This DeLand homeowner had a big tree growing close to the house that had become more of a liability than an asset. From the ground it looked solid enough, but the lean and the location told a different story, and once we got up into it the wood confirmed the worry. A tree this size next to a home is not something to take down in one piece. We set up the drop zone, roped off the work area, and planned each cut so the weight came down in a spot with room to land, well clear of the roof, the fence, and the neighboring yards. DeLand and the rest of Volusia County are full of large, mature trees, and most of them are an asset right up until decay or a bad lean turns one into a hazard over a house. At Roeling Green Lawns, this kind of controlled, piece-by-piece tree removal in a tight residential lot is the core of what our crew does.
When we got the trunk down and started sectioning it, the reason for the removal was right there to see. The wood was hollow through the center, the sound outer shell hiding a soft, rotted core that had been quietly eating away at the tree's strength. A trunk like that can look fine from the driveway and still be one storm away from failing. Hollowing is exactly the kind of hidden decay that makes a tree unpredictable, because the part holding it up is not as thick as it appears. We brought in a Bobcat to handle the heavy pieces, and you can see it lifting a section with the hollow center exposed. Moving that weight with a machine instead of by hand keeps the crew safer and keeps the lawn from getting torn up by dragging. Catching a hollow tree before it comes down on its own is the whole point of removing a hazard while it is still on our terms.
The last photo shows the Bobcat carrying the final log out of the yard. Once a tree is on the ground, plenty of the job is still ahead of you, and it is the part homeowners care about most: getting the wood, the brush, and the debris off the property so the yard is usable again. We bucked the trunk into rounds the machine could carry, loaded out every log, and cleaned up the smaller limbs and chips rather than leaving a pile behind. The hazard was gone, the house was clear, and the lawn was left raked and open. We have been doing tree work in Central Florida since 2007, and a decayed tree crowding a home is one of the most common calls we get. If a tree near your house is leaning, dropping limbs, or you just have a bad feeling about it, it is worth having someone look before it decides for you.
