Trim trees and shrubs off the house
Annual · typically June
Why it matters
Plants against a house do damage on three quiet channels: they hold moisture against the skin, they abrade whatever they touch in the wind, and they give every pest in the yard a covered highway to your walls.
The targets: nothing touching the roof, and a hand's-width gap between any plant and the siding.
What skipping it costs
$500–$12,000
Branches over the roof drop debris that clogs gutters and grinds shingles bare in the wind; shrubs against siding hold a wet blanket against the wall and hand pests a covered bridge. The end state is a rotted wall section or a storm-dropped limb through the roof — $500 in shingle scars to $12,000 when a limb comes through. The tree gave you years of warning.
Two ways to get it done
Do it yourself
You'll need: Loppers, Hand pruners, Pole pruner for low branches (rent or borrow), Work gloves and safety glasses.
- Branches: aim for 6–10 feet of clearance over the roof (more if you can). Anything you can cut with loppers or a pole pruner from the ground is yours; cut just outside the branch collar — the swollen ring where branch meets trunk — not flush.
- Shrubs: prune everything back to at least 12 inches off the siding. Yes, it'll look bare for a month. It grows back; rot doesn't un-rot.
- While you're in there, look at the siding the shrubs were hiding — green algae film, peeling paint, or soft spots mean that section has been staying wet.
- Vines on the house come off, and it's not negotiable — ivy holds a wet mat against the wall and its rootlets destroy mortar and wood. Cut at the base, let it die, then peel.
- Haul debris away from the house — a brush pile against the foundation is a pest hotel with your address on it.
Hire it out
$250–$800National fair range — local labor moves this number.
A crew doing a whole-house clearance trim runs $250–$800 depending on tree count and haul-away. For anything over one story, near power lines, or requiring someone to leave the ground with a saw, hiring isn't the cautious option — it's the only sane one.
Two words to know: insured and arborist. Any crew touching your trees should show insurance without being weird about it, and any big removal decision deserves an ISA-certified arborist's opinion — they're trained to save trees, so when one of them says remove, you can believe it.
Ask the tech
- Are you insured for tree work specifically? (Ask to see the certificate — this trade has real uninsured operators.)
- What's the cut plan — clearance from the roof, or shaping the whole tree?
- Will you haul the debris, and is that in the price?
Red flags you're being upsold
- Anyone offering to 'top' a tree — cutting the main trunk flat. It's tree malpractice; the regrowth is weaker and more dangerous than what you started with.
- Door-knockers with a chainsaw in the truck 'already working in the neighborhood.' The tree-work version of the storm-chasing roofer.
- Quotes that require climbing or bucket work priced under a few hundred dollars — legitimate insured crews can't work that cheap, and you own the liability when an uninsured guy falls.
Second opinion time: Any tree removal quote over $2,000, and any claim that a healthy-looking tree is 'dangerous and has to come down' — get an ISA-certified arborist's read, not a removal company's.
The call
DIY what you can reach standing on the ground. The moment a job needs a ladder AND a saw at the same time, hire it — that combination fills emergency rooms.