Tree trimmer cut way too many branches. Should I remove the tree?

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If your prime motivation is customer satisfaction and your customers tree dies because you pruned it at a time of the year that makes it more susceptible to wilt will you end up with a happy customer?
I will take my chances just like everyone else. I have never had a single dissatisfied customer.

Like I said you can do it or someone else will. You inform them of possible increased risk (one in thousands) and go to work.

Believe me every damn tree is suggested to be trimmed at a certain time of year for leadt succeptibility to bugs, disease, and fungus spread.

That is usuall in late winter! Which is the slowest time of year for tree services. Hell here it gets so slow many just close up shop until spring.

Cold time is slow because people are indoors and unless something breaks they dont give a darn.

Then spring hits and the bikinis and short shorts come out to their yard and say... "I need to get this tree trimmed. The leaves are making the branches sag."

Ok ma'am I am booked for the next month. We will shoot for may!

Its a process.
I see and deal with it daily.
 
If your prime motivation is customer satisfaction and your customers tree dies because you pruned it at a time of the year that makes it more susceptible to wilt will you end up with a happy customer?
The answer is no. Great lakes tree removal will no trim oaks until middle of August. He will remove them if he is positive no other oaks will be injured. Why, Gaylord customer tried suing him 2 years later saying he spread the oak wilt. He follows DNR guidelines and knows local DNR forester, forester talked with prosecutor and case was dropped.
 
Anyone who has actually earned
The answer is no. Great lakes tree removal will no trim oaks until middle of August. He will remove them if he is positive no other oaks will be injured. Why, Gaylord customer tried suing him 2 years later saying he spread the oak wilt. He follows DNR guidelines and knows local DNR forester, forester talked with prosecutor and case was dropped.
Gaylord tried....

I wonder if these folks are questioning suing now...



I have trimmed hundreds if not thousands in the summer. I drive by them every day. The increased risk is too minimal to cost yourself the business.

I know because most do it!

I suppose the tree crews for power and light can be, "tried" to be sued too ey....?

Oh wait... When they come along (year round) they skip the oaks until winter...

No they don't.
 
I am booked out 2 months...so at this point, not a big deal to do prune an oak at the right time. My clients wait and I rarely hear a complaint. If something needs done next week, we'll work that out...unless it is an oak.

Yes, there are recommendations about pruning other trees at other times, but almost none for a severe reason like oak wilt. There are also recommendations for pruning in the summer for more rapid wound closure.

When I am the only guy bidding a job refusing to prune an oak until dormant season and I explain WHY we are doing that and point them to literature showing that recommendation, you can bet they aren't going anywhere else now.

OP is in TX - easy enough to work around the cold weather there. I don't know how bad Oak wilt is in KC, but Dallas area is a hotbed as I understand it.
 
I am booked out 2 months...so at this point, not a big deal to do prune an oak at the right time. My clients wait and I rarely hear a complaint. If something needs done next week, we'll work that out...unless it is an oak.

Yes, there are recommendations about pruning other trees at other times, but almost none for a severe reason like oak wilt. There are also recommendations for pruning in the summer for more rapid wound closure.

When I am the only guy bidding a job refusing to prune an oak until dormant season and I explain WHY we are doing that and point them to literature showing that recommendation, you can bet they aren't going anywhere else now.

OP is in TX - easy enough to work around the cold weather there. I don't know how bad Oak wilt is in KC, but Dallas area is a hotbed as I understand it.
Exactly how he runs his business, he is booked out weeks and seems to never stop. I go with him every now and then to bid a job and person had 8 acres, wanting all oaks removed because of oak wilt. Barry looked property over and explained most trees are affected by gypsy moths, because trees where still holding leaves. Advised removing oak wilt trees and stumps, let trees affected by moths remain, call county for spraying and he could return next year and reevaluate. Customer had other bids to remove all oaks, Barry got that job and future work with him. Customer appreciated his honesty, must have liked his work, was already asked to return next year.
 
We are so sad. We hired someone to do pruning of our trees and we feel like his murdered this tree. It is cut so high! Will it ever look right again? I feel like we should cut it down because it looks so bad.
My rule of thumb for a tree standing alone is the ratio of no more than 1/3 trunk leaving 2/3 canopy. Yes, for my tastes the tree was raised up a little too high. The tree will increase in height in the future (they do this by adding on the top, not pushing up out of the ground) so the ratio will slowly come back to my 1/3, 2/3 rule. Again, this is my opinion of what I like. I would hate to see the tree removed, I think it is salvageable. Hopefully you can get past the nonsense and glean some good advise from the forum. PM me if you want further clarification or to talk in person. It may take a couple of days to respond as I don't sign on every day.
 
It's raised up a little high for my tastes but I wouldn't remove it over that.

Easy to tell, the cuts were made with a powered tool, and they are a little too flush for me but I've seen far worse no doubt.

Besides the timing of the pruning, did you ever ask or did he ever say what kind of pruning was going to be done? Most of my customers have an opinion of what they want and on my end I'm very thorough with what I will do and the goal and tree's response.
 
We are so sad. We hired someone to do pruning of our trees and we feel like his murdered this tree. It is cut so high! Will it ever look right again? I feel like we should cut it down because it looks so bad.
Beautiful tree.
Can clearly see your beautiful house also.
I agree with what was mentioned already, a nice mulch border around the base of the tree would be beneficial (no weed barrier) the dark mulch would also add "weight" visually to the bottom of tree and eliminate the broccoli look you don't like.
 
Looks good to me. That's the way we do it around here. Take the whole thing out and put a Silver Maple in. No it will have more shoots before the leaves fall. When I was doing much more of that I would photo shop the thing so exactly the branches to be remove were addressed. I would charge $50 an hour if it required more that 15 minutes on my laptop. Thanks
 
Looks good to me. That's the way we do it around here. Take the whole thing out and put a Silver Maple in. No it will have more shoots before the leaves fall. When I was doing much more of that I would photo shop the thing so exactly the branches to be remove were addressed. I would charge $50 an hour if it required more that 15 minutes on my laptop. Thanks
Thats a great idea.

I do not see how a contractor or a homeowner can be upset with that method ever.

I do property line "F you" trims this way.
If a homowner gets pissed their neighbor let a tree get too big and on their side. When they want everything on their side gone I take a picture and draw a straight line a foot inside their property line and cut it precise.

I did one this summer that was absolutely hilarious in your face.
The tree had broke after years of telling the guy to trim it and hit his chimney, knocking it down.

When I got done I was worried the tree might uproot onto the neighbors before I got the hell out of there.
 
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