Laurel oak off a bungalow roof
Seminole Heights, Tampa
Overnight crane pick of a 26-inch oak resting on the ridge line, tarp on by 9 a.m.
Storm damage cleanup, start to swept driveway
Fallen trees, hanging limbs and debris piles removed safely, documented for your insurer and hauled away within days, not weeks.
Drag to see the difference two days makes
This storm call in Countryside started with a 30-inch oak across the driveway and ended with a raked lawn and a claim-ready photo log.
- Driveway reopened in 3 hours
- Root plate ground, crater backfilled
- 14 photos and 2 videos sent to the adjuster
The damage we clear most after a storm
Sample starting prices. Storm rates are published before June 1 and never raised after landfall.
- From $950
Uprooted trees
Root plates lifted by saturated soil. We section the trunk, grind the root plate and backfill the crater.
- From $295
Hangers and widowmakers
Broken limbs caught in the canopy. Removed first, from a lift or by a climber, before anyone works underneath.
- From $450
Split trunks
Co-dominant stems torn apart at the union. Some can be braced, many need removal. An arborist decides on site.
- $225 per load
Debris and brush piles
Limbs, fronds and logs chipped on site or hauled by trailer load, including debris you already dragged to the curb.
- From $240
Snapped palms
Broken crowns and leaning trunks cut down and removed, with neighboring palms checked for bud damage.
Hurricane-prep checklist
Eighteen items across three phases. Open a phase and check items off as you go.
Which Tampa Bay trees fail first
Species and soil decide most of it. This is the list we work from when a homeowner asks what to do before June.
Live oak
Quercus virginiana
Sheds small laterals, rarely fails whole
The most storm-firm shade tree in Tampa Bay. Dense wood, low centre of gravity, wide root plate. Work is usually deadwood removal and clearance from the roof, not thinning.
Sabal palm
Sabal palmetto
Bends, sheds fronds, holds the bud
The state tree survives category winds by flexing. Failures we see are rot at the bud after flooding, not wind. Never over-prune it before a storm.
Southern magnolia
Magnolia grandiflora
Minor limb loss
Flexible wood and a conical crown. Watch for co-dominant stems with included bark on older yard trees.
Bald cypress
Taxodium distichum
Top breakage in extreme gusts
Deep anchoring even in wet ground. Common along the Hillsborough River and rarely a removal candidate.
Laurel oak
Quercus laurifolia
Trunk and scaffold failure at decayed unions
Fast, weak and short-lived, planted everywhere in Tampa in the 1960s and 70s. Heart rot arrives around 50 years. This is the single most common tree we remove after a named storm.
Water oak
Quercus nigra
Scaffold limbs tear out over roofs
Same story as laurel oak, often worse. Cavities behind old flush cuts, fruiting bodies at the base, and limbs with more leverage than sound wood left to hold them.
Sand pine
Pinus clausa
Uproots in saturated sand
Shallow plate in dry sandy ridges. Saturate that soil for six hours and a sustained 60 mph wind walks the root plate out of the ground.
Queen palm
Syagrus romanzoffiana
Crown snap at a potassium-starved bud
Wind resistance depends almost entirely on nutrition. A chronically potassium-deficient queen palm has a weakened bud and can snap where a fed one bends.
Slash pine
Pinus elliottii
Mid-trunk snap, or uproots as a group
Better in a stand than alone. Pines left standing after a lot is cleared lose the shelter of their neighbours and fail in the first season.
Chinese tallow
Triadica sebifera
Brittle, shatters
Invasive, brittle and short-lived. We recommend removal and replacement rather than cabling.
What a pre-season prune is allowed to do
- Reduce end weight on the longest laterals over the roof, to a lateral at least one third the diameter of the cut stem.
- Remove deadwood over 2 inches where it can reach a target. Hangers from the last storm are the first thing to go.
- Leave the interior foliage alone. Stripping the inside of a crown (lion-tailing) moves weight to the tips and makes failure more likely, not less.
- Keep total live foliage removal in one season under about 25 percent on a mature tree, and far less on a stressed one.
Ratings follow post-hurricane survey groupings from university extension research and 17 seasons of our own storm work. Field guidance for planning, not a prediction: any tree can fail in the right wind on the wrong soil.
Recent storm jobs
See all projectsUprooted oak across a street
Kenwood, St. Petersburg
Blocked road reopened within four hours of the wind dropping, root plate ground and hauled.
Hurricane cleanup, 14 homes
Countryside, Clearwater
HOA-wide debris and hanger removal after a Category 1 storm, finished in five working days.
Beat the next storm to your trees
A certified arborist walks your property and sends a written quote within 24 hours. No pressure, no surprise fees.
4.9 from 1,284 reviews, ISA Certified Arborists