We match Utah homeowners with tree companies that cut what needs cutting and leave the rest of the tree standing. Tell us what your tree is doing and we will point you at people who work on trees for a living.
Good tree work is mostly restraint, and topping is not pruning.
Most calls that start as removal end up as pruning, and a few that start as pruning should have been removal. Describe the tree and we will get you the right crew rather than the loudest one.
Some trees do have to come down. How that goes is decided by access, by what sits underneath the tree, and by whether it can be dropped whole or has to be taken apart in pieces from the top down.
Learn more →Real pruning takes specific limbs off at the branch collar for a specific reason: clearance, deadwood, a rubbing branch. It does not mean shortening everything on the tree, and we match you with crews that know the difference.
Learn more →Wind and heavy wet snow leave limbs hanging over driveways, cars and doorways. That is the real urgency. You get crews who triage the hazard over your head first and worry about tidy cleanup second.
Learn more →Grinding is a separate operation from removal, with its own machine and its own gate-width problem. It also makes a startling volume of chips, so you should decide up front how deep it goes and where those chips end up.
Learn more →A lean, a split fork, mushrooms at the base, a strip of bark gone: the tree is telling you something. An assessment reads it honestly, and often the honest answer is that the tree is fine and should be left alone.
Learn more →Three steps, and the first one is just a conversation.
Size, distance from the house, what is underneath, and how a crew reaches it. Access drives most of what a removal costs.
Plenty of calls that start as removal end as pruning. A crew willing to say the tree is fine is worth more than one that is not.
Dead or hanging limbs over something you care about are the real urgency. Debris on the lawn can wait for a normal appointment.
Topping is cutting the main limbs of a tree back to stubs, and it is the single practice that turns a healthy shade tree into a problem. It damages the tree, and the regrowth that comes back is weak, crowded and poorly attached to what is left. The trade has regarded it as bad practice for a long time, and yet it keeps getting sold, because a homeowner worried about size calls someone who is paid by the cut. You are not wrong to worry about a big tree over your house. You are just being sold the wrong answer to that worry.
The right answer is almost always smaller than what you were quoted. Specific limbs come off at the branch collar for a stated reason, the dead wood comes out, the limb over the roof gets removed rather than the whole crown getting shortened, and the tree keeps doing the job you bought a house with a tree for. We look for crews who will tell you a tree needs less work than you expected, because that is the harder sentence to say and the one that tells you who you are dealing with.
We are a referral service, not a crew. You call 801-823-6018 or send the form, and you tell us the plain version: what kind of tree it is if you know, roughly how tall compared to the house, what is directly underneath it, what changed recently, and what is worrying you. That last part matters more than people expect, because a limb over a bedroom and a limb over an empty side yard are the same limb to the tree and completely different problems to you. We pass that to a company that works your area and does that kind of work.
A few things we will tell you before anyone shows up. A tree growing into a power line is generally the utility's problem rather than yours, and you should never put a ladder, a pole saw or anything metal near the service drop running to your house. A tree close to a structure or a line is a specialist job with rigging, not a ladder-and-chainsaw Saturday. And the strip between your sidewalk and the street is often regulated by your city, so check with them before anyone touches that tree, whichever direction you are leaning.
Salt Lake, Utah, Davis, and Weber counties — Ogden down to Provo.
Salt Lake City · Holladay · Murray · Ogden · Provo · West Jordan
Look for the things a tree cannot hide: a lean that changed, a fork that is splitting, mushrooms or a soft spot at the base, a strip of bark missing down the trunk, or a canopy going thin from the top. Any of those earns a look. Size alone does not. Plenty of trees get removed for being big near a house when the actual fix was taking two limbs off the roof side.
It depends on the species and on what you are trying to accomplish, so there is no single calendar answer. Dormant season work suits a lot of trees, and it has the practical advantage that the structure is visible with the leaves off. Broken, dead or hanging limbs are the exception. Those are a hazard question, not a timing question, and they come out whenever you find them.
Not you, and generally not a tree company you hire. Line clearance around distribution lines is normally the utility's responsibility, so call them and describe what you see. The service drop running from the pole to your house deserves the same distance. Do not prune near it, do not lean a ladder next to it, and do not let anyone tell you it is a quick job. Wait for the people with the right training and equipment.
No. Topping cuts the main limbs back to stubs, which damages the tree and forces out weak, crowded regrowth attached to the outside of the old wound. You end up with a tree that looks butchered now and is less sound later, and you pay again when that regrowth needs dealing with. If height or a limb over the house is the worry, ask for specific limbs removed at the branch collar instead.
Check with your city first. Many municipalities along the Wasatch Front regulate trees in the park strip, including which species can go in and whether removal or heavy pruning needs approval, and that holds even when the strip is technically part of your lot. It is a short phone call and it is far cheaper than finding out afterward. Any decent tree company will expect you to ask.
Get the tree looked at by someone who will tell you to leave it alone.
Request an AssessmentDescribe the tree, what is under it, and what changed. We will take it from there.