CARLSON'S TREE CARE

The Crew did an amazing job, taking out our large oak tree. We Will definately, use their services again.

I have used Carlson Tree for many years at commercial and residential locations and they are excellent!

Excellent. Carl and his crew are friendly and thorough. Very hardworking.

The arborists performed all the pruning and left the area clean very satisfied. Great work and would recommend.

There are many tree care businesses listed here, but Carlson's Tree Care is the real deal. They have a very experienced crew and all the best equipment. I've hired them four times now for pruning and tree removal, and I can't recommend them enough. Just to get a comparison, I called one of the top rated tree companies here on Angie's List and not only did they say my two 80'+ trees were too big to handle, they told me their per tree price even if they could have done the work, and it was considerably more than Carlson's. If you need real work done at a very reasonable price, Carlson's is your company. (btw - they completely cleaned up the yard after the cutting!)

Went with a lower estimate company.

I needed some tree removal/work done on my property and had recieved a very glowing referral to Carlson's Tree Care by a local contractor who was listed as a preferred service provider by my homeowner's insurance. The woman stated she could not reccomend him enough, and that he was fairly priced and a certified arborist. She said he did very clean work and that I wouldn't regret it. We had called for an estimate and Karl quickly returned our calls and set some time the following week for the estimate. At first blush, Karl was very professional and personable and we liked him a great deal. His estimate of $1200 came in exactly the same as two other companies we had called, and decided to hire him based on our "gut feelings" that he was the right guy for the job. Our written estimate stated he would cut the tree into "firewood" which was explained to me as 12" stove size pieces that could be easily removed, and that debris would be removed from the yard. We had inquired about having the wood hauled away entirely, to which Karl seemed apprehensive and highly discouraged us saying it would be wasteful to pay him $100 to take the wood to the dump, and he talked up how easy it would be to give away the "firewood" he'd be leaving behind. Karl said he'd call us on Monday March 5th to set a day/time for the services and to expect thurs/fri. To my surprise, he called Tueday March 6th in the early morning and said they were on their way to my house. Upon hearing the work was done, I arrived to find my front yard looking great. A quick trip through the backyard (I had taken my break from work to pay him for the service per his request) led me to one removed stump and one removed tree. My backyard was thrashed. Wood chips everywhere, piled two feet high against my fence. Small to very large trunk pieces all over my lawn, I was in shock and couldn't even come up with words. I didn't know what to make of the situation, and was visibly upset but didn't know what to say or do. I asked about planing new trees, and Karl said I could plant right over the old ones immediately. Karl then stood there in silence and I felt immense pressure to pay him because this was what we had agreed on; and I had to return to work ASAP. I regret this, more than I can explain. After I got home from work, I futher inspected my property. One of my brand new gutter downspouts had been damaged (the footing was ripped off entirely), my newly painted siding was scraped and stained with tree brush and dirt, my fence was scraped up, and most importantly my yard was COVERED in wood chips and wood. The wood pieces were simply cross sections of trunk and I could not physically move them. Apparently my definition of "remove debris" and "firewood" were polar opposites from his. I called Karl and tried to very politely express my concerns. Karl said he didn't notice any of the damage I was claiming (the gutter piece that was ripped off is not in my yard, so it was not accidentally knocked off and unnoticed. They took the piece with them and threw it away). He didn't seem too interested in my concerns, said he'd come get the wood for $100, and was very quick to get off the phone. I had to call him several more times before he would agree to come get the wood off my lawn in exchange for me agreeing to fix the damage to my house/fence/gutters. Out of desperation to get rid of the wood I could not physically handle, I agreed. That was two weeks ago. Since then, I've filled my yard waste bin to the brim 3x with wood chips and spent many hours shoveling and trying to clean up my side yards. I'm nowhere near done. I had river rocks in my yard, which I had offered to move prior to the job and Karl told me it wouldn't be a problem. Little did I know he meant for him.. not for me. I can't just shovel out the wood chips because the rocks are mixed heavily in with them.. meaning I have to sift through the debris and get the rocks out one by one. The large stump I paid to have removed, was only partially removed, a large piece against the fence was left behind and buried under chips so I wouldn't notice. Some of my fence boards were damaged as well as my drip irrigation system, and I had no idea until I dug them out from under the debris. I have tried to dig a hole for a new tree where the small trunk was removed, only to find out the stump is still in there.. just cut lower than I could see previously. A stone alligator I had in my yard was also damaged, his mouth has been broken off and he was set behind some other trees in my yard. I am completely overwhelmed with the damage to my property and yard, and don't even know what to do or where to start on getting my yard back into decent shape. I'm not even sure I'll be able to plant trees in these areas due to the mess and magnitude of debris left behind. If I wasn't going to plant new trees, I wouldn't have had the tree + stumps removed in the first place. I had no experience with contractors and expected someone with his years of experience and the reccomendation I received for him, to be very forthcoming, honest, and do quality work. I know now that I should've requested a detailed contract, with every detail clearly spelled out. If I had a contract, I could've withheld payment until the job was done right. I feel strongly that he took advantage of my inexperience all the way to the bank and regret hiring Carlson's Tree Care. I paid $1200 to have my property value lowered, and to have dozens of hours of labor I'm not experienced in spent in vain.

It went fairly well considering the circumstance. I initially wanted to just cut the tree, but had to finally grind the stumps because there was a metal rod that was put in on several trees to stake it up and the stump grew around it making it impossible to cut those trees all the way to within 2 inches from the ground. A cable cord was severed during the grinding because the cables were not initially placed deep enough making it impossible to avoid damaging the cable cord. Called Carlson and they immediately got back to me and told me to call my cable provider and Comcast came the next day to temporarily fix the problem and a cable technician will come back to permanently replace the cables, so everything worked out o.k. This company has a good response system. They have someone who takes your phone call, find out what you want, and then have the estimator/boss/worker (Zack) call you back (which has always been immediately).