What happens to the wood? Logs, chippings and what you can keep

A felled tree leaves three things behind, and they go three different ways. The straight timber is cut into rings or logs, the brash, meaning the leafy tops and thin branches, goes through the chipper, and the chip either fills the back of the lorry or gets tipped where you want it. You can keep any of it. On our price card, leaving the logs and chippings with you takes about £75 off the price, because the crew is not paying to tip them. The catch is that everything you keep arrives wet, heavy, in one pile, and usually in the wrong part of the garden.

This guide is general information, not legal advice.

What a crew actually does with a tree

Work goes down from the top. Small stuff is chipped as it comes down, which is why the chipper runs almost continuously. Limbs too big for it are cut into lengths and stacked. The trunk comes down in sections if the tree is being dismantled, and those rings are the heaviest thing on site by a long way.

By default, and on our price card, all of it goes: prices quoted on this site include taking the waste away. If you want anything kept, say so before the quote, not when the chipper is already loaded.

Keeping the logs

The most commonly kept item, and the one people most often regret not thinking through.

Get the length agreed in advance. Tell the crew what your stove takes, usually somewhere around 25cm, and they will cut to it as they go. Asking afterwards means either a bow saw or a return visit.

Ask where it goes. Half a tonne of green timber tipped on a lawn kills the grass and then has to be barrowed round the back by you. Point at the spot.

It will not burn this year. Freshly cut wood carries a great deal of water, and burning it wet gives you less heat, a tarred flue and a lot of smoke. Split the larger rounds, stack them off the ground, cover the top but leave the sides open to the wind, and give it a full summer at least. A year is commonly enough for softwood and ash; oak, beech and other dense hardwoods are usually a two-year job. A cheap moisture meter, used on a freshly split face rather than the outside, tells you when it is ready. The target is 20 per cent moisture or less.

The rules, and when they apply to you

The Air Quality (Domestic Solid Fuels Standards) (England) Regulations 2020 restrict what can be sold. Wood sold in volumes under two cubic metres has to be certified under the Ready to Burn scheme at a moisture content of 20 per cent or less, which came into force for most suppliers in England in May 2021. Larger volumes do not need certifying but must come with clear instructions on seasoning. Local authorities enforce it.

Those rules are about selling, not about burning your own, and nothing stops you cutting up your own tree, seasoning it and burning it. Where wet wood becomes your problem is the chimney and the neighbours. Smoke from premises that is prejudicial to health or a nuisance is a statutory nuisance your council can act on. And in a smoke control area wood can only be burned in an exempt appliance approved by Defra, the penalty for chimney smoke in England can be up to £300, and buying unauthorised fuel for an appliance that is not Defra-approved can bring a fine of up to £1,000. Many urban areas across the West Midlands are covered, so check with your council before assuming you can burn logs indoors. If the plan was a bonfire instead, read can I burn garden waste first.

Keeping the chippings

Chip is useful, and there is usually far more of it than people expect. A mature conifer or a long leylandii hedge can fill a lorry.

As a surface mulch, it works. The RHS is clear that the nitrogen problem comes from digging woody material into soil, where it can cause a temporary nutrient deficiency lasting up to two years. Spread on the surface it does not, and chippings can go on thicker than compost, around 8 to 12cm, because the coarse particles do not compact. Keep it off stems, because mulch piled against bark holds damp against it.

Age fresh chip first. Fresh broadleaf material, and conifer chip in particular, can contain tannins and other compounds that are hard on plants. The RHS remedy is to stack it and let it weather for three to four months before using it round anything you care about.

What not to use. Do not mulch with material from the basal parts of trees infected with honey fungus, phytophthora root rot, verticillium wilt or coral spot. And nothing containing old treated timber, fence panels, chipboard or fibreboard should go near a border; the RHS says old treated timber should go to landfill because it can contain arsenic or chromium.

Paths and habitat piles. Laid thick over a weed membrane, chip makes a path that lasts a couple of years. Set the chunkier logs aside rather than chipping everything: a small log pile supports insects, small mammals, reptiles and amphibians and shelters hibernating wildlife. Use logs with the bark on, vary the lengths, bury the bottom ones slightly so they stay damp, and put it somewhere shaded. Avoid it if the tree had honey fungus.

Ash, and diseased material

Ash dieback is so widespread that there is no requirement to burn or destroy infected ash, and it can be chipped, logged and left on site. Ash also happens to be excellent firewood and seasons faster than most. Ordinary biosecurity still applies: the Forestry Commission's Keep It Clean advice is to arrive clean and leave clean, with boots, tools, ropes and saws free of soil and organic material. Other diseases are handled differently, so if a contractor says material from your tree has to go off site rather than be chipped, ask which disease and why. Ash dieback covers the tree itself.

What "waste removed" means on a quote

On our card, prices include waste removal, and leaving the logs and chippings with you takes about £75 off. Worth knowing before you decide:

• £75 is not the value of the wood. It is roughly what the crew saves in tipping and time. Seasoned split hardwood costs a great deal more than that to buy, so keeping the logs is usually good value if you have a stove and somewhere to stack it.
• Removed should mean legally disposed of. Anyone taking waste from your property in the course of business needs to be a registered waste carrier, and you can check the Environment Agency public register. If your waste is fly-tipped, it can be traced back to you. See do I need a waste carrier licence and fly-tipping and the cheap man with a van.
• Ask what left tidy covers. Leaving logs usually means a stack, not one cut to length and put where you want it, unless that was agreed.
• Volume surprises people. Even a medium tree makes more chip than a car boot. How much garden waste fits in a van gives a sense of scale.

Where trade timber ends up

Wood that leaves in the lorry does not generally go to landfill. Chip from tree work is bulked up and sold as biomass feedstock to energy plants, and the better logs go to firewood merchants to be processed, dried and sold on, often under Ready to Burn certification. Some is bagged for mulch and some goes to stables and riding arenas. It is one reason a contractor can afford to take it away as part of the price.

Getting a price

We are an introducer. We pass your enquiry to one vetted local tree surgeon covering your area, and they confirm a fixed price. Say at the quote stage what you want kept. Start with tree removal and the tree removal cost guide, tree felling, or green waste removal if you already have piles on the ground.