Jack Taylor

I've looked at aerial photography from 25 years back and there were some other trees there yes. Not sure when they were removed but plan to speak to the homeowner about it. Looks like it has left these pines fully exposed now.

Yes sir, just fairly new to it.

Thanks for all the replies (and the amusing ones too). Much appreciated and done a lot to confirm my original thinking here. I had wanted to think about best way to retain as the owner said they'd prefer not to remove them but I just have to inform based on what I find. Re comments asking about location, this is flat old East Midlands so nowhere near the sea. The trees are leaning to the north east though and no other landscape features that would protect them from the south west prevailing wind, which further confirms the likeliness that the lean has been caused by wind. They want a survey for insurance purposes so I think I will probably provide a recommendation of felling but that if they are adamant on retaining then we will need to do further surveys and come back to take measurements to monitor the lean as well as some other works in the short term. Thanks again all, very helpful... and no invoice for you green heart, I took it simply as friendly advice

Ha, that’s what I thought too when I moved round to view from that direction. These are fairly large trees with no other obvious defects and no lifting of the root plates or exposed roots. The lifting side actually slopes down away from the garage and no roots exposed there. Not sure if that sloping is historic or always been like that… I’m wondering whether the building of the garage a couple of decades ago affected the roots on that side to cause the lean initially but yeah no signs of lifting. I’ve asked the homeowner about when they noticed the lean, like has it been gradual or come on more recently.

Hello, I’m looking at these pines leaning over a garage and could do with some thoughts and sounding board for what I will recommend. There are 7 pines in a row behind this garage providing a visual screen to the properties behind. Three of these pines (on the left as you’re looking at the garage) appear to have fairly significant leans towards the property and over the garage. It looks like more than 3 but some of them are multi stemmed. The owner naturally has some slight concerns but would rather they are retained. What I’m unsure about is whether the lean is significant enough that these trees are in danger of falling under extreme weather. My head is telling me that the best option is to recommend removal, but I’m wondering if there are any other options for them, i.e. removing some of the lower branches that hang over the garage and crown thinning to balance the weight of the trees. My only concern with removal is the exposure of the other trees in the group to weather conditions. Would this be a concern to anyone else? Thanks for any thoughts or help I can get!