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.
Tree Removal: What can you expect when we take a tree down?
Every removal starts with a free visit. We walk the tree with you, point out anything near it that worries us, and give you a clear price before anyone picks up a saw.
Will your house, roof and pool cage be safe while we work?
Yes. Protecting everything around the tree is the first thing we plan, not the last. When a tree stands close to a roof, a fence or a screen enclosure, nothing gets dropped. A climber ties in and takes the crown out in small pieces, and every piece is lowered on a rope while a groundman steers it away from the siding. You'll see each cut rigged before it's made. It's slower. That's the point.
On our tree removal right beside a Daytona Beach home, the trunk stood close enough to touch the soffit, with a pool cage on one side and a privacy fence on the other. No machine fit through that gap, so the wood came out by hand, one round at a time. At Roeling Green Lawns we would rather spend the extra hours than explain a torn screen panel to you afterward. If your tree is tight to the house, mention it when you call and we'll plan the visit around it.
What does a tree removal quote include, and what changes the price?
Your quote covers the cutting, the rigging, the hauling and the cleanup, and we tell you up front whether stump grinding is in it. Three things move the number most: access, height, and whether the tree is alive. If a truck can back up to the tree, the wood is gone in minutes. If every piece leaves through a three foot side gate, it takes a lot longer, and that's why we price in person instead of over the phone.
Our bucket truck reaches roughly 55 to 75 feet. Taller trees, or ones hanging over a roof, can need a crane, like our large tree removal with a crane in Windermere. Dead trees cost more because we won't put a climber in one at any price, so the work comes from the lift. Dead pines in Volusia County often come from Ips engraver beetles, which spread, so we'll check the pines next to it while we're there. Getting other quotes? Ask each company whether the stump and the chips are included. With many crews they aren't.
What should you do if a storm drops a tree on your house?
Get everyone out of the damaged rooms, stay away from any wires, photograph everything before a branch is moved, then call us at (321) 436-1675. We offer 24 hour emergency tree service. After a big storm we work in order of risk: trees on houses first, then trees on cars, then blocked driveways and roads.
Once we arrive, the crew cuts from the far end of the canopy and works back toward the trunk, so the weight resting on your roof comes off last and nothing shifts or rolls onto the house. Limbs pinned under tension can spring when they're cut, which is why this is never a job for a homeowner with a chainsaw. If a line is down or close, we keep ten feet of clearance and get FPL out before we start. Insurance adjusters want to see the damage as it landed, and your photos help with that. When a hollow laurel oak fell on a pickup, our storm cleanup after a tree fell on a truck in DeLand covered the removal and the insurance side too.
What will your yard look like when we leave?
Raked, clear, and ready for whatever comes next. Unless you ask us to keep the wood, every piece goes on the truck the same day. Want the oak rounds for firewood? Say so and we'll stack them where you want them. Palm trunks always leave with us, since curbside pickup won't take them.
If stump grinding is part of the job, we grind a few inches below grade. The chips that grinding leaves behind tie up nitrogen as they break down, and that's why grass struggles in an untouched stump hole. So we scrape them out and backfill with topsoil, and sod can go straight back on. Palm stumps have a shallow root zone and need topsoil over the spot too. One DeLand homeowner, after we took down two big oaks leaning over the house following a storm, put it this way: "Professional, fair, and fast, exactly what you want when a tree's a threat." That's the standard for every removal we do.
Tree Trimming: What can you expect when we trim your trees and palms?
A good trim makes a tree safer and helps it live longer. A bad one can kill it. Here's what our crew will do to your palms and oaks, and what we refuse to do.
What will our crew do when we trim your palms?
We take off the dead fronds and the seed stalks, stop at the nine and three line, and leave the green crown alone. Nothing above horizontal comes off. A palm grows from a single bud in the center of its crown, and there's nothing lower on the trunk to replace it if it's damaged. The green fronds also store potassium, which Florida sand holds poorly. Strip them early and you get the long bare trunk and tiny tuft you see all over town.
So you won't get a "hurricane cut" from us. UF/IFAS research after the 2004 and 2005 hurricanes found that severely pruned palms lost their crowns more often, not less. Queen palms get their seed stalks pulled before the orange fruit drops on your pool deck, and we sterilize our saws between Canary Island date palms so we don't carry Fusarium wilt from one to the next. Most palms need a trim once a year, twice if they hang over parking or a walkway, like the sabals on our commercial palm trimming at an Osceola County clinic.
Will we tell you if your oak can be trimmed instead of removed?
Yes, every time. If a trim solves the problem, a trim is what we quote, even though a removal is the bigger ticket. 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 your roof, driveway and truck. Cleaning out the deadwood removes what would come down in the next storm. And we don't top trees, ever. Topping leaves weak regrowth that fails later.
Some trees can't be saved, and we'll say so. Laurel oaks tend to decline somewhere between 50 and 70 years old and hollow out from the inside. If a tree on your 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 the rules 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.
