Tree reduction advice and cost

[Nils]

I recently moved into a house with some nice old trees in the garden, almost all of them ash. I like having them but unfortunately they are creating a lot of shade. So I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get all of their crowns reduced a bit and have two of the smaller ones and maybe a bigger one felled. What do you think would be a realistic price for this? And would be worth trying to sell the wood from the larger tree? This is in the South.

 

 I have put up a few photos here:

Trees

IMGUR.COM

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Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

[Stubby]

8 hours ago, Nils said:

I recently moved into a house with some nice old trees in the garden, almost all of them ash. I like having them but unfortunately they are creating a lot of shade. So I'm thinking it might be a good idea to get all of their crowns reduced a bit and have two of the smaller ones and maybe a bigger one felled. What do you think would be a realistic price for this? And would be worth trying to sell the wood from the larger tree? This is in the South.

 

 I have put up a few photos here:

Trees

IMGUR.COM

---

Imgur: The magic of the Internet

 

Any Ash die back ( Chalara Fraxinea )  in the area .?

[Nils]

Yes, unfortunately. I actually had someone come by for a quote today and he advised to get rid of all of them in the long run, partially because of this.

[Stubby]

3 minutes ago, Nils said:

Yes, unfortunately. I actually had someone come by for a quote today and he advised to get rid of all of them in the long run, partially because of this.

I am not surprised .  Any thing around here that could possibly be the cause of an insurance claim has been felled .  Road side and footpath trees mostly .

[Nils]

10 minutes ago, Stubby said:

I am not surprised .  Any thing around here that could possibly be the cause of an insurance claim has been felled .  Road side and footpath trees mostly .

So you'd agree that this would be the best option? I feel like it's a shame to get rid of all of them but it sounds like I don't have much of a choice... could you give me a ballpark figure for how much this should cost?

[Stubby]

1 minute ago, Nils said:

So you'd agree that this would be the best option? I feel like it's a shame to get rid of all of them but it sounds like I don't have much of a choice... could you give me a ballpark figure for how much this should cost?

I am retired matey . Get someone local to you to check them over first . Not all trees suffer from it but most do to differing degrees .

[Retired Climber]

I'd do everything I could to retain those trees. It feels like quite a nice little garden with the trees there. Looks like a horrible place to be when you see through the trees though. 

[Pete Mctree]

36 minutes ago, Retired Climber said:

I'd do everything I could to retain those trees. It feels like quite a nice little garden with the trees there. Looks like a horrible place to be when you see through the trees though. 

Have you felled or dismantled any trees with dieback? Working with them has made me understand that we have little choice when they are infected.

[AHPP]

Nice enough trees. I'd keep them for as long as they don't show bad dieback. If/when they do, twiglet them to ladder height and hope they survive as pollards. Whatever you do, don't read the advice to remove, the advice to leave alone and take a straight-down-the-middle average of reducing them for the sake of something to do. You'll get the worst of all worlds.

 

Edit to add: Sorry. Didn’t read original post properly. Remove what you want. Advice on pruning remainders remains same. You just invite disease, unsightly regrowth etc.

 

[Sviatoslav Tulin]

As i see from photos no dieback on them yet ,so if it was my garden ,i remove biggest one ,all others left as it is ,its only my opinion.

[Dan Maynard]

I would be interested in others comments but I'm sure I read that trees in gardens like this are at lowest risk of ash dieback because the fungus lifecycle includes a period in the leaf litter which is usually cleared away with mowing etc.

I wouldn't let the fear of dieback cause you to fell them unnecessarily, it might happen but might not.

Personally I'd go for remove one and see how you go as well.

Your question about selling the wood, it's worth a little bit but not enough to change the job price really. You could go down the FB marketplace route, but you have to balance the money you get against labour moving the wood around.