Tree Removal in Wilmington, NC

Tree removal is the full takedown of a tree, from the top of the crown to a cut at ground level, with the stump ground out afterward if you want it gone. In Wilmington the most common reasons are a tree growing into a roof or foundation, a pine or oak that has gone into decline, a tree in the way of an addition, pool or driveway, and fear of what a big tree will do in the next hurricane. Sometimes removal is clearly the right call. Sometimes a good pruning job deals with the risk and the tree can stay. We will tell you which one we think fits on the visit.

Signs a tree may need to go

Dead branches throughout the top rather than one or two low limbs. Mushrooms or conks growing from the trunk or roots, which point to internal rot. A trunk that splits into two or more stems with a crack running down from the fork. Soil heaving or cracking on one side of a leaning tree. Bark falling away in sheets. For pines, needles going yellow and then red, or pitch tubes, small lumps of sap, scattered up the trunk. For laurel and water oaks, which NC State Extension classes as weak-wooded, large old pruning wounds that have turned into cavities.

How the job is done

A tree with open ground around it can sometimes be felled whole, notched and cut so it drops in a planned direction. In most Wilmington yards there isn't that room. The usual method is to climb or use a lift, cut the tree from the top down in sections, and lower each heavy piece with ropes run through a block so nothing free-falls onto a roof, fence or pool screen. Brush goes through a chipper, logs are cut to length, and the trunk is taken down to a low stump. When a tree is too big, too decayed or too close to a house for ropes, a crane may be the safer method; that has its own page.

Before we cut

We confirm whether the tree needs a City of Wilmington permit: right-of-way trees, historic district lots, residential lots over an acre and protected buffers all do. We also check overhead lines. Duke Energy asks that you or your contractor contact it before working near the service line to your house, and it will disconnect that line at no cost so the work can go ahead safely.