s wondering what programming to add, I’d totally watch an hour of guys taking giant trees down. Their lever-systems and crazy swinging contraptions are no joke.

Comments

  1. Eliza says

    I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that you left the tree stumps for Clara–that is awesome!!! And those photos of the deer freaked me out. Here in Raleigh they are not at all afraid of people, so when I am out walking and come upon one it doesn’t budge, just stares at me. Just like cats do. This is why I am not a cat person!

    Reply

    • Kelly {the Centsible Life} says

      We did something similar when we moved into our house about 6 years ago. I finally removed them this Spring because they had decomposed too much, but I have tons of pictures and loads of memories of my kids playing on those stumps. Watch them close for rot since it’s not always obvious at first (they decompose from the inside out)

      Ours were different heights and sort of in a circle, so it was almost like a little stepping stump maze.

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Thanks Kelly! I was thinking about using some sort of sealer on them, but it would mean flipping them over to get all sides (they’re CRAZY heavy, so I don’t know if I can…)

      xo
      s

    • KathyG says

      Some gravel under them, and then sealer on top will help. I think the sealer on the bottom will break down quickly with the constant ground contact. It’s the only way they’ll last more than a few years. You guys have never rented one of those little yard backhoes from HD have you? Sounds like it’s time — they are so much fun I asked for one for my birthday!

  2. Anele @ Success Along the Weigh says

    That has to be a relief! I would worry about that every time a storm came through. We were looking at a great house a few weeks ago and there was a huge tree WAY too close to the house and your estimate confirms about what we thought it would take to get it removed. I LOVE the deer come up there! I know some people don’t agree but I would leave corn or something on one of the stumps for them. (Especially if I was going to plant a garden to hopefully keep them out of it.) :)

    Reply

    • Pam the Goatherd says

      Leaving food out for them won’t keep them out of the garden, it will just draw in even more deer. The best way to keep deer from eating your plants is to fence in the places you don’t want the deer to go. Letting Burger have run of those areas will also deter the deer from hanging out there.

  3. Wendy @ New Moms Talk says

    Way to take care of your home! I know it’s pricey, but you know, it’s worth it!

    One of our homes had a backyard with many trees that needed to be removed. I used to spend my after school days working on digging out tree stumps. (Digging out stumps is a great break from homework by the way!)

    Oh, and the deer remind me of that home. The mother deer would give birth on our compost pile which was fenced in. Warmth, food supply, and a soft place meant we had constant entertainment with fawns and moms. The random 2-5 point buck would also make an appearance.

    Reply

  4. Megan F. says

    Oh no! How heartbreaking! I thought the tree in the porch was super cute. Too bad it had to go. It would have made excellent patio tables a la Katie Bower, though. Please tell me you kept some smaller stumps to surprise us with! ;)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Those five stepping stones are what we kept since we made a DIY stump table at our first house (in the sunroom) and it got a little buggy/gross underneath.

      xo
      s

    • Heidi P. says

      Tree stump table! I never knew you did one of those! Did you blog about it back in the day? I’d love to see, even if you did have to chuck it later.

      And the front yard is so much more inviting now! Do you know what the smaller trees are that are still there?

    • YoungHouseLove says

      It was waaaay back in the day and we definitely had some bug/rot issues on the bottom and eventually just rolled it off into the woods while bidding it a fond farewell. Haha! I’ll have to see if it’s in any pics from way back when! As for the smaller trees, they’re dogwoods. LOVE them!

      xo
      s

  5. Abbey says

    On your trees in the front, when they got down to the stump did they just use a stump grinder for the remaining part or did they actually pull out the stump, roots and all?

    Reply

  6. Heather says

    I love that you guys made giant stepping “stones” for Clara with one of the trees. I’m going to remember that for down the road when we get our dream house near a magical forest. Love that the deer aren’t afraid! I once lived with equally friendly deer – one came and tried to peek in our front door!

    Reply

  8. ShellyP says

    Great post! We had major storms in MN this past weekend and thousands of trees are down. I have a box elder leaning at nearly 45 degrees making a bee line for my sun room that is coming down today. Yes, hiring an arborist is expensive. I’ve received numerous bids to remove my leaning box elder in the past year and the bids are all over the map. I plan on making pavers from the trunk, inspired by this lovely garden path.

    http://www.growsonyou.com/photo/slideshow/106323-log-path-at-shrewsbury-flower-show/al

    Reply

  11. Jo says

    Do you back onto a National Forest? Or do deer just roam your suburb like that?

