Need some advice. We have a mature cottonwood tree that is roughly 4 feet in circumference around the base. It needs to go. While doing yardwork I caught my boot on something. Lo and behold the trunk of this tree, has extended WAYYYYYYY out.

Grabbed a sharp shooter and dug a trench. The sonofagun has gone underneath our slab. I cut out a 5 foot section of the trunk.

I've heard copper sulfate will kill off a tree. I've already drilled a hole in the cottonwood. Ideally, it'd be nice to have someone cut this sucker down and haul it off. Given the dimensions, guessing it would be around 5K to have this done.

Our son's getting married and we simply do not have these kind of funds.

Anybody with some experience on this matter, please share.

Bill and I had a root barrier system put in 7 years ago. What a waste of money. It did nothing.

What is in the way of cutting it down? Do y'all live in a sub-division?

If it's close enough to power lines, see if the power company will send out trimmers, then ask them if they can top it enough to be manageable for you to finish.. Should equal FREE if they'll do it

I used to have one near an older home we used to own. Darn thing was near the house. It ended up heaving our slab. Cut it down as quickly as possible. Just remember, these trees are HEAVY. You might have to work on it in segments. If you can find a tree trimmer to cut off the branches that might fall on your roof, then poison it, it might buy you some time. Good luck Janie.

Way more than we'd want to tackle. The tree is over 100 feet tall. This thing is massive, and yes we have neighbors to consider.

Bill just got home and disagreed with my game plan. Wants to rent a trencher to cut all the roots, and then pour concrete to prevent it from spreading.

Looks like I get to play in cement this weekend.

That's a great start but eventually it must come down. 100 feet tall, WOW.

I'd want to cut it down green if it's to be killed, dead limbs falling aren't called "widow makers" for nothing.

You may contact your insurance company, at my first house they split the cost of tree removal with me after a limb fell and wrecked the roof. This tree was very healthy but wind and ice got the best of that limb. It was near as big as yours Janie, but it was a nice Oak tree. They cut it down and left it, being the stubborn 19 year old I was, I finished the project by splitting and stacking and selling loads of fire wood to offset the my costs of having it removed.

Man.......one that big close to neighbors houses and your own home. I would think the insurance company would pay to take it down minus your deductible


But no......they wouldn't do that, it makes too much sense

my parents had 2 overly large sycamore trees 10-12 feet from their house. Dad was concerned about cracking the slab AND potential of high winds knocking one down onto the house. He had a professional come in and take 50 feet out of the top of both of them several times over a 20 year timeline. The last time the bigger of the two started getting some rotting where a large limb was cut off, so he had it just chopped down into a 6 foot tall stump to hang bird feeders/houses off.

I am not sure if the trencher method to prevent roots will cause damage to the tree, possibly killing it?

Might call this guy Janie.

You need to move that tree to Ruidoso, we got some clowns that took down 3 pine trees that died from bark beetles, total cost was $200. When the first one fell, my wife ran for the house, she refused to come back outside until they were finished. Not the best of professionalism, but they did not tear anything up, one tree they dropped perfectly between the phone line and power line.

That is my biggest fear. Plus, we had our foundation re-leveled 7 years ago. I'm worried now those damn roots are going to mess up the concrete pilings.

That's some fine shooting right there.

Janie, I remember that tree, as you said it is huge! I have an uncle who is in the tree trimming/removal business. If you want I can call him tomorrow and ask if the trenching plan is feasible, he has been doing this for quite a while

Those tree guys were unreal...Great job.

Think about what could happen in the next wind storm?

Do not poison the tree it will be very dangerous to cut a dead tree. The tree will have to be cut into pieces and lowered piece by piece using its own limbs if there dead they will not support it. Any way you can post a pic I do tree work.

You should be able to get it dropped for less than that. I had 11 trees, mostly pines, that were upwards of 60' tall in the middle of a subdivision cut down for $2200. That included haul off and stump grinding.