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What Is The Difference Between a Landscaper and a Tree Removal Company?
Many homeowners understandably confuse landscaping companies with tree removal professionals. After all, your trees are a part of your landscape, so it’s easy to assume that the company that cares for your lawn regularly can also fell a tree for you.
The primary difference between landscapers and tree removal specialists is that the former typically manages the curb appeal of homes.
Landscapers can take care of your lawn, garden beds, and the area around your trees to improve their appearance. Some are equipped to tackle light tree pruning, but most focus solely on cutting lawns, weeding, and routine landscaping services.
Certified arborists and tree service specialists, on the other hand, are more specialized. They deal exclusively with trees, usually safely tackling large-scale pruning, canopy thinning, diagnosing and treating tree diseases, and identifying and eradicating tree pests.
Most importantly, they are equipped to handle tree removal of any size tree, and their equipment and expertise make them far more likely to complete the removal job safely and without any damage to your property.
In most cases, homeowners hire landscapers to do maintenance like mowing and weed whacking, whereas they turn to tree specialists like us to prune their trees and to manage the health, appearance, and removal of trees and stumps on their properties.
When and Why You Should Hire a Tree Removal Company Over a Landscaper
Now that you know the main differences between a tree care company like us and a landscape maintenance company, you might be wondering when to call us over your landscapers for work you need done on your property.
Below, we’ll discuss all of the situations in which our tree removal specialists are a better fit than landscapers for the job at hand.
Tree Removal
If you need a tree removed from your property, you’re always better off calling in a tree specialist like us than a landscaper.
This is generally true regardless of the size of the tree, the location, and the condition.
Which Can Remove Small Trees?
If you need a very small tree removed — under 10 feet tall — landscapers might be able to handle the job for you.
Trees under 10 feet typically don’t pose much of a threat to your home, shed, fence, deck, or other personal property, and the risk of personal injury during the job is relatively low.
Although landscapers usually don’t have the equipment and tools at hand to handle tree removal, they might have a chainsaw or hand saw they can use to remove saplings or large bushes.
With that being said, it’s still a better option to hire a tree removal company for small trees. Experts like ours can ensure no damage is done to your property, however minimal it might be with a small tree.
We can also handle permitting for you, while landscapers almost never have the means to pull permits or the knowledge to know when one is required in your municipality.
Tree specialists like us deal with tree removal every single day, so we understand precisely when permits are required and can pull them before we get started.
This will avoid any complications with the local government and won’t leave you with any fines for illegal tree removal.
Which Can Remove Large Trees?
When it comes to removing large trees, you should always hire a tree removal specialist like us. Most landscapers don’t have the equipment to take down large trees, and those that do will lack the experience and know-how to do the job safely.
Removing trees over 15 feet tall typically requires specialized machinery and equipment. The safest way to fell trees is using the top-down method, which, as the name implies, begins at the top of the tree.
Bucket trucks, chainsaws, and pulley systems are required to carry out this method safely, and landscapers won’t have access to the necessary tools.
When you hire a tree removal company like us, we’ll take each limb down slowly and methodically to minimize the risk of damage to your house, personal property, and your lawn.
We have the experience to do the job safely and efficiently, so you’ll likely end up paying less and will have a lower chance of accidents.
If you leave the job to unskilled lawn care companies, you might be signing up for limbs hitting your house, workers getting hurt on the job, or severe damage to your flower beds or lawn below from falling limbs.
Even if you have a large tree in the middle of an open field and don’t care about the lawn below getting ruined, you’re still better off calling in experts like us.
We have access to heavy machinery to clean up limbs and remove pieces of the trunk, chippers to turn them into mulch for you, or split the logs into firewood. Most landscapers either leave the wood behind or remove the pieces manually, which is much less cost-effective.
Are Landscapers or Tree Removal Specialists Better for Emergency Removal?
When it comes to emergency tree removal, you should always call a tree specialist like us. There are a few different scenarios that may require emergency removal, and landscapers are ill-equipped to handle any of them.
Most homeowners who require emergency removal are worried about damaged, dying, or dead trees falling and hitting their home or other personal property.
Tree service companies like us understand the severity of these situations and can prioritize your job over any others. Landscapers may not comprehend just how urgent the removal might be and may not get to it in time.
