Arborist Services

Most people don't ring an arborist because they've been reading about tree health. They ring because something's changed and it looks wrong. Here's what comes up most, and what's usually causing it.

Limbs dropping with no warning. Eucalypts shed limbs. It's normal behaviour, and it gets worse in a hot dry stretch because the tree drops weight it can't keep watered. The limb that lands on your shed roof was often dead for two seasons before it fell. You just couldn't see it from the ground.

The tree's leaning since the rain. Wet clay plus a shallow root plate is a bad combination, and Brisbane has plenty of both. When the soil turns to mud, the roots lose their grip on one side. A lean that appears after heavy rain is worth a look quickly, because soil heaving at the base tells us more than the angle of the trunk does.

Roots lifting the path, the driveway or the slab. Figs, poincianas and jacarandas send roots out wide and shallow rather than down. Concrete cracks, pavers tilt, and the mower catches every single time. This is where root chasing comes in, and it's a separate job to grinding the stump itself.

A split or a crack in a big fork. Where two heavy limbs meet at a narrow angle, bark gets trapped in the join and the union never fuses properly. It holds for years, then one wet windy night it doesn't. Often the tree was topped decades ago, and the regrowth that shot out of the cut is all hanging off that same weak point.

Branches on the roof and gutters that never stay clear. Common on the 1960s and 70s brick and tile stock through Mansfield and the suburbs around it, where a tree planted in the middle of the yard has caught up with the house. Constant rubbing lifts tiles and wears out the ridge capping.

The whole yard's in shade and the lawn's given up. Not a safety problem. Still a real one. Usually sorted with a crown lift or a thinning prune rather than losing the tree altogether.

Fungus at the base, or a hollow sound when you knock. Bracket fungus at the butt of the trunk means decay inside. That's a proper assessment job, because a tree with a hollow base can look perfectly healthy up in the canopy right until it fails.

Access has got tighter. Newer estates around Eight Mile Plains and Rochedale South are built close to the boundary, so the side gate is narrow and there's nowhere to drop anything. That's a rigging job, not a fell-and-chip job, and the quote reflects it.

No mystery to it. Here's what you'll see.

You ring 0400 721 715 and you'll usually get Troy. Tell him what the tree's doing and roughly where it sits. Photos help a lot, especially of the side access, so send a couple through if you can. That way we turn up with the right machine instead of the wrong one.

Then we come and look. That's a proper site visit, not a drive-by. We walk the block, look up into the canopy, check the base and the root zone, and work out how we're getting gear in and debris out. We'll measure the side gate if it's tight. We look at what's under the tree too: the pool, the shed, the neighbour's colorbond, the sewer line. If a selective prune will fix the problem, we'll say so rather than sell you a removal.

Council gets checked at this stage. Some trees need approval before anyone touches them, depending on the council, the species, and whether the property sits in a vegetation overlay. We'll flag it while we're standing there and point you to the right form. We don't cut anything that needs approval until the paperwork's sorted.

You get a written price. It covers the work, the clean-up, and the stump if you want it done. No hourly creep.

Once you book, we do the prep. Underground services get located before any machine goes into the ground, so we're not putting a grinder wheel through a water main or a comms line. If the job sits in a known koala habitat area, we take extra care and check for wildlife before anything comes down. If we're going to be loud early, or we need to get near a boundary, we let the neighbours know.

On the day the crew turns up, walks you through the plan, then sets up. Drop zone marked and roped off. Bog mats down if the turf's soft. A climber goes up on ropes, or the spider EWP goes in if that suits better. EWP means elevated work platform, the same thing as a cherry picker, just on tracks so it fits through gaps a truck never would.

Then it comes down in sections. Rigged and lowered rather than dropped, anywhere near a structure. Branches go through the chipper, timber gets cut and loaded out, and the grinder comes in for the stump. Standard depth is 100 to 200mm below ground level, deeper if you're laying concrete, putting in a pool or building over the top. Tell us what's going there and we'll grind to suit.

