Frequently Asked Questions

More Questions People Ask Before They Book

The questions above are the ones that come up on almost every call. These come up once we are actually standing in the yard looking at the tree.

Do you need to get equipment into my backyard?

Sometimes, and it changes the job. If the bucket truck can reach the tree from the driveway or the street, the work goes faster and it costs less. If the only way in is a four foot gate, we climb the tree and rig the pieces out by rope instead. Either way we tell you which one it is before you commit, because access drives the price more than the height of the tree does.

What happens to the wood and the brush?

Brush goes through the chipper and leaves with us. Logs get cut and hauled off unless you want them. Plenty of people ask us to leave the trunk cut to stove length for their own fireplace, and that is no trouble at all if you say so before we start cutting.

Will your equipment tear up my lawn?

We plan around it. We put down mats or plywood where a truck has to cross soft ground, we stay off saturated lawns when we can wait a day or two, and we rake and blow the work area before we leave. On a wet spring job the honest answer is sometimes there will be some ruts, and we will tell you that up front rather than surprise you with it.

Do you work in the winter?

Yes, all year. Winter is actually one of the better times for removals and heavy trimming around here. The leaves are down so we can see the structure of the tree, the ground is firm so equipment does less damage to the lawn, and most trees are dormant so pruning cuts are easier on them. Storm calls do not take the winter off either.

Can you tell if my tree is dead or just dormant?

Usually, yes. A tree with no leaves in July is a different situation from a tree with no leaves in February. We look at the buds, scratch the bark to see whether there is green underneath, check the small branches to see whether they snap dry or bend, and look at the base and the root flare for soft wood and fungus. If it is genuinely borderline we would rather come back in spring than talk you into removing a tree that was going to leaf out.

What if the tree is on the property line?

Then it is a conversation with your neighbor before it is a job for us. In Pennsylvania a tree whose trunk straddles a line is generally the shared responsibility of both owners, and we are not going to put a saw in it on one owner's say so. If the trunk is clearly on your side and only the branches cross over, that is simpler. Tell us what the situation is when you call so we are not sorting it out in the driveway.

Do you take down trees near power lines?

We work near service lines, which is the line running from the pole to your house. Those are your responsibility and we handle them all the time. The high voltage lines running pole to pole down the street belong to the utility, and if that is what your tree is in, the right call is the power company, not us. We will tell you which one you are looking at.

Do I need a permit to take down a tree on my property?

In most of the townships we work in you do not, for a tree on private property. Some boroughs and some developments with an association have their own rules, especially for street trees in the strip between the sidewalk and the curb. If you are not sure, a call to your municipality answers it in five minutes, and we are happy to tell you what we have run into in your area.