clear trees or keep the shade?

[lamoncha lover]

after going to the land this weekend and finding a big old half a tree on our camper I was wondering if it might not be best to really clear out arond the house. These are some big trees and if they come down they will do some damage. On the other hand I love having big old trees around the house and I love the shade they produce. On the other hand I hate having to clean the gutters all the time. We have probably 20 big trees that would have to come down to be away from the house zone.
Do you think any lunber places would be interested in them such a small number of them?
If we have a dozer come push them what would we need to do to have them ready for a lumber yard? Would hiring a portable sawmill be a good idea.? Maybe I could get flooring out of it? Think Maybe its oak. thanks

[CarolT]

It depends on the trees. White oaks are really hard to bring down, hickory trees are our shade trees, when they come down the house will be gone anyway LOL Pine trees left a long, long time ago. Red oaks started dying around here, so we had to cut them down. Get someone who actually knows what the trees are and thin them according to danger. They can tell you which ones may be hollow inside and a danger to the house. It makes such a difference to heating and cooling having trees around and I love having the trees here, I could never get rid of them all without breaking my heart.

If you plan to use the lumber, it'll have to be stored to dry or kiln dried before you can use it. Just so you know :-) Though some people let the logs lay there till it's dry enough to saw...

[salmonslayer]

We just recently went through this with two beautiful trees that flanked the front walkway to our farmhouse. We have had such big storms in the last year and we were losing branches that we decided to have an arborist come take a look. Well the Elm was split and rotten in the middle and the Tulip Poplar is a brittle tree to begin with and he said they were both a danger to the house.

I can tell you we loved the trees and the shade they provided (they were on the south side of the house) but immediately after we had them taken down we had the big storms, including the one that wiped out Joplin, come through and boy are we glad we went through with it. There are trees down all over the place around here and as a first responder I have been on a couple calls for injuries due to trees hitting a structure or vehicle.

Here is a link to the blog post we did on taking the trees down and note how far over the house the one tree was once the branches were off....gives me the creeps just looking at it because it was right over our bedroom. http://salmonslayer-simplelife.blogs...reat-tree.html .Our trees werent good for much except firewood but you may be able to sell them depending on what you have.

[EDDIE BUCK]

Well I had intended to leave a few large trees for shade,but wouldn't you know it,thats right where the county wanted my septic drain field,so they had to be cleared.

If I had it to do over,they would tell me before the trees were removed on the rest of the property,where the drain field would be.That way I would have some shade.

More folks die from sunstroke than from falling trees.Besides,under the shade of a tree is a good place to mull over things that need serious thought

[marinemomtatt]

A few years back my parents had the land thinned, they wish they hadn't because the process really tore up the land, big ruts from the trucks and equipment, and debris. When the place was sold the land still hadn't recovered.
They got $10,000 for the Fir.

It would be kinder to the land to have the trees downed as firewood (we just had 6 Oaks taken down)

[hippygirl]

After a HUGE pine came down on my front porch a couple of years ago, we've removed most of the pines that could have fallen on the house (still one to go and it's a big 'un!), but we've left the oaks and other hardwoods as we NEED the shade down here.

[lamoncha lover]

we set the house where we did to save the trees. I ove the trees siloette against the night sky. We were assured the root balls are huge and we didnt have to worry. Its not the bottoms that are falling over. The tops of many of the trees have been crashing down. All over the woods and now the one on the camper. I love the trees. But I love my house to be more.

[MushCreek]

We had a huge oak blow down on our property in SC. It uprooted- the whole root ball came up out of the ground. It was a healthy tree, and did a lot of damage to the other trees it fell on. If that fell on a house, it would crush it. For that reason, we won't have any of those big trees where they can fall on the house. That, and SC is prone to ice storms, which can cause trees to lose limbs.

[Rick]

This thought won't help you as you have a house "set", which I suppose means a conventional house. Others might be interested though. We built a house with vertical poplar logs atop a cordwood wall base, 12 inches thick. Tall Cathedral ceilings, fiberglass stuffed under the 2 x 10 roof. Concrete floor. Holding 73 deg F. daytime 70 first thing in the morning, and its been above 90 deg. F for 3 days. No electricity. No trees.

