A sketch of the yard before the first call
A tree company can only price the trees you point to, so it pays to know your own lot in Montgomery before anyone visits. Walk it with a pencil and draw a rough plan: the house, the drive, the fence, the overhead wires running to the house and every tree big enough to give you pause. Give each tree a letter. Beside each letter, write down what bothers you about it, whether that is a limb hanging over a bedroom, a trunk that looks as if it leans further than it once did, or simply a tree nobody has ever looked at closely. Hand the same sketch to every company that comes out, and ask each one to use your letters on its written estimate.
Horticulture licenses and the legal meaning of tree surgery
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries issues Horticulture Professional Services Licenses, renewed every year, to businesses that engage in and solicit for landscape design, tree surgery, setting of landscape plants, and ornamental and turf pest control.
Alabama law (Code of Alabama § 2-28-1) defines tree surgery work as receiving fees for tree surgery, including but not limited to cavity filling or repair, bracing, cabling and wound treatment of shrubs and trees, and says it does not include pruning, feeding, budding or grafting.
The annual permit in Alabama's Professional Services Law
As posted by the Department of Agriculture and Industries, Alabama's Professional Services Law (Code of Alabama § 2-28-4) says that before any person engages in professional work or services as the chapter defines them (which include structural pest control work and tree surgery work), or solicits that work through advertising or in any other manner, the person must apply for and obtain an annual permit from the Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. Under § 2-28-11, doing so without the required permit is a misdemeanor.
The permit question, and recording each answer
When you talk with a company, ask: "Do you hold the annual permit Alabama's Professional Services Law requires for tree surgery work, and what is its number?" Record each reply on that company's estimate sheet: who answered, on which day, and in what words. Replies gathered in one place are far easier to set side by side once all the visits are done.
Signs to show the person who visits
You do not need to diagnose anything yourself. Point to what you have noticed and let the visitor explain it. Things worth walking someone over to see:
- a branch that stays leafless while the rest of the crown has leafed out;
- mushrooms, shelf-like growths or soft, crumbling wood on the trunk or near its base;
- a crack running down from the point where two stems divide;
- an open hollow in the trunk, or a spot that sounds dull and empty when tapped;
- roots that were cut or torn during a trench, a new walk or a driveway repair.
For each one, ask what the visitor thinks it means, what they would do about it, and what they would leave alone for now. Ask too what would change their mind later.
Wires, roof and drive
Limbs resting on, or growing toward, the wires that serve the house or run along the street are a matter for the electric utility before any tree company. Call the utility and ask what it will handle. Nearer the house, note limbs that scrape the roof, drop leaves into the gutters or hang low enough over the drive to brush a car or a delivery truck. Mark them on your sketch so the conversation stays on specific branches rather than "the side by the garage."
Estimates that line up tree by tree
Two estimates are hard to compare when one says "trim front trees" and the other runs to half a page. Ask every company to write its estimate against your letters, and for each tree to state:
- the work proposed, in plain words, and why;
- roughly how much live wood will come out;
- whether the crew will climb, work from a lift or use some other method;
- what happens to limbs, logs and chips, and whether any are left for you;
- for a removal, whether the stump is ground and what is done with the grindings.
If an item is missing, ask for it in writing before you decide.
Questions for every company
Put the same questions to each company and keep the answers:
- Can you send proof of liability coverage and workers' compensation for everyone who will be on the lot?
- Who will lead the crew on the day, and will that person be at the house for the whole job?
- How will cut wood be lowered near the house, the fence and the neighbor's yard?
- What equipment will cross the lawn, and what goes down to protect the ground under it?
- Is a deposit expected, and what event triggers the final payment?
- If the crew finds something on the day that the estimate did not cover, how will it be priced and agreed?
The day of the work
Move cars out of the way, keep children and pets indoors, and let the neighbors know when the crew is due, especially if limbs will come down near their side. Flag sprinkler heads, a garden bed or a buried line you know about, so the crew can work around them. Stay reachable by phone in case the crew lead has a question mid-job.
The last walk before the crew leaves
Before the final payment, walk the lot with the crew lead and your sketch in hand. Check each lettered tree against the estimate. On pruned trees, look up for long stubs, bark peeled below a cut or a branch left hanging. On the ground, look for ruts, damaged edging and debris left in beds. Ask for any agreed fix to be written on the invoice before the crew pulls away. Then file the sketch, the estimates, your notes from each company, the coverage papers and the invoice together.