Crane Tree Service

They do a nice job.

It was a very good experience. They were prompt and courteous. They cleaned up well. I think I have used them before. It's a good experience if you need trees taken out by a crane.

We had a very large, tall, and mature (>100 years) douglas fir literally inches from the corner of our attached garage and surrounded by a low stone retaining wall, the driveway, and the walkway leading to the front entrance of the house.  Its roots were causing cracking of the garage floor and driveway and messing with the walkway.  It also posed a serious threat to the house in the event of a major storm.  So, much as we loved the tree it had to come down.

I contacted several tree removal outfits who came and looked things over.  They determined that the proximity of the tree to the garage, plus the presence of overhead power and telephone lines above the end of the driveway, would make it impossible to get a crane in to do the job.  That meant that the removal would have to be done by cutting and dropping small sections of the tree by hand.  The cost would be high and there would likely be damage to the stone wall, driveway and walkway.  I was also told that removing the stump would almost certainly destroy the rock wall.

I then called Crane Tree.  Bill came out and took a look, and determined that if I removed a section of fence adjacent to the driveway (which I was planning to replace anyway) he could just squeeze his "smaller" crane in.  His price for the tree removal (including the much easier removal of a smaller, dead tree and some trimming of another douglas fir) was lower than the bids for the other method, so I told him to go ahead.

On the appointed day Bill and his crew arrived and promptly got to work.  The branches on the tree were removed and lowered by rope, with no damage done on the ground.  The downed branches were fed through a chipper, and the chips piled (for future use in the garden) where I had asked.  The crane showed up, and was expertly put in position.  In just about 2-3 hours, the tree was on the ground in massive sections that were later removed by a self-loading log truck.  There was some unavoidable (and expected)  damage to the front lawn, but Bill's crew did a good job of cleanup, including filling in holes in the lawn.

Bill determined that by using large protective blocks he could do the stump grinding with only minor damage to the rock wall.  In fact, when the job was completed there was NO damage, and clean-up was great.

My only quibble:  The crew had all of the right equipment to do the heavy work, but somehow they neglected to bring a ladder (to get onto the roof to clean off sawdust) or a wheelbarrow (to gather stray pieces of branches).  Not a big deal, as I had these items handy, but they should have been brought to the job.

Technically, Bill and his crew certainly know what they are doing.  They are friendly and easy to work with, and their prices are reasonable.  I would highly recommend them for tricky tree removal jobs, and probably for more run-of-the-mill tasks as well.

My experience went very well. The staff was very professional and friendly while visiting. They were also great with the clean up afterwards and the pricing was reasonable. I would recommend this company to others.

Went very well and under 2 days. Clean up was excellent.

They said they would be here at 1 pm they did not show until 2:30; and then wanted me to pay them for the entire job that they had not finished. So I only paid them 70% They said they would be back this morning to finish and clean up and no one showed up and when I try to call them no one answers and no answering service is available. So my driveway is a mess.

Crane tree was very responsive. They arrived on time with a large crew. They had to work around an existing fence and close to the house. They did a perfect tree service job and great cleanup. Bill is very professional and friendly. We will definitely use this company again!

They were very good. They're very friendly, they gave me a quote, they arrived on time, and they answered all my questions. Their prices are medium. They have better quality equipment. They tell you exactly what they're going to do before they do it. There's no guessing as to what's going to happen. I will absolutely hire them again in the future.

He brought a large crew, and a large crane to cut back some of the neighbor's pyramidalis hedge trees that were leaning on our roof, and also dropping considerable litter on the roof, backing up the draining system on our torch-down roof.
Because the neighbor's driveway is a strange design and wouldn't hold the weight of the crane, that was parked in our driveway, and the crane was maneuvered OVER the roof of the house.  A man ran the crane, a man signaled the crane when it was time to move, a man on the roof caught the chain and clamp, another man on the roof hooked that to the tree that was to be cut.  The trees that were leaning were cut back to the fence line- altho actually, a couple of feet above the fence line were left. A man on the ground then cut the trees, the crane lifted it to the roof, and then back down to the ground where it was chipped up.  There is also another tree in the neighbor's yard that leans well over the fence and covers some of our rhodies, dropping its leaves and berries in our yard.
We pointed out, when the job was done, that there were still some trees high up that would be dropping debris on our roof, and also the other tree had high branches extending well over our yard, and those were not removed.   The tree stumps left of the hedge trees
 indicate the saw was not sharp enough to leave a super clean cut.
We had to ask the men on the roof not to wear heavy hobnail  boots that could damage the roof, and not to drop the trees down on the roof from a considerable height.  They complied with these requests.
The entire crew was pleasant and professional.  Why they were not responsive to the request to remove ALL limbs, etc hanging over the roof was up to the boss I guess.  And he denied seeing what we were seeing.
 Dale, the boss and owner is a fine, professional person, as he crew seems to be.

Overall, we got what we expected and wanted from Dale and his crew.  There were a few days delay starting our job due the city being slow in relocating power lines on other previously scheduled jobs.  But when they started, it was full speed ahead.  The activity brought out much of the neighborhood to watch as the crane came in and then the process of zip lining the large upper branches down over the top of my neighbors arborvitaes.  You see, we have artificial turf in our back yard which eliminated the possibility of dropping rounds to the ground in the more traditional fashion.  So they lifted large sections of each tree as they were cut and gently laid them down in the adjoining driveway.  We had several estimates from other tree companies with one being VERY expensive and the others basically saying that they could do it, but they would have to rent a crane which added to the price as well.  A recommendation from one company led me to Dale as this kind of specialty work is what they do and they are good at it.  Dale explained to me how he calculates the actual volume of the trees to determine the crane size needed for the job.  With the tight quarters for the crane access, he was able to borrow a crane from a friend that met the requirements as his own crane(s) were too large for the space.  Dales was a pleasure to work with and very accommodating to our situation.  He and his crew are professionals and left the sight tidied up.  The only trouble I had was getting him to send me an invoice so I could pay him!

We had contacted several tree service companies regarding the project. Several either declined the work without seeing it, or walked away after seeing the difficulty of the job. Most did not seem comfortable or competent to do the work. We had lined up a tree service that I trusted 2 months prior, and he backed out at the last minute. This left us in a very uncomfortable bind, as we needed to get the work done before the fall rains (access was over our lawn). I called up a tree guy that I had worked with in Seattle years ago, and he referred me to Dale at Crane Tree.
From the moment I first talked with Dale, I felt that I had found the right company to complete this very difficult removal. He showed up on time and quickly (which seems almost unheard of for tree service bids). The work was scheduled and we had to remove all the landscaping around the trees and part of our deck for access. The work was completed over four days and involved a crane, two visits from a logging truck, a flat bed trailer, a very large chipper, and a firewood collector. The trees came down quickly without a bit of them dropping on the neighbor's house or our house, and every last bit of wood was removed from the yard. We were thrilled to get the work done so professionally and thoroughly. They also did some work for our neighbors.
I would not hesitate to recommend Crane Tree for any removal, especially one that requires a crane, and ones that present challenges due to proximity of houses, rotten trees, etc... These jobs are not cheap, but I had a pretty good idea of the cost due to our research, and the cost was very fair. Dale and his employees were very easy to work with, and made a stressful situation much easier to deal with.

They were prompt, competitively priced, clean, and professional.