Large tree grown dangerously close to the side of a Gainesville home before removal

Tree Service in Gainesville, FL

Name: Arbor Care Tree Service
Address: Gainesville, FL, 32608, US
Telephone: (352) 770-8733

Removals, pruning, stump grinding and storm work across Gainesville, from the historic districts east of downtown to the newer subdivisions west of I-75.

Call or text 352-770-TREE Free estimate

This is home. Crews leave from here. ISA Certified Arborist on staff Answered 24 hours a day

Alachua County

What tree work in Gainesville actually looks like

Gainesville is a city built under a canopy, and that canopy is the reason people pay more to live in the older neighborhoods. It is also the reason those same neighborhoods generate more tree calls than anywhere else in the county. The blocks around the Duckpond, the Northeast Historic District, Golfview and the streets near campus are full of eighty year old laurel oaks and water oaks that all went in at roughly the same time. Which means they are all running out of time at roughly the same time.

West of town the problem is different. Haile Plantation, Town of Tioga, the Tower Road corridor and Millhopper have young planted trees mixed in with pines and live oaks that were left standing when the lots were cleared. Those leftover pines are the ones we pull off roofs after a tropical storm. They spent thirty years growing in a forest, sheltered on every side, and then the forest was removed and a house was put next to them.

See all of our services

What we get called for most in Gainesville

Laurel oaks and water oaks giving out. Both grow fast and die young for oaks. Around sixty to eighty years they go hollow at the base while the top still looks green and healthy, and a lot of the trees over Gainesville roofs are in that window right now.
Pines going over in soaked ground. After several days of rain the sandy soil here stops holding roots, and the next band of wind pushes the whole tree over instead of snapping it.
Branches over driveways and roofs in the older part of town, where the streets are narrow and the canopy has closed in overhead.
Live oaks dying slowly from construction damage. Regrading, trenching and paving inside the root zone kills a big oak over years, and you usually do not see it until two or three summers after the work was done.

Worth knowing. Inside Gainesville city limits, removing a regulated tree usually needs a city permit, and the rules are different again in unincorporated Alachua County. There is a Florida law that can get you out of the permit entirely, and we explain it below.

On the ground

Where we work in and around Gainesville

Not a list we bought. These are the places our trucks actually go.

DuckpondNortheast Historic DistrictPleasant StreetGolfviewSugarfootHaile PlantationTown of TiogaMillhopperTower RoadKanapahaBlues CreekSerenolaWestsideIdylwildBuckingham

Know your trees

The trees you actually have in Gainesville

Different trees fail in different ways, and knowing which one is in your yard tells you most of what you need to know about what happens next. These are the ones we deal with here.

The treeWhat goes wrong with it hereWhat we do about it

Laurel oak and water oakFast growing, and short lived for oaks. Decay starts at the base and works up while the crown still looks fine. Mushrooms at the trunk flare are the tell.We sound the trunk and check the base. If there is enough good wood left it gets deadwooded. If it is hollow it comes down before it picks its own direction.

Live oakThese outlast everybody, but they carry enormous horizontal limbs and they die slowly when the root zone gets trenched, graded or paved.Deadwooding and selective reduction, and cables through heavy forks. Removal is the last thing we recommend on a live oak, not the first.

Loblolly and slash pineUproot in saturated ground instead of snapping. After lightning or drought stress, bark beetles finish them, and a dead pine gets brittle fast.Dead pines come down early, before the wood gets too unreliable to climb. Healthy ones near the house get thinned so wind moves through them.

SweetgumBrittle wood that sheds limbs in every storm, and surface roots that lift driveways and sidewalks.Crown cleaning and clearance pruning. Where it is fighting the hardscape, removal and grinding is usually the honest answer.

Cabbage palmDoes not fail like a hardwood, but old fronds and seed stalks come down hard, and people keep asking us to hurricane cut them.Dead fronds and seed stalks off, living green fronds left alone. A stripped palm is a weaker palm, not a safer one.

Not sure what you are looking at? Text a photo to 352-770-TREE and we will tell you what it is and whether it is a problem.

Services

What we do in Gainesville

Tree Removal

Most Gainesville removals are tight access jobs. Small back yards, a fence on one side and a neighbor's roof on the other, so everything comes down on a rope.

Tree Removal in Gainesville 02

Tree Trimming and Pruning

Deadwooding old laurel and live oaks, and pulling the canopy back off roofs in the historic districts without wrecking the shape of the tree.

Tree Trimming and Pruning in Gainesville 03

Stump Grinding

Old stumps in front lawns all over the older neighborhoods, ground below grade so you can sod straight over them.

Stump Grinding in Gainesville 04

Emergency and Storm Damage

We are minutes away from most of the city, which matters at two in the morning with a pine through the roof.

Emergency and Storm Damage in Gainesville 05

Commercial Tree Service

Apartment complexes, student housing, HOAs and commercial lots along Archer Road, Newberry Road and 13th Street.

Commercial Tree Service in Gainesville

Permits

Do you need a permit to take down a tree in Gainesville?

