I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.
Thanks
BK

On 31 Oct 2004 17:39:34 -0800, (bandu) wrote:

I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.
Thanks
BK


Also check to see if you are permitted to remove the trees, and how
much the removal permit would be.\

--

- Charles
-
-does not play well with others

You didn't say where you are located but if you are in the southeastern US, you
can probably have a lovely azalea garden under those pine trees.

bandu wrote:
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.

"Neglected" by what standard? Do you mean it doesn't have a boring
blanket of golf-course-like grass? Do you find woodlands to look
"neglected" by default? If that's the case, don't buy the property.

You've already proved your guess it's difficult to grow anything there
to be wrong. 40 or so tall pine trees are growing there.

In most neighborhoods, if you cut down a stand of trees like that just
because you think woodlands look "neglected", you would quickly become
known as the anti-social neighbor who cut down the trees. Let someone
more interested in maintaining the stand of trees buy the property. Go
someplace else. Someplace where clear-cutting is liked.

--
Warren H.

==========
Disclaimer: My views reflect those of myself, and not my
employer, my friends, nor (as she often tells me) my wife.
Any resemblance to the views of anybody living or dead is
coincidental. No animals were hurt in the writing of this
response -- unless you count my dog who desperately wants
to go outside now.
Blatant Plug: Black & Decker Landscaping Tools & Parts:
http://www.holzemville.com/mall/blackanddecker

I'd buy the place, and I'd be happy to have those trees there, and with the
right plants a nice shade garden could be made and the pine needles are good
for composting too.


--


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http://home.inreach.com/starlord/forgotten.htm


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http://starlords.netfirms.com
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"bandu" wrote in message
om...
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.
Thanks
BK


---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
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"bandu" wrote in message
om...
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.

I have a friend in Myrtle Beach that is having several tall pines removed.
Storms have him worried because trees can break in half and top come
spearing through your roof. Think he's paying $3 or $6 thousand to have
done. While trees are big, they are tough to harvest, i.e. have to be cut
in sections, and are not worth the lumber value. Pine is also no good as
firewood.
Frank

aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once and
the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in their
fireplace just fine.


--


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http://home.inreach.com/starlord/forgotten.htm


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"Frank Logullo" wrote in message
.. .

"bandu" wrote in message
om...
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.

I have a friend in Myrtle Beach that is having several tall pines removed.
Storms have him worried because trees can break in half and top come
spearing through your roof. Think he's paying $3 or $6 thousand to have
done. While trees are big, they are tough to harvest, i.e. have to be cut
in sections, and are not worth the lumber value. Pine is also no good as
firewood.
Frank




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What do you mean by "just fine"? It burned?


"starlord" wrote in message
...
aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once and
the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in
their
fireplace just fine.


--


The Forgotten
http://home.inreach.com/starlord/forgotten.htm


SIAR
http://starlords.netfirms.com
Telescope Buyers FAQ
http://home.inreach.com/starlord
Bishop's Car Fund
http://www.bishopcarfund.netfirms.com/

"Frank Logullo" wrote in message
.. .

"bandu" wrote in message
om...
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.

I have a friend in Myrtle Beach that is having several tall pines
removed.
Storms have him worried because trees can break in half and top come
spearing through your roof. Think he's paying $3 or $6 thousand to have
done. While trees are big, they are tough to harvest, i.e. have to be
cut
in sections, and are not worth the lumber value. Pine is also no good
as
firewood.
Frank




---
Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.779 / Virus Database: 526 - Release Date: 10/19/04

"starlord" wrote in
:

aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine
tree once and the wood was stacked and aged and the next
year the people used it in their fireplace just fine.

oh, pine *burns* great. it also gunks up the chimney & is a
prime cause of chimney fires.
i burn pine in my saphouse because it burns hot & that
chimney is short & easy to clean. i'd *never* burn it in my
house though.
lee

"starlord" wrote in message
...
aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once and
the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in
their
fireplace just fine.

Makes great firewood, if you want to burn the house down. Pine produces a
lot of oil and resin that builds up in the chimney, a great way to start
chimney fires. Burning pine as firewood would be an incredibly bad idea.

Snooze

In article , "Snooze"
wrote:

"starlord" wrote in message
...
aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once and
the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in
their
fireplace just fine.

Makes great firewood, if you want to burn the house down. Pine produces a
lot of oil and resin that builds up in the chimney, a great way to start
chimney fires. Burning pine as firewood would be an incredibly bad idea.

Snooze

This is a common misconception. It is MOIST wood that generates the most
creosote, not the wood with the most sap, oil, or resin. In so far as some
softwoods have more moisture in them than some hardwoods, it would be true
the wet softwood generates more creosote, though not so much as unaged
poplar or willow with an even higher moisture content. The advice, then,
is to not burn unaged wood of any kind.

Anyone who does PROPER maintenance of their fireplace is not at greater
risk from burning properly aged pine. But someone who is NOT properly
maintaining their fireplace, including an annual professional cleaning, &
failing to burn only well-aged wood, that person is not safer for avoiding
pine, spruce, or fir. The type of wood is not as important as the mosture
content of the logs.

