The Cost of Tree Service
Our goal at Classic City Arborists is always to price our services reasonably and in line with current market rates. But many of our customers still experience “sticker shock” when receiving their quote, especially if they’ve never had tree work done before. Even cutting down just one little old tree can be more expensive than you’d expect, let alone doing something more complicated like a canopy raise or getting a downed limb off a roof.
So why is tree work so expensive?
Tree Work is Complicated
No one has ever accused tree work of being simple. Even the most straightforward projects still have a lot of factors to consider:
What equipment do we need?
How do we get our equipment to the tree?
How many workers are needed to operate that equipment?
Where can we let the tree or limbs fall?
What structures (houses, cars, fences, sheds) do we need to work around?
Can we leave the tree on the ground, or do we need to haul away the debris?
If we’re taking the debris, how do we get it to our wood chipper?
Once we’re finished, how do we get our equipment back to our truck?
How long will this job take from start to finish?
There are other considerations depending on the type of work, of course. Pruning deadwood from a tree, for example, requires finesse to ensure we don’t hurt healthy branches as we trim, and to make sure each branch falls exactly where we want it to without hitting anything (or anyone!) on the way down.
We like to think we make it look easy, but no matter what kind of tree work it is, things are much more complex than they appear.
Education, Training, and Certification
With such complex work, you of course want to make sure everyone involved not only knows what they’re doing, but is properly certified. That means plenty of training and education for our employees. Our co-owner, Scott Rushing, is a Certified Arborist, and maintains his certification through the International Society of Arboriculture (ISA) with continuing education courses every year to ensure he’s up-to-date on all the latest tree care policies and procedures.
To learn more about what it means to be a Certified Arborist, check out our article on ISA Certification.
Full Coverage Insurance
Our team is fully educated and trained, with years of experience in safe practices, but no matter how prepared you are, tree work is still dangerous. Most of our work is performed on structurally compromised trees, and what we do requires us to get up close and personal with failing and at-risk trees on a daily basis. Even working on a healthy tree isn’t without risk.
So, to protect our customers and their property, we maintain full liability insurance, and to protect our employees, we maintain Worker’s Comp insurance. These coverages are expensive, but we believe they’re worth every penny.
Click here to learn more about why hiring an insured tree company is important.
Employee Benefits
As we’ve said, this job is dangerous. Treating our employees right is a vital part of running our business, and we strive to provide fair compensation for the intense work this job requires.
We also value our employees like family, and want them to be able to maintain a healthy work-life balance. To that end, we offer both paid time off and paid holidays.
As you can see, there are a lot of considerations that go into how we price tree work. At Classic City Arborists, we want to be as transparent and open with our customers as possible. If you have any questions about the prices associated with work we’ve quoted for you, please don’t hesitate to ask us! We’ll be more than happy to discuss with you why things are priced the way they are, and what factors we’re focusing on for any given line item.
If you’re interested in working with us, fill out our contact form for a free estimate!
