Episode transcript
This is Emergency Tree Longview, and this episode is for the person who got two quotes on the same tree, one for eight hundred dollars and one for twenty-four hundred, and wants to know which one is lying. If you'd rather just get a straight range for your tree, call us at (903) 500-7845. That's (903) 500-7845. For everyone else, stay with me for about six minutes and you'll know the real ranges around here, what pushes a number up, and how to make two quotes comparable.
The base ranges
In the Longview area, a small tree under thirty feet typically runs three to seven hundred dollars. A medium tree, thirty to sixty feet, runs seven hundred to fifteen hundred. A big loblolly or a mature oak, sixty feet and up, runs fifteen hundred to three thousand and beyond. Stump grinding adds a hundred to four hundred fifty. Storm and emergency work runs one and a half to two times those numbers. Those are ranges, not quotes. Your number comes in writing after someone looks at the tree.
Why a big pine costs what it costs
A mature loblolly is eighty to a hundred feet of wood, and green pine weighs around fifty pounds a cubic foot, so a single big tree can be several tons. On a Longview lot it's usually within falling distance of a house, a fence, or a line, with no room to drop it whole. So a climber or a bucket takes it down in sections, rigging each piece, for hours, and then somebody moves all that wood.
The equipment sets the price tiers. A standard bucket truck reaches somewhere around sixty to seventy-five feet. Above that it's a climber or a crane, and a crane day is where a tree off a roof gets to two to five thousand dollars and up. A dead pine that has gone brittle cannot be climbed, so it goes straight to the bigger equipment. That is the whole argument for taking a beetle-killed pine down while it's still sound.
The things that move the number
Access is a big one, and a bigger one here than most places. Our red clay turns to grease in a wet winter, and a loaded truck will rut a yard to the axles. Crews either wait for the ground to firm up, lay mats, or carry wood out by hand, and each of those changes the bill. A backyard tree with no gate wide enough for equipment is a hand carry-out, and the labor climbs fast.
Hauling is the next one. Chipping the brush and leaving the chips as mulch is cheaper than hauling them. Leaving the trunk bucked and stacked is cheaper than hauling it. And no, on a single yard tree nobody is going to pay you for the timber. Log buyers want truckloads off a tract, not one yard tree.
Multiple trees help you. Once a crew and two machines are on the lot, the second and third trees cost a lot less each than the first one did. If you have a row of pines in Kilgore or White Oak that all need to go, get them priced as one job.
Season matters a little. Scheduled removals in the dead of winter, December through February, are often easier to book and sometimes cheaper, because storm work is slow. Then March hits, the straight-line winds start, and every crew in Gregg County is booked.
The storm premium, and how to pay less of it
Emergency work costs more everywhere: more people, moving slower, in the dark, and after-hours adds on top. The way to cut the premium is to split the job. Pay the emergency rate only for what has to happen tonight, a tarp over the hole and weight off the load point, and have the full removal done at daylight rates. And don't pay emergency rates for a non-emergency. A tree lying flat in the yard is a scheduled cleanup no matter how dramatic it looked coming down.
Insurance is the other piece. If the tree hit a covered structure, your policy generally pays for getting it off, minus your deductible. If it fell in open yard and hit nothing, most policies do not pay to remove it. That's the rule, and any crew telling you insurance covers a yard tree is setting you up. Ask for an itemized invoice either way, with stabilization, removal, and cleanup on separate lines, because that's what adjusters can map to coverage.
How to compare two quotes
Make every bidder say what's included. Felling, bucking, hauling, stump, cleanup. The eight hundred dollar quote usually leaves the wood and skips the stump. The twenty-four hundred quote usually hauls everything and grinds it. Once both list the same scope, the gap closes fast.
Then check the crew. Texas does not license tree services, so the paper that protects you is a certificate of insurance, and you should ask for it from the insurance company, not a photocopy from the truck. Get the price and scope in writing before the saw starts. Pay when the work is done. After every big blow, from Gladewater to Hallsville, the trucks with no company name and a cash-up-front price show up, and the price has a way of changing once the tree is half down.
What to do right now
Have four things ready when you call. How tall the tree is compared to your house. What it's near, and if that's a line, call SWEPCO first at 888-216-3523. Whether you want the wood gone or stacked. And whether a truck can reach it. With those we can give you an honest range on the phone. The number is (903) 500-7845. Again, (903) 500-7845. This has been Emergency Tree Longview. Call for a range, not a sales pitch.