Here’s the honest bit: “lopping” has a bad name in the tree world, because done badly it means hacking a tree back to stubs. That triggers a mess of weak, fast regrowth that’s more dangerous than what you started with, and over time it can kill the tree. When people ring us for lopping, what they usually want is the tree made smaller, safer or tidier. We can absolutely do that. We just do it as a proper reduction, cut to AS4373, so you get the result you’re after without wrecking the tree.
If a tree’s genuinely too big, too close or too far gone, we’ll tell you removal is the better call rather than take your money to hack it and have you ring us again in two years.
The difference is entirely in where and how the cut is made, and that’s the whole point of using a qualified arborist. AS4373 is the Australian Standard that sets out exactly that, and we cut to it every time.
We won’t hide behind “every job’s different,” so here’s what actually moves the number: the size of the tree, how much you’re reducing it by, how easy it is to get to and work in, whether there are structures, powerlines or a pool underneath that mean each branch has to be roped down rather than dropped, and how much material comes out at the end. We work it all out at the quote and give you one fixed price in writing.
We come out, look at the tree, and tell you straight whether lopping’s the right move or whether a proper prune or removal would serve you better. You get a fixed written price on the spot, cleanup included. Once it’s booked we confirm the day before and phone you on the morning. On the day, the reductions are made at the right points, everything’s mulched on the spot, and the site’s left clean.
A good reduction also buys you time. Cut properly, a tree holds its new shape for years before it needs looking at again. A topped tree is back in your face within a season or two, thicker, messier and weaker than before, so you end up paying again sooner. We’ll give you a rough idea of how long the work should last, so you can plan around it instead of being caught out by fast regrowth.
Bad lopping is. Topping a tree to stubs is what causes weak regrowth and decay. What we do is a proper reduction to AS4373, which makes the tree smaller or safer without that damage.
Sometimes, within limits. We’ll look at how much we can take without destabilising the tree or killing it, and give you an honest answer. If it needs removal to get the result you want, we’ll say so.
Light pruning is often fine, but larger works and protected trees can need approval. We check the mapping at the quote.
We treat pruning as the health-and-structure work and lopping as size reduction. Either way we cut to AS4373 so the tree stays healthy.
