Tree Removal
Dead, dangerous or badly placed trees taken out whole or dismantled in sections over the house.
Learn more →What lopping actually means here
Tree lopping is the catch-all people use when they want a tree made smaller. In practice it covers several different jobs, and the right one depends on the tree.
Selective limb removal takes out specific branches — the one running along the gutter line, the one over the pool that drops leaves all summer, the one grown out sideways toward the neighbour's roof. Deadwood removal takes out the dead material an old turpentine or angophora accumulates naturally; it does nothing for the tree's health but a lot for whatever is parked underneath. Crown reduction shortens the outer limbs back to live laterals to reduce the sail area and the leverage on the trunk. Crown thinning takes out crossing and rubbing branches so wind moves through rather than pushing against the canopy.
The trees that actually need it
On the shale ridge through Chatswood, Gordon and Pymble the usual candidates are enormous planted exotics from the fifties and sixties — liquidambar, camphor laurel, jacaranda, London plane — that were put in as street-scale trees on suburban blocks. They respond well to reduction and they need it every few years.
The native material is a different conversation. Blackbutt, Sydney blue gum and turpentine are not species you reduce for cosmetic reasons; they compartmentalise large wounds poorly and they are frequently protected. On those, the honest answer is usually deadwooding and clearance pruning, not reduction. Down in the gullies at Lane Cove and Hornsby, Sydney peppermint and angophora over a steep bushland block generally need a climber and a lowering rope for even modest work, because there is nowhere to drop anything.
When we will tell you no
If a tree is structurally sound and you want it cut in half because it is blocking a view, we will decline and explain why. Topping creates a hazard, shortens the tree's life and, on a protected species, is an offence in its own right. If the tree is genuinely unsafe, the answer is usually removal rather than heavy lopping. And if what you actually want is a tidy, healthy tree, the work you are after is pruning to AS 4373.
Access, mess and cleanup
Most lopping on the North Shore is a climbing job. Branches are lowered rather than dropped where there is a roof, a garden bed or a retaining wall underneath. Everything is chipped on site and the chip leaves with the truck, or stays on your beds if you want it.
Ring (02) 9090 4915 to have someone look at the tree. The lopping background page sets out the full range of cuts, the cost guide explains pricing, and the suburb pages cover council rules where you are.
More services
Explore our other services
Tree Pruning
Crown lifting, thinning and clearance pruning done to Australian Standard so the tree survives it.
Learn more →Stump Grinding
Grinding the stump and buttress roots below ground so you can turf, pave or replant over it.
Learn more →Stump Removal
Stump and root plate dug out entirely where footings, pipes or a new slab need clear ground.
Learn more →Palm & Bamboo Removal
Cocos and Bangalow palms taken down in a driveway-width space, and running bamboo dug out properly.
Learn more →Hedge Trimming
Lilly pilly, photinia and murraya screens brought back to a line you can maintain yourself.
Learn more →Emergency Tree Work
Storm damage, split trunks and limbs on roofs, with 24/7 response across the North Shore.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Is lopping bad for a tree?
Done badly, yes. Cutting a healthy eucalypt back to bare stubs removes its food factory and forces a dense flush of epicormic shoots attached only to the outer wood. Those shoots grow fast and tear out in the first big wind. Done properly, reduction takes each limb back to a live lateral large enough to take over, and the tree keeps its structure.
How much can be taken off in one go?
As a rule of thumb no more than about a quarter to a third of the live crown on a mature tree in a single season, and less on a tree already under stress from drought or root disturbance. Where you want a bigger change, it is staged across two visits a year or so apart. Any crew that agrees to take half a tree in one day is not doing you a favour.
Can you lop branches that hang over from next door?
You have a common-law right to cut back growth that crosses the boundary, to the boundary line, at your own cost, and the cuttings belong to the tree's owner. That right does not override a council tree permit, so a protected tree still needs consent. In practice a conversation with the neighbour first avoids a dispute later.
Do you do powerline clearance?
Clearance around Ausgrid's own network is generally handled under Ausgrid's vegetation management program, not privately. Where a private service line runs from the street to your house, or a limb is growing toward a conductor, ring Ausgrid before anyone climbs. Nobody without the right authorisation should be working near a live line.
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