Our arborists prune and shape trees so they stay healthy, stay safe and stay off the roof. We take on one tree or a whole property.
Tree pruning is the work that keeps a big tree an asset instead of a worry. Done well, it opens up a view, lets light back onto a lawn, lifts branches off a roof and takes the weight out of limbs that would break in a winter storm. Done badly, it leaves a tree stressed, ugly and more likely to fail.
Cedar Creek sends certified arborists to every pruning job on the Sunshine Coast. They read the tree first. They look at how it grew, where the weight sits, how close it is to the house and what will happen to it over the next five years. Then they cut. Nothing gets topped, and nothing gets stripped back to bare stubs.
Most of our pruning work here is on Douglas fir, western red cedar, big leaf maple, arbutus and the fruit trees people planted decades ago. Each one is pruned a different way. A fir wants its lower limbs lifted and its dead wood cleared. A maple wants thinning so wind passes through it. An old apple tree wants opening up so the fruit gets sun. We do not use one method on everything.
Tell us roughly how big it is, how close it is to the house and what is bothering you about it. A photo sent by text helps.
We walk the property with you, look at the tree from every side, and tell you plainly what should be cut and what should be left.
The price covers the pruning, the cleanup and hauling the brush away. Nothing gets added later.
The crew works off ropes or a lift, cuts to the right points, chips the brush and rakes the ground clean. You should not be able to tell we were there, other than the tree.
There is no flat rate on tree work, because no two trees are the same. The price comes down to how big the tree is, how hard it is to reach, how much wood comes out and where that wood can be dropped safely.
A single ornamental tree in an open front yard is a short visit. A mature fir leaning over a roof on a steep lot above the water is a rigging job, and it takes a bigger crew and a longer day. A property with a dozen trees is usually cheaper per tree than any one of them on its own, so it is worth doing them together.
We come out and price the job before any work starts, and the price is in writing. There is no charge for the visit.
Every community on the Sunshine Coast has its own ground, its own weather and its own trees. Here is how this work usually looks in the three places we are called out to most.
Gibsons has some of the tallest trees on the lower Coast sitting right beside houses, and a lot of them are on slopes above the harbour. Wind off Howe Sound gets into the tops of those trees every winter. Most of our Gibsons pruning work is weight reduction and deadwood removal on firs and cedars close to a roof line, plus view pruning on the lots that look out over the water.
Roberts Creek properties are bigger, greener and more treed than anywhere else on the lower Coast. Many are acreages with second growth fir and cedar right up to the house and a long gravel driveway underneath. The common jobs here are crown lifting so trucks and cars can get down the drive, clearing limbs off outbuildings, and thinning the canopy so some light reaches a garden that has slowly gone dark.
Sechelt gets more sun and less rain than the rest of the Coast, and the tree work reflects that. There are more ornamentals, more fruit trees and more planted street trees in the newer subdivisions. Along Davis Bay and Selma Park the trees take salt air and open wind off the Strait, so we spend more time on structural pruning and less on canopy thinning.
We also prune in Langdale, Wilson Creek, Davis Bay, Halfmoon Bay, Secret Cove, Madeira Park, Garden Bay, Pender Harbour and Egmont. If your property is on the Coast, we will come and look at it.
Yes. A certified arborist is on every pruning crew we send out. Tree work near a house is not something to hand to a general labourer, and the difference shows in the cut.
Not if it is done properly and at the right time of year. A good prune takes off dead, damaged and crossing wood and lightens the load. A bad prune, which usually means topping, takes off far too much at once and the tree spends years recovering. We do not top trees.
Late autumn through late winter is the best window for most trees on the Coast, because they are dormant and the shape is easy to read with the leaves off. There are exceptions. Some flowering trees are better pruned straight after they bloom, and a hazard limb over a driveway gets cut whatever the date is.
Yes. Chipping, hauling and disposal are in the price on every job. We do not leave a brush pile behind and we do not charge for the cleanup as an extra.
Pruning almost never needs one, but removal sometimes does, and the rules differ between Gibsons, Sechelt and the regional district. We check what applies to your property before anything gets cut.
Most people start with one job. Once we are on the property, it is usually easier to have one crew handle the rest of it too.
Tell us what you need done. We will come out, take a look at it and give you a price in writing. There is no charge for that.
