Tree Removal in Knoxville, TN

Tree removal in Knoxville is mostly a problem of gravity and space. The trees are tall (tulip poplars often run 80 feet and more), the lots are often sloped, and the house, the deck or the neighbor's garage is usually within reach. Very few yard trees can be felled in one piece. Most come down from the top: a climber or lift takes the limbs first, then the trunk in sections, and anything that would damage something on the way down is tied off and lowered.

Signs a tree should come out

Some trees are easy calls. A dead tree, a trunk with a long open crack, a cavity that has hollowed out much of the base, mushrooms or conks growing from the root flare, or a tree that has started leaning after a storm with the soil heaved up on the opposite side all point toward removal. Others take judgment: a healthy oak that has simply outgrown a narrow side yard, a Bradford pear that splits a little more every winter, or a tree whose roots are lifting a driveway. If pruning would fix the problem, we will say so.

Dying walnut, ash and pine

Knoxville has its own list of trees that die standing. Black walnuts with thousand cankers disease usually die within two to three years of the first yellowing. Ash trees under attack by emerald ash borer lose their crowns from the top down, and woodpeckers often strip the bark looking for larvae. Pines hit by southern pine beetle can turn brown quickly. Dead wood dries out and becomes brittle, so a tree that would be routine to climb while alive can become harder and riskier to take down a year or two later. If a dying tree stands over a house or driveway, earlier is usually easier.

Hillside and ravine lots

On a slope, there is often no landing zone. Limbs and logs are lowered in pieces small enough to control, then carried, rolled or winched uphill to where the chipper and truck can sit. Rope work keeps pieces from sliding into a creek, a fence or the house below. When a large tree leans over a house and there is no safe rigging point, a crane is sometimes the safest way to lift sections clear; it costs more, and we explain why if we recommend it.

Trees near wires and the street

If a tree touches or overhangs a line carrying power, the utility has to make it safe first, and inside the city that is KUB. KUB prunes around its primary lines and lines shared by several customers, but tree work around the single service wire to your house is the owner's responsibility; KUB will lower that wire at no charge so the work can be done safely. Trees in the treelawn between sidewalk and curb, or anywhere else on city property, are public trees under the city code, and removing one takes the urban forester's written approval. We point out anything that looks like a public tree at the estimate.

What happens to the wood

You decide: logs left in rounds for firewood, cut to length, or hauled away; brush chipped and the chips left for your beds or taken off. Because thousand cankers disease travels in walnut wood, walnut logs should stay local. The stump is a separate line on the quote and can be ground the same day or later.

The city's curbside brush service is built for yard trimmings, not whole trees: piles are capped at 6 by 6 by 6 feet and crews come every two weeks from March through October, so hauling is usually part of a removal quote.