Mike Downer: Hello, everybody. Welcome to The Sawdust Sessions. I am here with Zach Miller, owner and CEO of Central Tree Pros, and his operations manager, Jack Wadden. How are we doing today, gentlemen?
Zach Miller: Pretty good.
Jack Wadden: Yeah, just good.
Mike Downer: Just good, huh? Not great?
Jack Wadden: It’s a rainy day.
Mike Downer: A rainy day. So you guys are gearing up. I mean, some winds are coming in, so I’m sure you’re gearing up for another busy week.
Zach Miller: Oh, yeah. Always gearing up.
Mike Downer: The rain is making trees grow quite a bit this year because we’ve had a very rainy year. I know my tree has grown a lot. What we’re going to talk about today is the best trimming and pruning service in the Des Moines area, which obviously is you guys.
What we’re going to be discussing, just so everybody knows, is the real difference between trimming and pruning and how a professional decides how much of the tree to cut and how much to leave. We’re going to discuss all of that.
Let’s start with the direct answer first. What does the ideal trimming and pruning service actually look like in Des Moines?
Jack Wadden: Trimming and pruning are kind of different. Trimming is more for the look of it, like getting branches off the house. I trim a lot of trees so people can mow under them or to get branches away from the house, just to limit damage in case something falls or brushes against the roof.
Pruning is more for the health of the tree. It’s getting all the deadwood out of it or removing branches that grow into other branches so the tree can thrive better.
Mike Downer: That makes sense. I have a locust tree, and I can see why you guys would be needed. That’s kind of a yearly thing for me because those branches, I tell you what, it’s never the easy ones that decide to die out.
Jack Wadden: No, it’s always at the top of the tree or right in the middle of it.
Mike Downer: Right in the stupid center. It’s a thirty-year-old tree, and I look up at that and think, “Nope.” That’s when I would call you guys.
Since I started pruning the tree after somebody told me about it ten years ago, my tree is much healthier.
Zach Miller: Yeah. That’s the importance of pruning your tree and doing maintenance on it. A lot of homeowners believe a tree is just a tree. It’s just there, and it’s going to do its thing. But trees are plants, and they need to be treated as well.
They need more light getting through them to grow healthier. It’s not just the top that needs the light. You need to get light through the whole tree so it can keep growing the proper way.
Mike Downer: Talking about that, what’s the actual difference between trimming and pruning? I know we went over it a little bit, but give us the professional definition of trimming a tree and pruning a tree, and what the advantages are of each.
Zach Miller: Trimming, like Jack was talking about, is more directional. You can decide which way the tree is going to grow if you trim more off one side or the other. If it’s getting more sunlight on one side, you can reshape the tree by trimming. Or you might trim a leader off that’s leaning over a house.
Trimming is usually done when pruning hasn’t been done properly. Pruning is when you’re cleaning up sucker growth through the middle of the tree, or little branches that aren’t doing any good for the tree.
Jack Wadden: They’re taking nutrients away from the bigger branches.
Zach Miller: Yep. Directional pruning is when, for example, if a tree is leaning one way, you prune some weight off the other side. It’s not really trimming at that point because the tree needs it for its health.
Anything that makes the tree healthier is pruning. Anything that’s more of a luxury is trimming.
Jack Wadden: Trimming is more about making the tree look better or shaping it for the homeowner.
Zach Miller: Yeah, that’s for the aesthetics.
Mike Downer: So what you’re saying is there’s a lot more to pruning than just removing dead branches.
Zach Miller: Yeah. That’s why you trim your hair and you don’t prune it.
Mike Downer: Oh, my goodness. I cannot wait to go to my hair person and see if I can get it pruned.
Zach Miller: Yeah.
Mike Downer: I’ve got enough of it. Maybe she can. I’ll have to ask her. If you knew my hairstylist, I’ll make her watch just this little segment. She’s going to roll her eyes and probably shave my head.
Zach Miller: Maybe she’ll wrap the hair appointment.
Mike Downer: She does own a home, so if she has tree problems, I’ll make sure she calls you guys.
When you’re doing all this trimming and pruning, how do you decide how much to cut versus how much to leave on the tree?
Jack Wadden: You can trim too much off of it, and it’ll go into shock. It’ll try to keep sending nutrients to that part of the tree you cut off, so it can almost bleed itself out. You have to cut just enough to make it still look nice, but not enough to shock the tree.
Zach Miller: You only want to affect the pruning, too. You can’t really prune too much because pruning is more like the surgical side of the tree.
Mike Downer: Talk to me about that.
Zach Miller: If you’re properly pruning, you’re taking off small voluntary growth that isn’t really needed. You’re bringing back limbs that are rubbing on each other when they’re small. You’re not really taking anything big off the tree if you’re pruning properly.