Likely 90% of cords burned in the Northwest are softwood evergreens.
Hardwood is not so commonly available. If you could get nothing but
hardwoods it wouldn't necessarily improve the situation. When assessing
properly DRIED wood, it turns out that hickory, oak, & other dense woods,
release more creosote per log than do pine or fir -- exactly the opposite
as so often believed. This reality is mitigated by the fact that softwood
logs burn faster, so a larger volume of wood is burned in the same period
of time. It tends to average out -- hardwoods release more creosote per
log but one can end up burning fewer logs than with softwood. So it's a
wash & either wood is dandy.

The thing to bare in mind is creosote is a natural byproduct of burning
ANY wood, & the way to control it is with regular scheduled chimney
cleaning, good fireplace maintenance, for airtights enough oxygen to not
turn the firepladce into smoke-&-creosote generators, & never burning any
wood aged less than six months to a year (six months under ideal drying
conditions, stacked for aeration, up off the ground, & in covered but
fully ventillated sheds).

Another common misconception is that wax & wax-&-sawdust logs burn dirtier
& hotter & are more dangerous in the fireplace, a misconception born of
the fact that most manufactured logs are made from mill waste of pine,
spruce, & fir lumber manufacture, then adding a petroleum bonding agent.
It is SO common to see "fireplace advice" that says "do not burn softwood
including pine, or artificlal logs," but this advice is simply wrong, & in
fact softwood & artificial logs are the most common woods being burned.

A study by Shelton Research Labs in Santa Fe, the Canadian Combustion &
Carbonization Research Laboratory, & OMNI Environmental Services funded by
the EPA, found that wax-sawdust logs burn cleaner than even hardwood,
producing fewer pollutants of any kind. Popular in the Pacific Northwest,
but not so commonlyu available elsewhere, is a densified pressed log
without petroleum binder, purporting to produce fewer pollutants, but the
studies don't bare that out. The pressed product burns cleaner (& hotter,
due to a greatly reduced moisture content) than softwood or hardwood, but
no better or worse than wax-sawdust logs.

Relatively new products are reaching the fireplace market, logs made of
reycled grass clippings, junk mail, coal dust, husks & shells from hulled
nut packagers, glued cardboard, molasses, peach pits, & polyethylene
plastic (which in a proper mix burns as cleanly, or uncleanly, as any
petroleum product). The clean burning nature of these products is as
variable as their content, but when compared to the toxins generated by
burning softwoods & hardwoods, it is no worse, & the goal of the
manufacturers is to produce a product that burns as clean as the pressed
sawdust logs.

A lot of the mythology of pine & other softwood dangers is promelgated by
the pressed-log industry itself, which wants the public to believe
softwoods are dangerous to burn, knows that in most regions hardwood cords
are not available, & that leaves the pressed logs as allegedly the only
safe product. In reality they're all about equal in safety so long as
fireplace maintenance is not slipshod. Maintaining a properly functioning
damper, used properly, & chimney-cleaning when creosote reaches 1/8 inch
thick, is a far better than hunting down sources for oak or hickory cords
in parts of the country where pine or fir is the dominant wood.

I quickly checked a dozen "advice" pages for choices of burning wood &
cealing with creosote, & fully two-thirds of these pages include
statements that from controlled studies are now known not to be true. But
this page (read admittedly at a speed-read) seems to be accurate:
http://www.howtocleananything.com/hca_springarticle3chimneys.htm

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
Visit the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com

On Wed, 03 Nov 2004 00:01:28 GMT, "Snooze" wrote:

===
==="starlord" wrote in message
...
=== aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once and
=== the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in
===their
=== fireplace just fine.
===
===Makes great firewood, if you want to burn the house down. Pine produces a
===lot of oil and resin that builds up in the chimney, a great way to start
===chimney fires. Burning pine as firewood would be an incredibly bad idea.
===
===Snooze
===


I wholeheartedly agree...........pine is not the best wood to use for
firewood seasoned or not!
Visit my website: http://www.frugalmachinist.com
Opinions expressed are those of my wife,
I had no input whatsoever.
Remove "nospam" from email addy.

Well, the house is still standing, and it was built just about 1900 and has
a freestone fireplace and chimney. I see that the trees have been trimed
and there is firewood stacked up at the base of the hill behind the house.
And this house is in the foothill above Los Angeles.


--


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http://home.inreach.com/starlord/forgotten.htm


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"Snooze" wrote in message
. com...

"starlord" wrote in message
...
aged pine make fine firewood, I helped cut up a falled pine tree once
and
the wood was stacked and aged and the next year the people used it in
their
fireplace just fine.

Makes great firewood, if you want to burn the house down. Pine produces a
lot of oil and resin that builds up in the chimney, a great way to start
chimney fires. Burning pine as firewood would be an incredibly bad idea.

Snooze




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Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
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bandu wrote:
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.

I vote no. You have a large backyard which you don't like the looks of.
You'll have to spend a lot of money altering it -- not just for
removing the trees, but for renovating the "neglect" and making it look
the way you think it should. Buy a house where you can work with the
existing landscape, not against it.

"bandu" wrote in message
om...
I am looking at a house to buy which has one third of its half acre
backyard
covered in aboout 40 or so tall pine trees. As you can guessed
backyard looks quite neglected and I guess thats because its difficult
to grow anything there.
Should I buy this property. How about spending on removing some of
those trees.
Thanks
BK

What are the redeeming qualities of the property? Are they compelling enough
to make you comfortable with spending some serious money to have some of the
trees removed?