Tree Removal in Akron, OH

Tree removal on an Akron lot is almost never a matter of notching the trunk and letting it fall. On a 40-foot-wide city lot in Firestone Park or North Hill, a mature tree usually has a house on one side, a garage on another and a neighbor's yard or power line on a third. So the tree is taken down from the top: a climber or a bucket truck removes the limbs, then the trunk in sections, and heavy pieces are tied off and lowered on ropes so they land where they're supposed to. What the job costs depends far more on that rigging, the access and the condition of the wood than on the tree's height alone.

Signs a tree should come out

Some trees are easy calls. A tree that leafed out on only half its crown, one with mushrooms or conks growing from the root flare, a trunk with a long vertical crack, a fresh lean with heaved soil on the uphill side, or a hollow you can put your arm into are all reasons to remove or at least get the tree looked at closely. Others are judgment calls: a healthy silver maple that's simply too big for a small backyard, an oak whose roots are lifting the driveway, a tree that drops a limb on the garage every winter. We'll tell you what we see, and if pruning or cabling could keep the tree safely, we'll say that too.

Dead ash in Akron yards

Emerald ash borer was first found in Ohio in 2003, and in the years since it has killed most of the untreated ash in Summit County. Many backyards and wooded lot edges still have dead ash standing, often gray and barkless. Dead ash dries out quickly and gets brittle; limbs snap when a climber ties into them, and the trunk can break unexpectedly when a section is cut. A dead ash that's been standing for years may need a bucket truck or a crane instead of a climber, which costs more. If there's a dead ash within reach of your house, driveway or the street, removing it sooner is simpler and safer.

Beech and oak removals

Beech leaf disease has spread across northeast Ohio since it was first found in Lake County in 2012, and Ohio State University Extension notes that infected beech can die within two to seven years. Oaks on Akron's north and west sides have been lost to oak wilt. When an oak has died from oak wilt, how the wood is handled matters, because the fungus can spread from infected wood and through connected roots to nearby oaks. We'll talk through those options before the job.

Trees near wires and the street

We don't cut near energized power lines; Ohio Edison handles trees in contact with its lines, and we can take the rest of the tree once the line is clear. A tree in the devil strip between the sidewalk and curb is in the city right-of-way, and Akron's Parks Maintenance forestry crew handles street tree removals; call 311 about those. Over roofs, limbs are rigged so they swing away from the house instead of dropping onto it.

Logs, brush and the stump

You decide what happens to the wood: left in rounds, cut to firewood length, or hauled off. Brush goes through the chipper, and the chips can stay for mulch or leave with us. The stump is a separate line on the quote, and grinding can happen the same day or later.