The Urban Lumberjack

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There was no supervision of the workers. The guy is really a go-to kind of person and it was easy to make an appointment. He sent the crew out and didn't tell them what to do and they totally hacked up the trees. It was not good.

I called Steve Marshall at the Urban Lumberjack, along with two other companies, to get bids on the above referenced tree trimming job at a rental property we own. Steve answered the phone and told me that he would come out and take a look at the trees for an estimate. I asked him to give me separate estimates for each of the trees, so I could select how much of the work to have done at this time. He called me back the next day after visiting the site and gave me a detailed estimate. Steve is an ISA certified arborist who really knows his stuff. He also would make a great teacher because he was very good at explaining what was going on with the trees. Some people may have found his details "too much information", but I actually thought he was quite interesting. One situation we encountered was that the California Live Oak is a protected tree and there are severe restrictions on cutting them down (permit required, which is difficult to obtain) or even trimming them. Steve explained that he was not allowed to touch any branches larger than 3" around and that they are not allowed to trim back more than 25% of the tree's canopy. The other company I received a bid from told me the same story. However, Steve felt he could stay within these restrictions and still make my insurance company happy. His price was the best of the two bids I received (the third company never called back) so we scheduled a date for the work later that week. Steve had two workers on site at the appointed time and they worked from 7 a.m. - 3 p.m. on the three trees. They cleaned up well after the work was finished. I asked Steve if he could trim more off the Oak tree since some branches were still over the roof, but he said he couldn't without violating the city restrictions. He said as long as no branches are closer than 5-6 feet above the roof that the insurance company should be satisfied. (The second insurance inspection has not yet been scheduled, so I can't tell you if this will pass muster with the insurance company or not at this writing. Fingers crossed.) The cost for the Oak trimming was $85, the larger deodar cypress was $385 and the smaller deodar cypress cost $245, for a total of $715. There was an additional landfill disposal charge of $43.18. He told me about the landfill charge after the initial bid when I told him he had the job. I didn't like that he tacked on an additional fee after the bid, but he explained that he only passes along his actual cost, which he doesn't know until he gets to the landfill. He gave me a typical range of $20-$45 and he was right on. Since he was still lower than the other bid even with this additional charge, I was happy. I would definitely use The Urban Lumberjack again for any tree trimming or removal jobs.

Steve was extremely responsive to phone calls and questions and seemed very knowledgeable about trees. He gave us some tips to help us decide when we needed to trim again. We would definitely hire him in the future.

I called Steve to ask him to look at a jacaranda tree in my backyard. He was very polite on the phone and said he would have to get back to me as to whether he could come on Wed., Thurs. or Friday that week. Wed. afternoon I had not heard back so I called him and we scheduled an appointment. He arrived right on time and while I asked him to look at a particular tree, he evaluated all the trees and landscaping on my property. When we got to the jacaranda, he said he thought it just needed pruning (I was afraid it was dying and would need to be removed), however after looking at it for a few minutes, he said he recommended that I call National Arbor to evaluate the tree, because he wasn't sure about its health. He didn't charge me anything for coming out. Great service!

Steve came by when he said he would and discussed my avocado tree and gave me some pointers on other trees around my yard, but in the end honestly didn't recommend doing anything to it. I appreciated his honesty.

I requested that he come out and quote on trimming a sizeable pine tree at my mother's house. He was extremely knowledgeable, exceedingly professional and very, very pleasant. He answered numerous questions about the pine tree as well as a few other trees on the property, and gave a very reasonable quote for trimming the pine. He suggested that December or January would be the best time to trim the tree to lessen the possibility of destructive bugs attacking the tree after it was trimmed.

I had a great experience with The Urban Lumberjack. Stede came out within a day of my call. He provided detailed information about two pine trees that are leaning near my bedroom. I wanted his opinion as to if the trees needed to be removed, supported, trimmed. He gave detailed information about what exactly should be done. It was pouring rain when he arrived and he toured our property and even climbed our steep hillside. He charged nothing and was at our house for at least 45 minutes. He was very knowledgeable about all of our trees and advised about necessary trimming and best times to do it. I will definitely hire him when we need to do the work.

After our recent windstorm, a HUGE branch fell off a 60-foot sycamore and he removed it. After the rains, another branch cracked but was being held up by other branches. He came and gave an estimate for trimming the entire tree, and told us to call when we made a decision. The next evening, we noticed that the branch had begun to slip. We have 4 small kids and pets, as well, and when I left him a message about the movement of the broken branch, he called back within a couple hours, saying that he'd rearranged his schedule and his crew would arrive at 7 am. And they did. The work he does is based on his extensive knowledge of and concern for the health of trees, and it's performed neatly and safely, and cheaper than the other people I called. I have another tree that needs removing, and he bid $780, and another tree service I called bid $1680 for the same job.