Tree Removal and Tree Trimming Services in Central Florida
Tree removal and tree trimming are the core of what we do. Jeremy Roeling has worked in Central Florida tree care since 1996 and founded Roeling Green Lawns in 2007, and our crew now handles everything from a single overgrown queen palm to a storm oak lying across a roof in Volusia, Lake and Seminole counties.
How do you remove a tree that's right next to a house?
In pieces, lowered on ropes, never dropped. On a tight lot the crown comes off first, then the trunk comes down in short sections that get rigged to swing away from the roof, the pool cage and the fence. Nothing is allowed to touch a screen enclosure. When there's room, we work from a bucket truck with pads under the outriggers so they don't sink into the sand. When there isn't, a climber goes up with rigging and a skid steer carries the wood out through the side yard.
Height decides the rest. A residential bucket truck reaches roughly 55 to 75 feet, and a mature Washingtonia palm can top 80, so some jobs need a crane on site. On our large tree removal with a crane in Windermere, a lift and a crane worked together so every piece cleared the villa roofs on a tag line. At Roeling Green Lawns, access is the single biggest factor in what a removal costs, so we look at the yard in person before we quote it.
Why does removing a dead tree cost more than a live one?
Because nobody should climb it. A dead tree drops limbs without warning and its wood can't be trusted to hold a rope, so we won't put a climber on a dead pine at any price. The work has to come from a lift, and you're paying for that equipment access. Dead pines in Volusia County are often the work of Ips engraver beetles, and they tend to die in groups, so one dead pine usually means we're looking at the ones next to it too.
The operator in the basket takes the tree down from the top in small pieces, and nobody stands under a piece that's about to be cut. Near power lines the rule is ten feet of clearance at minimum, and when a line is closer than that, FPL can send a crew to cover or de energize it before we start. You can see that approach on a dead tree removal with a cherry picker in Daytona Beach, where a whole line of dead pines came down beside the wires.
How should palm trees be trimmed in Florida?
Take the dead fronds and the seed stalks, and stop at the nine and three line. Nothing above horizontal comes off. A palm has a single growing point in the center of its crown. Damage that bud and the palm dies, because there's nothing further down the trunk to replace it. The green fronds are also a potassium bank. Florida sand holds potassium poorly, so a palm pulls it out of its oldest fronds to build new ones. Cut those off early and you get the long bare trunk and tiny tuft you see all over town.
The so called hurricane cut does the opposite of what people expect. UF/IFAS research after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes found that severely pruned palms lost their crowns more often. Queen palms need their seed stalks pulled before the orange fruit sets, and we sterilize our saws between Canary Island date palms to avoid spreading Fusarium wilt. Most palms need trimming once a year, twice when they hang over parking or a walkway, like the sabals on our commercial palm trimming at an Osceola County clinic.
Can an oak tree be trimmed instead of removed?
Often, yes. A sound live oak with one heavy side can gain years from a reduction cut that takes weight off the long limb, made at the branch collar back to a healthy lateral. Raising the canopy clears roofs, driveways and trucks, and cleaning out the deadwood removes what would fall in the next storm. We don't top trees. Topping leaves weak regrowth that fails later.
Some oaks can't be saved. Laurel oaks tend to decline somewhere between 50 and 70 years old and hollow out from the inside, and the decay often doesn't show until the cut faces are open. If a tree on your residential property is a real risk, Florida Statute 163.045 lets you remove it without a local permit once an ISA certified arborist or a Florida licensed landscape architect documents the danger. Otherwise permits vary by city. In DeLand, specimen trees go through Public Works and the City Forester, which is part of why a local crew matters for tree service in DeLand.
What should you do when a storm drops a tree on your house?
Get everyone out of the damaged rooms, stay away from any wires, and photograph everything before a single branch is moved. Insurance adjusters want to see the damage as it landed. Then call us. We offer 24 hour emergency tree service, and after a big storm we work in order of risk: trees on houses first, then trees on vehicles, then blocked driveways and roads.
On the roof, the weight comes off gradually. The crew cuts from the far end of the canopy and works back toward the trunk, so the load resting on the house comes off last and nothing shifts or rolls. Limbs lying under tension can spring when cut, which is why this isn't chainsaw work for a homeowner. After Ian and Nicole in 2022, crews across Central Florida were booked for weeks. When a hollow laurel oak dropped onto a pickup, our storm cleanup after a tree fell on a truck in DeLand covered both the removal and the insurance side.
What happens to the stump and the wood after a removal?
We grind the stump a few inches below grade, haul the wood, and leave the yard raked. Stump grinding and chip removal are often separate line items with other crews, so ask before you sign any quote. Grinding leaves a pile of chips, and those chips tie up nitrogen as they break down, which is why grass struggles in an unscraped stump hole. We scrape the chips out and backfill with topsoil so sod can go straight back on.
Palm stumps are different. Palms have a shallow root zone, so they need topsoil over the spot before sodding, and curbside pickup won't take palm trunks, so those leave with us. If you want to keep oak rounds for firewood, say so and we'll stack them. Otherwise every piece goes on the truck the same day. What's left is a raked, level patch of ground, ready for new sod, a planting bed, or nothing at all.
