Lee and I have a rental house that has a huge laurel hedge wrapping around the backyard. It looks very much like the hedge in our own backyard, 20 feet high, lush and full. They both need trimming once a year and a major cutback every 4-5 years. At our house, this was the year for the cutback. From previous experience we know it would cost $300-$450 to have a company cut it back,and take away all the branches.
A few weeks ago I decided I would do it myself because of the Monetorium. We have ladders, a lopper and I could use the exercise. It took me about a full day to cut it back 3 feet and down 5 feet, with Lee and my brother Mark moving the ladder for me every hour. Mark also took away all the branches in two large loads to the dump. Other than a few bruises from leaning over the branches, it felt really good to do it myself.
Now we have the rental house hedge to tackle, which is at least twice as much work. Should we do it ourselves? Lee would help me on this one and we may get a chain saw to make it faster. If we do it ourselves, we would save $800-$900 on both hedges.
Why didn’t I use a chain saw on our house’s hedge? - I don’t feel comfortable hanging over the edge of our ladder 18 feet up with a running chain saw. If we bought a new chain saw, Lee would be the one holding it at higher elevations.
What about a hedge trimmer? - This works very well on new branches and leaves and is what we typically use for annual trimmings. For major cutbacks, it can’t get through the tougher older branches.
I think we’ll mark off a sunny weekend coming up and see how much we can get done.
We have a chainsaw ya’ll could borrow.
Thanks, Anthony! We may just take you up on your offer in next few weeks.