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Tree Masters Hertfordshire provides tree surgery and general tree work for homeowners, landlords and property owners throughout Hertfordshire. Whether a tree needs reducing, pruning, cutting back or removing, contact us for a quotation.

We cover all of Hertfordshire, including Hertford, Watford, St Albans, Stevenage, Hemel Hempstead, Welwyn Garden City, Hatfield, Hitchin, Harpenden, Bishop's Stortford, Ware, Hoddesdon, Cheshunt, Potters Bar and surrounding towns and villages.

Call 07388 094829 for a quotation.

Call 07388 094829 for a quotation, or message us on WhatsApp.

Tree Surgery Services

Tree pruning and reductions
Branch and limb removal
Tree cutting and dismantling
Tree removal
Overgrown tree management
Tree work as part of garden clearance

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All of Hertfordshire covered

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A Tree Masters arborist making a cut with a chainsaw high in a tree

Cut brash being fed into a Tree Masters wood chipper

An arborist sectioning a felled trunk with a chainsaw

A climbing arborist roped into the crown of a large tree

The Different Kinds of Tree Work

“Tree surgery” covers several quite different jobs, and knowing which one a tree actually needs usually changes both the cost and the outcome. The right answer is often less drastic than people expect when they first ring.

Crown reduction

Reducing the overall size of the crown while keeping the tree's natural shape, by shortening branches back to suitable growth points. This is the usual answer to a tree that has simply become too big for its position — it takes light and weight off without removing the tree.

A reduction is not the same as cutting the top off. Taking a mature stem back to a stub leaves large wounds, forces dense regrowth that is weakly attached, and usually creates a worse problem within a few years. Where a tree genuinely cannot be reduced sensibly, removal is the more honest recommendation.

Crown thinning

Removing a proportion of the smaller branches throughout the crown to let more light through, without changing the tree's overall size. Useful where the problem is shade on a garden or a window rather than the dimensions of the tree.

Crown lifting

Taking off the lowest branches to raise the canopy — for clearance over a lawn, a drive, a path or a neighbouring pavement. Often the least invasive way to get usable space back underneath a tree.

Deadwooding

Removing dead branches from the crown. This is a safety job as much as a tidying one, particularly on trees overhanging somewhere people walk, sit or park.

Sectional dismantling and removal

Where a tree is coming out, it is rarely felled in one piece in a garden. It is taken down in sections, roped down where there is anything below, and cut up on the ground. The stump is then either left, cut low, or ground out as a separate piece of work.

Protected Trees, Conservation Areas and Permission

This is the part that catches people out, and it is worth checking before any work is arranged rather than afterwards.

Tree Preservation Orders. A tree with a TPO on it cannot be cut, topped, lopped, uprooted or wilfully damaged without written consent from the council. That applies to pruning as well as felling
Conservation areas. Trees above a certain size in a conservation area are protected even without a TPO, and the council normally has to be given notice before work starts
Planning conditions. Newer developments often carry conditions protecting specific trees, which sit outside the TPO system entirely
Felling licences. Larger volumes of felling outside a garden can need a licence from the Forestry Commission

Hertfordshire has a great many protected trees and a large number of conservation areas, so it is a live question here rather than a technicality. Each district or borough council holds the records for its own area, and they will confirm a tree's status.

Check before the work, not after. Carrying out unauthorised work to a protected tree is a criminal offence and the penalties are substantial. If there is any doubt about a tree's status, ask the council first — it costs nothing and it takes a phone call.

When a Tree Is Worth Looking At

It has grown into a building, a boundary, a roof or overhead cables
It is taking light from the house or from most of the garden
Branches are dead, hanging, split or torn
There is obvious decay, fungal growth at the base, or a cavity
It has moved in wind, or the ground has lifted around the base
Storm damage has left it unsafe or partly down
It needs cutting back before building work, a new fence or landscaping

A storm-damaged tree split at the trunk beside a house.

Storm-Damaged and Unsafe Trees

A tree that has come down, split or been left hanging after a storm is a different job from planned tree work. What matters first is making the area safe — and what is left hanging in a crown is frequently more dangerous than what has already fallen.

If a tree is on a building, a vehicle or a road, or is anywhere near power lines, keep people well clear and report it to the relevant authority before anybody approaches it. Never attempt to cut a tree that is under tension or resting on something.

What Happens to the Timber and Brash

Brash is chipped on site where there is room for the chipper, and the chippings are taken away or left for use in the garden, whichever you prefer. Larger timber is cut into manageable sections and removed, or left cut to length if you want it for firewood. Say which you would rather have when we quote, because it can change the price.