Serving all of Westchester County, NY — residential & commercial
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A tree emergency is not the same as a tree problem. It is a tree already on something, a trunk split and resting against a house, a driveway blocked to an ambulance, or a root plate lifted out of wet ground and leaning toward a bedroom.
Our emergency line is answered around the clock, every day of the year. Crews roll with lighting, chainsaws, rigging and a crane or lift when the situation calls for it, and the first priority is always stabilizing the scene rather than starting the biggest cut.
Read this page before you need it. The first hour after a tree comes down is when the wrong decisions are made — and the most common injury in a storm is a homeowner with a chainsaw.
Call us immediately if a tree or large limb is on a roof, blocking a driveway or roadway, resting on a vehicle, tangled in a service drop, or if a trunk has split and is leaning against a structure. Leaning trees with visible soil heaving at the base also qualify — the root plate is failing and it can go over without warning.
A limb down in an open backyard with nothing underneath it is not an emergency. Neither is a dead tree that has been dead for two years, or a stump. Those are scheduled as standard work, at standard rates, and we will tell you honestly which category you are in.
Get people and pets out of the area and away from anything the tree is touching. If a line is down, assume it is energized — stay at least thirty feet back and call the utility. Do not move a limb that is touching a conductor, and do not use a metal ladder anywhere near it.
Document everything with photographs before anything is moved: the tree, the damage, the vehicle, the fence, the grade around the root plate. That record is what any claim will be built on.
Do not start cutting. A limb under tension can kick back, roll, or release a trunk that was being held up by the piece you just removed. Storm-damaged wood carries stored energy, and it is the reason tree work is one of the most dangerous trades in the country.
The order of operations is always: assess, secure, then remove. We check for structural damage to the building, identify which limbs are carrying load against the roof, and determine which cuts will relieve pressure without dropping the remaining weight into the structure.
Most of the time the load is relieved in small pieces, rigged or lifted with a crane so the building never takes additional force. Where a trunk has punched through a roof, we work with the homeowner and their adjuster on a sequence that gets a tarp on the opening the same day, before the next rain.
If the tree is resting on a service drop, the utility comes first. We do not remove any material that is supporting or being supported by an energized line.
After a major storm, we triage the call list by life safety: trees on occupied structures, blocked emergency access, live lines, vehicles, then everything else. That means a tree across your driveway may wait behind a tree resting on a bedroom, and we will tell you where you sit in the queue rather than leaving you to guess.
Saturated soil is what makes Westchester storms damaging. The root plate fails before the trunk snaps, so trees come over whole, taking lawns and sidewalks with them. Coastal and low-lying properties from Rye through Mamaroneck see the most of it; inland, the damage is usually wet snow and ice loading on weak-wooded species.
We stage equipment in advance when a storm is forecast, so crews are working at first light instead of driving around looking for fuel.
In most homeowner policies, removal of a tree that has fallen on a covered structure is covered, and debris removal is covered up to a limit. A tree that fell in the yard and hit nothing often is not, beyond a small debris allowance.
You do not need to sign anything to get a tree off your house. Storm-chasing crews appear after every major event and pressure homeowners into signing assignment-of-benefits paperwork at the curb. You have the right to review the paperwork first and choose your own contractor. We provide photographs, a written scope and an arborist report you can send to your adjuster, and we document the pre-existing condition of anything we touch.
At night we work only what is safe to work under lights: clearing access, relieving a load on a structure, and making a site secure. Large removals, crane picks and anything over a roof wait for daylight, because the risk of working blind outweighs the hours saved.
If a tree can safely stay until morning, we will say so. That is usually the better decision, and it saves you the after-hours premium.
Questions
Anything not covered here, call us or see the full FAQ library.
For a genuine emergency we aim to have a crew on site within a few hours, and often sooner for life-safety calls in central Westchester. Storm events that generate dozens of calls stretch that window, and dispatch will give you an honest estimate when you call.
Often paired with
Sectional, rigged and crane-assisted removal for trees that cannot simply be dropped.
Diagnosis and treatment plans for decline, root damage, insects and fungal decay.
Grind below grade, remove the root flare, and restore the lawn so it can be planted again.
Free estimates · No obligation
Book a free on-site assessment and get a written, itemized proposal — no obligation, and a straight answer about whether the work is necessary.