Prices — what the price of tree removal depends on

What sets the price of felling and clearing a tree

In tree work you are not paying for the tree. You are paying for the conditions around the tree. The same tree that is half an hour's work out in the open at the edge of a wood can be a full day's work with ropes and three people when it stands right against the wall of a house. Here is exactly what changes the scale of the job:

• Height and trunk diameter. Height determines how many sections the tree has to be cut into and whether it can be worked from the ground at all. Diameter determines weight — a thick trunk has to be cut into shorter pieces, and every piece has to be moved.
• Species and timber density. Oak or beech timber is far heavier than spruce or aspen. A piece of the same size from a different species is a different amount of work. More on how species differ in the tree species section.
• The condition of the tree. This changes the method, not just the time. You can trust a branch on a healthy tree and climb into it. You must not climb a rotten tree, because there is no telling what will hold, and then a platform is needed. The timber of a dead tree is brittle and breaks unpredictably — that kind of work calls for a slower, more careful approach.
• Lean. If the tree leans in the direction you want it to fall, the job is simpler. If it leans the other way, or towards a building, the tree has to be pulled against its own weight or taken down in sections. More on this: leaning trees.
• The distance to whatever must not be damaged. A building, a fence, a greenhouse, a terrace, paving, power and telecoms lines, a neighbour's property. Every object in the fall zone removes one option from the list of possible methods.
• Whether there is anywhere to fell the tree at all. This is the single biggest difference on the whole list. To fell a tree whole, there has to be a clear strip around it longer than the tree is tall. If there is — the job is short and cheap. If there isn't — the tree has to be lowered in sections, and that takes several times as long.
• Whether climbing or machinery is needed. Climbing on ropes takes time and at least two people. A MEWP (mobile elevating work platform) or a crane speeds the work up, but it is a cost in its own right.
• Whether machinery can get in. A platform needs firm ground and a route to the tree. If there is no vehicle access — narrow gates, soft ground, a tree behind the house — the whole job has to be done by hand and on ropes, and the material has to be carried out.
• The state of the ground. Frozen or dry ground lets us drive in. Wet ground means either waiting, or laying ground protection mats and working more gently, or giving up on machinery altogether.
• What happens to the timber. If we take the trunk away, that is transport and loading. If you want to keep the firewood, we cut it up and stack it on the spot — that is a different use of time.
• The volume of brash. A wide, heavily branched crown produces many times more material than a narrow one. Chipping and removal take up a real share of the working day.
• Whether a permit is needed. Some trees outside forest land need a permit from the local authority before they can be felled. Getting the paperwork done takes time — more on that separately.

What sets the price of crown care and pruning

In pruning, the scale of the job depends on how many cuts have to be made and how hard they are to reach:

• The size of the tree. A small apple tree is a job for a ladder. A large maple or lime means climbing on ropes and moving around inside the crown.
• How much deadwood there is. Deadwood removal on its own is quicker than reshaping a crown, but if there is a lot of deadwood and it is scattered right through the crown, the arborist has to work his way around the whole tree.
• Access. Whether branches can simply be dropped under the tree, or whether there is a roof, a greenhouse or planting beneath it. If a branch can't just be dropped, each one has to be lowered on a rope.
• What kind of work it is. Crown thinning, deadwood removal, crown reduction to let in more light and forming a fruit tree are all different amounts of work, even on one and the same tree.
• The volume of brash. The same as with felling — everything cut off has to be gathered up and taken away.
• Season. Some work is better done at a particular time of year, and sometimes that means waiting rather than paying more. What to do when — pruning times.

What sets the price of stump grinding

With stump grinding you are paying for grinder time, and that is set by:

• The size of the stump. The thicker the stump, the more timber there is to grind away.
• How far the roots spread. Some species throw out wide root buttresses above ground. Those have to be ground out too, and they can be wider than the stump itself.
• How deep you need to go. If the spot is going to be laid to lawn, shallower grinding is enough. If a new tree is going in there, or paving, or a building foundation, we have to go deeper. Tell us what is going in that spot — it changes the scale of the job.
• Access. The grinder has to reach the stump. Narrow gates, steps, a steep slope or a stump behind a building all mean more preparation.
• The number of stumps. Several stumps on one visit always works out better value than each one separately — the machinery only has to be brought out once.
• Stones and buried rubble. Stones in the ground next to a stump damage the grinder's teeth and slow the work down. If anything has ever been built or tipped around the stump, it's best to warn us in advance.

What sets the price of emergency work

On an emergency call-out the price is affected by different things than on planned work:

• Urgency. A call-out that happens straight away means rearranging the day.
• Time of day. An evening, a night or a weekend is different from a weekday morning.
• Whether the tree is under tension. A fallen tree rarely lies free. The trunk may be bent, branches may be compressed under the weight, part of the load may be resting on a building or a fence. Releasing that tension is slow, deliberate work — it is the most dangerous part of the whole call-out.
• Light. In the dark, some work simply must not be done. In that case it is safer to make the site safe and finish in daylight.
• Whether the site has to be made safe first. Often the right order is in two stages: first we take away whatever poses an immediate risk, then we clear the rest as a separate job. Two visits cost differently from one.

What sets the price of tree health work

• Whether a diagnosis is needed first. An assessment is a job in itself. Without it there is no way of saying what treatment is actually needed, or whether it will help.
• What treatment is involved. Treating diseases and pests, fertilisation and root zone care differ both in materials and in time.
• The number of trees. Several trees on one site is a single visit.
• Repeat visits. Some treatments need doing several times in a season, or a check a year later. We tell you that up front, not after the fact.

Why we don't have a price list

A price list would look more honest than it really is. Two birches of the same height — one in the middle of a garden, the other a metre from a greenhouse and under a power line — are not two identical jobs. The first comes down whole in a few minutes. The second is lowered in sections on ropes, over half a day, with two people on the ground.

If we put a single number against both, it would work in one of two ways. Either the simple job would be overcharged in order to cover the difficult one — and you would be paying for your neighbour's difficulties. Or the number would be fair for the simple job, and on the complicated one we would then have to start a conversation about surcharges with half the tree already down. Neither of those is any good.

So we price every job individually — and we tell you the price before we start.

How to get an accurate quote quickly

The simplest way is to fill in the form and attach a few photos. Given good pictures, we can usually give you a quote without a separate site visit. These four shots are the useful ones:

The reason this works is simple. The same questions someone else would put to you over the phone are already answered in the picture — and answered more accurately, because we can see for ourselves rather than relying on a description. If anything is still unclear after the photos, we say so, and if need be we come out and look before the work starts.

If in the end it isn't needed

There are also cases where the cheapest answer is to do nothing. A fungus on the trunk doesn't always mean the tree has to come out. A thin canopy can be the after-effect of a dry summer rather than a disease. If, having looked, we can see that the tree can be left alone, we say so — even when that means there will be no job. There is more about how we work on the about us page.