Tree Trimming in Weymouth, MA

Tree trimming is selective pruning of a living tree on a Weymouth property to take out dead limbs, reduce weight on long branches, and pull the canopy back from roofs, wires, and driveways. It is for homeowners who want to keep a mature tree rather than lose it. The result is a tree that is less likely to drop a limb and healthier going into the next storm season.

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What Trimming Involves

A climber works through the crown and makes cuts at the branch collar, which is the swollen ring where a limb meets the trunk. Cutting there lets the tree seal the wound. We take out dead and broken wood first, then thin crossing and rubbing limbs, then shorten the heavy ends of long branches so there is less leverage in the wind. We do not top trees. Topping leaves stubs that sprout weak, fast growth and rot from the cut down, and it creates a worse hazard three years later.

When Your Tree Needs Pruning

Prune when branches are resting on the roof or rubbing the siding, when limbs have grown into the service drop running to the house, when you can see bare dead wood in the crown in the middle of summer, when the canopy is so dense that the lawn underneath has thinned out, or when a young tree is growing two competing leaders and needs one picked before the trunk splits. Storm-damaged limbs should be cleaned up promptly — a torn limb left hanging tears bark down the trunk when it finally lets go.

Why Limbs Fail

Most limb failures around here trace back to weight and leverage. Oaks and maples in open yards grow long horizontal limbs, and those limbs catch wet March snow and coastal wind. Silver and Norway maples in particular grow fast and put on more length than the wood can hold. Narrow V-shaped unions with bark pinched inside them are the other culprit — they look fine until they split. Trees that were defoliated by winter moth in past springs have patches of dead wood in the upper crown that come down on their own if nobody takes them out first.

What Affects the Price

• Size of the tree. A forty-foot maple is climbable in an hour. A ninety-foot pine is not.
• How much comes out. Deadwood only is quick. A full thinning and reduction is a bigger job.
• What the limbs hang over. Anything above a roof or a fence has to be roped down.
• Debris volume. More brush means more chipper time and more hauling.

Prune It or Take It Out?

If the trunk and root flare are solid and the problem is limbs, prune. If more than about a third of the crown is dead, if the base is soft or has fungus growing out of it, or if the tree is leaning further each year, no amount of pruning makes it safe and you are better off to remove it altogether. A tree with a split fork but sound wood is a third case — that one may be a candidate for hardware in the upper canopy.