When Should You Hire a Professional Tree Service (vs. DIY)?

The chainsaw rental aisle at your local hardware store does a brisk business on weekends. So do emergency rooms with laceration and crush injuries — and utility companies responding to accidental contact with distribution lines. These are related facts.

I am not categorically opposed to homeowners doing their own tree work. There is a reasonable category of tasks that competent adults can execute safely with appropriate tools and precautions. The problem is that the boundaries of that category are poorly understood by most people, and the consequences of misidentifying those boundaries are frequently severe.

This is a guide to drawing the line correctly.

What Homeowners Can Reasonably Handle

The general principle: if the work can be performed from the ground, with hand tools, on material smaller than your forearm in diameter, the risk profile is manageable for a careful, physically capable adult.

Practical applications include cleaning up small fallen branches after a storm; hand-pruning young landscape shrubs and small ornamental trees; removing sucker growth from the base of trees; raking and disposing of debris; and basic watering and mulching within the root zone. None of these tasks requires the specialized equipment, physics knowledge, or emergency-response readiness that professional tree work demands.

Where homeowners frequently miscalibrate is in extrapolating from these tasks to larger ones — assuming that competence with a pruning saw on a six-foot dogwood translates to competence with a chainsaw on a forty-foot pine. It doesn't. The variables multiply non-linearly with scale.

What You Should Not Attempt Without Professional Assistance

The following categories are not safe for DIY execution, regardless of how straightforward they may appear from the ground.

Any work requiring climbing or aerial lift equipment. Work performed at height introduces failure modes — falling, being struck by falling material, equipment malfunction — that are absent from ground-level operations. Professional arborists train extensively in aerial work, use rated personal protective equipment, and operate with a second crew member managing the ground zone. DIY climbing with improvised equipment is among the most consistently dangerous activities I can identify in residential tree care.

Any tree adjacent to utility lines. In Florida, vegetation in contact with distribution lines above a certain voltage threshold is managed by the utility provider, not the property owner. Work on trees near lower-voltage service drops should only be performed by ISA-certified arborists who have completed specific utility line clearance training. Contact with an energized line — even indirect contact through a tool or falling branch — carries lethal risk that no level of general competence mitigates.

Removal of any tree with a trunk diameter greater than six to eight inches. Larger trees require directional felling — a combination of notch cutting, back cutting, and hinge-wood management — that requires genuine understanding of wood mechanics and the capacity to redirect a falling stem that cannot be improvised in the moment. A miscalculation of five degrees in a notch cut on a 24-inch oak can result in several tons of material moving in an unintended direction.

Trees that are leaning toward structures, root-compromised, or showing signs of internal decay. These trees are unpredictable in ways that compound every other risk factor. A tree already in incipient failure may accelerate that failure during the removal attempt itself. These situations require professional tree risk assessment before any work begins — the assessment, not the removal, is the first step.

The Economics of Professional Tree Care

I hear one objection consistently: professional tree service is expensive. This is accurate in absolute terms. What I'd offer in response is a more complete accounting.

A reputable tree contractor's pricing reflects liability insurance, worker's compensation coverage, specialized capital equipment (aerial lifts, cranes, chippers, and stump grinders represent significant investment), and trained personnel capable of operating that equipment safely. When a professional removes a tree near your home without incident, you are not paying for the time it took. You are paying for the training, experience, and insurance infrastructure that made the outcome predictable rather than a matter of luck.

The relevant comparison is not the cost of hiring a professional versus the cost of doing it yourself. It is the cost of hiring a professional versus the expected cost of the injury, property damage, or utility repair that a DIY approach makes statistically more likely.

How to Identify a Qualified Local Tree Company

Not every company with a truck and a chainsaw represents equivalent professional competence. The minimum standard I'd apply when hiring a local tree company: ISA Certified Arborist on staff (verifiable at the ISA's online credential registry at isacredentials.org); current certificate of general liability insurance and worker's compensation coverage; local business address and established community presence; and willingness to provide written estimates and references without pressure to sign immediately.

The ISA credential matters because it represents a defined knowledge standard — tree biology, soil science, arboricultural practices, and safety protocols — tested and periodically renewed. It is the difference between someone who has done tree work for years and someone who can demonstrate what they know about trees to an independent professional standard. That distinction is not trivial when a crew is working 60 feet above your roof.

If you're uncertain whether a project falls into the DIY-appropriate category or requires professional involvement, that consultation costs nothing. Contact Miller's Tree Service and let's talk through what you're looking at. The right answer might be that you can handle it yourself — and I'll tell you that if it's true.

About the Author

Katie Watkins is a Sales Arborist at Miller's Tree Service in Tallahassee, FL, specializing in tree health care and helping customers make informed decisions about the long-term well-being of their trees. She holds her ISA Certified Arborist credential (FL10270A) and is Tree Risk Assessment Qualified (TRAQ) by the International Society of Arboriculture. Katie has been part of the Miller's team since 2015. Follow her on Instagram at @katiethetreelady.