Jack Wadden: Or you’re taking off the stuff the tree has already killed off, like dead branches, so they don’t keep falling into other branches and destroying those branches.
Mike Downer: I’ve seen that before. When one branch goes dead, you can look six or eight weeks later and see other ones very close to it starting to have issues. So what you’re saying is that if you get that out at the right time, then it’s not a sectional problem. It’s just that one little branch.
Zach Miller: Yeah. That’s the importance of pruning.
Mike Downer: I didn’t know that.
Zach Miller: If you’re properly pruning, you’ll really never have to trim your tree.
Mike Downer: That’s great. So, guys, what time of year is best for pruning a tree in Iowa, and why?
Jack Wadden: There are kind of two different times. When it’s starting to bloom, you can see what’s dying off because some parts are starting to get leaves and some parts are not. You can trim off the dead parts, or you can see which sides are blooming and where the leaves are starting to drag branches down. You want to get that off so it doesn’t fall onto other things.
For some trees, you want to trim them before winter, when they go dormant, because it can affect the health of the tree if you trim off too much. You can send it into shock. An oak tree, for example, should be trimmed during winter when it goes dormant, so it’s not sending nutrients to the branch you just cut off.
Mike Downer: Very good. That makes a lot of sense because a lot of people don’t think about the time of year. Like you were saying, in winter, they’re not sending those nutrients.
It’s almost like doing surgery on someone when they’re asleep rather than awake. I know I wouldn’t want to be awake during a lot of procedures, so you’re doing the tree a favor. You’re being humane toward the tree.
What long-term damage have you guys seen from bad pruning jobs done by unqualified crews? Give us some examples.
Jack Wadden: If you don’t make your cuts properly when you’re trimming back to the trunk of the tree, it can hold water. You have to make proper cuts so water runs off and the tree seals up and heals properly. If you do it improperly, it will hold water and start rotting that section of the tree.
Zach Miller: And rot doesn’t stop.
Jack Wadden: Yeah, it keeps going into the trunk of the tree.
Zach Miller: Then the tree becomes infected. Worst-case scenario, the tree dies. Even worse, it rots out and gets neglected. That’s when emergency situations tend to happen.
Mike Downer: Have you actually been on a job where you saw that it could have been prevented because it was a bad pruning job?
Zach Miller: Every maple tree we take out is taken out because an unqualified tree company trimmed it or took leaders off improperly. Like Jack said, it holds water and doesn’t ever heal. It starts rotting out the base of the tree, and at that point, the whole tree has to go.
Jack Wadden: When they try to top the tree, because some people don’t like how tall trees are, they just take the top off. That creates a huge open wound, and decay just seeps all the way down the branch. Topping the tree is about the worst thing you can possibly do for it.
Mike Downer: Without naming any companies, give me an example of a job you went out to and just thought, “Uh-oh,” because you knew it was due to improper pruning or trimming. There has to be a job you guys have done.
Zach Miller: Just before I came here. That’s why we showed up late.
Mike Downer: Okay. Talk to me.
Zach Miller: I was driving by, and there was a church there. Their tree had fallen over. I came by and said, “Hey, I own Central Tree Pros. We try to do a little bit for the community here and there. Would you care if I assessed the situation and saw what I could do to help you guys?”
They said, “Yeah, go ahead.” So I took a look, and the tree had rotted out at the base because another company had trimmed it and didn’t do it right. It had rotted out about six feet up from the bottom. I mean, it had hollowed out the tree. There was no structure left, so the tree blew over.
I ended up helping them out, just giving back to the community a little bit, helping them cut it up and haul it off. It could have been 100 percent prevented by hiring a qualified company.
Mike Downer: That’s amazing that I asked you for this story, and it was just an hour ago.
Zach Miller: Yeah. Always on the move around here.
Mike Downer: So you didn’t even shower before you came in?
Zach Miller: We changed shirts. That’s about it.
Jack Wadden: New hats.
Mike Downer: I’m just giving you a hard time. See how dedicated these guys are? I’m telling you. I have kids about your age, and my kids would have wanted to go home and shower before being on camera. Not you guys. These are true professionals right here.
Zach Miller: Yeah, extra shirts in the bags. Always ready.
Jack Wadden: If you get an opportunity to help the community, you take it.
Mike Downer: I love that. Just doing the right thing all the way around. You guys are amazing.
Here’s the big question. This is the one nobody wants to hear, but everybody wants to know. What should a homeowner expect to pay for a proper pruning job? Maybe also a proper trim job. Let’s go over both, and you can talk about sizes. What’s a good range to give everybody an idea of how much a proper pruning or trimming job is going to cost, and maybe how much it costs if they do it all at once?
