Herring Booking a tree surgeon is one of those household jobs almost nobody does twice in a decade, so it is completely reasonable not to know what you are agreeing to. This page walks through it end to end for a normal Derby garden.
We work across the city and the surrounding suburbs — Allestree, Mickleover, Chellaston, Spondon and the wider Derbyshire area — and the great majority of what we do is exactly this: ordinary garden trees at ordinary houses.
The Quote Visit
We come and look at the tree. That is the whole of it. It is free, there is no obligation, and it takes about twenty minutes.
What is worth doing before we arrive is thinking about the actual complaint rather than the solution you have in mind. “The kitchen is dark from about two o’clock” is a far more useful thing to tell us than “take a third off it”, because it lets us suggest the work that fixes the problem. Quite often that is less work than people expect, and occasionally it is a different tree from the one they were looking at.
You do not need to be there for a quote on a front garden tree, but for anything at the back it helps, because access is half the conversation.
Before the Day — What to Sort Out
A short list that makes the day go properly:
- Clear the drive if you can — the truck and chipper need to be close
- Move garden furniture, pots, ornaments and anything glass out from under the tree
- Unlock the side gate, or tell us where the key is
- Let the neighbour know, particularly if we will be working near the boundary
- Keep pets indoors for the day, and children away from the working area
- Decide about logs and wood chip before we start, not after
- Tell us about anything buried or hidden — a soakaway, a septic tank, a cable to the shed
That last one matters more than it sounds. A chipper on a driveway is heavy, and nobody enjoys discovering a private drain the hard way.
What the Day Looks Like
We arrive, walk the site again, set up the drop zone and get the chipper somewhere it can be fed. There is a fairly loud hour or two in the middle of most jobs — a chipper is not a quiet machine, and there is no version of this work that is discreet.
You do not need to be home, provided we can get in and out. Plenty of our work happens while people are at work.
At the end, brash is chipped, the site is raked and blown, and you get the garden back. Cut ends of a fresh prune do look stark for a few weeks — that is normal and it softens quickly once things start moving again in spring.
The Neighbour Question
Overhanging branches come up constantly, so here is the general position in plain terms.
You are entitled to cut back growth that crosses your boundary, back to the boundary line and no further. You cannot lean over and prune the rest of their tree, and you cannot enter their garden to do it without permission. What you cut back still belongs to your neighbour, so strictly it should be offered back rather than tipped over the fence — which most people sensibly resolve with a conversation instead.
Two things change that picture: a Tree Preservation Order or conservation area status, which restricts what either of you can do, and the fact that badly cutting one side of a tree can unbalance it in a way that becomes your problem later.
Our honest advice is nearly always to knock on the door first. Almost every one of these ends reasonably when somebody asks, and almost none of them end reasonably when the first move is a chainsaw.
When We Will Talk You Out of It
Not every enquiry should turn into a job, and we would rather say so.
Topping a tree — cutting the top off across the board — is something we will not do. It leaves a mass of weak regrowth that is more dangerous in five years than the tree you started with, and it usually kills the shape permanently. If a tree genuinely is too big for the space, removal and replanting with something appropriate is the honest answer, and a proper crown reduction is the answer if it is not.
We will also tell you when a tree simply does not need anything doing to it this year.
Ready to book Residential Tree Surgery in Derby, or still have a question?
Get In Touch →