Would you have trees removed just because they are close your house?

If it endangers your life, then cut it, or at least cut the branch that is above your roof.

As for me personally, I love the walnut tree in front if my window, wouldn’t like it removed….

It’s no threat right now but the proximity makes my wife a tad nervous. The whole thing would have to topple for it to be a threat.

I live in a coastal town in Connecticut and we have had a couple of serious hurricanes and a number of nasty storms in the last few years. I have seen big oaks come down on houses and it’s a mess. I, too hate the idea of taking down the beautiful trees, but I probably would, in your case.
When my neighbor’s did that, they left a high (10 foot) trunk that they trained clematis up on. They added a couple of bird houses. It was nice.

I have a big tree in my yard that would crush me if it fell. I had some dead branches cut off rather than take out the tree. I hate to lose trees myself but only you and your wife can decide how nervous you feel. Personally, i wouldn’t remove it just to save money.

Not all trees are a threat. I think that in a case like this, where you feel strongly about both safety, and about losing a tree you love, a second opinion is in order.
How knowledgable is your advisor?
I would want to know whether they are basing their advise on knowledge of damage/disease, or simply proximity to the house.

Yes. Tree roots can destroy the foundation.

I just laid a patio, the roots were not that bad but 20 years from now it could be different.

Given the storms we get here, and that we have sandy soil, I’d carefully consider it. We do have a lot of trees on our property. I’d call out an arborist and take advice on whether the tree is a danger or not. Oak trees are pretty stable trees. Is there a real risk or is it your wife’s nervousness that bothers you?

We have a lot of ghost gums. One down the back paddock dropped a huge branch on our shed. Flattened it. We asked the insurance company if they wanted to take the tree down, they declined. They replaced the shed, the drive-on mower and other things that had been irreparably damaged. About six weeks later, we had another storm and another branch went through the roof of the shed. We’re waiting for that to be repaired now. Gum trees are sometimes called ‘widow makers’ because they can suddenly drop a large branch.

So I’d take some advice and consider your own soil and situation before taking the tree down unnecessarily.

If it is dropping branches, it maybe diseased, I had a 70 foot tree drop a thirty foot branch right up to my patio. Called the tree surgeon and he cut it down. While cutting it down he got to 15 feet above the ground (he cut it down in 10 to 12 foot sections) and the center of the tree was rotten.

The one tree that I have dropping branches will get cut down and I fully expect to see exactly the rot that you speak of. It’s the healthy one close to the house that I’m having issue with. Right now I’m leaning toward dropping it but instead of using it all for firewood I may cut some thick planks and build a massive table or two. I’d probably get more cash than it cost to get the tree guys out when I’m done. The arborist is a good idea though. Anyone done that? What is a generic cost?

I think the tree guy should be able to assess the healthy tree but may be an arborist is necessary. Have never used one so I don’t know the price.

I don’t know how much they cost where you are. I do love the idea that if you drop the tree, you’re going to turn it into some furniture so it will remain in its garden. Nice. I hope you can keep it. I love trees. I’m always reluctant to take them down. Sometimes you just have to be sensible. Let us know how you go. I’d love an update on the outcome for the oak tree. I love oak trees. We can’t grow them here. Not the right climate.

No, unless the tree is deemed unhealthy, insect infested or otherwise weak by a certified arborist. My old property here in the Sierra Nevada hills had amazing stands of huge Ponderosa pines towering all around the house and property. One was about 100 feet tall, had a gargantuan girth and stood, literally, about 5 feet away from my daughters bedroom window. That tree was extremely healthy and breath taking and had been standing there for at least 150 years or more through all kinds of storms and weather.

I loved those trees and that property and was SO PISSED OFF when my neighbors had their property logged. Fucking assholes, all for money. They made about 40k off their trees. Come near my trees I will stab you to death with a pitchfork. lol

@Coloma that’s how I feel in a way. I’ll miss the view. I still would have three massive sugar maples though. They budded early and I missed my chance to tap them this year. Still kicking myself for that.

^ Depending on the variety of Oak some are prone to dropping heavy, water logged limbs but this 10 acre property I am on now we have hundreds of different Oaks, Black Oaks, Heritage Oaks, Valley Oaks, Live Oaks and other than one huge beast uprooting that was half dead and fell over part of the horse corrals they are pretty sturdy and long lived trees. Oooh, massive sugar maples, how beautiful!

@ARE_you_kidding_me If nothing else though, bonus, you have some really good firewood. Up here any tree that comes down is firewood so it continues to give of itself.

and….plant something new in it’s place. maybe an ornamental tree that will look nice but not be as high maintenance.

Tough call. I had four trees near my house in TN that I would have preferred be taken down, but I never did it. We lived in the woods, but most of the area immediately around the house was cleared except those four trees. I worried about lightening hitting a tree, a big branch falling, or God forbid the whole tree felll over in the house. These 4 trees weren’t terriibly tall or old, I’d say they were about 25 feet high maybe, and I felt like waiting to take them down meant it would be much more duffficilt and expensive in the future.

Right next to the house I grew up in there is a HUGE half bush half tree thing that has been growing for 7 years and right now it’s taller than the house. It used to be a bush until the years when by now it’s a tree/bush thing. I would sometimes go outside and read a book to myself right next to that thing. I’m never going to get rid of it. EVER.

From my neighborhood, USA Today article, 10/30/2012. This was Hurricane Sandy damage.

NORTH SALEM, N.Y.—The morning after two North Salem boys — one age 11 and the other 13 — died in the wake of Sandy, family and neighbors mourned them.

Jack Baumler, 11, and Michael Robson, 13, died Monday evening when a large tree fell into the family room of the Baumler home on Bonnieview Street in North Salem, authorities said.

