Tree trimming and removal in Sarasota. Climbed, not clear-cut.
The person who climbs writes your estimate, tree by tree.
Get a quote from photos
Send photos of the tree. A person writes the quote.
Stand back far enough to get the whole tree and what’s under it. Dale reads the photos and writes the quote. You say yes or not yet, and request a day for the walk.
Send photos
The whole tree, from far enough back to see what’s under it.
Get your quote
Written by the owner, never by the chat.
Pick a day
Say yes, request a day for the walk, and a person confirms the time by email or a call.
A person writes the quote. Anything touching a power line is the utility’s call first, and the chat asks before any photo.
Start with the tree
What’s your tree doing?
Pick the closest one. Each tells you what we’d usually do, and what to keep clear of in the meantime.
Hanging over the roof
Usually a reduction of two or three limbs, not a removal.
Leaning or split after a storm
Stay out from under it. If it’s touching a line, call the utility first.
Dead, dying or rotting
A written risk assessment says what it could hit, and how likely that is.
Has to come out
Taken down in pieces on a rope when the yard has no room to drop it.
Palms need trimming
Dead fronds and seed stalks off. Green fronds stay on.
What you’re handed
The work order you keep
Every tree, what was done to it, what it cost, and the line that cost nothing.
- Species and position of each tree, so you know which one we mean in three years.
- Exactly what was cut, and where, in words specific enough to be checked.
- What you asked for and we advised against, printed at $0.00 with the reason.
Tree work order & arborist’s card
Live oak Quercus virginiana · front lawn, 34 in trunk
Reduction of the two limbs over the roofline, shortened back to living side branches for eight feet of clearance to the shingles. Every cut outside the branch collar. Live crown removed today: about 12%. The ceiling is 25%.
Laurel oak Quercus laurifolia · rear fence line, dead two seasons
Removal. No room to drop it between the pool cage and the fence, so it came down in sections on a rigging line with a brake at the base. Cage padded, deck swept, fence left as found.
Stump of the laurel oak above
Ground ten inches below grade, with the two surface roots running toward the walk. Utilities located before the grinder started.
Cabbage palm ×3 Sabal palmetto · along the drive
Brown fronds and spent seed stalks removed. Every green frond left on. Climbed on a rope and saddle, no spikes.
Water oak Quercus nigra · side yard
Two dead limbs over the walk, taken while the climber was already up there on the same rope. No charge: it took four minutes.
Live oak, the tree from line 01 — TOPPING, REQUESTED AND REFUSED
Asked for, and not done. Topping removes the crown a tree feeds itself with, forces weak regrowth from every wound and leaves decay behind each cut. ANSI A300, the standard this trade works to, doesn’t accept it as pruning. What the tree needed was line 01.
June to November
Storm damage and hurricane season
After the wind, we work in order of what can still hurt someone, not in order of who called first.
- People first. A limb hanging over a bedroom or a path comes before anything else.
- Then roofs and cars. Weight resting on a house, or a trunk under tension.
- Then access. Driveways and gates, so you can get in and out.
- Then everything else. Trees flat on an empty lawn can wait a day.
If a tree or limb is touching a power line, stay away and call the utility. That one is their job, not ours, and nobody should be standing under it.
What we do
Tree services in Sarasota
Eight kinds of work, one climbing crew. Each page says when it’s the right answer, and when it isn’t.
- Tree removalIn pieces, on a rope, when there’s no room to drop it.
- Tree trimming & pruningEvery cut outside the branch collar.
- Crown reductionA smaller tree, done properly. Never topping.
- Storm damageWorked in order of what can still hurt someone.
- Stump grindingBelow the grass line, surface roots and all.
- Tree risk assessmentIs it safe? A written answer.
- Cabling & bracingSupport for a weak fork or a split.
- Palm trimmingDead fronds off. Green fronds stay.
No surprises
How a tree job goes
You call, the owner answers
We ask what the tree is doing, not only what you want done to it. Half the time the answer changes the job.
We walk it with you
Root flare, trunk, unions, crown, from the bottom up. Half an hour to an hour, and you’re there for it.
The scope, in writing
Tree by tree: what we’ll do, what it costs, and anything you asked for that we’d advise against.
The work, and the card
Every cut outside the branch collar, the yard raked, and a card that stays with you.
The one thing we won’t sell you
We don’t top trees, and here’s why
A homeowner asked us to top a live oak. We shortened two limbs over the roof instead.
Topping makes a tree grow back fast, weak and dangerous. Reducing the limbs that worry you is a smaller job with a better result, and we’d rather sell you that.
When we turn a request down, it goes on your work order at $0.00 with the reason, so you’re not hearing it for the first time on the day.
Crown reduction, done properlyAsk before you call
Ask the tree question you’d feel silly calling about
It answers any time. Send photos of the tree and a person reads them.
It won’t price a tree nobody has stood under, and the first thing it asks about storm damage is whether anything is near a power line.
Tell me what you’re looking at and I’ll tell you what we’d want to know.
Tap one to start. Send photos of the tree and the chat drafts a request for a person to read.
Reviews
What Sarasota County homeowners say
Two companies told us the oak over the bedroom had to come down. Dale walked it with us, shortened the two limbs over the roof and wrote down why the rest of the tree was fine. It still shades the whole back yard.
After the storm a big limb was hung up over our driveway. They came the same week, roped it down in pieces and didn’t leave so much as a twig on the pavers.
I asked about a hurricane cut on our palms and got a straight answer on why not. They took the brown fronds and the seed pods and left the green. The palms look healthier than they have in years.
Local and owner-run
Where we work around Sarasota
One climbing crew out of Sarasota, covering the county and a short way over each line. Live oak on the bayfront, laurel oak past its span inland, and palms everywhere.
- Sarasota
- Bradenton
- Venice
- Nokomis
- Osprey
- Siesta Key
- Longboat Key
- North Port
Straight answers
Tree service questions we hear most
Is topping ever the right answer?
No, not as pruning. Topping a tree makes it push out fast, weakly attached shoots from every wound, and within a few years it is more likely to drop something on the roof, not less. When a tree genuinely needs to be smaller, a crown reduction shortens the limbs back to living side branches instead. When a tree is coming down anyway, taking it apart from the top is a removal, and nobody expects it to live.
My tree is leaning after the storm. Does it have to come down?
Not automatically. The question is whether the root plate moved. Look on the side away from the lean: cracked or heaved soil, a lifted mat of turf, roots showing where they weren’t. Those mean the tree moved in the ground and it should be treated as live. A tree that has leaned for twenty years has grown to carry that load. How old the lean is is the first thing we ask.
Do I need a permit to remove a tree?
Often, in Florida, and it depends on the city, the county, your subdivision and the size of the tree. State law also exempts removal on residential property where a qualified professional has documented a danger, with real conditions on who may write that. We tell you which of those you’re in. We never tell you a permit is unnecessary because we’d like the work today.
How soon can you come after a hurricane?
Slower than you’d like, and the order is set by danger rather than by who called first. A limb hanging over an occupied room comes before a tree lying flat in an empty yard, however dramatic the second one looks. If you’re behind something more urgent, you’ll be told that instead of being given a time that quietly passes.
What about the stump?
It’s a separate line on the scope, with a separate machine and sometimes a separate day. We grind below grade, not level with the lawn, and take the surface roots that catch the mower. A stump makes a surprising pile of grindings, so you choose whether they’re hauled or left to settle.
A walk costs you an hour and gets you a written scope.
We come out, look at the trees with you, and leave the work written down tree by tree before anybody agrees to anything.