VALLEY CREST TREE CO

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I really appreciated the thoroughness of Valley Crest Tree Care. Mike Ritenour, the arborist I worked with, was very responsive, respectful and helpful. I got bids from multiple tree services. I got bids that ranged from $4500 to $8000 and from "a couple of men and a tree" to using a 15 ton crane to Valley Crest's 110 ton crane bid. Valley Crest's bid came in at the lower end at $5200. The bid was solid since they got bids for the crane before giving me their bid. Their references checked out really well and, after some confusion, so did their insurance, contractor's license, business license, etc, etc. Mike said I was the only residential client that had ever done such a thorough check- and he was impressed. Since the tree straddled both our property and our neighbor's, we were splitting the cost and I was trying to draw up a contract between my neighbor and I. When he heard this, Mike suggested that Valley Crest simply create two totally separate contracts for the work, each for half the total cost. So I was legally liable for half the cost and the same with my neighbor- and there was no liability between us. If either of us hadn't paid it would have been just between us and Valley Crest without involving the other neighbor. I thought this was brilliant! The day of the tree removal went really well. There were some hiccups which showed that as far as the actual removal, that Dan, the foreman?, was the one who really knew what was going on. Mike seemed to do the sales, the paperwork and have the theoretical knowledge, but Dan was the one to ask about actual removal specifics. This became apparent a couple of times. First off, Mike had agreed that the crane would be completely out in the street and not on either of our driveways or grass. When I looked out the window in the morning while Dan and the crane guy were setting up the crane, one of the crane's riggings was placed on my neighbor's grass. I talked to Dan about it and he got it fixed. After that, everything went magically smoothly. It was a spectacle to watch "flying trees". My neighbors, my family and people at the park next door litterally pulled up lawn chairs to watch. They took the top 2/3rds of the tree down in sections without limbing it. Down lower, in the heavier wood, they did limb it, but even so, sections were heavy. The bottom 10' of the trunk came in at 7500 pounds. Work was done very carefully and efficiently. By the end of the first day, unless you looked in the side yard, you'd never have known there had been a gigantic redwood there that morning. They guys cleaned everything up including the roofs and gutters. Grinding the stump and surface roots took a while. Two solid days were spent doing so and then the machine broke, so they had to fix it and come back a different day. While grinding the stump was slow, and the communication during this portion wasn't great, the end result was excellent. Our neighbors and I ended up with flat yards. The roots had raised the "ground level" by at least 3 feet. I was really surprised by how good things looked afterwards. Again, before they finally left, everything was cleaned up beautifully. Overall, I'd highly recommend working with Valley Crest Tree Care.

First, the arborist evaluated the big trees on the property and made recommendations and provided written estimates. I decided to have the highest priority work done, which was to trim three large liquid ambers in my front yard. the tree trimmers were prompt, efficient and cleaned up all the leaves and limbs on the ground. I choose them because of their professional certifications, contractors license and large trucks with the cherry picker and shredder. I did not get other bids as I was satisfied with their bid and was more concerned about professionalism, the right equipment and ability to the the work.