Tree Service in Pittsburgh, PA

Tree Service in Pittsburgh starts with the ground under the tree. The city runs from about 710 feet at the rivers to 1,370 feet at its highest point, and more than a quarter of its 90 neighborhood names refer to hills or heights. A maple on a flat lot in a suburb is a simple job. The same maple at the top of a retaining wall in Polish Hill, Troy Hill or Mount Washington, with a neighbor's roof below and only a set of public steps for access, needs a rigging plan before anyone starts a saw.

Who owns the tree in front of your house?

This is the first thing we sort out on a Pittsburgh visit, because it decides who is allowed to touch it. The City's Forestry FAQ says trees planted in the right-of-way become City property, even if a resident paid to plant them. The Forestry Division looks after right-of-way trees and park trees. Residents ask for pruning or removal of a City tree through 311 or the online request form; a Forestry supervisor inspects it and leaves a yellow card describing the work. The City's own page notes a backlog of roughly 18 months for non-emergency work.

If you want a private company to work on a City tree instead of waiting, the City requires a tree work permit application first, and its FAQ says private work on City trees must be supervised by an ISA Certified Arborist. The homeowner pays for that work and takes on the liability for it, and the City can charge restoration or mitigation costs for improper pruning. Our advice is simple: call the Forestry Division before anything is cut. For trees fully on your own lot, none of that applies, and we can quote the job directly.

Wet years and moving hillsides

Pittsburgh averages about 39.6 inches of precipitation a year, but 2018 brought 57.83 inches, the wettest year on record for the city. That year the region logged more than 200 landslides, and the city spent about $12 million on landslide cleanup, according to reporting by PublicSource. The soft rock locals call the Pittsburgh red beds weakens when it is soaked. A tree on a slope that has begun to creep may tilt, show exposed roots on the uphill side, or have soil cracks at its base. Those signs matter more here than in most cities, so we look for them on every hillside job.

What Pittsburgh jobs usually involve

• Crown cleaning and clearance pruning over narrow streets, alleys and parked cars
• Removing trees that lean toward houses built close together on small city lots
• Rope-and-rigging takedowns where no truck can reach the back yard
• Ash removal, since emerald ash borer has been in western Pennsylvania since 2007
• Spotted lanternfly checks on tree-of-heaven, which is common on vacant lots and slopes
• Stump grinding where machine access allows, and hand work where it doesn't

Getting an estimate

Call (412) 789-1968 or send the form with your address and a photo if you have one. Tell us if the tree is near the sidewalk or street, because that is where the City ownership question comes up. We visit, measure the access, and give you a written estimate. Get a free estimate