FINE TREE CARE, LTD - Timothy D. Stone

Tim Stone is an outstanding arborist whom we used for the second time this Spring. He came out at our request, methodically linspected our trees and other plantings, and gave us a fair estimate for the work that he felt we needed done. He and his crew arrived as scheduled, and completed all that was planned in a very efficient fashion. Seeing him high up on a large ash tree cutting away branches and cabling was quite a sight! His crew was excellent, knowledgeable, and very professional. All cuttings were carefully cleaned up and removed, leaving our property looking beautiful when the work was done. We have previously used several large tree services whose work does not compare with that provided by Fine tree Care. We recommend Tim Stone without reservation!

Tim was excellent! Best price of three estimates. Service was very professional and quick with thorough clean up. Highly recommend.

Tim responded promptly and was very professional and knowledgeable. He advised us on which trees we needed to take care of and what could wait. He and his crew were careful to lay down plywood sheets to protect our lawn, and moved deck furniture in case anything fell on them from on high. They removed a large amount of wood, shredded it and cleaned up very well afterwards. We will definitely use them again in the future.

Tim Stone came out for estimate and we decided on what action to take. He called several days later with several estimates dependent upon how much of the work I wanted done. I decided to have everything done at the same time. I did not get any other estimates because of his excellent customer reviews and the fact that he is an arborist. Since there was no urgency to have the job done immediately and Tim's schedule was pretty full, he gave me a tentative work date. He called me one day prior to the day he had available, came out the next morning before 9 a.m. with a crew of three, took them around and explained what needed to be done. They started about 9:00 and Tim left a while later after making sure everything was under control. His crew went about their business and did not balk when I asked them to go a little farther back on the pruning. They were very courteous. All stump grinding was done that morning and they cleaned the site impeccably and were finished by noon. I have no complaints. Mr. Stone and his crew were very professional.

Fine Tree Care is worth every penny! I priced this with two vendors and he was the most qualified as a certified arborist and the least expensive. Tim is very knowledgeable about trees and was careful to protect the tree, help it grow and educate me as the homeowner. He came with a crew of 5 today all of whom were extremely hard working and courteous. They had to work across my yard, and two of my neighbors' yards and they very respectful of everyone's property. Tim the owner actually climbs the tree and works with the crew. He was very thoughtful about what he trimmed and what he left and asked me my preferences. They came in the morning and worked through 6:30 PM. It rained for 2 hours and they were still working in the trees.. One of the men was in the tree trimming and cabling for more than 8 hours. They were incredible and we are very pleased with the end result. Our kids will be much safer running around the yards and our trees look great!

Today, Tim Stone of Fine Tree Care and his team removed our very large and very dead oak tree from a challenging location in our back yard in Secane. It was between our shed and an adjoining neighbor's fence and it sat on an embankment in the small space described. The entire job, from their arrival through removal and cleanup, took 2 1/2 hours. We were amazed, not only at how professionally the team worked and cleaned up all the debris, but at the entire process. Fine Tree Care is not the least expensive estimate we received (we were looking for good; not cheap), but my husband and I were very comfortable awarding the job to Tim Stone's company. He met with us for a consultation and provided a detailed outline of the plan for removing the tree - options for Plan A and Plan B. Happily, Plan A worked like a charm. We would enthusiastically recommend Fine Tree Care to our neighbors and friends. Hopefully, other seekers will read our review as we read the review of other clients. Because of those reviews on Angie's List, we chose this company and we are so happy with the results. We were so concerned about potential damage in all directions if the tree had come down in a bad storm. It was a pleasure working with Tim Stone and his team.

Excellent service. Of all the tree surgeons we called, Tim seemed to know the most. Also, he is an arborist and not just a tree surgeon, so could recognize when a tree was in danger. His price was a little higher than I would have liked, but he did excellent work and we did receive everything we asked for and more, so it was worth it in the end. I would highly recommend Tim for any kind of tree work.

Working with Tim Stone was a pleasure from start to finish. He came to our home and did an extensive review of our trees and other plantings and gave us detailed recommendations on what he felt needed to be done. He did preventive treatment for Dutch Elm Disease on several ash trees, fed and treated a redbud and several hollies that had been infected by scale last year. He did major pruning and cabling of a large silver maple tree, and pruned several other large trees. Finally, he evaluated and removed circling roots on our redbud. Tim and his crew worked carefully and with remarkable efficiency on this extensive job. They put down plywood panels to prevent damage to our lawn from their bucket truck. Their cleanup was thorough and there were no traces of debris when the job was finished. We have had several tree services over the years before finally learning about Tim Stone and Fine Tree Care, LTD. Tim is an arborist whose extensive knowledge and expertise, in addition to his thoroughness and professionalism places him in a class of his own when it comes to tree care. In addition, he is a really nice person. We will look forward to working with him in the future!

