What is the difference between a quote and an estimate?

A quote is a fixed figure for a described job, and an estimate is a figure that can move. Ask which one you are being given. For tree work, the description behind the number matters more than the label: method, finished shape, arisings, timber, stump and timescale should all be set out in writing.

Why does pruning cost more in summer?

There is more growth to cut and more to check. Between March and August, nests and young birds have to be looked for before a saw starts, and species at risk from silver leaf or heavy sap bleed should not be cut in the dormant season at all. A firm working to the tree calendar takes longer than one working to its own.

Can you just top the tree?

Topping, which means cutting the top off at a chosen height, is not how trees are managed. It leaves large wounds, forces a burst of weak regrowth and spoils the shape for good. Crown reduction takes the height and spread back to growing points, which is slower work and the right way to do it.

Do the stump and the roots have to go before I replant?

The stump has to be ground out, or the new tree planted somewhere else. Replanting into a stump means planting into old wood and hungry chips. The roots of the old tree rot down in their own time, but the grinder arisings need lifting out and the soil improving before a tree goes back in.

Who takes the clippings away?

That should be written into the quote. Brushwood is chipped, and the chip either stays on site for your borders or leaves with the crew. A big reduction can produce several loads, and a tight driveway means every one of them is barrowed to the road by hand.

How do I find someone local to cut a tree safely?

Plenty of names come back for tree pruning near me, so use the checks that matter: a site visit before the quote, a written method, insurance cover and NPTC certificates. Ross Webster Tree Services cover the tree surgery this practice does not carry out, and the panel on this page links to their site.

How often does a hedge or shrub need cutting?

A formal hedge is kept sharp by light cuts two or three times a year, and that frequency is what you are paying for rather than the length of any single visit. Informal shrubs need less. A shrub cut at the wrong time of year, such as a spring flowering one cut in winter, loses its flowers for a season.

Will a firm come out for a single small tree?

Yes, and a firm already working a round in the area will usually fit a single tree in on the way past, which keeps the visit sensible. If you are working through tree cutting near me results, ask whether they are already working nearby, because travelling time is part of what you pay for.

Garden service

Tree cutting cost and tree pruning cost in North Yorkshire and County Durham

What drives tree cutting cost and tree pruning cost, what changes a stump grinding job, and how a written quote is put together before any work starts.

Enquire about this work All garden services

How the specification decides the price

Tree cutting cost follows the time a job genuinely takes, and that starts with the specification. A specification is a description of the finished tree, and it decides everything else: lift the crown to clear a path, thin the canopy for light, take out the deadwood, reduce the spread away from a roof, shape a young tree. Those are five different jobs, and each takes a different amount of time in the air.

What a specification changes

A crown lift takes the lowest limbs off to a stated height, which is measured work from a ladder or from the ground. A thin takes a proportion of the secondary growth out through the whole crown, so the climber works the tree all over rather than in one place. Deadwooding is slow because every dead limb has to be found, cut and lowered. A reduction takes height and spread back to growing points, cutting wood that is often too thick for a hand saw.

The size of the cuts matters as much as their number. Many careful cuts with a pruning saw take longer than a few heavy cuts with a chainsaw, and the tree heals better for it. Reach decides the rest: work carried out from the ground, from a ladder, from a platform or on a rope above a greenhouse is priced differently for the same weight of timber removed.

A one off tidy up and a tree on a maintenance round are priced differently too. Regular work keeps a tree in shape with less cutting at each visit, and the crew already knows the tree.

Why the season and the species change the price

Tree pruning cost moves with the season and the species. Dormant season pruning suits structural work on most deciduous trees, because the branch structure is easy to read without leaves and the tree responds with strong growth in spring.

Species that set the window

Birch, acer, walnut and vine bleed heavily if they are cut in late winter or spring, so a careful firm plans that work for midsummer instead. Plum, damson and cherry are at risk from silver leaf, a fungus that releases spores through the dormant months, so they are pruned from late spring into summer. A firm willing to cut any tree in any month is working to its own diary rather than to the tree.

Birds, and why summer takes longer

Between March and August, nests and young birds have to be looked for before anything is cut, so work may wait or move to another part of the crown. Summer pruning also means cutting through leaf, which hides the branch structure and slows every decision.

Access sets the method. A tree with room around it can be worked from the ground and a ladder. A tree over a conservatory, a boundary or a power line needs rigging so nothing is dropped, and a decaying tree may need a platform because it is not sound enough to climb. Those choices are what separate two quotes on the same tree.

What it costs to be rid of a stump

Stump grinding cost turns on the stump. Diameter sets how many passes the cutter makes, and the species sets how hard the wood is, so a soft old conifer stump and a seasoned oak stump of the same width are not the same job. The grinder also has to stop where it meets a service, a fence footing or a root belonging to a tree worth keeping.

Access and arisings

A grinder is a heavy machine that needs a clear run to the stump. Where there is no vehicle access, the machine is barrowed in and the arisings are barrowed out by hand, which takes as long as the grinding itself. A stump tight against a wall or over a drain may have to be cut lower than usual, leaving more of the root to rot in its own time.

