I would get the stumps drilled out and remove as much of the root system as possible. When the tree is effecting the property just cutting the tree down and leaning the rootball can cause subsidence problems in its self.
the best way to kill a tree is to climb it and pull it down with your own weight, but if it's threatening to disrupt the patio i suspect the tree might be a bit to big for that. so yeah, dynamite. or get a tree cutting service to do it - big trees are dangerous, and they'll have all the rigging and knowledge to cut it down safely without dropping it on your house. also, they'll have a stumpgrinder which is really the only way to get a stump cleanly out of the ground without many hours of digging and chopping.
I used to be a tree surgeon and drilling holes is pointless, the very thin space just under the bark is where the tree takes sugars down into the roots. The middle of the tree is for carrying water UP the tree. The only reason you will have success with drilling is that small amounts of the pioson have spilt into the space between the bark and wood. Not sure if you guys have it over there but here we have a pioson called "Round Up" which does not travel very well thu soil, etc. Your best bet is to have someone come and cut it down for you, then they can chip it and remove it for you. Alot less work for you and a hell of alot safer
These. Get a professional tree surgeon to chop them down, chip the wood and grind the stump. That way, everything has gone in one go, there's no waiting for poisons to work, and there's no need to have to worry about removing the stump/rootball. Depending on the size of the tree, it probably wouldn't cost more than a couple of hundred quid to get the professionals in.
Thanks for all your answers guys, poisoning is not an option as we cant risk anything else in the garden. I think he might just bite the bullet and call a professional in to do it. There are no birds nests in them at all, this was the first thing he checked when he realised they had to come down.
Yeah.....no it doesn't. Years of working as a landscaper can tell you that the amount of trees we chopped, drilled and poisoned, and put brand new trees, straight from a pot (planting out is incredibly shocking to their root systems), into the same spot....never with any trouble. None of the stuff we used required any licensing, safe storage or anything like that. It more or less speeds up the rotting process and that is about it.
When we took the root systems out at an old house, probably not much thicker than yours are, we just laid into them with pick-axes and spades. Granted, we dug a lot of the surrounding soil up, but we were block paving there anyway. Didn't even see so much as a hint of anything trying to grow back. Took a weekend to get them done (four), but hey. Job got done. I do like the explosive method, though. Suspect that might be a bit illegal in this country, though >.>