The crew- Nothing but an A plus crew. Tim was there personally leading the crew on the job. He is a great guy and takes pride in the job, "owning" it as if it were his yard. Everyone was very nice and personable. The job- Not only did they do great work, but they were efficient and super clean- not even a leaf was left on the yard. You would have never known they were there. And while the trucks were on the yard, they place plywood down so not even a single mark is made from their heavy equipment. Very impressive all around. I will definitely be using them again.

Tim was very responsive and arrived at the scheduled time. An estimate was provided that was very reasonable and the job was scheduled. The crew performed the services ahead of schedule and did a great job. All work was performed as discussed and all debris was removed. I would definitely use this service again and would highly recommend the company.

Everything is wonderful. He is honest and fair priced. I have recommended him to several people in my area.

Tim was pleasant and professional. He provided a detailed estimate and was able to provide the service quickly, given my schedule. He and his team removed several small trees and ground down the stumps, leaving the yard in better, tidier shape than when they arrived. His pricing was competitive -- not the lowest but not the highest, either. His responsiveness and service level won him this job. Thanks.

The crew of 4 worked very efficiently and left our property in great shape. We give Fine Tree Care our highest recommendation.

Fine Tree Care, Ltd. was thoroughly professional at every step, from estimate to cleanup. Tim is the only tree care professional I've ever gotten an estimate from or hired to do work on my property that seemed to put himself in my shoes, in other words, look at the problem from the customer's point of view. I view my entire property as a garden and have worked hard for many years planning, planting and tending it to resemble as closely as possible a natural forest, with some scattered all-native meadow plantings. For this latest project -- removing the top 60 feet of a 100-foot-tall tree that had trunk rot due to lightning damage and was about to fall -- other tree services didn't "get" that mowing down lots of other trees and shrubs that I planted and have tended for years in order to get their equipment in close to the target tree was something I might rather avoid. It was clear they had a narrow view of the tree removal project, with little or no appreciation for the ripple effects that the method they chose would have on the rest of the garden. In fact, it was clear that they saw the part of the garden around the tree not as a garden at all, but basically as a set of obstacles to be cleared (literally) as conveniently as possible. I suppose I should take that as a compliment -- they mistakenly thought they were in a natural forest instead of one that had been laboriously created by careful placement of hundreds of trees, shrubs and other plants to look like a natural forest. When I asked each one if they could somehow use a crane to access the tree from the street or the driveway, all I got was a litany of reasons why that would be impractical and too expensive even to consider. Tim's visit to work up an estimate was a breath of fresh air. The first thing out of his mouth was an insightful and appreciative statement about the layout of my garden. Then he said he wouldn't consider doing the job in any other way except using a crane from my driveway. Minutes later he gave me an estimate that fell into the mid-range of the bids I had already gotten from guys who dismissed the idea of a crane as impossibly exorbitant. Tim fit my job into his schedule sooner than I expected, in less than a month. He came with his crew and equipment exactly when promised and had the entire job done in three hours, except for hauling away the larger logs, which they did in a 10-minute visit the next day. They had to use a part of my lawn to park the truck that the chipper unloaded into, and carefully laid down plywood to avoid making any tire marks. My 120-foot driveway goes through the woods and is narrow and the crane/log hauler and chipper/truck combo were wide, so I was a bit concerned about them gouging the soil and damaging the plantings immediately flanking the edges of the driveway, especially since there's no room for them to turn and they had to back out when exiting. They were skillful drivers in reverse -- no damage at all was done to that soil or those plantings. I asked if I could have half the wood chips to use as mulch and they dumped them in a very neat pile precisely where I asked them to. The members of Tim's crew were impressive. Of all the tree services I've had work on my property over the years, this was the only one I've ever had a strong feeling, from chatting with and watching the rank-and-file workers, that the crew themselves had pride in their work instead of just doing a job. The results of the job are exactly as I had envisioned as the best-case scenario.