    I’m sad to see that deck tree had to go, but I totally understand your reasoning – we’re having to look at taking down a couple of trees at our holiday home also. Storms can be scary enough without the added tree russian roulette of will it fall, won’t it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re on a cul-de-sac that backs up into a woodsy area (not a National Forest though, I wish!) but since we’re in the more private/quiet part of the neighborhood I think the deer like it back there.

      xo
      s

    • Marcy says

      Deer roam our suburb. We kind of like seeing them running around (right now one has twins) but it makes me nervous to try and start a garden. We also have bunnies, racoons, coyotes, chipmunks, and there types of squirrels! Feels like we must be in the country but we’re definitely suburbs. Not even a wild park nearby.

  12. Maureen says

    We had a crazy tree just outside our fence line that angled towards the house and every storm that blew brought we were SURE it was going to fall and take out the nursery (we always put baby in the basement those nights). After the derecho last year took down sme big branches (that took out our fence) we called the HOA and since it was technically on their property, not ours, they took it down for us. Score! My little boys loved watching it happen!

    Reply

  13. Tiffany says

    I can’t imagine having to REMOVE trees. Where I live, it’s a miracle to get them to grow. We built a house and our neighborhood is in the middle of sagebrush fields…as most neighborhoods are here in the desert! I daydream about having a lush, forresty (?) yard like that! You are so lucky!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually made one of those years ago in our first house’s sunroom (no legs though, it just sat on the flat bottom and worked as a side table) but it got a little buggy and gross under it over time, so we got rid of it.

      xo
      s

  15. Stacey says

    I work in a beautiful old house that has been declared a National Monument. Last year the 115 year-old cedar tree on the boundary was felled in order to prevent any damage to the house. I felt ill watching the men out my third storey window swinging chainsaws. Whenever a piece of the trunk came down the whole house shook! I gained some beautiful pavers for my garden, though! It took three of us to load one into my car at a time!

    http://www.sahistory.org.za/places/colinton-68-ridge-road-durban

    Reply

  16. Starr @ The Kiefer Cottage says

    We’ve had 12+ trees removed from our very small lot in the past two years. We even traded a car to pay for one of them to be cut down! Another will be cut this week. Many of ours were hollow, too. Upside is that we have more sunshine than most farms! Downside is that we’ve paid more for tree removal than any other home repair, leaving us without a working air conditioner.

    Reply

  17. Petra says

    Wow, hard to believe none of the trees fell, especially being so close to the house! What will you do with the seating area around the now gone tree on the deck?

    Reply

  18. Jen says

    This is on our list of things to do too in our new 80’s house. We have some trimming and one huge tree that is about six inches from our garage that has to go!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We don’t have a working wood burning fireplace so we didn’t have use for them, and in our area people sell pre-chopped wood but I don’t know that anyone would come pick up giant logs since you’d need a special truck to haul them away (they’re like ten million pounds). So we were happy to have them haul them away for free and we knew they were getting ground to make wood chips, which is nice “recycling” in our mind.

      xo
      s

    • Kim says

      I was thinking the same. One of our neighbors goes around and offers to chop up people’s fallen trees after a storm so he can keep the wood for his outdoor firepit. More work to split them, but then you have the wood (which always needs a while to cure anyway). I wonder if the company would charge less if they didn’t have to haul and dispose.

  20. Penny Lynn says

    How are your leftover surface roots from the trees that you removed? I don’t know about Richmond area but in VA Beach, we are seriously plagued with them. We removed 3 trees from the front yard 2 years ago, and I’m still ruining lawnmower blades on these darn roots. We have started cutting some of the larger ones out with a saws-all…but there’s so many. I’d hoped they would have started dying off by now but apparently these guys just don’t want to leave us just yet. Does anyone have any tips on removing/killing pesky surface roots? They are literally across both the front and back yards.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      They ground the stumps for us, and our oaks seem not to have very wide roots (they seem to go right under where the tree was) so there aren’t bumps all around where they used to be or anything. I have heard if you drill into roots and pour epsom salt into them they should start breaking down and degrade a lot faster. Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

    • Natalie says

      You can hire someone with a stump grinder to grind the roots. (Owner of a tree service)

  21. Ana Silva says

    So you do wear shorts! I for some reason wondered wether you did or not. I can’t wear pants when it starts getting hot. I recently got some trees removed too. It’s always sad, but almost all the time it’s also a nice outcome. The front of the house definetly looks much better now. Good choice!

