Q: I have a lot of ivy growing up my house and around my chimney. I've asked three tree services if they can remove it. Two said no; one said it could cut it off at the foundation, but then we'd have to wait two years for it to die before it could be removed. That's a long time to wait with ugly, dying foliage visible to all! Also, I wonder whether the ivy will pull apart the bricks in my chimney. Any suggestions?

A: Ivy growing on brick can look like a perfect match — think Ivy League colleges. But English ivy, shown in the picture you sent, is also a highly invasive, nonnative vine that chokes out other plants and can sometimes damage brick walls and chimneys. Unfortunately, removing it is tricky and difficult, and the removal process itself can cause damage.

Modern brickwork, with cement-based mortar, usually isn’t damaged by ivy, provided it was installed correctly, with fully filled mortar joints that were tooled properly when the brick was installed. But if there are cracks or gaps in the mortar, or if the brickwork has lime mortar, which is typical with work from before the 1930s or ’40s, then ivy tentacles can work their way in and cause the mortar to crumble.

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Ivy has leathery leaves, so it may take repeated applications to kill vines by spraying them with weedkiller. Cutting it off at the ground does kill the vine, but as you note, that leaves the foliage to gradually turn brown. The vines can’t be yanked down, because some of the mortar where the tendrils are embedded may come down, too. And if the vines are cut off with clippers, some of the fuzzy rootlets will surely remain.

The Brick Industry Association, a trade group, recommends removing ivy from a test patch, so you can assess whether it’s feasible to proceed with removing all of it or whether you would be better off keeping it trimmed. For the test area, the association recommends against spraying with chemicals, because that could damage or stain the brick. Instead, it suggests cutting off the vines as close to the brick as possible. Leave rootlets embedded in the mortar or bricks until they dry up and turn dark, a process that the association says should take two or three weeks — not years. Once the remnants are dry, scrub them off with a stiff fiber brush and laundry detergent. “Do not wait too long because if the suckers rot and oxidize, they may become very hard and nearly impossible to remove without doing damage to the wall surface,” the association recommends in its “Ivy on Brickwork” document, which you can read by typing that title into the search box at gobrick.com.

By doing this test, you will be able to gauge how difficult it would be to remove all of the ivy and whether removal would entail follow-up repairs, such as repointing (replacing the mortar).

You should also consider a couple of other issues. When ivy vines grow vertically rather than blanketing the ground, the leaves take on more of a heart shape — a signal that the vines are ready to bloom and bear berries. Birds feed on this fruit and scatter the seeds onto neighboring properties. If you live in a neighborhood where yards are tended and tidy, this might not be a problem; the sprouts are easy to pull. But if you are close to a forested area, especially one where people have been laboring to get rid of ivy and your house is the only one in the area with it, then you don’t want to be the source of a continuing seed supply.

There are also ongoing costs of keeping ivy. The picture you sent shows the vines creeping around the window trim. The tendrils can open up gaps in the joints, and the vines can keep the wood damp, leading to insect damage and rot. If the vines cover the top of your chimney, they can interfere with airflow when you light a fire. Ivy can also push gutter downspouts out of alignment. And the vines can easily work their way into the crack between a chimney and a wall. So if you opt to keep the ivy, you should trim the vines each year to ensure they stay only on the bricks.

Unless you’re comfortable working on a ladder, removing ivy or clipping it back means calling in a professional. But what kind? You’ve already discovered that some tree services aren’t eager, and a round of calls to landscapers, masonry contractors and home-handyperson services didn’t turn up many promising contacts, either.

Ballard Enterprises (443-584-5798; ballardenterprises.com), a combination tree service and landscaping company in Crownsville, Md., does take on work like this and could use a variety of approaches: physically removing the green vines; spraying them with an herbicide until they die, then pulling them off; or cutting them at the base and waiting for them to die before pulling them off. “A job like this would need to be priced on an hourly basis, as there are too many variables to give a fixed price,” Tim Ballard, the chief executive, wrote in an email. It would be a two-person job, priced at $75 per hour, per person; Ballard estimated the total cost could range from $1,000 to $2,000.

Or, because the ability to work safely on a ladder is one of the key requirements for removing or clipping back ivy, you might try calling companies that specialize in a different kind of ladder work: gutter cleaning. Tony Sanchez, owner of Tony’s Gutter Cleaning (301-219-3238; tonysguttercleaning.com) in Silver Spring, Md., said his crews are too busy cleaning gutters right now, but in March or April, they would be happy to tackle this kind of job. The company carries insurance, a key requirement for anyone you hire. Sanchez said they would remove the ivy by hand, while the vines are still green, and use a scraper to sever tendrils close to the surface. A typical job costs $200 to $300, Sanchez said, although he would need to see your house before giving you a firm estimate.

Companies that specialize in removing poison ivy also sometimes take on the work of removing English ivy. One that does is Poison Ivy Control (844-489-4663; poisonivycontrolofmaryland.com).

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