Tim came to my house to give me an estimate. His responsiveness to the estimate call was timely and professional. The price was about 125.00-150.00 more than another quote, but the other quote was from someone who was not an arborist, nor was professional in the handling of a previous appointment. I decided to go with him because of his expertise and professionalism. Tim was. He worked around what I wanted which was to be home on a Saturday for the job. So, the appointment was made for a month ahead. I emailed him early the week of to get an idea of what time frame he would be there. Didn't hear back, so I called on Thursday or Friday (two days before). Email and voicemail stated sometime between 8-9. The crew of five (Time included) arrived around 8:10. They worked quickly, efficiently and professionally. Were in good mood with nice energy. Jose went up in the basket to start the work and was very thorough when looking for the branches with dead wood. Tim worked meticulously on the Dogwood. Took about an hour and the cleanup was just as efficient and thorough. They did a really nice job and I am satisfied.

We were very impressed with the professionalism demonstrated by Timothy & his crew. Fine Tree Care was recommended to us by two neighbors and we were not disappointed! Tim came out to look at our trees- was prompt and very professional. He was very honest with us- told us that a third tree could wait as it grew very slow and he did not think it needed a trim yet. Tim communicated with us through the entire process and the fee for his services was very reasonable. We would defintely recommend this company to anyone we know looking to have tree service performed.

Tim and his crew were great as always. Back when we first hired Tim to remove a dying Oak tree we discussed the additional work that needed to be done on the property. Our first priority was removing the dying Oak, and our budget didn't allow for the other work. Now that we could afford the additional work we hired Tim to help clean up the overgrown areas and prepare other trees for healthy growth. The work they had to do (the above is just a partial list) took three days in total. Each day they arrived on time and got to work. They picked a good time to start, after the morning rush of traffic on our street, so as to minimize the inconvenience to our neighbors. The crew worked as a team. There was no shouting or hollering across the yard, just a appropriate communication and planning before equipment was fired up. I was also pleased to see that each and every person on the crew was using the appropriate safety gear for the task at hand; eye protection always, leg chaps when using chain saws, and hearing protection when using power equipment. At the end of each day they cleaned up and left no visible sign they had been there. All the detritus, debris and equipment was removed each day. Talk about a courteous crew, they even brought the newspaper up to the house from its usual driveway delivery! A first class job and a great crew. We look forward to continuing to work with Tim and his crew to maintain the health of our trees in the future.

The experience was one of the best customer service experiences I have had with a contractor. From the first contact (last year) when Tim came to my home to survey the various trees on the property. He spent over an hour walking my 1 acre property with me answering questions about the 7 mature trees I have. He has a very friendly personality and is extremely knowledgeable. Never did I feel rushed through the process or pressured to perform any work. It was a very casual and informative experience. I hired Tim to perform work on a few of the trees with additional work to be performed later (this year). Overall I was very happy with the work he performed last year. Since there was still work planned for this year (reflected in this review), he reached out to me when the weather started to warm up to schedule. I really appreciated his follow-up. We scheduled another visit to scope the remaining work and while he was here, he noticed one branch that had broken over the winter on one of the trees he had performed work on last summer. He indicated he would take care of that when he came out. Additionally, there was another tree he had worked on that had a branch that he wanted to reduce the weight on. Overall, I only lost one branch over the entire winter on all the trees he had performed work on the previous summer and that was the one he wanted to fix. Tim gave me a quote for the new work that was consistent with the estimate he gave me the previous summer for the two trees he had not yet worked on. When he came out to perform the work, he just took care of the other items on trees he had already worked on because you could tell he takes pride in his work and craft. Never was there any 'warranty' discussion, he just did it because it was the right thing to do for the customer. I was really impressed. He performed the work mentioned above over a day an half while spending the time needed to properly prune the trees. His crew was very careful to cleanup the property and even took an old christmas tree and small brush pile without asking. They used sheets of plywood to protect the lawn when using their bucket truck and were very careful in protecting the surrounding vegetation by tying back a shrub in the way of getting closer to one of the trees. Overall, I am very happy with the work and customer service experience. I have recommended Tim to others neighbors and will use them for as long as Tim is in business.

Thorough, reliable, knowledgeable. Negotiated tight spaces with clipper track, etc. Considerate of neighbors property. Work crew cleaned up property thoroughly. This is our 3rd time using Fine Tree Care.

