Rivas Tree Service

It went very well. Because Rivas is in high demand, it took a few weeks before they could get to me. But, they emailed me the day before they came and showed up as promised. They quickly and safely removed the tree without any harm to the surrounding area.

I messaged Riva's Tree Service through the Angie's List website, asking for an estimate to remove our 2 Norwegian Pine trees. That afternoon, Al called me, got our address information and told me he'd be out to give us an estimate. Within in the next day or two, Al was here. Our village requires a building permit to remove trees which delayed the project for about 1 week. I got the permit, let Al know and he was able to get us on the schedule to come out the in the next 2-3 days. Al and 2 others arrived, and within the hour both trees were down, trunks ground, debris cleaned up and chipped. Al was/is very professional, and pleasant and easy to work with. I will definitely use them again.

Al Rivas and his team did great ! They cleared dead trees first. Then trimmed trees and ground all the stumps down out of sight. They chipped all the wood and cleaned up all debris, including branches that had come down over winter. We are so happy with everything. I am especially happy with weeping willows as they had lots of dead and cross branches. They look great now. We are planning to have them trim the maples in back next.

This was our first contact with Rivas Tree Service, so we were in a heightened "wait and see" mode. Al, the boss, is friendly and eager to complete work to your satisfaction. A certified arborist, he consulted with us at length, advising us as to the best approach to trimming our 100' Maple. His crew was polite and highly competent. They made sure we were satisfied with every step of the project. And their clean-up, both in our yard and our neighbors', was impeccable. We "waited and saw," and in the end were very pleased with every aspect of our transaction. As a result, Rivas is now our go-to tree service.

I met Al around April 1 after work. He is pleasant and professional. We discussed the tree, it's health, my pruning the lower limbs and what I wanted done. My main concern was weight. The tree grew rapidly last year and I know from experience the leaves come out and the branches are quickly weighted. The canopy, about 3 stories up, was very dense and needed to be reduced. Also, there were many suckers on the main branches which needed to be pruned. I discussed with Al I wanted to reseed the grass around the tree. He suggested I wait. He communicated the week of April 12 was the plan to get it trimmed. On Saturday (Apr 18), I decided to reseed the grass. I had not heard from Rivas. As I got started, I looked up and could tell the canopy was less cluttered. On closer inspection, I could see the cuts. They HAD come out, but I had received no confirmation of it. They did a nice job. My suggestion would be to follow up that job was completed since Al knew I wanted to reseed the lawn under the tree. All I know is sometime between Monday and Friday, they did the work.

This is the second time that Rivas Tree Service did work on the trees around our house. At the time of first work last August, I asked Al to come back late in the year to top and prune six pear trees on the back property line. They had grown too tall, and we wanted to encourage more horizontal rather than vertical growth. Unfortunately, I waited too long to call, and by the time I did Al could not schedule the work prior too the holidays. He asked me to please contact him in February/March which I did in early March. Al came to the house in early March to review the work and to provide a quote. We agreed on the scope of the job, and Al provided me with a very reasonable quote. Al called me back the next day, and said he put the work on his schedule for March 30. In the event, a late-gasp-of-winter snow storm prevented Al and his crew from working on that Monday, but he called the next morning to say he would be at our house by early afternoon. The crew arrived at about 12.30, and immediately began to do the work. They completed the job in approximately two hours. Cuttings were removed as they progressed from tree to tree and a final clean-up was performed once all the pruning had been finished. Because the trees are just beginning to bud, it is difficult to tell where the growth occur this summer, but I am pretty confident that they will fill out more readily on the lower branches which should lead to a more pleasing shape as the spaces between the trees fill-in. I was satisfied to have Rivas Tree Service return to do a second round of work for us. Al is a pleasure to deal with. He arrives punctually, the work is done expeditiously, and the clean-up is thorough. I will not have any hesitation to have Al handle the work on some oaks looming over the house when late autumn arrives.

They removed a big birch tree and its trunk form our yard. My only issue was that they did not smooth out the area where they pulled the tree from, so there wa a slight hill. I had to have a landscaper fix this area so we could plant grass.

