Champion Tree Healthcare

Great! Very knowledgeable and hard working.

Rick and an associate arrived at 6:45am on Saturday.  They started by manually cutting out the branches of the five trees in front of the house.  This required that Rick climb up each tree secured with safety ropes and spikes, while the second man held onto the ropes and cleaned up the fallen branches.  At all times it appeared that safety was a priority and that there was good communication as they methodically moved to each tree.  When the branches were removed they then started to cut down the tree trunks using a chain saw and safety ropes to drop the trunks away from the house and my windows.  Once the trunk was on the ground they cut it up into manageable pieces and stacked them up.  
The other two trees where on the side of the house, in a corner of the six foot privacy fence.  Because of their proximity to the house and windows, a section of the fence and gate had to be removed to drop the tree trunks away from the house.  They worked till 8:00pm on Saturday and replaced the fence section and gate.  They stacked all the branches and trunks in front of the house and did a preliminary clean up.  They returned at 7:00am on Sunday morning and worked until 2:00pm to load up all tree parts and left my property very clean.  Thanks for a job well done.

Rick, the owner, was indeed flying around in our trees like a monkey.  He climbs up the trees with rope and swings about, saws and blades dangling from his belt, pruning away.  We picked him because he was so eager to share his knowledge of trees -- we learned a lot from his visits.  He spent about 4 or 5 hours up in our 25 year old Maple.  His assistant was apparently an apprentice, as Rick seemed unwilling to let him make any pruning decisions on his own.  This didn't surprise me, as Rick seemed to be very careful and particular, and I felt confident he was taking the time to do the best possible job, even though the job took longer than he expected.  He paid close attention to detail and to all the specific directions I gave him.  He also thought to leave a little stub of a branch (where he would otherwise have cut it closer to the tree) at what he deemed the best spot to hang a child's swing for our little one.  This was very thoughtful.  The debris was left as tidily as possible on the road for a chipper who came the next day to dispose of it all.  (The chipper seems to be a subcontracter, who showed up mid-day after he originally estimated he'd arrive early morning.)  All-round we were extremely pleased with the attention to detail and the evident care.  For example, most of the pruning is done with manual saws and blades, but he wanted to double-check if the baby was sleeping before starting up the giant chainsaw for the big tree removal.  He and his assistant were also careful about safety, letting us know when it was safe to walk by.  They had lunch in our back yard, but even though they were smokers, they didn't smoke anywhere on our property.  Rick did call to reschedule before coming, on account of an "emergency tree removal" elsewhere.  That was fine with me.  We'll use him again.