We have used Fine Tree Care (FTC) on our property for around the past 15 years. They are not the lowest cost tree care provider, but for the quality and expertise of service and recommendations they are an extremely good value. We were "sold" on using FTC the first time we hired them. We had some trimming to do on our trees, some of which were close to the house and causing damage to our roof. Tim Stone of FTC gave us great advice on which trees to remove, which to trim, and where we should re-plant new trees (and what varieties to plant) to restore the beauty of the property. When they came to do the work we were totally impressed. They did all of the work safely and professionally, with zero damage to our home. But they also took the time to "save" a tree branch that had an active bird nest in it - and tied the branch into another tree so the birds could incubate and hatch the eggs in the nest. This is the kind of professionalism for an arborist company that they are! As our trees have grown we have re-hired FTC to continue to give us sound advice on trimming and planting, and continued to provide the trimming services to improve the beauty of our trees. We have so many people that complement us on the attractiveness of our property, mostly because of the way the trees have enhanced the property. Recently we had tree damage from hurricane Sandy. One tree which was already "sick" from termite and insect damage was partially broken and unfortunately had to be cut down. Another very large ash tree that was perfectly healthy before the storm had a significant split where the trunk forked high in the tree. We thought we would lose that tree as well. But Tim Stone looked at the situation and recommended a solution using steel rods and steel cables to pull the tree back together and close up the split. This was done, and the prognosis is promising. The split is closed and the cables will reduce the stress for the many years that will be needed to allow the tree to naturally heal. Heavy trucks were needed to be driven onto our lawn to enable the repair, and FTC took the time to cover the lawn with wood sheets for driving on, such that there were no ruts or other damage cause to our storm-water-logged property. We are once again impressed with the expertise, capabilities, and value of services provided by FTC.

It took a few weeks for the return call, however once we connected Timothy was very flexible with his schedule to come out for a quote (quotes are free). I had called about insect damage to a Japanese Maple. Timothy viewed the damage and the tree and described the myriad problems afflicting the tree. Despite the problems we decided to leave the tree alone, as not much could be done to save it and there was no need to take it down at this time. We then walked the property as I asked for his thoughts on the other foliage. Timothy gave recommendations on how to care for the other trees. What impressed me most was Timothy's professionalism and knowledge. I later called Timothy to schedule the felling of the dying oak, it was set for the week of Oct 29th. As Hurricane Sandy moved through the area at the start of the week, it took down three trees on the grounds. I called Timothy and asked for them to be removed when the oak was taken down. As they were not in the way, nor had they caused any property damage I wasn't too concerned about them and I suspected my job would be pushed back due to the storm. Timothy and his crew arrived on Thursday the 1st to clean up the storm damage. When I arrived home I was pleasantly surprised, the only difference I could see was that the trees were removed. There was no evidence of equipment tracks or even wood chippings. The work site was cleaned up very well. The following day they came back to fell the oak. I rated the price a B as there are less expensive tree services out there. However I feel Timothy is well worth the price he asks. I rated responsiveness a B as it did take a few weeks to hear back from him initially. Likewise I thought I would have received notice closer to his arrival on site. Instead I got a call from him while he was onsite as he wanted to clarify the storm damage work. Those little things aside, I'm very pleased with the work, and will be securing his services in the future.

I decided against having the trees pruned due to the cost. I had several tree companies provide estimates and Fine Tree Care was the highest estimate at $3500. However, Timothy Stone was by far the most knowledgable compared with the rest of the tree companies that I spoke with. He discussed in detail what he felt was the best way to go about reducing the trees that have started to grow to close to electric wires and my house. Additionally, he suggested a cabling system for a large maple tree that is close to my house and my neighbors. I decided to forgore the work due to the price, but I certainly felt the most comfortable with having Fine Tree Care performing the work. I will keep him in mind for future tree work that I may need.

We had a large silver maple in our backyard that had become a danger. It had been neglected by the previous owners, was covered in ivy, and periodically dropped large dead branches into our yard. It was, however, a major tree in our yard and we knew its loss would change the dynamic of the yard. After trying many local tree companies (we inherited a lot of aging trees when we bought our house), we turned to Tim. He spent a lot of time walking around our yard, coming back on his own time to see certain trees more closely. He advised us on tree maintenance and care, yet he never pushed for expensive services. We had him remove our silver maple and have had him help us with maintaining an ancient dogwood and sycamore. Tim knows his stuff, and he is willing to spend time to educate his customers. He may not be as cheap as other tree services, but he's the only tree company you'll need.

He came out a month before the actual date of service to size the tree and give an estimate. When he came to perform the work he completed the work in three hours. The tree needed some major pruning and now it is nicely shaped all the dead is cut out of it. It looks great. Timothy really knows his trees.

Terrific job. The were extremely punctual and professional. And the quality of the service was exceptional. Provided quote in the afternoon and had the service done by the time I came home the next day.