"Lobster" wrote in message
...
Just bought a house with one of those huge leylandii-type triffid things
(just one) planted outside the front door. Surveyor mentioned it as a
'caution', and no damage to the house is evident, but I defintely want rid
of it. The beast's trunk is about 4-5" diameter at the base; it reaches
up
to the guttering (1st floor, so about 17' tall?) and is only about 18"
from
the front wall of the house.

I believe that simply chopping it down could cause more harm than good, ie
if there are roots under the property which then rot away leaving
voids...
can anyone advise what I should do? Chop it down in stages? If so, by
how
much? and over what period?


If it's only 18" away from the wall of the house, it would seem prudent to
remove it now. If the house has suspended as opposed to solid ground floors,
the lateral pressure of the root ball could cause a problem if the tree were
allowed to continued to grow.

Being old and lazy, I'd hire someone to remove it and take it away!