Need to get rid of enormous hedges (Lebanon: rental, house)

[DomerJen]

The house we bought has hedges going across the front that are approximately 30'x8'x6' (seriously. Ugh). We want to cut them all down (DIY to save money).

I looked into getting a dumpster from Waste Mgmt, but it's around $700. I'm looking for a cheaper option. Any thoughts?

We're in Mt. Lebanon. They do pickup April - October. I don't want to wait that long, plus we'd have to bundle in 3' increments.

[Lobick]

Bagster®

[MrRational]

Originally Posted by DomerJen

The house we bought has hedges going across the front that are approximately 30'x8'x6' (seriously. Ugh).

1) cut down to ground (chain saw)
2) call a tree company to shred them on site and haul off the mess.
3) do something about the roots.

hth

[greg42]

More work but you could try renting a chipper. Even if you need it for a couple days it'll probably be cheaper than $700. Or maybe a bigger one would make it quicker. Do all the cutting down first so once you get the chipper all you're doing is chipping. Course then you have the chips, but you could leave them in a pile to compost if you have enough yard space.

Bagster would probably work too. The hedges probably won't be too heavy for it.

You might also check around for other dumpster quotes. And make sure they know you're only going to put yard waste in it; that might affect the disposal fee. Yard waste doesn't need to be going into a regular landfill necessarily.

[DomerJen]

Originally Posted by greg42

More work but you could try renting a chipper

I think this might be the route to go... bagsters are actually quite small - I think we'd need at least 3 for the amount we have.

[BigBob77]

You could probably hire someone for $300 or $400 to take the out and haul them away. That is clean fill and pretty cheap to haul and someone with a pick up can just chain them out. Easy and fast job. I am assuming they are just Privets or something.

[greg42]

You can also rent a fairly large dump truck and do the hauling yourself. (I'm working on a project that requires rental equipment, so I've gotten more familiar with what can be rented and where, although I'm really only familiar with the rental places out here in the north and west of the city.) If you can get it all away in one day then you should be well under the $700. Far as I know as long as it's not beyond a certain size/weight you don't need a special license. Lot of work loading the truck though, taller lifting than the dumpster. Plus, you're going to have tip fees or need to find somewhere looking for fill that you could dump it.

Might be worth getting a quite for removal from a tree company even, though. Should have thought of this earlier, but I was distracted by phone call during earlier post. I'm having a decent size maple removed, and the quote is 400 bucks including all the cleanup. The tree will be cut by climbing, not bucket truck, as it's too far away for the truck to reach. They'll have to haul the pieces about 70-80 feet to the street where they'll park their big chipper. Point being, your hedge job is probably no harder than that one and possibly easier, so you might want to get that sort of quote.

I'm thinking there are ways sometimes in which DIY costs more. I'm hoping that's not true of the project I'm doing, because it's a lot of work. But 700 bucks is a high dumpster quote anyway. I got quotes of something like $300 a while back, though it may have been a smaller dumpster. This was getting rid of a lot of scrap wood, and then when I got a quote from a removal company to just take it away for 500 bucks I just went ahead because it disappeared that day and I didn't have to load it all in the dumpster. Whew.

[PeterRabbit]

Spray them with Roundup. I don't know how effective it is in the non-growing season but it kills down to the roots and dead stuff would be easier to remove.

You might find someone cheap on Craigslist.

[ditchdigger]

That is clean fill ...

No, "clean fill" is material that doesn't have anything in it that'll rot away and allow the fill area to settle at a later date. Dirt and rocks are clean fill. Hedges, or wood chips definitly are not.

There are places to get rid of that stuff though. Google "compost" Actually, here's one place I already know of that's convenient to Mt Lebanon, and the price sure beats $700 for a dumpster:http://www.fls-pgh.com/yard-waste

Spray them with Roundup.

I'm not sure that's a good idea if they might be going to a composting place. Besides, chainsaws don't really care whether they're dead or alive.

You might need somebody with a small excavator or similar machine to remove the roots though. Don't forget to call PA One Call to locate any utilities though. Many people aren't aware of exactly where their own property ends and utility right of ways exist. You could find a gas main in your front lawn. Here's their Homeowner information page.

[Tinare]

I'd second getting a quote. I had 32 feet of a headrow of approximately 6-8 foot tall hedges taken out a couple of years ago and it was under $500. They cut them down, ground the stumps, and chipped it all up and took it way. I had nothing to clean up. Now, they were at my place originally to cut down a tree when I asked them for a quote, so I may have gotten a little volume discount, but it's probably worth weighing that as an option. It took the guys who did mine maybe an hour to do the whole thing. Having the right tools is key. I would have been at it for days.