Even if a landscaper is able to show up right away, they are far more likely to put your home and other personal property at risk of damages. Emergency removals are usually for trees that are already at risk of falling or dropping large limbs, so they’re often weakened or rotted.
Understanding how to remove hazardous trees while minimizing the risk of property damage takes years of experience, which landscapers simply won’t have.
Experts like ours have the specialized education to remove dangerous trees safely and the know-how to carry out the job quickly in order to remedy the situation before it becomes worse.
Emergency removals for fallen trees that have landed on your home or other personal property also require specialists like ours to remove and should never be delegated to a general landscaper.
These removals might seem less dangerous because the tree is already down, but we go to great lengths to get the tree removed without causing additional damage to your house.
Inexperienced landscapers may assume the job is straightforward and could end up costing you thousands or tens of thousands in additional property damage.
Other homeowners need tree removal services because of trees near power lines.
Landscapers who attempt to remove these trees without the proper grounding equipment or knowledge of how electricity can arc to the tree even if it isn’t touching the line put themselves at risk of severe electric shock and even death.
Only tree specialists or electric company workers should ever attempt to remove a tree or limbs within 10 feet of a power line.
Check out the video below for an interesting demonstration of how electricity can arc to trees near power lines:
Any Care for Or Removal of Infected Or Infested Trees
Tree removal and tree trimming are commonly required by homeowners because the tree has contracted a disease or is infested by a tree pest that weakens the tree.
Fungi, tree infections, and invasive pests can rapidly destroy a healthy tree and put your property and family at risk of damage and injury.
Not only is removing weakened trees inherently too dangerous for unspecialized landscapers, but they often won’t know how to manage the job or the wood removed in order to limit the spread to nearby trees.
When you hire a tree removal specialist like us, we arrive with the equipment and knowledge necessary to remove or treat the tree without putting your other trees at risk.
Most of the time, we’ll need to sanitize all of our equipment after removal, chip or burn any wood removed, and take out the stump entirely to stop the issue from affecting other trees on your property.
Landscapers may not know how to handle pest-infested or infected trees, and even if they do, they’re unlikely to have the equipment to contain the issue to the affected tree.
Hiring a landscaper to take down these trees could result in other trees needing to be removed, which will end up costing you significantly more in the long run.
Stump Removal
Finally, it’s not always clear to many homeowners whom they should hire for stump removal. If you’ve already called a tree specialist to take down the tree and you’re left with just a stump, you might assume that your landscaper can finish up the job.
Unfortunately, relying on your landscaper for stump removal comes with its own problems.
Most landscapers won’t have the equipment necessary to remove your stumps. Some might be willing to rent stump grinders or machinery to lift the stump out of the ground, but this will end up costing you more than hiring a tree specialist like us.
Even if they are able to remove your stump for you using the necessary equipment, they’re unlikely to know how much of the root system needs to be ground away to avoid lawn problems in the future and pest infestations that could end up costing you thousands of dollars in property damage.
When you hire a tree specialist like us to remove your stump, we’ll grind through the large roots in the root system that can rot and create significant dips in your lawn over time.
Additionally, we’ll be able to grind down far enough or treat the remaining roots to minimize the risk of carpenter ants and termites.
These pests are more likely to infest the remaining stump or roots if an inexperienced landscaper is called in for stump removal, and they could make their way to your home and cause significant damage once they consume what’s left of the stump.
Finally, stump grinding for stumps that were infested or infected by insects, disease, or fungi can cause issues for nearby trees. Experts like us will know how to take out the stump and minimize the risk of these issues spreading to nearby trees.
Ultimately, you should opt for a tree removal company like us to take stumps out safely and completely to avoid problems moving forward.
Wrapping Up: Should You Call a Landscaper or Tree Removal Company for Tree Removal?
The bottom line is that you should always defer to tree specialists like us for any type of tree or stump removal.
We specialize in taking down large trees, weakened trees, trees threatening your home or other personal property, diseased trees and stumps, and trees, stumps, and roots that are infested with pests.
Calling in our tree specialists over your landscaper for tree removal is very likely to save you money in the long run.
We also have far more experience removing trees than landscapers do, so we’ll have the techniques and expertise to take down trees or limbs without putting your home, personal property, and family at risk.
