Here is the whole range, cheapest and gentlest first.
Crown cleaning
Dead, dying, diseased, and broken limbs come out. Nothing living and structural is touched. This is the maintenance visit — it is what keeps a mature tree from dropping something on the driveway, and it is the cheapest thing on this page.
Thinning and shaping
Selective cuts that let light and wind through the canopy and correct the shape. Done right, it does not look like anything was done at all. Over-thinning — stripping the interior and leaving tufts on the ends — is a real and common way to damage a tree.
Raising and clearance
Lower limbs off the roof, out of the driveway, off the neighbor’s fence, and away from the service line. Usually the fix when someone says a tree is “too big.”
Reduction
Shortening the tree at proper cut points to lower the sail area and the leverage on a leaning trunk. Not the same as topping. Topping — cutting the crown off flat — produces weak regrowth and a tree that is more dangerous in five years than the one you started with. We do not do it.
Removal
When the structure is gone, the lean is wrong, the roots are under the foundation, or the tree is simply in the place a driveway needs to be. On tight lots this is a rigging job, lowered piece by piece rather than felled.
Stump grinding and cleanup
Grinding depth depends on what goes there next — grass needs less than a new planting. Then chips, brush, and ruts get dealt with, and the bed goes back the way it was.
Not sure which one you need? That is what the free walk-through is for. Sign up and we will tell you the least we can get away with.