Get people out from under it. The stump waits until the weight is off.
If a tree is on a roof, across a driveway, on a car, or blocking a fairway, the job is to make it stable and get people out from under it. Cleanup and the stump come after the weight is off.
Stay off the roof, stay off a ladder with a saw, and call if a wire is in it.
The first hour
- Keep people out from under hung-up limbs. A tree that looks done moving often is not.
- If wires are involved, stay back and call the utility. We do not cut a tree that is holding a live line as if it were a normal drop.
- Do not climb it and do not start a chainsaw from a ladder to “take the pressure off.” That is how a second failure happens.
- If you can do it safely from the ground, photos help: the whole tree, where it is resting, the roof or car, and the base of the trunk. Do not walk the roof to get them.
Call 408-439-6975. Emergency tree service is for an active hazard — a tree on a structure, a split that is still opening, a blocked drive you cannot use. A limb you have been meaning to trim is scheduled trimming, and we will say so.
Roof first, then the row, then the hole. Photos before the brush is gone.
House, ranch, course
On a house, we take weight off the roof before we worry about how the log looks on the lawn. Insurance will want photos of the damage before the brush is gone. Take yours. We are not your adjuster, and we do not invent a cause. We make the site safe and haul the wood.
On a ranch shop or fence line, the same rule: people and livestock out, then the trunk. A row that failed in one storm is a walk of the rest of the row, not only the tree on the ground.
On a course, a tree across a green or a cart path is a play problem and a safety problem. Tell us which hole, where carts can still get in, and whether irrigation heads are under the canopy. We will clear the hazard first. Grinding the stump can wait until the ground is not a rescue scene, unless the stump itself is in the way of play.
A tip-up is not a flush stump. Say so before anyone talks about grinding.
After it is on the ground
Stump grinding is a separate pass once the wood is gone. If the failure ripped the root plate up, say that in the photos — a tip-up is not the same grind as a flush-cut stump. Replanting in that spot waits until the hole is soil again, not chips. See grind before you plant.
If this tree was city-owned or protected, the failure does not automatically erase the ordinance. We flag when a permit may apply — you confirm with the city. Emergency stabilization is still the first call. Paperwork follows the city that owns the rule. We do not pull permits unless that is scoped in writing.
Start Easy Estimate for a tree that is threatening but still standing. If it is already down on a structure, call.
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