Sometimes. It depends on the tree, the size, the property and which side of a city line you are standing on. Here is the honest version, including the part most tree companies never mention.

Florida law

A certified arborist can take the permit out of the picture entirely

Since 2019, Florida Statute 163.045 has said that no local government may require a permit, an application, a notice, a fee or any mitigation before you remove a tree on residential property, as long as you have documentation from an ISA Certified Arborist or a Florida licensed landscape architect that the tree poses an unacceptable risk. They also cannot force you to replant it.

There are real conditions attached, and they matter:

It covers single family detached homes. It does not cover commercial property, and an HOA can still have its own say.
The assessment has to happen on site, in person, following the ISA Best Management Practices for Tree Risk Assessment, Second Edition.
The finding has to be that removal is the only practical way to bring the risk below moderate. Not that the tree is ugly, or dropping leaves, or that you would rather have the sun.

We have an ISA Certified Arborist on staff, so we can do that assessment and write it up for you. What we will not do is write one for a tree that does not meet the standard. If your tree is healthy, we will tell you it is healthy, and then you decide what you want to do with that.

And the local rules in Gainesville

Inside Gainesville city limits

The city regulates the removal of what it calls regulated trees, which are defined by species and by size. If your tree is one of them, the removal goes through the city's Urban Forestry program, and you may be asked to plant replacement trees. The city sets a standard for those too: nursery grown, about two inches in diameter, Florida Nursery Grade Number One.

Just outside the city line

Plenty of Gainesville addresses are not actually in the city. If yours is in unincorporated Alachua County, the county rules apply instead: on a single family lot of an acre or less, a permit is needed for native trees over 20 inches across, and for laurel and water oaks over 30 inches. Everything else on the property, and every other kind of property, is a permit at 8 inches. Diameter gets measured four and a half feet off the ground.

Ordinances get rewritten, and thresholds move. Treat this as a starting point rather than the final word, confirm anything that matters with the city or county directly, and let us check your specific property before anybody starts cutting. Alachua County tree permits: 352-374-5249.

Timing

When to deal with a Gainesville tree

Almost every tree job is cheaper and easier before it becomes urgent. Here is when to move on what, in this town specifically.

Before June

Thinning and deadwooding pines and oaks near the house before hurricane season is the cheapest storm insurance there is. Waiting until a named storm is in the Gulf means waiting behind everyone else who waited.

Late winter

The best window for structural pruning on hardwoods. The leaves are off, we can see the whole frame of the tree, and the cuts close cleanly before summer growth.

Right after any heavy rain week

Walk your yard and look at the ground on the high side of any tree that leans. Soil lifting or cracking means the roots are already moving.

BeforeAfter Poolside backyard with pool, deck and open sky after the tree was removed

Large tree grown hard against the back of a house before removal

Drag the handle. A tree taken out from over a pool deck, with the deck still in one piece. Same day, no ruts through the lawn, and every limb, log and chip gone before the trucks left.

Certified arborist on staff

Someone who actually studied trees looks at yours before a saw comes out. You get a real opinion, not a sales pitch.

Fully insured

General liability and workers comp. Ask and we email you the certificate before we start work.

We follow the standards

ANSI Z133 for safety and A300 for pruning, on every single job. Plenty of crews do not.

We answer 24 hours a day

Storms do not wait for business hours. Call or text any time, day or night, any day of the year.

Questions

Questions we get from Gainesville

Do you charge to come out to Gainesville?

No. Estimates are free everywhere we work, including Gainesville. A certified arborist looks at the tree, tells you what he actually thinks, and gives you a price in writing. You are not obligated to book anything.

How quickly can you get to Gainesville?

This is home. Crews leave from here.. Regular work in Gainesville is usually scheduled within the week. Emergencies go to the front of the line, and we answer the phone at any hour of any day.

Are you insured to work in Alachua County?

Yes. General liability and workers compensation, both current. Ask and we will email you the certificate before we start. If a company will not send you one, that is your answer about that company.

What does tree removal cost in Gainesville?

It depends on the size of the tree, what is underneath it, whether we can get equipment to it, and whether you want the stump and the debris gone as well. Gainesville specifics are covered further up this page. Nobody can give you a real number over the phone, which is why the visit is free. See what moves the price.

Do I actually need a permit in Gainesville?

Maybe, and it depends on the tree and the property. There is also a Florida law that removes the permit requirement entirely when a certified arborist documents that the tree is a genuine risk. We explain both in the permits section above.

Can you do several trees in one visit?

Yes, and you should. One trip and one setup instead of three means the price per tree drops. If you have a removal, a couple of trims and an old stump, put them all on the same estimate.

Nearby

See all eleven towns

Free estimate

Get a free estimate in Gainesville

Tell us what is going on. We will come out, tell you honestly whether the tree needs to come down, and give you the price in writing before anyone starts cutting.

Faster than filling out a form 352-770-TREE (352) 770-8733, call or text, 24 hours a day