Had I not been city stupid, we would have left some tall, thin trees over the building site. Fortunately the local bulldozer guy left several hardwood trees scattered across the top of the 3 acres we had him clear, so there is some shade close by. He new stripping them all would be wrong.

Here is a picture:

http://s583.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=CIMG0075.jpg

[Danaus29]

One consideration, if you remove the big trees you can always replant with trees that won't grow as large or as fast as the ones currently there. I've had trees removed because they were in the power lines and too close to the house. I am gradually replacing those trees with smaller trees and large growing shrubs.

[watcher]

I don't have any trees big enough to cause damage close enough to fall on my house. I've live through enough ice storms, high winds and the like and seen the amount of damage a tree can do to a house to chance it.

[oregon woodsmok]

I'd keep the trees and buy insurance for the house.

I've had an arborist out to evaluate the health of big trees and I took out a couple that were diseased or weak. Other than that, I figure if a tree has stood there for 300-500 years, it is probably capable of withstanding the storms in my area.

[TNHermit]

What CarolT said.!!!!!!
I have white oaks around. they are solid. You WILL regret not having shade if you could have.

[Harry Chickpea]

With the exception of one hickory with a 16" caliper, there are no trees around us that could do more than brush the top of the crown against the home if they fell. I have a deck that would interrupt the fall of the hickory and lessen the impact.

Big ol' trees are beautiful, but dangerous. Our camper trailer was under one and we literally had a small tree size branch miss hitting it by inches. When I saw that the tree was showing more signs of stress, I had the camper moved and an even LARGER branch fell where it use to be.

If you cut firewood, you know how strong and heavy trees are.

[rambler]

I have a couple trees a tad close to the house. Not so good.

Shade is to be desired, but not to the point it's dangerous to the house. One can manage to have thin-top type trees closer to the house, and the big tall tall heavy stuff farther away. Keep the trees 100 feet away, and take out the tall or leaning ones that are right next to the house.

Many times one takes out several trees to build the house, and then you leave a few close. but these trees grew up depending on their neighbors to help with wind deflection.

Now that they are exposed to more wind with a few of their neighbors removed, they can't take it and break down in the next big wind storms.

I'd really try hard to leave shade trees 100 feet plus away from the house, and get rid of anything tall within that 100 foot border. If your trees are shorter, then fine to make the border smaller... Common sense.

I'd really worry about taking some trees, and leaving others that are too close tho. Seen it many times, you take a few, and the rest are too weak on their own....

--->Paul

[watcher]

One other thing, fire. There was a thread in S&E about wildfires (You can't prepare for this!) and how to protect your stuff from them. In a wildfire if a tree near you house catches the odds are you are going to lose the house.

[ronbre]

calculate the height of the tree and keep them that far from the house..unless they are dwarfs or something like that

[Buffy in Dallas]

When reading about the recent storms I was shocked at how many people were killed by trees falling on their home. Usually they were in bed. Have an Arborist come look at your trees. (not an illegal alien who will mutilate your trees cheaply) At least take out any that could hit bedrooms.

[hippygirl]

Originally Posted by MushCreek

We had a huge oak blow down on our property in SC. It uprooted- the whole root ball came up out of the ground. It was a healthy tree, and did a lot of damage to the other trees it fell on. If that fell on a house, it would crush it. For that reason, we won't have any of those big trees where they can fall on the house. That, and SC is prone to ice storms, which can cause trees to lose limbs.

There's a huge (and I do mean HUGE) oak right next to my Mom's house with a limb that's at LEAST 24" in diameter that spans the entire width of her roof front to back. I've tried and tried to get her to have a tree service remove it (the limb) but noooooooo. For some reason, she doesn't believe it will do that much damage if it breaks.

As they say, bought sense is the best!

[Maura]

You might consider pruning the trees. They will remove some of the branches so that the wind can more easily pass through the trees. You will get a little less shade, but it will look nice and the tree will be able to withstand the average storm because there is less mass for the wind to press against. If you trim the trees and take down the two or three most dangerous to the house, I think you will like the result.