Tree Removal in Lakewood, CA

When a tree needs to come out

Not every problem tree is a removal. Plenty of the trees we look at just need weight taken off the wrong side, and if that is your situation we will say so, because pruning would solve it for a fraction of the price. But there are cases where the tree has to go, and here they are honest and common.

• The roots are winning. Ficus and sweetgum planted at the curb in the 1950s are now lifting driveway slabs, cracking block wall footings, and finding their way into clay sewer laterals. Once a root system is under a slab, root pruning usually just destabilizes the tree.
• The tree is dead or dying. Upper canopy dieback, fungal conks at the base, peeling bark in sheets, or a trunk that sounds hollow when you knock on it. Dead trees do not fail politely.
• It leans and the ground is moving. A lean is not automatically dangerous, but cracked or heaved soil on the high side of the root plate is. On our flat, shallow-rooted ground, that is the sign we take most seriously.
• It outgrew the yard. A eucalyptus or Aleppo pine that is eighty feet tall on a lot with six feet of side yard has no good long-term ending.
• Storm damage. A tree that has already lost a major leader is usually not coming back into balance.

How we take down a tree on a Lakewood lot

The standard picture of tree removal, a truck backing up and a tree falling into an open space, almost never happens here. Yards are small, houses sit close, and most back yards have no vehicle access at all.

So we climb. A climber sets a rope high in the tree, and the tree comes apart from the top down in controlled pieces, each one lowered on a line rather than dropped. Ground crew feeds the brush into the chipper out at the street and carries the trunk wood out by hand through the side gate. Where there is a pool, a patio cover, or new hardscape underneath, we lay plywood and mats first.

Where the alley gives us room, the job goes faster and cheaper. Where there are service drops running over the yard, we work around them and keep clearance, and if the line has to be dropped, that is a call to your utility, not something anyone should be improvising around.

What is included in the price

We quote a flat number, in writing, after we have seen the tree and the way in. That number covers the takedown, cutting the wood down to a size we can move, hauling all of it off your property, and cleaning up the work area. There is no separate disposal charge tacked on at the end.

Two things are quoted separately because not everyone wants them. Removing what is left of the trunk means grinding it, so if you want the yard finished flat we will price what's left of the trunk at the same visit and do it while the equipment is already here. And if you want the trunk cut into firewood rounds and stacked instead of hauled, tell us and we will leave it, usually for less.

Emergencies are a different call

Everything on this page assumes we have time to plan. If there is a tree already on the house, or a cracked limb hanging over where your kids sleep, do not wait for a scheduled estimate. Call and we will get someone moving.

Book a removal estimate

Send an address and a couple of photos, or have us come out and walk the property with you. Estimates are free, the price we give is the price you pay, and nothing gets cut until you say go. Call (562) 502-1431 to get on the schedule.