    Reply

  22. Kristi says

    We actually just recently cut down some trees in our yard! We are kind of DIYers ourselves and tried to save as much $$ as possible, b/c tree cutting is an expensive business. It turns out my husband and his brother cut down a 40 foot tree by themselves! We had a 70 foot tree that we had the professionals come and cut down – but left it on the property. We cut it up into manageable pieces ourselves and are planning on using all of the wood for our woodstove this winter. We also rented a chipper for all of the limbs and used the wood chips around our house. So to cut down 1 tree and grind three stumps (we had an extra stump hanging around) it only cost us $250! Plus we saved money on wood and wood chips! But it took us a month of weekends to get everything done.

    It’s sad to see the tree in the deck go – but I totally understand why it had to be done. Hopefully ya’ll can find something fun to do with the hole it left!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Wow, that’s amazing! You’re way braver than we are. We watch them with their ropes and equipment and chippers and saws and say “we could never do that!”

      xo
      s

  24. Melanie says

    One of my favorite things about your new house was the cool bench around that tree on your porch. Being naive, I didn’t even think about the damage it could have caused during a storm! Eek!

    And yowza… holy hollow tree! Glad everything is taken care of now, though.

    PS: I want some cool tree stump stepping stones :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually mentioned in the post how we considered using some of the stump to make a table base (for the deck though). The issue with them leaving such a giant stump is that it’s such a HEAVY thing to move that if they left it in the driveway we might never have actually been able to move it anywhere ourselves, and renting a truck to get something back up the deck and into the sunroom might have been too much for us. Love the inspiration pic though!

      xo
      s

    • El says

      I’ve heard some people hollow them out from the bottom so they look the same, but are much lighter to move.

  27. Heather says

    We’re contemplating having some of the trees in our yard trimmed back. We’ve got our house on the market, and if we don’t have an offer by next week, we’re going to have to rent it.

    Right now, anytime a limb falls and damages the roof, my husband hops up there and fixes it. He won’t be able to do that once we’re in VA, and the calls to roofers will get expensive…

    Reply

  28. Tanya says

    We have TWO oaks growing out of our huge deck. Agreed, was probably cool when they were young and not full size – but now that they’re getting to BE full size, it’s scary. Not to mention, a mess (with every season there’s something to sweep up), and they’re not at their full growth, so we have to jigsaw around them every once inawhile. Will be nice when we can actually get them chopped (along with other troublesome trees in the yard). LOVE our Southampton area, but it’s a scary place for these mature trees! …….I’m also excited to see what you do with the sunroom. Ours looks the same, with naaaasty brown all purpose carpeting inside. We’ve gotten to the point of painting it a “wicker” color, but are now needing inspiration! Thanks for buying a new gouse! Haha

    Reply

  31. Sherry@The Impatient Remodelers says

    What a difference! I love those stumps for Clara, what a great idea :)
    We have a gorgeous maple tree in our front yard (one of three trees). But it is close to our house and has a big split up the trunk. I cry at the thought of taking it down but I know that we will have to sooner than later.

    Reply

  32. Jamie says

    We have major tree problems too! I love that they umbrella our whole house and probably help us save on the ol’ electric bill, but if a bad storm comes, were in major trouble. And our drains don’t like the roots :/

    Reply

  33. lindsay says

    Hi guys !

    Can I just say that I love clara’s burger shirt! Ha ha ha
    Of all the cool things in this post (close encounters with deer, men hanging perilously by a string, neat stump stepping stones) and that’s my favorite!
    where did you get it ?

    lindsay

    Reply

  34. Patti says

    So much better YHLovers! Nice to have the peace of mind I’m sure. Did you guys consider taking out those two little trees in the front yard (closer to the street)? They look like they could become huge. I think it would open up your yard even more!

    Reply

  35. Emma says

    Wow! You got an amazing deal! Tree trimming costs a lot more in my area (DC metro area). Everything looks great! And we had storms in the area last night so I’m sure you were breathing a little easier.

    Reply

  36. Manda Wolf says

    Looks really nice guys. I am actually surprised how nice it looks. I had been dreading the day you’d decide to cut the big tree down (completely understand why you did) but it was just so picturesque. However it looks great and now you have more room for entertaining on your deck instead of a big tree in the middle. I hope you saved some larger parts of log and sent them to a saw mill??? It would make an excellent kitchen table or even desk top for you guys to work on.

