If you own a home with trees in the yard for long enough, eventually you’ll need to have a tree removed (sadly, they don’t live forever). For whatever reason that you’ve decided your tree needs to go — maybe it’s too old, too big, losing too many branches, located in an inconvenient or dangerous spot, or it has started to succumb to disease or pest infestation — you want to have it removed with the least amount of stress and chaos possible.
But unfortunately, that isn’t always how these things go.
Over the years, we’ve heard and witnessed some disaster stories from homeowners who have had terrible experiences having their trees removed. (They usually tell us these stories when they call to have us fix whatever has gone wrong!) Here are some of the best (worst?), and what you can do to avoid dealing with the same scenarios!
Too Good to be True
One homeowner had a tree in his front yard that he had noticed wasn’t in the best shape, and he’d been meaning to give his local tree removal company a call to get an estimate for having it removed. But then, one sunny Saturday, his doorbell rings, and there’s a guy standing there, promoting his tree service, offering to take care of removing this tree, right then and there! The price seemed really reasonable, and he could take care of it today. Perfect!
Our fly-by-night tree removal guy pulls his chainsaw out of his truck and gets to work … followed just a few minutes later by a complete disaster: tree toppled over, wrapped in power lines, partially resting on the homeowner’s car. One urgent call to the power company later, and thankfully, no one was hurt.
How Could This Have Been Avoided?
Don’t hire anyone who comes door to door. Great tree service professionals are busy with appointments and returning clients — we don’t need to drum up business by bothering people on the weekends. Make sure your tree service pros are licensed, insured and have experience in the kind of work you’re asking them to do. Except for very small trees, it’s way more complicated than getting out the chainsaw!
Waited Too Long
Here we have another homeowner who knew her tree was on its last legs (last trunk?) but didn’t think the issue was particularly urgent. She had an upcoming vacation planned and decided to call a tree removal company to take a look at it … after she got back. Instead, she got an angry phone call from her neighbor in the middle of the night while she was on vacation. The tree had come down during a storm, landing on the neighbor’s fence and roof. The worst part? In the end, her homeowner’s insurance wouldn’t even pay for the damage — she had to pay out of pocket. When a tree has obvious signs of disease or decay, any further damage caused by it will probably NOT be covered by insurance, because you, as the homeowner, should have addressed the problem before it became dangerous.
How Could This Have Been Avoided?
As soon as you even suspect there is something wrong with your tree that might necessitate a removal, give a call to your local tree service company. If your insurance knows that you’ve seen signs of problems with your tree, but not addressed them, they probably won’t cover you!
Left the Stump
In this case, a homeowner had a tree professionally removed (great choice!) but decided not to have the stump removed — he was surprised by the expense (at that time, in their area, it was about $500 for a stump grinding of that size) and wasn’t sure if it was something he really needed. He covered the stump with some mulch and dead leaves, and decided to ignore it. He left the tree stump for a few years. Unfortunately, the center of stump rotted out, leaving a huge crater in his yard. The rot spread to other nearby trees in his yard before he noticed the problem, which eventually necessitated the removal of these trees, too. Overall, the bill for the secondary tree removal was much higher than the original quote for stump griding!
How Could This Have Been Avoided?
Just deal with the stump. We know you don’t want to, we know you think it’s not necessary, but it you’ll be glad you did. Seriously!
If you want to deal with a tree removal in a smart, efficient, and budget-friendly way, call in the pros. Yes, it can seem like a bigger expense and a bigger hassle than you want to deal with, but we can promise, with our years of experience removing trees across the Cincinnati area, it won’t cost you as much to have it removed in a professional and controlled manner as it will to deal with a middle of the night structural failure, a rotten stump, or an unlicensed guy who is totally sure he can handle the job. Please, just call your trusted, local tree service and ask how they can help you. It won’t be as expensive as you think, and it really is a great investment in your home and in your peace of mind. (And, if you didn’t heed our advice, and you tried to ignore the problem, handle it yourself, or hire “some guy”, and now you’ve got a mess on your hands, call us at 513.528.4167 anyway, or use our online contact form. We’ll come and sort things out as best we can.)
