Looking for a free estimate tree service?

Medium Answer (Feels Long on Mobile):

• You are primarily paying for 5 things when you pay for tree care/removal: 1). the skills required to assess the condition of the tree and blend that with your goals/objectives, 2). the time it takes to get to the jobsite, perform the work, dispose of the wood and get back to home base, 3). the cost of disposing/processing the debris, 4). the risk of the job, 5). the urgency with which you want the work done. If you see a big discrepancy between quotes, feel free to ask a company what the driving factors on their prices are to better understand the gaps.

• There is sometimes price flexibility based on the ability for a company to leave the debris on site. Ask about options but don’t get your hopes up. For example, a company might save on disposal costs, but if it takes an extra hour to cut firewood lengths then they probably lost all the savings. Also, be very careful with what debris/logs you think you can handle yourself. I always ask people who want to keep the wood for the size of their chainsaw and what able-bodied people are in their life. You don’t want a mess you can’t handle and then the double mobilization costs of bringing a company back out. IMPORTANT NOTE: Clarify what debris will be left onsite and over communicate. Is a tree service just getting the debris on the ground and walking away, are they organizing it into piles, are they taking away branches and leaving bigger wood, what’s the minimum diameter that they are leaving, will they cut fatter pieces to firewood length, will they stack firewood sized rounds or pile them? You don’t want ambiguity on this, since one guy might be $500 cheaper but the other guy would’ve provided $500 more value and left you better positioned.

• Seasonality is a huge driving factor on price, and if you can wait until December-February to get an estimate then you might see prices a full 50% lower than in the Summer. Plenty of tree services just don’t have enough work and don’t do a good job with cash-flow which leads to underbidding and low prices. I value booking the winter enough that I will sometimes offer 10%-20% off for someone to defer their work. If you can be patient you can often save big money.

• You may get a higher price if you hire a company with ISA certified arborists but get a more reliable outcome for your price. Having met hundreds of tree workers in my life, I have seen that people pursuing arborist certification generally care more about doing good work and improving in their craft. That’s not to mention the actual education on safety, managing risk, tree biology, assessing trees, etc. Consider getting your quotes from certified individuals and then filtering the low bidder for large or complex work.

• If you see a huge discrepancy between quotes, some tree services pay their taxes and others expect cash so they can avoid taxes. When factoring in the total tax burden of Nova Tree Care I pay roughly 40% more than someone who doesn’t pay taxes. In real terms, on a $1200 vs $2000 bid we have the same profit margin. That is a tough reality and explains some of the pricing discrepancies in the industry (but not all).

• There are plenty of people who are very skilled in removing trees who don’t know very much about tree care or keeping trees alive and vice versa. Therefore, when pursuing a tree removal it’s less important that you hire a company with ISA certified arborists. My primary caveat (and it is meaningful one) is that a certified arborist is more likely to give you a better tree risk assessment. I regularly tell clients “you don’t need to remove this tree if the driving factor is the risk to x”. Simply put, the uneducated tree company may say “yep, that tree needs to come down” when it doesn’t actually need to. The ISA offers a specific “tree risk assessment” certification. I hold this cert, recommend it to other arborists and believe that people with the cert will do a better job assessing your tree for removal.

• On the flipside, if your goal is to keep a tree healthy, you probably want a certified arborist in Indianapolis (and anywhere). There are a ridiculous number of factors that go into the health of the tree including soil conditions, species, pests and other conditions of concern, weather patterns… the list goes on. Unfortunately, many companies blow smoke when they recommend whether your tree should be pruned, treated, cabled or otherwise. You want a certified arborist who tells you when they don’t know something and can recommend you to other experts. Candidly, there are other companies in Indianapolis that provide tree treatment better than us. That said, I think we are probably one of the best companies for tree pruning in Indianapolis. I have a certification specifically for prescription pruning and have dialed in my climbing skills to be able to access all areas of most trees; other certified workers have their own areas of excellence. Either way, you probably want a certified arborist for non-removal tree care.

• This will probably be a controversial recommendation but it is my personal belief: The lower the risk of the tree, the greater the flexibility to hire less experienced crews and save on cost. Some jobs don’t need the Cadillac tree service and can get by with a solid Honda. If the tree is out of range of your house, patio, sheds or other expensive objects, you might (emphasis on “might”) be just fine with the lower bidder who doesn’t present as well as the other companies. The only thing I’ll name is that you may end up paying for it because of their cleanup job, damage to your lawn, dishonesty with scope or other scenarios. That said, sometimes you’ll pay way less and the service is comparable. Just be thoughtful about the choice.