Tree services

There are two different businesses hiding under the phrase "tree service." One is arboriculture: a trained arborist who assesses a tree's health and structure, prunes to standard, and tells you honestly when a tree can be saved. The other is removal: rigging and dropping large wood safely. Good companies do both. Plenty of outfits only do the second and diagnose everything as "needs to come down," because removal is the bigger invoice.

The International Society of Arboriculture is blunt about the risk: "pruning or removing trees, especially large trees, can be dangerous work. Tree work should be done only by those trained and equipped to work safely in trees." That is not marketing language. It is the reason this trade is priced the way it is.

Prices swing enormously and mostly for physical reasons. A 40-foot maple in an open yard with truck access is a straightforward job. The same tree over a roof, between a fence and a pool, or with limbs near a service drop is a rigging job that can take a full crew a day. Fixr puts crane-assisted removal of 80-foot-plus trees at $1,500 to $2,500 on top of a normal removal. When two quotes are far apart, access and rigging usually explain it.

Verify insurance before anyone touches your property. Tree work is one of the few home services where an uninsured crew can cause six figures of damage in a second — a dropped limb through a roof, a car, or a neighbor's house. If the company is not insured, that is your problem and your claim. Ask for a certificate of insurance sent directly from their insurer or agent, not a photo of a card.

How to choose

Ask for a certificate of insurance from the insurer

General liability plus workers' compensation. Have it emailed by the agent, listing your address. A crew member injured in your tree with no workers' comp is a liability question you do not want to answer.

Ask who on the crew is the certified arborist

ISA certification is voluntary and individual, not company-wide. Ask for the person's name and check it in ISA's public Find an Arborist directory.

Make them justify removal in writing

"It's a hazard" is not a diagnosis. Ask what they observed — decay, cavity, root damage, lean with soil heave — and what the alternative to removal would be.

Get the cleanup scope in writing

Wood hauled away or left stacked? Stump ground or left? Chips removed? Ruts in the lawn repaired? These line items are where cheap quotes get expensive.

Never hire from a door knock after a storm

The Insurance Information Institute warns to "be especially wary of individuals who go door-to-door soliciting business in the aftermath of a catastrophe." Storm-chasing tree crews are a known pattern.