Jack Baumler’s uncle, Daniel Seymour, spoke with The Journal News this morning outside the home as tears filled his eyes.

“Heaven got two all-stars too soon,” Seymour said. “Our faith will comfort us. North Salem has a huge heart and this community wrap its arms around this family. We’re asking for prayers and privacy.”

Ethan Bogren, a neighbor of the victims, was walking his dog near the scene this morning.

“This neighborhood has never seen anything like this at all,” Bogren said. “This hits very close to home for everyone here. You could see neighbors hugging, crying. It’s two kids from this street, so it’s going to have a big impact.”

Bogren said he didn’t know the boys closely, but had seen play basketball on the street.

About 90 minutes after the tree struck the Baumler family’s home, another 100-foot tree crashed onto the adjacent home of William Butler, whose daughter, Elizabeth Butler was murdered in June 2005.

William Butler was at home with his daughter, Meredith, when the tree crashed.

“I looked out to see emergency vehicles over there,” Butler told The Journal News. “Then I heard the cracking start and then, in seconds, the whole tree toppled over on top of the house.”

The tree impacted a bedroom where Meredith Butler was and damaged the home’s roof, crushed a chimney and one of Butler’s cars. Butler told the newspaper he is renting the home.

“I told Meredith that her sister was watching over her because that’s one big tree,” William Butler said. “She’s still our angel.”

“At this point, we know that a large tree came crashing through the house, hitting both subjects,” said Maj. Michael Kopy, of state police troop K. “They were both pronounced dead at the scene. A third child was taken to Danbury Hospital with injuries that were described as non-life-threatening.”

Two other children, ages 15 and 12, were injured. They were treated for minor scrapes and abrasions at the scene.

Baumler’s mother was home at the time but not injured.

Deputy Supervisor Peter Kamenstein said the boys were both students at North Salem Middle School. The mother and a sister of one of the boys escaped from the home, he said.

Kopy said the Croton Falls Fire Department arrived to the scene shortly after the tree fell about 7:45 p.m. and valiantly attempted to rescue the children, but that the large size of the tree hampered their efforts. They died almost instantly.

The tree cleaved in half the house it fell onto. The oak, about 100 feet tall and 3 ½ feet in diameter, stood in the back yard about 60 feet from the Baumler family’s home. The tree came up at the roots and the top half fell across and through the middle of the house.

The tree showed many saw marks as rescuers sawed off branches after the tree fell. Police tape had been cut down but was still lying on the street side of the property.

A retired NYPD police officer from Pearl River and a Yonkers man also died as the superstorm battered the region with roaring winds and rain, propelled coastal waters over their banks, and shut down trains, buses, bridges and roads.

Jeffrey Chanin, 51, of Pearl River, a retired NYPD officer, was killed and his family injured when a tree fell through the roof of their Robin Street home Monday evening, Orangetown police said. The tree slammed into the rear of the home; authorities were called at 6:32 p.m. Chanin’s wife and two others in the home were injured and taken to Nyack Hospital. Their conditions were unknown.

The man, his wife and their three teenage children were sitting together in the family room on the second floor when the tree fell around 6 p.m., said Ray Florida, executive director of Rockland Paramedics Services.

Neighbor Chris Finch, 48, a service manager, told The Journal News/LoHud.com today that he heard a loud noise and about 10 minutes later saw police arriving. He said Chanin was a retired New York City police officer and “a nice guy with a nice family.”

Chanin was killed when an enormous tree in the back yard slammed through the roof and flattened a room or extension on one end of the two-story ranch house. The tree trunk split, a stump rose about 25 feet and enormous pieces of the trunk were strewn in the yard.

This morning, drivers were slowing down and looking at the splintered room as they passed the house in a cul-de-sac. No one appeared to be home.

^ I guess you could say that is the perfect example of dying from natural causes. haha
Not to laugh, it’s sad, but jeez…nature is nature and unless a tree is diseased i still hate to see healthy, beautiful trees cut down on a “just in case” whim.

The problem @Coloma is not the “just in case”, it is where people plant and have trees around the house. Like pine trees twenty feet from the house (planted by the home owner) in wildfire areas.
In my neighborhood they don’t necessarily plant up against the house but directly under the utility lines, like Bradford Pear tree which grow 25 feet high and Maple tress 40 feet or more. The telephone or cable wires are like 18 feet off the ground.

@Tropical_Willie Oh of course, recklessly planting trees that interfere with power lines etc. is just stupid. I had a 100 ft. clearance around my old house, most of my stands of pines were off the big circular area surrounding the house which was in a clearing but…I did have 2 large ones on the lawn by the house that I refused to cut down. The clearance everywhere else should have been enough to avoid those particular trees catching on fire in the event of a wild fire. Out here the local power company contracts out tree trimmers every spring and summer to prune back any trees near power lines on these rural roads and properties.

Well, my wife made the decision for me. It’s going to come down but not until a planned gathering is over in a month. If I remember I’ll post pics of the furnature I make from it when I’m done. There is a long shot that she’ll change her mind if an arborist deems it safe.

And a photo of the tree! I think it’s great you’re going to use the wood productively if you do have to take the tree down.

We kept the large tree but small tree came down today, a little sad losing it but the wood was still good even though it was on its way out. If I had waited a few years then I probably would not have been able to use it. In a year or so when the table is done I’ll post up some pics if I remember.

Great you could keep the large tree though @ARE_you_kidding_me and yes, please post photos of the table when you’ve done it. I think it’s great that you were so thoughtful about whether to take trees down. The new people down the road from us adopted a scorched earth policy when they moved in and took out every fucking tree! I was horrified when I drove past and saw this nude block of dirt with a house in the middle.