My dad and I have dropped 2 Elms that size in the yard now.
It's sad to see them go, them big, wonderful elms. We can't get an elm bigger then 10 inches in the yard now before it dies.
We took both down ourselves. My dad is good at felling trees. I would never attempt it, myself. Not enough experience.
We dropped them both in winter. The ground is frozen, and they don't tear up the yard near as bad coming down.
Both of them we guided with a chain. One to the old John Deere tractor, the other with a Chevy suburban.
The one fell just where we wanted it in the back yard. It dropped between the house and the pines planted as a windbreak. It took years to burn that stump out. It was so thick that Dad hat to cut it about 6 feet up so the saw could reach half way through. HUGE tree.
The other we got in the general direction, but it did end up coming down on a Maple tree, snapping it off halfway up. We just missed the power line in the yard, one branch clipped the line, but the line held.
I would say get it done if your contemplating whether to do it yourself or getting it done.
A big tree like that, they won't always go down where you want them to. The base of the trunks can also do surprising things. The one stayed on the stump (of course, the tall one, so we had to pull it down with the truck), the other stopped moving about 8 feet from the stump and about 2 feet behind the stump - that tree just didn't like where we where 'suggesting' it fell and tried everything it could to go it's own way.
That Elm makes great firewood if I remember my dad right.
It would be worth every penny to have the tree come down without taking the garage out in the process.
