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How’s Your Tree Guy?

November 21, 2007 on 3:58 am | In Homeownership | No Comments

That may sound like a frivolous question, but not if you are a homeowner who’s got trees on your property.

Let me tell you about an experience I had recently that’s so common for people who own homes, it happens every day. And it has to do with…of all things…trees.

Our home sits on a lot in the middle of a number of very old trees. Some of the trees may have been here for a hundred years. Mostly they seem to be healthy, although when we looked a bit, we could see dead limbs here and there.

My wife started worrying when she heard creaking noises in the largest tree, a Norway Maple right next to the driveway, with big loopy branches ominously poised above her car in the driveway.

It began to look like some of these huge lumbering branches could fall without warning and cause a great deal of damage, especially in a high wind, or if snow got on the branches. So we decided we needed some professional assistance to help us figure out what to do.

This Maple tree is what you would call a “prime feature” of the property in the front yard, so it’s not like we wanted to just chop it down.

So we (more accurately, my wife) started looking for a reliable tree guy (not to be gender biased, but all of the people who’ve shown up have been guys). The first three guys she got from the local yellow pages.

The first guy came and said he’d trim up the front tree for $500 and remove a branch that had fallen in the backyard.

The second guy came and said to chop down the whole tree and did we want the stump removed too, because that would cost extra. That would all be about $2,100.

The third guy said he would recommend chopping the tree down, including the stump, and that would cost $2,835. Or there was another way we could go which was to cable the tree, for $1,340. (He was a certified arborist, whose company had won various awards.)

The fourth guy, who came through AHA, said it would cost $700 just to remove the fallen branch in the back of the Maple.

The fifth guy, who came through AHA, was a true arborist, who went over all the property very carefully, and found other problems with trees that need to be cabled. He said he’d cable the large Norway Maple, and stabilize it, for $900, and he’d remove the broken limb in the back for $450. He also found two other trees in the back that need cabling. So the total would be $2,100.

So which of the 5 did we go with? None of the above. We got our lawn crew to take down a small dead tree in the back and clean up a bunch of other stuff for $300. Then we had the local utility company trim the worst branch on the Norway Maple at no charge.

My experience illustrates the need to get estimates from multiple sources before deciding on the right course of action. In my case, it saved thousands of dollars.

Take it from me — there often is more than one right answer. Your choice may be dictated by your budget, timing and availability of services. Don’t forget that with AHA membership, it’s easy to find resources, services and advice, to help you research the best choice for you.

So join here now!