Ivy! what to do?

[treesnakey]

I'm about to quote for a large Lime to dismantle with lowering. The tree is covered in Ivy. I explained to the lady it would be best to cut the Ivy and come back in 3 months. She seemed ok about that. She also wants a small fig and a small cherry pruning.

 

I reckon that once the ivy is dead it should take 1/2 a day to take off and a couple of hours extra for thr fig and cherry.

 

Would you charge for a whole days work for the above work? Or take a hit on the big lime to secure the job.

[Bolt]

For a large lime covered in Ivy, you may well find the ivy is still green in 3 months time.

 

Removing ivy from trees that are being retained can take an age, and its propably not much quicker if its being removed.

 

Could you not just dismantle Ivy and all?

[bareroots]

working with ivy slows you down. whatever way you work with it, be it climbing through it, or cutting it. it slows the whole thing down and price conservatively because of it.

 

severing it and letting it die doesn't help all that much becasue a/. it takes forever to die like bolt said. b/ it goes brittle and cracks off in little bits rather then being able to rip off long strips.

 

Personally I'd always cut it off as you climb through it. Once you set into it it doesn't take as long as you think (once you've worked out your best technique - varies for size and density of strands) and it means it won't slow you down later. MOST importantly though by cutting it off you are less likely to hurt yourself climbing. Ivy makes it easy miss place your spikes and slip. you can't see your ropes, strops and saw clearly, and your frustration levels will keep rising and thats when you make mistakes.

 

CLEAR it and make them pay for it.

[Stephen Blair]

as above, ivy is a pest but i wouldnt hold my breath on the 3 month thing, get up above it and strip it on the way down, dont cut it into bits though, its own weight will strip it as you work your way down. just put a couple of hours of your time onto the quote and some more for chipping.

[slack ma girdle]

Dead ivy is worse by infinity than alive ivy.

Ivy trees are like laylandii, there aint no easy way, and it make the job difficult, a pain in the backside, awkward, etc etc

Have fun !!

[Tom Richards]

ivys nice but its twice the price

[dannyT]

Like stephen said. Ivy will srip off relatively easy when you get above it. Stripped a load of ivy off a big beech a few months back. Once you get going it comes of pretty quick. Its just getting going, mind over matter.

 

If its putting you off so much qoute an extra day, strip the ivy and do the fig and cherry.

 

If thats not an option bite the bullet, its time to get dusty

[Tony Croft aka hamadryad]

I always say if the job aint to your liking double the price, then lose it no worries, get it, plenty of money on the job to make it no sweat.

[Ian Flatters]

Twice the price on ivy and get a subby in to climb it too. Save you the swearing whilst trying to get to the top.

[Rich Rule]

Mmmmm...