Al Rivas and his crew were fantastic! They were easy to get a hold of and were able to come out the day after we spoke on the phone. We had a massive Birch tree stump in our front yard that the previous homeowners had left for us to deal with. Rivas Tree Service came out, removed the stump, recovered the hole, and cleaned up the entire area in a short amount of time. Our neighbor even stopped by and said he never would have guessed a tree had been there! Al also gave us his opinion on some trees in our backyard that we need removed and gave us a great quote on the spot. We will definitely be calling them back when we decide to remove them!

They did a phenomenal job. I couldn't say more about how great they were. They took down about 10 trees in one day as well as cut down a lot of small trees. Don't hesitate to go with these guys, call them before they get booked up!

Al was great. We first discussed the project back in January but I pushed the schedule out due to some new construction next door and my own pending home addition. Al has been very responsive and proactive the whole time. He would check in on the progress next door from time to time and check on working with my addition scheduling. 3 of the trees were on the property line and AL and his team were very conscientious and respectful of the neighbors. All told the work took a few hours but the team worked quickly and cleaned everything up after they left. They even left me a nice pile for some firewood. Al also accommodated some extra work we asked for after he showed up at a really reasonable extra cost. In the end my math was a bit off and I gave Al more money than was necessary. Instead of just saying thanks and walking away he told me my math was off and I was over paying. He did such a good job I let him keep the extra and arranged to have him come back and do a bit more work after the addition gets moving. I contacted two other tree service companies. One was way more expensive but they seemed like a solid honest company. The other was also more expensive but also the guy seemed really sleazy. Al was honest and upfront the whole time. It's his name on the truck and you can tell he takes pride in the work he does. I would recommend him to anyone I know that needed to remove some trees.

We got 4 quotes for the removal of one large tree which ranged all the way up to $8,500 (yes, $8,500). Rivas had the best price by far, and was able to get to our job more quickly than the other companies. We took care of getting the necessary permit, and when we let them know we had it, they came and took down the tree two days later. They worked from 8 am to around 3:30 pm, and after cutting down the tree, they moved and stacked the firewood. They did as good a job of clean up as can be expected with such a big job, and the only issue was a damaged patio brick, which we did not even notice, but the owner called about the next day and offered to replace (we told them that was not necessary). Overall they did an excellent job and we would certainly use them again.

No complaints, only high praise. I called Al Rivas about removing two ash trees from the front of my home. I told him that they needed to be removed in two weeks. Al said that he could manage it. After going to my home, he quoted me a very fair price, which included grinding the stumps. It was only after signing the agreement that my village notified me they wanted the trees removed, not in two weeks, but in three days. Al said that three days would be difficult, but four or five could work, but it would require his changing around his job schedule. Well Al found a way to come out in two days, take down the trees, and leave the front yard spotless. He called that evening and left a message asking if everything was okay. Before I could return his call the next morning, the phone rang, and it was Al. I would recommend Rivas Tree Service in a heartbeat.

I will use them again professional, good job, and fair price.

This is a family business. They are very professional. I was not hapy at first as it was coming out that the supposenly $150 saved was worked into the back end of the deal when I got the quote that was higher than a competitor's. I voiced my dissatisfaction as I had already paid Angie's list $400 & receiving the additional $150 credit came in $50 leas the the Competitor's $600 quote. Theowner asked if he could stop over & discuss as they did not want to leave me feeling that I was stuck as I had paid the $400 through Angie's list already. We were able to settle on paying him another $150 out of pocket, which came in $50 under the Competitor's quote. However, the total cost was $700.00 ($400 + $150 (credit) +additional $150 out of pocket). It worked out & the actual work performed was excellent!

I highly recommend Rivas. They did an excellent job with the work, and Al was extremely kind and responsive. I've used other tree companies in the area before, and these other companies were 1) more expensive and 2) more rude than Rivas. Lesson learned! I won't use anyone else in the future.

I am very happy with the service provided by Al and his team. From the first time I contacted them, they were very courteous and professional. I had trees (2 large and 3 small) that had died and needed to be removed. Took Al about 4 hours to remove them. They also removed a 6th tree that was in bad condition for free!! Wow!! The work was excellent... very efficient and they cleaned up the property very nicely. Overall very happy and would highly recommend Rivas Tree Service.

outstanding.....exceeded my expectation!

