Trees under 30 feet in height are considered small, and removing a small tree typically costs between $150 and $500. Many or most fruit trees are usually considered small trees. Meanwhile, medium trees are 30 feet to 60 feet tall trees.
These medium trees will cost you between $500 and $900 including tree stump removal. And then large trees that are 60 to 80 feet tall and costs about $700 to $1,300 to remove. Any tree taller than 80 feet will cost around $1,000–$2,000 to remove.
It is common practice for most people to keep their trees at least 15 feet or more away from their house. Naturally larger trees would need more space in order for them to grow so it is a good idea to keep them away from the house, while smaller trees can be planted a little bit closer depending on the original landscaping.
Of course, trees that are hanging near the roof of your house, as well as branches touching the roof, should very well be removed. A dead or dying tree should also be completely removed in order to keep the house safe since it can be a threat to your home.
As a general rule, trees should be planted anywhere from 10 to 20 feet, or 3 to 6 meters away from your house. There would still be some factors that affect this such as the tree’s size and whether the tree’s roots are damaged or too shallow.
Although trees do block some sunlight which offers us some nice spaces to sit in the shade, and others even mitigate some of the frigid winter wind, trees with shallow root systems can be a hazard to foundations. Homeowners should be aware of these trees since not many are familiar with them.
- Oaks make up a very small percentage of the tree population in the United States, but it accounts for over ten percent of foundational damage. Some of the oak types that have a high chance of causing havoc on your foundation are water oaks, live oaks, chestnut oaks, and red oaks.
- Poplars also have shallow, fast-growing root systems. Examples of these poplars are Lombardy poplars, eastern poplars, Carolina poplars, and even the balm of Gilead poplars.
- Ash trees also commonly damage foundations. Ornamental ash trees may be common, but the damage they can potentially bring should also be considered.
- Those are the common trees that cause foundation damage but there are other ones such as black locust, boxelder, Norway maple, silver maple, sweetgum, sycamore, tuliptree, and many more.
There are a number of ways you can estimate the size of a tree. The following are some of them:
- The easier and most common method is to compare the size with a measurable object. Maybe you can use a pole or a house that you know the measure of. You can even use a photograph that was preferably taken from a distance as large as possible.
- Another method is using the tree's shadow length on the ground to measure it. If you measure the shadow's length of an object with a known length such as your height, this would allow a rough estimation of the tree's size as well.
- Lastly, the most accurate but dangerous one is to climb the tree and doing a direct tape drop. Since you are measuring directly it is indeed the most accurate, although the part in which you have to get up and down from the tree is rather dangerous.
Of course, every tree is different and the fact is, it’s unpredictable. That is the whole point of removing dying trees so that they wouldn’t fall so suddenly and wouldn’t cause any trouble later. In fact, healthy trees even have the possibility to fall during some strong storms. Point is that you never know, it could take only a few days, weeks, and there are even some instances where dead trees don’t fall after a few years.