Tree services across Oakland County

Reviewed by Robert Burgund, ISA Certified Arborist MI-4857A

• Established 2013
• Working in Oakland County since 2013
• ISA Certified Arborist MI-4857A
• Licensed & insured

Here is what we do, and what it honestly costs.

Tree removal, priced by what sits underneath

For trees that are dead, hazardous, storm-damaged or simply in the way.

Anywhere something sits below the tree, like a roof or a service drop, we take it down in sections. Each piece is lowered on a rope instead of felled in one cut.

Most removals in Oakland County land between $600 and $2,500. The price is driven far more by access and by what is underneath than by the tree itself.

Removal pricing and what is included →

When a crane is the safer call

Some trees should not be climbed. Deadwood you cannot trust a rope to, decay you cannot see the bottom of, or a lean that puts every cut directly over the house.

On those jobs a crane picks each section straight up and swings it clear instead of lowering it through the canopy. The climber spends less time aloft, there is less load on questionable wood, and nothing passes over your roof.

Crane-assisted removal starts at $3,500. On the right tree it saves money rather than costing it, because the job goes about twice as fast.

Pruning, and the four jobs that word covers

Trimming is one word for four very different jobs.

• Cleaning out deadwood
• Thinning a dense canopy
• Raising low limbs for clearance
• Reducing a tree that has outgrown its spot

They do different things and they cost different amounts, so it is worth knowing which one you are being quoted. Pruning a mature shade tree typically runs $400 to $900.

One promise up front: we do not top trees. Cutting main limbs back to stubs is still sold all over this county, and the ANSI A300 pruning standard calls it an unacceptable practice. There is a right way to bring a tree’s size down, and we explain it on the pruning page.

How pruning is timed, and what tree health care covers →Why we will not top your tree →

Stump grinding, taken below the surface

We grind stumps well below grade, deep enough that you can reseed, replant nearby or pave over the spot. Not shaved flush so the mower finds it again next spring.

Grinding is priced by the width of the stump, at $125 per foot of diameter measured at its widest point. Booked alongside the removal it avoids a separate trip.

Stump grinding costs and questions →

Tree planting, put in at the right depth

Most young trees that fail were planted too deep. The root flare gets buried, and the tree slowly girdles itself over years while everyone assumes it is just struggling.

We plant so the flare sits at grade, and we help pick a species that suits the spot rather than one that will outgrow it in twenty years.

Variety matters more here than it used to. Emerald ash borer took most of this region’s ash because so much of it was the same tree.

Tree planting service details →Why planting depth matters →

Cabling and bracing, keeping a good tree standing

A weak fork or a split trunk union does not always mean a tree has to come down. A steel cable or brace can support the joint so the tree keeps growing safely, for a fraction of what removal costs.

It is the right call on a mature, otherwise healthy tree with one structural weak point, and it can buy the tree decades of safe life.

Cabling and bracing typically runs around $400.

How cabling and bracing works →

Tree health care, catching problems early

Some tree problems are not structural. Emerald ash borer and oak wilt are the two pest and disease pressures we see most in Oakland County, and both have a real treatment window if caught in time.

An ash worth saving can often be protected with a trunk injection, and an oak with less than about 30% crown involvement can sometimes be held with a fungicide injection. Past those thresholds, treatment stops being worth it.

Emerald ash borer treatment → Oak wilt and the pruning window →

A written opinion before you decide

A tree risk assessment is a certified arborist’s written opinion on whether a tree actually needs to come down. Homeowners use them for insurance conversations, for settling things with a neighbor, or just to decide with real information. The fee is $399, and it is usually credited toward the work if you go ahead.

There is a practical legal angle too. In Michigan a property owner generally is not liable when a healthy tree fails in a storm. They can be liable when a tree was a known hazard and nothing was done, so a documented assessment protects you in both directions.

Storm damage? We answer at any hour

A tree on the house or across the driveway, handled around the clock, with the documentation your insurer will want.

After a big blow we triage. Structural emergencies first, stable-but-threatening hazards second, general cleanup after that.

Emergency and storm work is billed on an eight-hour minimum, based on the equipment the job needs.

Emergency response and insurance documentation →

Tree work in Waterford is not tree work in Royal Oak

Around the lakes, roots sit in saturated ground and whole trees go over instead of snapping. In the inner-ring suburbs it is all rigging, with tight lots and service lines through the back yards and no room to fell anything.

Up in Bloomfield Hills and Birmingham you are working around oaks and beeches older than the houses. Different trees and different methods, with a different removal ordinance nearly everywhere you go. We work all of it.

See every community we serve →