Dealing with Al (who is a certified arborist) the owner was so easy. He was trimming trees at my neighbors house and I had him stop by to give me a quote to remove 3 ash trees that were infected with the Emerald Ash Borer, plus a pine tree and 2 small dead trees...he did not charge me for the dead trees. His price was about $500 - $600 less than other quotes I received. In terms of scheduling the work I was in no hurry so I told him I'd work with his schedule and just fit me in somewhere. I received the quote in June and the work was done at the beginning of Oct. He was a little hard to get in touch with, but his company is so busy so it wasn't that big of a deal. Plus, he always returned my call. On the removal day Al and his crew arrived when they said they would. It was Al and about 5 or 6 guys. I have never seen a crew work that quickly and efficiently. They know what they are doing for sure. It was interesting to see their process and how they remove the trees so quickly....2 were over 30 feet tall. I would definitely use these guys again. It's also nice to support a small, local business.

Great. Very good communicator and knowledgeable. I live in Michigan and I had the work done on a rental house in Chicago. Every transaction was over the phone and emails, he was great at getting back and updating me.

Al Rivas emailed me to let us know when they would be coming, as he did a job for us last Spring, but the trimming couldn't be done until the Fall. The day he was scheduled to come it rained so it had to be postponed. The next day he phoned and said he and his men would be there around noon. They came when he said and two men started trimming the lower branches of the trees before Al arrived, as he was finishing at another job. When he got to our home, he climbed the trees and really started to cut the branches and get all the deadwood. They lowered the big branches very carefully and started putting them through there mulching devise and they got up on the roof of our house and cleaned it entirely of branches, leaves and stuff. They completed the entire job by 4:30 that afternoon and you would never know that they had been there since our yard, roof and driveway and the street on which we live were completely cleaned.

Al was very detailed in describing what he will do and presented a reasonable quote. On the day of the work, the crew arrived on time and very professional. They cleaned up the place after they were done in the approx time he had mentioned. Someone who knows his stuff and is reliable. Will recommend to friends

Al came out fairly quickly after initial call. I originally just wanted some branches cut from 3 trees in order to clean and open up the space a little. Al informed me that the tree on the south side of my property was an emerald ash and was almost dead from EABorer. I did finally agree to removal of the tree. The quote included ~$400 for tree removal (with discount), which left the remaining $225 for branch removal. Since only 1 low branch was removed from one tree, and 3 stubs of branches were removed from a second tree, that works out to $56 per 'branch' - quite pricey, in my estimation. However, I was short on time, so went ahead and agreed to the estimate. With that said, however, after witnessing the amount of work that went into the project, I do believe I received fair value. If I go with this company for future work on the remaining trees, I will likely try to negotiate a discount, given the cost/branch removal already completed. A second issue I had was that Al was not able/willing to fix a date/time to schedule the work. Apparently it was too small a job for him to give even an approximate window, but would 'fit in' this job if they finished up early on another, larger job. I was managing 4 separate (unrelated) outdoor house projects, and wanted to ensure that the separate work crews weren't all booked at the same time. However, I did give a target date on when the work absolutely needed to be done, and it turned out that they were able to meet that date. In fact, just 2 days after our conversation, he called and said they could be here in an hour. They arrived and Al and his crew got straight to work. Bottom line is that Al and the crew did a GREAT job. The whole job took about 1.5-2 hours, and my yard was cleared of all branches, sawdust, and 99% of twigs.

Very professional people, they were at the job site around 8 am as promised and out of there by 12 pm with job well done.

I purchased the deal back in August knowing I would not have time to use the deal right away. Al from Rivas contacted me right away and I let him know I would not need the work to be completed for a while. When I did contact him to have the work done his response was very prompt, and we scheduled a meeting time to discuss the work. The crew arrived in the morning, completed the work very efficiently and cleaned the entire area. Al was courteous, professional, and very knowledgeable. I would definitely use them again.

Al arrived on time with his crew and we went over all the details. They were very organized and efficient. They climbed the large trees and used a block and tackle and ropes to lower and maneuver the wood to avoid any damage. The trees were cut down level to the ground. The trees were shredded and the very large trunks were moved with a bobcat for pick up later by a truck with a claw/arm. We wanted to keep some of the shredded material for use later and Al put it in 2 neat piles for us. Al and his crew were here for 3 days always arriving when promised. His crew were one of the hardest working I have ever seen. They also continually kept the grounds clean of debris. Throughout the job, Al kept us informed as to what was done and what needed doing. I would not hesitate to use Rivas Tree Service again and they are highly recommend.