How Much Does An Arborist Cost?

You may wonder – how much does an arborist cost?

Well, I’ll be using this article to tell you all you need to know regarding arborist charges for tree maintenance and inspection costs.

To ensure your trees are properly maintained and remain in good health, who better to call than a certified arborist?

They are well trained in the field of plant care and maintenance so as you would expect, their services will come with a fee.

How Much Does An Arborist Charge?

The amount of money you have to pay for arborist services will be greatly determined by the amount of work he/she has to do.

There are no fixed prices, as the situation will vary among trees and the environments they are planted in.

Nonetheless, there are averages we can work with.

Expect to pay an arborist between $75, to $5,000 for tree pruning and tree removal services respectively. As for the cost of tree inspections, you should have a budget of $200 to $500.

Below, I will give you a breakdown of different arborist services and what you can expect to pay for them.

Arborist Prices Per Hour

Usually, arborists do not charge by the hour, instead, they charge according to the amount of work needed to be done and the circumstances surrounding the task.

The Major Duties Of An Arborist

Here are the services you can expect an arborist to render.

  • Tree removal
  • Tree pruning
  • Arborist reports
  • Tree assessment

Since tree jobs vary according to tree size, location, and obstacles, tree service companies have different standards, they will charge differently. Regardless of whether it’s on an hourly basis or not.

Let me give you an example.

A large tree company that has a team of 3 workers may spend about 5 hours to fell a tree. A bigger tree company, however, with 6 workers and heavy-duty machines can spend only an hour on the same task.

Since the smaller company will spend more time on the job but they may have to pay their workers more, since fewer workers mean more work to do per worker. On the other hand, the larger company will spend less time on the job since they have more workers and heavy-duty machines, and each worker will have less work to do.

The workers of the larger company may pay their workers less since each worker isn’t doing that much work. But paying their workers less won’t mean they would charge you less since they are getting the job done quickly.

Get quotes from different arborists and factor in each of their charges as well as the time it would take for them to get the job done.

The most important factor here is the cost itself, and not the number of hours they will spend doing it.

Finding the Best Priced Local Arborists

Finding arborists that will offer you the best budget-friendly prices isn’t such a difficult task. All you have to do is look hard enough via the right sources.

Using the internet is the quickest way to find many options. You may not be so lucky if you try and search for them through your local newspaper. This is because a lot of tree felling companies are small businesses and newspaper adverts are pretty expensive to get.

Online ads are much cheaper so you can expect to find more arborist services on the internet.

The season will also influence how an arborist charges. In the winter season, for example, there isn’t much tree maintenance work going on around this period so your local arborist will be in search of jobs and would most likely charge less. After all, a little is better than nothing.

Some websites can give you free arborist quotes per season. You can check them out and find the ones that have the most fairly priced services during different seasons.

Arborist Report Cost

Tree pruning and removal costs usually vary according to the situation, but arborist report charges are usually fixed among different arborists.

The money you will have to pay is dependent on the arborist company. If you are inspecting more than one tree, then they will charge you per tree. If you’re lucky, the company will give you a discount if you’re inspecting many trees.

On average, be prepared to spend between $300 to $400 on an arborist report for one tree.

These reports take all relevant information about the tree and its immediate surroundings into detail.

If you want to get your tree removed, the arborist will have to do a Safe Useful Life Expectancy Report (SULE). This report is to gauge the tree’s amenity value as well as the consequences of its removal.

If the reasons to remove the tree outweigh the reasons to remove it, then you would get approval.

Arborist Report For A Development Application

This report is very similar to the above-mentioned report. Depending on the application, it may not be necessary to remove the tree, so you will only be needing a report to determine how the development will impact the tree.

In more pressing cases, you may be looking to remove the tree as a

In other cases, you might be looking to remove the tree(s) as part of the application.

An arborist will charge somewhere between $350 to $450 for a report on a single tree. Depending on the number and type of trees to be included in the report, you may be charged an extra $100.

If you don’t know how to get relevant information regarding council approval for tree removal, then you can visit your council’s website and gather as much information as you can.

You can also send them an email or call to ask specific questions regarding council approval for tree removal.

A local arborist can also provide you with all the information you need. Although you may be charged a small consultation fee.

Consulting Arborist Fees

A consulting arborist can handle various tree-related tasks, but their main focus is tree inspection and reports.

Most of their prices will be fixed according to specific services. It will also vary among consulting arborists.

Once again, you have to search for consultants that can give you a fair price. Reaching out to different consulting arborists is the best way to compare prices and find the one that fits into your budget.

Cheapest Arborist Near You

You may wonder how you can find the cheapest arborist near you. Well, it will be quite time-consuming, since there are many arborists in business, and speaking to as many as you can is the best way to find the cheapest quotes.

The internet is also a fast means of finding a right-priced arborist. The problem with that however is that unless the arborist updates their prices on their websites, you may not be aware of the current charges for that particular season.

Remember, tree removal and pruning are seasonal practices, and they are mostly in demand during the summer.

The winter periods experience far less demand for tree pruning and tree removal services, so this may be the best time to find the cheapest arborist near you.

Small service providers like arborists usually charge more when they have a lot of work on their hands, and charge less when there is a clear scarcity of work.

If removing your tree is not so urgent, then it will be a good idea to wait until the winter season before removing your tree.

This could save you as much as $500. If you decide that the money you could potentially save isn’t worth the long wait, then you can hire the arborist for the peak season. Although that would defeat the whole purpose of looking for a cheap arborist.

Who Is A Consulting Arborist?

Arborists can be split into two groups. The ones that get their hands dirty by doing tree pruning or felling work, and the ones who specialize in tree inspections and arborist reports.

The ones who do tree inspections and reports are known as consulting arborists.

Consulting arborists are usually certified with a diploma in arboriculture. A regular arborist on the other hand only needs to have a certificate iii in arboriculture.

The job of a consulting arborist includes visiting the location of the tree, assessing its overall health and posture, determining if the tree is a threat to lives or property (hazard trees), defining the damage a tree can cause if it (or one of its branches) fail, and offering practical solutions to any problems there might be.

Consulting arborists usually work alone, whereas regular arborists can work in teams since tree pruning and felling is usually not a one-person job.

Their prices are fixed on specific services but vary among different consultants.

Conclusion

I hope your question – how much does an arborist cost? has been answered by this article.

Keep in mind that all figures listed above are estimates gotten from general research and inquiry.

Take care!

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