King Tree Experts

King was one of 4 companies I called when I needed a large dying tree removed in my backyard.
Tree removal ain’t cheap. Their price wasn’t the cheapest nor the most expensive. But they were very professional, from the initial visit to give the estimate to the time they drove the last piece of wood off the property. The tree was huge, close to the house, and very sentimental to me (I grew up with it and have enjoyed climbing it for the last 8 years, thanks to Tree Climbers International). I did not want it removed, and if I could have it back, I would in an instant, but I know I made the right decision, as removal later (after more rotting, or after a damaging fall) would have been more dangerous and costly.
3 other tree companies and a certified arborist all told me the same.
So I tearfully set up the service, and darn it if they weren’t exactly on time as promised to destroy one of my most favorite things in the world. The workers were very polite and I never worried about safety or ability to do the job. The foreman was very accommodating to my emotional state and request to leave some pieces of the stump and branches behind. I don’t know how often he has to deal with 50-​year-​old women sobbing over 130-​year-​old oak trees, but he never rolled his eyes, and seemed regretful that it had to be removed.
He stayed on site for the entire job, and didn’t just supervise.
They had to remove a section of fence to get the Bobcat in (this was on the estimate), and the guy they contract with to replace the fence came later, and did the job, when promised (no further cost to me).
They used a lift truck, which meant that they didn’t have to climb the tree, or lift anything over my house, or put a crane in my yard, making the removal safer for everyone. They worked very hard to make sure their equipment didn’t damage my yard, in as much as that’s possible.
The job took 2 days, and they cleaned up as promised. The only quibble I have is that they told me there would be a lot of mulch, but after the first day, they took everything mulched from that day away, and never brought it back. The only mulch I got was a small pile of stuff mulched the last day. I don’t know where the rest of my mulch ended up, but again, I can’t quibble with that. I’m sure it found a good home.
They left the stump per my request, but said they’d come back out and remove it later if I wanted. Every time I look at it I cry (it’s been 5 weeks), but that tree was a huge part of my life and you can laugh at me if you want. None of the employees did. Please do not send me any more copies of «The Giving Tree» by Shel Silverstein. My friends have taken care of that, and they know not to reference «the Event» unless they want to feel awkward because of my keening and sobbing and vague references to Transcendentalist poets.
I would definitely recommend King Tree Experts, and will use them again if I ever need more tree work done, which I hope I don’t, because that’s some seriously emotional shit, especially if you are a child of the 70’s who is living in her childhood home which is surrounded by incredible old hardwood trees that preceded her existence by decades if not centuries and made her childhood amazing as she roamed amongst them, jumping creeks, catching crawfish, and building forts and bike trails and exploring for hours on end without adult supervision like kids do not get to do anymore, which is a freaking shame and means that the ones taking care of us in our nursing homes won’t be quoting Emerson, Thoreau, or Whitman to us and will probably never have climbed a tree, ever.

I am an amateur radio operator and needed a person to climb two trees to screw in an eyelet in each tree. I can later use the eyelets to hang an antenna from the trees. So I called King Tree Experts on Wednesday to explain what I needed. The person who answered said «Lee» is the man but he was not in today, that he would call tomorrow. On Thursday, I called back, not having heard from Lee. The person who answered put me on hold and came back to say that Lee is not interested.
This experience is particularly galling since the first sentence on their website says that «no job is too big or too small.» I can only conclude they just don’t care. That is too bad, because I have lots of trees in my yard that need work from time to time, and lots of friends in the neighborhood. You can bet I will not be saying good things about these people.