What Does Tree Removal Cost?

Why we will not give you a number over the phone

Two Maples the same height can be a morning's work or two days of it. The difference is almost never the tree itself. It is what is underneath it, how we can get to it, and what state the wood is in, and none of that can be judged from a description on the phone.

A phone price has to allow for everything that might be wrong with a tree nobody has looked at. So it is either padded to protect the company, which costs you money, or it is low and changes when the crew arrives, which costs you trust. We would rather come out, look properly, and give you a price for your job. The estimate is free.

What actually sets the price

What it could land on. This is the big one. A tree in an open field can often be dropped in one piece. The same tree over a house, a garage, a fence, a pool or a power line has to come down in sections, each one rigged and lowered under control. That is slower, needs more people, and is where most of the cost of a removal lives.

Size. Height and trunk diameter decide how much wood there is to cut, lower and move.

Access. Whether equipment can reach the tree or everything has to go through a side gate by hand. A backyard with no access is a different day from a front yard beside the driveway.

Condition. Dead wood is brittle and unpredictable, and a dead tree often cannot be climbed or rigged the way a living one can. A dead Ash is a good example, and our dead Ash guide explains why it changes the job.

The stump and the cleanup. Whether you want the stump ground out, and whether the wood is hauled away or left cut to length for firewood. Stump grinding is its own step.

Weekends, emergencies and travel

Weekends cost the same. A booked removal on a Saturday is priced the same as it would be on a Wednesday. There is no weekend surcharge.

Emergencies are the exception. There is no flat emergency rate, because no two are alike. An emergency is quoted on site on what it actually involves, and it is usually more than the same work booked in advance: it is more complex, done under time pressure, and other work gets moved to fit it in.

Travel. Port Hope and Cobourg are priced the same as Bowmanville. Further out, around Grafton or anywhere over an hour away, small jobs can carry a small travel allowance, and if one applies it is written into the quote before you agree to anything. It never appears on the bill as a surprise.

How to get a useful estimate quickly

When you call or send a message, tell us roughly how tall the tree is, what is under it or near it, and whether we can get into the yard. A couple of photos, one of the whole tree and one of what is around the base, save a lot of back and forth. We will then come and look, and you will get a price for your actual job.

If you are also wondering whether you need permission to take it down, our permit guide for Durham Region covers that. And if you are not sure the tree needs to come down at all, start with is my tree dead?.