Tree removal
Taking a tree down over a house, a fence or a neighbor’s garage is rigging work, not felling. We drop it in sections on rope, grind the stump below grade, and rake the ground back so you can seed it. You pick the time. We show up.
When a tree has to come down
Most of the trees we are called out to look at do not need removing. A crown reduction or a dead-wood clear buys a healthy tree another twenty years, and it costs a fraction of a removal, so that is what we will tell you to do when it is what we would do at our own house.
The ones that do have to go usually share a small number of features: a split fork that has started to open, a cavity where a main limb tore out, fungal brackets at the base, roots lifting on the opposite side to a lean, or a canopy that has been dead for more than a season. A tree with any of those over a bedroom is a different conversation from the same tree over an empty lawn, which is why we come and stand underneath it rather than quote from a photograph.
How the day runs
- We walk the drop zone with you first Where the sections land, where the truck sits, which route the brush takes out. If your neighbor’s driveway is part of the plan, we knock on their door before anything starts, not after.
- The crown comes off in pieces A climber or the bucket lift takes the limbs in an order that keeps weight off whatever is underneath. Over a roof, every piece is roped and lowered rather than dropped.
- The stem comes down in sections Cut to a height that clears the target, then blocked down. In an open yard with room behind it, a stem is often felled whole, which is faster and cheaper.
- Stump ground out below grade Down far enough to seed or turf over, not just level with the grass. Grindings go back in the hole unless you want them gone.
- The yard is put back Brush chipped, rounds stacked where you want them or hauled, ruts raked out, driveway blown off. You should not be able to tell we parked there.
Taken down in sections
One from September, off the crew’s phones: an ivy-covered twin stem between two houses, climbed and lowered in sections on a rope.
What people ask before booking
Do I need a permit to remove a tree on my own property?
In most of central Ohio, no, as long as the tree stands on your land. The strip between the sidewalk and the road is usually the city’s, and that one is not yours to cut. If you are not sure which you have, we will work it out with you before anything is booked.
Will my homeowner’s insurance pay for it?
Not for taking down a standing tree, however obviously dangerous it is, and not for clearing one that falls and hits nothing. Cover generally starts when a tree damages a structure. That is worth knowing before you wait: the removal you pay for today is cheaper than the deductible on the roof.
What happens to the wood?
Yours if you want it. Tell us the day of the job and we will stack the rounds where you want them rather than pay to haul them, which takes money off the job rather than adding it.
Can you get to the backyard?
Usually. If the chipper cannot fit through the gate, the brush comes out by hand through the house side, which takes longer and shows up in the price. We will tell you which of those you have when we look, not after we have started.
How fast can you come out?
You pick a window when you book and that is when we arrive. For a tree that is already down or hanging, call rather than book. See emergency tree service.
Other things we do
Where we work
Have somebody stand under it, free
Pick a window that suits you. We tell you whether it has to come down, what it would cost, and what we would do instead if it does not.