    Reply

  37. Amy says

    We are in the exact same situation with a huge tree in the middle of our deck here in Richmond. We love the shade, but its time to go. Although ours is a ground level deck requiring removal of part of the deck to get the tree out and the stump grinded.

    Reply

  38. Angie says

    Ugh, we will need to do this soon at the house we just bought. We have two silver maples with very shallow roots creeping around our yard. The roots make it difficult to mow and they’ll ruin our foundation and sidewalk soon if we aren’t careful. Sucks that it’s so expensive. My dad just had a big tree removed from his yard for a 100 bucks, but he “knew a guy.” I need to “know” more people.

    Reply

  39. Brit [House Updated] says

    We have had to remove trees before, and while it does hit you in the pocketbook, it certainly is necessary. Also, once it is done, it makes you appreciate the trees you have more. In your before and after photos, I actually like the after version more because you can see more of the individual trees (not to mention that everything looks so green and sunny)!

    Reply

  41. SallyHP says

    I am sorry you had to remove them, but from the photos you can actually see the house better without it being stark. I live in a new construction house so have only baby trees. I love, love, love the big stepping stones left behind!

    Reply

  42. Jillian says

    My husband just started doing tree work for a living! Sometimes he snaps photos when he’s way up in the tree and sends them to me, y’know, just for little mid-day heart attack. Some of the stories he tells me are heart pounding! It is fascinating to watch though.

    Reply

  43. Kiera says

    SUCH a smart thing to do in VA. When I saw the pic of the deck after you first announced the house, I started to get nervous for you. We had 5 trees fall on or around our house in Wmsbg with Isabel a few years ago– one went through my brothers room; really scary. At first we missed all of the shade but then we had a much better time growing grass with all of the sun. Just recently our neighbor had 5 fall down (one took off the gutter) with that crazy violent thunderstorm on the 14th. I know it was expensive- but I’m glad you invested.

    Reply

  44. Stacy says

    Such a bitter-sweet homeowner story for sure! And now I can imagine a half-circle drive running up to your welcoming front door. Do you dream of that too?!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have actually talked about a circle driveway (a lot of neighbors have it) but we’re not convinced we can fit one in without it feeling really cramped, so maybe we need to use that washable ground spray to map things out and get our bearings…

      xo
      s

    • Stacy says

      Sadly, it looks you might have to remove/transplant more trees but then you could have a great entrance for your guests if math works in your favor:) Or Clara and her visiting friends can just wear down a path wide enough for their scooters and bikes :) I am sure you will figure it out and it will be great!

  45. Charlotta says

    We need to have an elm taken down. It’s succumbed do Dutch elm disease and looks very sad. We’re planning to keep about 2m of the trunk though, and plant some clematis or other climbing flower at the base so we can “reuse” it.

    We probably need to take down our cherry tree as well since it is old and one big branch fell down after some heavy raining two years ago. Most of the branches stretches out over the road, making it a potential traffic hazard. Luckily it’s too high for us to reach the cherries anyway, so it probably won’t be missed (we’ve bought a replacement tree already).

    Reply

  46. Barbara says

    Did you also take down the tree that was pictured close to your garage, it’s hard to tell from the angle of the photos. On one is looks pretty close to the house then on another angle it seems to be to the left of your patio steps. Just curious.
    The back yard will be a lot lighter now for you work with.

    Barbara

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We took down two in the back and three in the front. The second one in the back was close to the garage and came down (you can see the rope around it and the top cut off in the fifth picture). Hope it helps!

      xo
      s

  47. Clare says

    My friend gave me one tree work negotiating tip that is a good one: ask the tree company what they would make in a typical day and offer them that–and then have them work at your house all day for that price–in her case it was 1200.00 and they had some massive trees like yours. The company said sure and they worked all day and did all the extra little trees, the grinding, etc. Good deal! Where we live the price is even higher so what you had done would be thousands of dollars…..

    Reply

  48. Rachel says

    I hope you kept some of those hollow logs for campfires. For some reason hollow logs are AWESOME at campfires. Great flames :)

    Reply

  49. Stephanie says

    We’ve been doing some tree trimming as well. We’re in Florida and it’s the rainy season, so I was worried about some branches damaging our roof and a low hanging one that was hitting my husband’s car after storms. A friend came over and trimmed the tree like crazy! I thought a few branches, but he went to town and after gathering the limbs up it looks like we have an Ent making his residence in our front yard. Here’s hoping that the city picks it up today!

    Reply

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