What is left behind

Grinding leaves a hole of chips and soil, and that ground settles as the wood breaks down. Replanting means lifting the chips out and improving the soil first, which is where our tree planting service begins. Leave a stump in place and expect shoots from the base on species that coppice freely, such as willow, poplar and sycamore.

Stump grinding, stump removal and the tree removal that usually comes first are Ross Webster Tree Services work, and the panel below this page links to their site. Our article on tree stumps in the garden covers regrowth and what actually kills a stump.

What prices shrub and hedge work

Shrubs, hedges and topiary follow the same logic as tree pruning: time, access, reach and waste. A hedge is priced by its length, its height and the number of cuts a year it needs to stay tidy. A formal hedge in yew, box, privet or hornbeam is kept by cutting little and often, so the number of visits is what you are buying rather than the length of any single one.

Shrubs are quicker to cut, but timing decides the result. Cutting a spring flowering shrub such as forsythia or lilac in winter removes the wood that would have carried the flowers, and it sulks for a season. Summer flowering shrubs are cut in late winter or early spring. An old shrub that has gone bare at the base often cannot be cut back into shape unless the species will shoot from old wood, so the answer there is lifting and replanting.

Shrub and hedge work sits inside our garden maintenance rounds, and the shaping of trained plants is covered with our garden tree pruning work.

What affects tree pruning cost

Five things change the figure more than anything else, and a written quote should tell you which of them apply to your tree.

Reach and access. How close the chipper gets, whether a platform is needed, and how far the arisings have to travel by hand.
Soundness. Whether the tree is safe to climb, or whether a hollow trunk or a lifting root plate forces another method.
Proximity. Buildings, boundaries, conservatories, overhead power lines and buried services decide how much rope work and protection the job needs.
Method. A straight reduction from the ground and a ladder, or a dismantle in sections with rigging on every limb.
Waste and consent. What leaves the site, and whether a tree preservation order or conservation area consent has to be approved first.

Insurance and qualification levels belong in the price as well. Public liability cover at a level a commercial client will accept, NPTC certificates for every saw on the site, and the rigging kit that goes with the job are not free, and a price with no room for them has usually left something out.

A verbal quote is a rough guide while you decide whether to go ahead. The written one should state the method, the finished shape, what is removed and what is left on site, and who does the climbing. Where the work is beyond garden pruning, it goes to Ross Webster Tree Services, who handle crown reductions, tree removal, stump grinding, storm work, surveys and commercial contracts, and the panel below this page links to their site.

Tree surgery, handled locally

Tree surgery is handled by Ross Webster Tree Services

This page covers the garden side of tree work: planting, pruning and aftercare. Tree removal, crown reductions, stump grinding, emergency and storm work, tree surveys, ash dieback and commercial contracts are carried out by Ross Webster Tree Services.

Tree removal
Crown reductions
Stump grinding
Emergency and storm work
Tree surveys
Ash dieback
Commercial contracts

They work across the same ground as this practice, and their contact details are on their site.

Ross Webster Tree Services

Questions about tree cutting cost

What is the difference between a quote and an estimate?: A quote is a fixed figure for a described job, and an estimate is a figure that can move. Ask which one you are being given. For tree work, the description behind the number matters more than the label: method, finished shape, arisings, timber, stump and timescale should all be set out in writing.
Why does pruning cost more in summer?: There is more growth to cut and more to check. Between March and August, nests and young birds have to be looked for before a saw starts, and species at risk from silver leaf or heavy sap bleed should not be cut in the dormant season at all. A firm working to the tree calendar takes longer than one working to its own.
Can you just top the tree?: Topping, which means cutting the top off at a chosen height, is not how trees are managed. It leaves large wounds, forces a burst of weak regrowth and spoils the shape for good. Crown reduction takes the height and spread back to growing points, which is slower work and the right way to do it.
Do the stump and the roots have to go before I replant?: The stump has to be ground out, or the new tree planted somewhere else. Replanting into a stump means planting into old wood and hungry chips. The roots of the old tree rot down in their own time, but the grinder arisings need lifting out and the soil improving before a tree goes back in.
Who takes the clippings away?: That should be written into the quote. Brushwood is chipped, and the chip either stays on site for your borders or leaves with the crew. A big reduction can produce several loads, and a tight driveway means every one of them is barrowed to the road by hand.
How do I find someone local to cut a tree safely?: Plenty of names come back for tree pruning near me, so use the checks that matter: a site visit before the quote, a written method, insurance cover and NPTC certificates. Ross Webster Tree Services cover the tree surgery this practice does not carry out, and the panel on this page links to their site.
How often does a hedge or shrub need cutting?: A formal hedge is kept sharp by light cuts two or three times a year, and that frequency is what you are paying for rather than the length of any single visit. Informal shrubs need less. A shrub cut at the wrong time of year, such as a spring flowering one cut in winter, loses its flowers for a season.
Will a firm come out for a single small tree?: Yes, and a firm already working a round in the area will usually fit a single tree in on the way past, which keeps the visit sensible. If you are working through tree cutting near me results, ask whether they are already working nearby, because travelling time is part of what you pay for.

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