What we arrange, and when each one is the right answer
There are only so many things you can do to a tree. The trick is picking the right one, because the wrong intervention on a mature eucalypt costs more in five years than doing nothing would have.
Removal and reduction
Tree removal is for trees that are dead, structurally failing, or in a position no amount of pruning fixes — a liquidambar two metres from a 1950s footing, a camphor laurel that has lifted the driveway, a leaning gum with a cracked union. On the North Shore most removals are dismantles rather than fells: the tree is climbed and lowered in sections because there is a house, a pool or a neighbour's glasshouse underneath.
Tree lopping covers weight reduction and selective limb removal where the tree stays. Typical jobs are taking a long limb back off a roofline, removing deadwood from an old turpentine, or reducing a sail area that is catching the westerly.
Tree pruning is the careful version: crown lifting for clearance over a driveway, thinning to let light into a garden, formative pruning on younger trees, and clearance from powerlines where the work sits outside Ausgrid's own program.
Ground work
Once a tree is down you are left with a stump. Stump grinding chews it out to roughly 300mm below the surface, which is enough to turf or plant a garden bed over. Stump removal goes further and takes the root plate out, which is what a builder needs before footings, a pool shell or a slab go anywhere near the old trunk position.
The specialised jobs
Palm and bamboo removal is its own trade. Cocos palms are heavy, wet and drop fronds with real force, and running bamboo is a root problem rather than a cutting problem. Hedge trimming keeps lilly pilly, photinia and murraya screens at a height you can look after yourself between visits.
Emergency tree work is answered around the clock. After a summer storm the usual calls are limbs on roofs, split leaders and trees across driveways.
Before any of it — the permit question
Nothing gets cut until we know whether it can be. Ku-ring-gai, Willoughby, Hornsby, Lane Cove and Ryde all operate tree controls under their development control plans, and the exemptions differ by council, by species and by distance from the house. Trees in remnant Blue Gum High Forest or Sydney Turpentine-Ironbark Forest carry extra protection because both communities are listed as critically endangered.
We will tell you which bucket your tree is in, and if a permit application or an arborist report is required we will say so before you are committed to anything. The FAQ covers the common permit questions, the cost guide explains what drives the price, and the suburb pages set out what is specific to your council.
Ring (02) 9090 4915 for a free quote, or read the background on removals and on lopping first.
Frequently asked questions
Can one crew do the removal and the stump in the same visit?
Usually, and it is cheaper that way. A grinder has to be floated in on a trailer, so doing it on the same day as the removal saves a second mobilisation charge. The exception is a very large stump on a sloping block where the grinder needs different access from the tipper, which occasionally means two visits.
Do you handle strata and commercial sites?
Yes. Strata blocks across Chatswood, Lane Cove and Ryde are a regular part of the work, as are schools, churches and aged-care sites with mature trees over car parks. These jobs usually need a written scope for the committee and traffic management if the truck sits on the street, which is quoted separately.
What is the difference between lopping and pruning?
Pruning removes specific branches at the right point on the branch collar so the wound seals and the tree keeps its shape. Lopping is a broader term for reducing a tree's size, often on a tree that is already compromised or due for removal. Cutting a healthy tree back to stubs is neither, and it produces weak regrowth that fails later.