Tree Removal in Abilene, TX

When a Tree Has to Come Down

Not every problem tree needs to go. A thinning canopy can often be brought back with pruning, and a lean that has been there for twenty years is usually just how the tree grew. Removal is the right call when the structure itself has failed or when the tree is in a place it can no longer safely occupy.

In the Big Country we see the same handful of situations over and over. Drought-stressed mesquite and hackberry that never leafed back out. Red oaks with a storm crack running down the main trunk. Aging pecans dropping heavy limbs over a driveway. Bradford pears that split at the crotch, which is what Bradford pears eventually do. Chinaberry and Siberian elm that were volunteers to begin with and are now growing into a foundation or a septic line.

Signs a tree is past saving

• Mushrooms or conks growing at the base or on the trunk, which usually means internal decay
• A cavity you can put your arm into, or bark that sounds hollow when tapped
• A fresh lean with soil heaving or cracking on the opposite side of the root plate
• More than about half the canopy dead, with no new growth after a wet spring
• A split or included bark seam running down a main union
• Roots cut through on one side for a driveway, foundation repair or utility trench

How the takedown actually works

The method depends entirely on what surrounds the tree. In an open pasture outside Buffalo Gap, a tree can be notched and felled in one piece, which is fast and inexpensive. Ten feet from a roofline in Wylie, or under the power drop off Buffalo Gap Road, nothing gets felled at all.

There the tree comes apart from the top down. A climber or a lift operator works up through the canopy, removing limbs in pieces small enough to control. Larger limbs get roped and lowered rather than dropped. Once the canopy is off, the trunk is blocked down in sections, each cut sized so the piece lands where it is supposed to land. It is slower and it costs more, and it is the only responsible way to work over a roof, a fence, a pool or a neighbor’s driveway.

Anything within reach of overhead lines is a different conversation. Service drops running to the house are ours to work around carefully. Primary distribution lines are not, and those jobs get coordinated with the utility before anyone climbs.

What Affects the Price of Tree Removal

Nobody can quote a tree honestly without seeing it, and any company that gives you a firm number over the phone without a photo is guessing. That said, the same handful of factors drive the price on every job, and it helps to know what they are before you call anyone.

Dead trees are worth mentioning separately. People often assume a dead tree is cheaper because there is no canopy to deal with. It frequently costs more. Dead wood is brittle and unpredictable, limbs snap instead of bending, and a climber cannot trust the structure the way they can on a live tree. A dead tree that has been standing for two seasons is a harder job than a healthy one of the same size.

What the price includes with us

• The takedown itself, done in whatever manner the surroundings require
• All brush chipped and hauled off
• Trunk wood cut into manageable rounds and removed, or stacked on site if you want the firewood
• The work area raked and blown clean before we leave

Stump grinding, hauling off existing debris that was already in the yard, and any landscaping repair are quoted on top. We tell you which is which before the work starts so the final number is the number you agreed to.

Emergency and Storm Removals

When a tree comes down across a driveway at nine at night, priorities change. The first job is making the property safe and passable, not producing a tidy landscape. That usually means cutting the trunk clear of whatever it is blocking, dealing with any limb still hanging in the canopy, and stabilizing the situation until proper daylight work can happen.

A few things worth knowing about storm damage in Abilene. Trees that have already failed once tend to fail again, so a tree that dropped a major limb is worth looking at closely before the next round of weather. If a tree is resting on a structure or tangled in a power line, do not approach it, and call the utility first. And take photos before anything is cut, because your insurer will want them.

We cover storm work in more detail on the storm and emergency cleanup page.

After the Tree Is Gone

You are left with a stump, and usually a circle of ground that has been shaded for years. Most people grind the stump at the same time as the removal, simply because the crew and the equipment are already there and it is cheaper than a separate trip. Grinding takes the stump down below grade so you can mow over it, rake in topsoil and replant or sod.

The alternative is leaving it. That is a legitimate choice in a back corner of a lot, though a stump will sprout, attract termites over time and remain something you have to mow around. Details are on the stump grinding page.

If you are removing a tree that was providing shade to a west-facing wall, it is worth planting something back. Cedar elm, chinquapin oak, Texas red oak and bur oak all handle Abilene soil and heat far better than the fast-growing species that tend to fail here. Plant in fall, water deeply and infrequently through the first two summers, and keep mulch off the trunk itself.

Two Species That Get Their Own Page

Two removals come up here often enough that they are handled separately. Cedar, which in this part of Texas usually means juniper, grows in multi stemmed clumps rather than off a single trunk, so it comes down differently and fills more truck than its height suggests. That is on the cedar tree removal page. And when the job is not one tree but a fence line or several acres of it, that is lot clearing, which gets quoted on brush, trees and stumps as three separate things rather than by the tree.