Trees Near Your Home

[Ramblin Wreck]

Because of the normal path of our prevailing winds (usually westerly, with either southern or northern influences) and because there was a gracious plenty to do when I was building my home, I left some trees standing on the northeast and eastern sides of the house. Three times in the last year that decision has come back to haunt me, either with dented/damaged roof material or slight porch damage. Last night (after a wicked Tuesday night thunder storm) I had to replace one piece of metal roofing that was sliced open by a falling Red Oak tree top.

Don't dilly dally like me. If you have trees too near your home, take them down before they do any harm. Plus, I will now have to listen to my favorite aunt who will remind me that "she told me so". Of course, her biggest concern was a forrest fire, which is even rarer than high winds for us.

[Cabin Fever]

Good advise! We took down several jack pine near our building site before we built three years ago. Jack pine are notorious for breaking and tipping over. We left the norways and oak. Now one of the large oaks is going (infested with ants)....and it leans toward the house. I'm gonna have my hands full taking that down this fall....piece by piece.

[Maura]

You can also prune the trees to allow wind to pass through. We had to plant trees near the house, but I was careful where they were put. I still don'[t understand why people plant trees within a few feet of their house. Not only are you risking a huge part of the tree ending up on your roof, but the roots will press against the foundation.

[TnMtngirl]

We would love to see the trees on the upper side of our house gone.They belong to our neighbor,he has talked about getting them cut several times,so far nothing has happened.If only one comes down our entire house will be history.Every time we have a bad storm I am terrified,we have no insurance.

[MELOC]

another problem with having trees very close to your house is the moisture they retain. it can lead to moisture problems like rot and mold. i have a small cottage i just took charge of recently after my uncle died. my dad gave him his life estate there. some of my uncles friends planted trees right next to the house and it is a real pain. i have four of them to remove in addition to the weeping willows in the front and back yard that over-grew and split.

[ricky]

I agree i have taken down every tree in my yard. Its bad enough that the neighbors have trees that danger my home and property. and with home ownerd insurance the way it is who needs there own trees. and all so to keep damage down even more i have put all utilities under ground phone cable electric all of them now share the earth with the water and sewer lines.

[BillyGoat]

Well in Texas, ya just don't chop down trees, shade is to die for here!

[mtman]

we have 80 year old oaks all around our house anyone of them could flatten our little house and im not touching them

[insanity]

Yep i don't want anything to tall towering over my house either.But after having been around huge sugar maples that where in my grandmothers front yard.I can say i would love to have some of them growing where i build.The shade is worth a fortune in cooling bills.The down side is the mountain of leaves you have in the fall.Guess there is no perfect tree.

Theres a house on the other side of town that has a yard full of oak stumps.About 12 two ft thick and bigger.Guess they where scared of them falling on there house and maybe tired of raking leaves.But iv often wondered if they regretted cutting them all down.Its a small lot with the closet tree being 500ft away now.Wondering how much there electric bill is now.

[seedspreader]

I have a tulip tree in the sw corner of my home about 50 feet away and a maple at the nw corner (I LOVE that tree, my bedroom is in that corner of the house and it's like living in a tree house when you look outside) and the NE corner has a tall pine with two others close by. I like 'em all but none are dangerous to the house the way they are positioned.

My biggest problem is the pine cone bugs in the winter due to the pine trees. I hate those stinky bugs.

[Peacock]

UGH...we just paid $1600 to have three trees cut down and four more cut back due to safety concerns. We have so many trees here that you can hardly tell what's missing, though. The money is what's missing. But we have plenty of firewood for 2008!

[indypartridge]

Our cabin is nestled between 4 huge oaks and one hickory. All less then 15 feet from the house. No plans to take them down.

[coalroadcabin]

Ramblin Wreck, good advise! We cleared our building site 6 weeks ago and took down all of the trees that would be within 40' of the house - there was one huge old oak that I would have loved to have saved but it was too close to where the porch is going - so it came down. Better safe than sorry!

[big rockpile]

I wish I could have had my trees but they were too fire damaged.

big rockpile