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ArboristSite Lurker
I am about to renovate a 130 year old farm house and make it my office. It has been vacant for 20 years and is in bad shape. The original 4 rooms are in decent enough shape to save; there is an addition that can be saved so that part will be demo'd and replaced.
Before work starts I need to get rid of some trees. There are 5 maple trees around the house. In front there are 2 large silver maples tucked between the house and power line. On of them is huge and half dead....definitely needs to be replaced. The other is not quite as big but still very large. Appears never to have been pruned except the power company has kept the lines clear. It is now growing over the roof of the house. It is not very pretty, but could be pruned and shaped to some degree.
The architect and the builder are both in agreement that as a silver maple it is not worth the risk to keep it.
The tree guy came out and gave me a price. Then he almost started talking me out of cutting the tree, rather thinking it could be saved and shaped. It seemed like he may have been having second thoughts on his original time estimate.
I would rather err on the side of cutting it: yes it provides a lot of shade in the summer, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on this house and then have this tree damage it in a storm. And that seems to be a risk.
I imagine this tree was planted before the power lines cam in. They are about 40 feet from the house. Doesn't leave much room to plant a nice shade tree without it being on top of the house, which I don't want.
Should I take this tree out, or prune it back and see what happens?
Before work starts I need to get rid of some trees. There are 5 maple trees around the house. In front there are 2 large silver maples tucked between the house and power line. On of them is huge and half dead....definitely needs to be replaced. The other is not quite as big but still very large. Appears never to have been pruned except the power company has kept the lines clear. It is now growing over the roof of the house. It is not very pretty, but could be pruned and shaped to some degree.
The architect and the builder are both in agreement that as a silver maple it is not worth the risk to keep it.
The tree guy came out and gave me a price. Then he almost started talking me out of cutting the tree, rather thinking it could be saved and shaped. It seemed like he may have been having second thoughts on his original time estimate.
I would rather err on the side of cutting it: yes it provides a lot of shade in the summer, but I don't want to spend a lot of money on this house and then have this tree damage it in a storm. And that seems to be a risk.
I imagine this tree was planted before the power lines cam in. They are about 40 feet from the house. Doesn't leave much room to plant a nice shade tree without it being on top of the house, which I don't want.
Should I take this tree out, or prune it back and see what happens?
