Tree Service near you

Most homeowners call a tree company for one obvious job and discover it does half a dozen others. Knowing the menu helps you ask for the right thing instead of the dramatic thing.

There is no federal tree service license, so the question is always what your state does. Connecticut regulates the trade through its environmental agency: an arborist license is required for persons advertising, soliciting or contracting to do arboriculture, where arboriculture means any work done for hire to improve the condition of fruit, shade or ornamental trees by feeding or fertilizing, or by pruning, trimming, bracing, treating cavities or other methods of improving tree conditions, or protecting trees from damage from insects or diseases. Connecticut applicants must pass the whole examination including its pesticide portion, the license authorizes application of fungicides, insecticides, miticides and tree growth regulators to fruit, shade and ornamental trees only, and since October 2013 any business out for hire to perform arboriculture must also hold a certificate of registration.

New Jersey regulates the business rather than only the person. The state's Board of Tree Experts requires a registered business to have at least one licensed individual working full time in the company, to carry a minimum of one million dollars of general liability insurance and workers' compensation coverage or approved self-insurance, to display its registration number on at least two sides of each vehicle in letters three inches high and to include it in advertising, to keep records for at least four years, and to abide by adopted standards including ANSI A300, ANSI Z133 and ANSI Z60.1.

Where no state license exists, three checks do most of the work: a current certificate of liability insurance and workers' compensation sent to you directly by the insurer, a written scope that names each tree and what will be done to it, and confirmation of whether your city requires a permit for the tree in question. Cities regulate removal and street trees far more often than states regulate the trade.

You do not need to know rigging to tell a controlled site from an improvised one. OSHA's tree care guidance sets the shape of a safe operation: have a qualified arborist survey the worksite and identify the types of trees involved and possible hazards related to tree structure, including fall hazards and falling object hazards due to tree condition; establish and mark drop zones with equipment such as cones where there is a hazard of objects falling; identify and provide at no cost properly fitting personal protective equipment for fall and overhead falling object hazards and make sure workers use it and are trained in it; and keep ground workers at a distance from felling operations of at least two times the height of the tree.

Translated to your driveway, that means a crew that walks the tree and the site before anything starts, cones or tape marking where material will land, helmets and eye and hearing protection worn rather than hanging on the truck, a designated ground person watching the drop zone instead of standing under the work, and vehicles, pets and children moved before the first cut rather than after the first near miss. A crew that lets a neighbor stand in the drop zone to watch is telling you something about how it runs every other job too.

A genuine tree emergency is narrow: a tree or limb on the house, a trunk split and still standing, a root plate lifted, a tree blocking the only access to the property, or anything at all in contact with a wire. Everything else, however alarming it looks, is usually a scheduling problem rather than a same-night one, and paying emergency rates for it wastes money that the actual repair will need.

Storms also bring crews that arrived with the weather. The Federal Trade Commission's advice for the aftermath of weather emergencies applies exactly: confirm the contractor's license and insurance by checking with your state or county government and asking the contractor for proof of insurance; get a written contract and read it carefully, with the contractor's name, address, phone and license number, start and completion dates, the payment schedule and every promise made, and no blank spaces; be skeptical of anyone promising immediate clean-up or repairs, because unlicensed contractors and scammers often appear in recovery zones; and if they want cash up front, walk away. The FTC also advises paying by credit card or check, never by wire transfer, gift card, payment app, cryptocurrency or cash.

Anything touching a conductor is the utility's call, not a tree company's. Report it, keep everyone back, and do not let a crew talk you into working around a wire because they have done it before.

Tree pricing tracks risk, access and disposal rather than the number of branches. The variables that matter are what stands under and beside the tree, whether a lift or crane can reach the work or everything must be climbed and lowered on ropes, how far material has to be carried to the chipper, the species and how sound the wood is, proximity to wires and structures, whether stump grinding and hauling are inside the price, whether a permit and replacement planting are required, and how many people the company puts on the job. A properly insured crew with a ground team and rigging will quote above an uninsured pair with a ladder, and that difference is the product rather than the markup.

Finding the candidates is what LokalMatch does. Tell us once what the property needs, whether that is storm damage, routine deadwood, clearance over a roof or a lot that has to be cleared, and add how a truck and chipper would reach the work. Tree companies covering your area see the request and the interested ones reach out to you. Pros pay for the requests they receive and the service costs homeowners nothing. LokalMatch does not perform tree work, does not set prices and does not vet, rank or recommend any company, so verifying state licensing where it exists, insurance and the written scope is still yours to do.