Last bit is the clean-up, and it's the part customers mention most. Chips barrowed out, or left as mulch if you want them. Lawn raked, paths blown down, gates shut. Then we walk the job with you before we leave, so if something's not right you can tell us while we're still standing in the yard.

Access is nearly always the hard part on a Brisbane job, so we carry a range rather than one machine.

Narrow walk-behind grinders that fit most standard side gates, and go up and down steps. Bigger tracked grinders for open blocks and heavy root systems. A spider EWP on tracks for canopy work where a truck-mounted lift can't get in. Climbing and rigging kit for everything else: ropes, slings, blocks and lowering devices, so big sections come down under control instead of getting thrown. Chipper and tipper on site so the debris leaves with us.

Bog mats go under the machines on soft ground. Ruts across a lawn take months to come back, and we'd rather spend ten minutes laying boards than leave you with a repair job.

The standards side is straightforward. Pruning follows AS 4373 Pruning of Amenity Trees, which sets out proper cuts and the difference between a crown lift, a crown thin and a reduction. That's the document that says topping a tree isn't pruning. Where we're working around trees on a building site, AS 4970 Protection of Trees on Development Sites covers the protection zone around the trunk and roots. Chainsaw work follows AS 2727 Chainsaws, Guide to Safe Working Practices.

Underground services get located through the Before You Dig Australia process on any grind. Anything inside the exclusion zone around a live powerline is a job for an Energex approved crew, and we'll tell you straight if that's what yours needs rather than have a go at it.

If your body corporate, insurer or builder wants our paperwork before we start, ask and we'll send it through.

Our hours are 7 days, 6am to 6pm. Outside those hours, call any time for emergencies, 24 hours a day. For anything else, leave a message and we call back first thing.

Inside those hours, storm jobs jump the queue. Through summer that's most of what the phone is about. A limb hung up in the canopy. A tree across the driveway. Half a gum leaning on a fence after a big blow. We'll get someone out to make it safe, which usually means taking the hazard down and clearing enough for you to use the yard and get the car out. The tidy-up and any remaining work can be booked in later that week.

What to do before we get there. Keep everyone well clear, pets included, and don't stand under a hung-up limb even if it looks settled. If anything is touching or close to a powerline, stay away from it and ring Energex, not us. If someone's hurt, ring 000 first. And don't climb up on the roof to have a look.

If your insurer wants it in writing, say so when you book. We'll note down what we found, what we did and why, so you've got something to send them.

Storm season is also the best time to get ahead of it. A deadwood removal in September is a much smaller job than a make-safe in January. We're quieter over winter, so bookings move faster then too. Same goes for the stump left over from an old removal, whether that's a Tarragindi backyard or a rental out at Shailer Park.

Our five-star Google reviews are what we're proudest of, and the same things come up in them over and over: no hidden costs, a written quote up front, and the clean-up.

Since 2015, and the same family running it. Troy still quotes the jobs and still runs a grinder. He'd rather explain what a crown lift is than talk over the top of you. His three boys work in the business. You'll meet the people doing the work, not a salesman.

One crew for the whole job. Tree down and stump out on the same visit, so you're not chasing a second mob a fortnight later to finish off what the first lot left behind. That gap is exactly why Troy started in 2015. Tree crews didn't want to leave anyone behind to grind.

A written quote before we start. We look at the job and give you the quote in writing before any work starts.

We'll also tell you when a tree doesn't need coming down. Plenty of the trees we get called out to just need the deadwood out and a bit of weight off one side. Saying so costs us a bigger invoice and keeps you as a customer, which has worked out fine so far.

Careful with the yard, every time. Bog mats on turf, services located before we grind, neighbours told before we start, and the whole site raked and blown down at the end.

Ring Troy on 0400 721 715 for a look at your tree, or send a photo of the access through and we'll tell you what's possible. We cover Brisbane, including Mount Gravatt East, Upper Mount Gravatt, Sunnybank Hills and the bayside suburbs.