MatthewC
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- Central/South England
I cut down a holly tree today. Actually, it is debatable whether it really was a tree, as it was about ten feet tall with no branches, and was smothered in ivy. It was also very top heavy and was leaning towards the public pavement, about 25 degrees from vertical, and would actually rock when gently pushed. (Note plumb-line)
Being in a Conservation Area, I asked for clarification from the Council Tree Officer. The CA rule is that you have to give notice if the trunk diameter of more than 75mm when measured at 1.5m from ground level unless the tree is "dead, dying or dangerous". Therefore, I assessed that it was dangerous and consequently I was allowed to fell it.
There was a clear need to ensure that it fell towards the lawn, not the road, and the amount of lean meant that there was a real danger of it doing exactly that if I let the centre of gravity take control. Thinking about this in the night recently (sad, isn't it?) I realised that the answer was a one tonne pallet of lime mortar! Here are the photos of my procedure, attaching my new 10 mm nylon rope to the eighth pallet of lime mortar and plaster in the middle of the lawn and increasing the tension in the rope by propping another pallet underneath.
I chose to start sawing about a metre up on the lawn side; the "melon slice" was removed, and we thought we'd try to just pull on the rope before I bothered to cut the opposite side of the tree a bit higher up. After three rhythmic pulls, there was sudden movement and the whole top came towards us and fell at our feet. 
The cross-section of the tree showed that, in fact, I had cut about half of the holly tree as well as the complete ivy (which was actually a greater cross-sectional area), and the holly was perhaps 80cm diameter at 1 metre high, so probably it wasn't a tree at all! The additional good news is that the view of the house from the road is much improved (although you cannot even see the house on Google Street View due to the undergrowth!).
Very satisfying!
Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/
Being in a Conservation Area, I asked for clarification from the Council Tree Officer. The CA rule is that you have to give notice if the trunk diameter of more than 75mm when measured at 1.5m from ground level unless the tree is "dead, dying or dangerous". Therefore, I assessed that it was dangerous and consequently I was allowed to fell it.There was a clear need to ensure that it fell towards the lawn, not the road, and the amount of lean meant that there was a real danger of it doing exactly that if I let the centre of gravity take control. Thinking about this in the night recently (sad, isn't it?) I realised that the answer was a one tonne pallet of lime mortar! Here are the photos of my procedure, attaching my new 10 mm nylon rope to the eighth pallet of lime mortar and plaster in the middle of the lawn and increasing the tension in the rope by propping another pallet underneath.
I chose to start sawing about a metre up on the lawn side; the "melon slice" was removed, and we thought we'd try to just pull on the rope before I bothered to cut the opposite side of the tree a bit higher up. After three rhythmic pulls, there was sudden movement and the whole top came towards us and fell at our feet. The cross-section of the tree showed that, in fact, I had cut about half of the holly tree as well as the complete ivy (which was actually a greater cross-sectional area), and the holly was perhaps 80cm diameter at 1 metre high, so probably it wasn't a tree at all! The additional good news is that the view of the house from the road is much improved (although you cannot even see the house on Google Street View due to the undergrowth!).
Very satisfying!
Matthew
http://houseintheenchantedforest.blogspot.com/
