Is It Safe to Trim a Large Tree Near My House Myself?

Most people who ask this have a live oak or a cedar elm leaning toward the roof, a limb scraping the gutter, or a dead branch hanging over the driveway. They want to know whether they can handle it with a borrowed saw and a ladder. Sometimes yes. Often the answer is no, and the reasons are more specific than just "it's dangerous."

What you can reasonably do yourself

Deadwood under about an inch and a half in diameter, reachable from solid ground without a ladder, is a reasonable DIY job. Clearing low branches that hang over a walkway, as long as you keep your feet firmly on the ground and nothing is overhead, is also fair game. Pick up what falls and keep a clear work zone.

If you're on a ladder with one hand on a limb and a chainsaw in the other, stop. That's where most of the serious injuries happen.

Where it stops being a DIY job

Anything thicker than your wrist, anything above your head that you have to cut while standing on a ladder, and any limb that is holding weight when you cut it. Limbs under tension can snap and kick back, and a 40-foot oak limb coming down on a roof or a fence does real damage.

Power lines are a hard line. If any part of the tree or the limb you're working on could come within reach of a service drop, call the utility and leave it to people who do this every day. Oak Ridge Electric and the local co-op crews will tell you the same thing.

Removal of a tree that is close to the house is also not a weekend project. The root plate, the lean, and where it will fall all need to be planned. That's a crew job.

What a professional trim usually includes

A good trim near a house is about more than cutting back what is in the way. It is thinning the canopy so wind passes through, removing crossing or rubbing limbs, lifting the crown so there is clearance over the roof, and cutting correctly so the tree seals properly. Bad cuts, especially topping, invite decay and weak regrowth.

We do tree trimming, removal, and transplanting across Belton and Temple. If you send us a few photos of the tree and tell us where it's close to the structure, we can usually tell you over the phone whether it's something you can handle or something we should come out for.