Garden chipper/shredder

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Psamathe

Senior Member
Earlier this year I had to deal with a very overgrown varied hedge (Field Maple, dogwood, hazel, etc.) most branches being 1" to 2" diam a few 2+"" but nothing above 3".

I looked at the "domestic" ones and realised they/d not be up to the job.

Ended up hiring a petrol one (Timberwoolf max 3") https://www.jewson.co.uk/p/pro-3-chipper-JTH06542 which coped but did struggle on occasions. Did all the cutting first then hired chipper and was running chipper for 2 days. That model seems fairly standard and available from lots of different hire places. You will need them to deliver (even with a trailed you'd need a few people to get it up a ramp.. I struggled just pulling it across the grass to the piles of cuttings, heavy petrol machine yet although it says 3" capacity I wouldn't wanted to have done much at that size.

Don't underestimate what the machine has to do. Impossible to comment as so much will depend on quantities, sizes, etc. but from looking at them I think the DIY domestic ones are only going to handle minimal quantities of domestic garden waste.

nb I did had some Leylandii branches but ended-up just leaving them to rot in a wildlife wood pile as doing them would have run into a 3rd day hire charge.

Ian
 
OP
OP
annedonnelly

annedonnelly

Girl from the North Country
Location
Canonbie
I'd really suggest a tree surgeon with a proper chipper. It will be quick, everything will be taken away. Make sure they can grind out the stumps. Tell them you won't pay until they have.
Apparently it's £1,000 per tree. There are 5 trees. One was supposed to be removed by the estate I bought the house from. I don't think there's much chance of that happening. Their tree guy is still playing catch-up after the storm and I bet this single tree has already dropped off his radar.
How many black bin bags though 50 -100 ??
The trees are about 40ft tall. We've already filled a transit van twice. And there's a similar sized pile lying in the garden now. And you can't take a van into a waste disposal site.
hire one?
We'd need to get everything down and then shred it all at once. There's not going to be room in the garden to keep it all before shredding.

Looks like I'll have to continue doing it bit by bit. :sad:
 

Profpointy

Legendary Member
Whilst I have no direct experience of such machines, from my (admittedly uninformed) assessment of what the machines have to do, I rather doubt any DIY level machine is really going to be up to much beyond chopping up clippings or brambles. By way of comparison a diy hammer drill might be fifty quid and a trade rated one double that, but a road drill is going to be a grand or more. I would surmise that you'd want the chipper equivalent of a road drill rather than something that B&Q sells which would push you down the hire route or paying a guy who owns such a machine to do the job for you.
 

Bonefish Blues

Banging donk
Location
52 Festive Road
Whilst I have no direct experience of such machines, from my (admittedly uninformed) assessment of what the machines have to do, I rather doubt any DIY level machine is really going to be up to much beyond chopping up clippings or brambles. By way of comparison a diy hammer drill might be fifty quid and a trade rated one double that, but a road drill is going to be a grand or more. I would surmise that you'd want the chipper equivalent of a road drill rather than something that B&Q sells which would push you down the hire route or paying a guy who owns such a machine to do the job for you.

You say you have no experience of these machines, so how come you're spot on? ^_^

OP, get the pros to do what they do best.
 

Pat "5mph"

A kilogrammicaly challenged woman
Moderator
Location
Glasgow
@annedonnelly I take care of our communal back garden.
The garden had been severely neglected for ever, at some point a laurel hedge had been planted - by the local council, I guess, because it's beyond our boundaries. This never been trimmed hedge is now a mini forest.
This year I am going to tackle it, got myself a mini chainsaw :becool: but just enough to let some sun in.
I will get the professionals do do a proper job when my budget allows.
During lockdown I engaged a tree surgeon to get rid of some mega shrubs and to trim about 4 trees, it was almost £2000!
I did look into domestic wood shredders, but the flimsy ones are no good, plenty of reviews on Amazon, then where to keep it if you buy one?
The more substantial ones: would you be strong enough to move it/operate it? Again, where to store it?
'd really suggest a tree surgeon with a proper chipper. It will be quick, everything will be taken away. Make sure they can grind out the stumps. Tell them you won't pay until they have.
Keep the wood chips: a thick layer of cardboard, a thick layer of wood chips on top, kept my area clear of weeds for 3 years. And you can plant on the area right away.
I did had some Leylandii branches but ended-up just leaving them to rot in a wildlife wood pile
That's what I do with garden waste too thick for the compost pile.
Eventually it will compost.
 

postman

Squire
Location
,Leeds
Ugly things Leylandii.We put some in ,then one night we were invited for a meal and we saw an established Ley hedge,ours came out that weekend.we had a wall and metal railings inset put up much nicer.
 

MontyVeda

a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
...
We'd need to get everything down and then shred it all at once. There's not going to be room in the garden to keep it all before shredding.

Looks like I'll have to continue doing it bit by bit. :sad:

I have a similar issue with the ivy on my back wall. Cutting back only a 5th of it created two 'ton' bags of just the leafy bits and about a cubic meter of branches which I'll spend a day burning... then it's onto the next section. It's gonna take all summer.
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Unless you get a industrial grade chipper you will spend your life doing it. You have to weigh up time spent against paying a professional tree surgeon.

Me and the Mrs spent several days chipping hedgerow we had cut back after it got over grown.

There was so many 1 ton bag of chippings it nearly killed us. The chipper was very big but just kept clogging on the green leafy material.

I would suggest you let the cuttings dry and turn brown before attempting to chip them yourself

Have fun
 
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