Zach Miller: I’m going to redirect that one a little bit. There isn’t really one expected amount.
Mike Downer: Talk to me.
Zach Miller: A proper prune would be a good one to start with. An average prune on a tree that’s thirty or forty years old could be anywhere from $1,000 to $6,000 or $7,000. It depends on how long you’ve neglected the tree.
If you don’t mow your grass for six months, it’s going to take a lot more work and be a lot more expensive. If you’re mowing every week, it’s easier to do the job. You’re in and out faster, and it looks way better.
If you’re keeping up on your trees and doing proper pruning and maintenance, your cost is going to stay low. You’re not saving money either way because you can put it off for a couple of years, and then we can come in, but it’s going to be more expensive. You could be up in that $3,000 to $5,000 or $7,000 range. Or, if you have a company come in once a year or once every other year, you’re probably looking at $1,000 to $3,000.
Mike Downer: Very good.
Zach Miller: When you’re trimming, that one gets tricky because trimming can go both directions.
Mike Downer: Let’s just give a range and some scenarios. What are the basic homeowner scenarios you see most often?
Zach Miller: A lot of trimming we do is when someone says, “Hey, I’m getting a new roof put on, and I don’t like this tree leaning over my house anymore. Let’s come in and trim it back.”
If you have a little bit hanging over the house, it could be in the $1,000, $3,000, or $5,000 range. If you have some massive leaders leaning over your house and we have to bring in cranes, specialty climbers, and a lot more equipment, you could be up to $7,000 to $10,000 pretty quickly. I wouldn’t say there’s really an average.
Jack Wadden: I did one yesterday that was $3,000 for two leaders over a house. Half the branches were rubbing against their roof, causing mold and extra water on it. We had to bring a crane into their front yard to take the two leaders off because they were leaning right over the house. We also took off a branch in the front yard that had already fallen. They were worried about it falling on their house, too.
Zach Miller: You definitely get what you pay for in the tree industry. Make sure you go through and verify that the company is fully insured, including workers’ compensation. Ask what their policy limits are. Do they have auto insurance? What do their trucks look like?
You’re going to spend a little bit more money, but you’re going to get higher-quality work as well.
Mike Downer: From talking to people in different service industries, like yours, I think the smartest thing is this. You can disagree with me if I say it wrong. Let’s say you’ve neglected your tree for a while. I would think it would be smarter to get it trimmed and pruned at the same time because your equipment is already out there, and that would save some costs. Is that correct or incorrect? Tell us why.
Zach Miller: That’s very, very true. If you’re going to do it, get the quote. If you can’t afford it right away, maybe take some time, as long as it’s not going to create an emergency or a very bad situation.
Get it all done at the same time. It’s way more affordable. Usually when we come in, there’s a little bit of yard damage because equipment is coming in. You have to expect that. There’s no way to completely prevent it. You can have that occur once, twice, or three times.
If you can afford to get it done, get it all done at once.
Jack Wadden: It’s also a lot healthier for the tree to clean it all up and be done at one time. It doesn’t have to heal itself two or three times a year. It can heal once and be ready for winter when it goes dormant.
Mike Downer: That makes complete sense. These are just hypothetical numbers, but you could tell someone, “It’s going to be $2,000 to trim it and $2,000 to prune it, but if you do it all at once, it’ll be $3,000 because our guys are already there.” I know those are dumb numbers, but is that kind of the right idea?
Zach Miller: Yeah, for sure. You’re taking off your trip charge and fuel charge. It’s potentially an hour for guys to pre-trip trucks, make sure everything’s loaded, make sure we have everything we need for a job, and make sure everyone has done their safety briefing. We have to charge for that time. If you can get it all done at once, you’re paying for that once instead of twice.
Mike Downer: That’s what I’m saying. It definitely knocks off some of the extra cost that you guys have to absorb.
Zach Miller: It does become more affordable. As much as we love repeat customers and seeing the same customer twice, we also love offering a more affordable way to get the tree work done.
Mike Downer: Perfect. All right, guys. Trimming and pruning. Get it done this fall. These guys will be more than happy to come out and get your trees healthy.
Late fall, after your oak trees have gone to sleep already, then do that so we don’t shock them. See, I’m listening. I’m learning, guys.
These guys will tell you what kind of tree you have and when the best time to do it is. Make sure to give these guys a call at Central Tree Pros.
Guys, thanks for joining me on The Sawdust Sessions. I always love talking to you guys, and hopefully I only see you for maintenance and never in an emergency situation.
Zach Miller: Well, that’s the way we like to be as well.
Mike Downer: All right, guys. You take care and have a great day.
Zach Miller: You too.
