Advanced options
The legal check comes before any quote: Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas make unauthorised work a criminal offence with fines that dwarf any tree bill (TPO breaches can reach GBP 20,000+ per tree): one call/search with your council answers it, and conservation areas need 6 weeks' written notice even for routine work. This is also the knock-on-the-door test: a proper arborist ASKS about TPOs: the chainsaw-in-the-van doorstep caller after a storm does not, and you inherit the offence on your own tree.
What The Tree Surgeon Calculator Works Out
- Estimated cost: the typical price for the job multiplied by the number of trees, with a 15% discount per tree on multi-tree jobs and 20% off for leaving logs and chip on site. Small prunes run about GBP 150, medium crown reductions GBP 300-500, large fells with removal GBP 700-1,200, stump grinding GBP 100-150 and conifer-row topping around GBP 250.
- Check before cutting: Tree Preservation Orders and conservation areas make unauthorised work a criminal offence with fines of GBP 20,000-plus per tree, and conservation areas need six weeks' written notice. Nesting season (roughly March to August) and bat roosts are protected too, and overhanging branches may only be cut back to your own boundary.
- Hiring well: arborist qualifications and Arboricultural Association approval or equivalents, GBP 5m public liability shown, and a written quote specifying the work in metres and percentages rather than "top it". Anyone proposing to top a mature tree, or who knocked to sell the work, is the wrong contractor.
- Access (advanced): a rear garden with everything carried through the house or a side gate adds about 20% in labour; a crane, mobile platform or road closure for a street tree adds 50% or more. The uplift card shows the amount added.
- Multi-tree discount (advanced): the simple mode assumes each tree on a multi-tree job is priced at 85% of a single. Override it with your quote; a row of similar trees often attracts 20-30% off, while very different jobs attract little.
- VAT (advanced): larger tree firms add 20% unless the quote says inclusive; many sole-trader climbers are below the threshold. Ask which before comparing quotes.
- Stump grinding added per tree (advanced): grinding each stump out while the crew is on site, typically GBP 60-120 extra per stump, against GBP 100-150 for a return visit.
- Other extras (advanced): a skip for a very large fell, parking or highway permits, or a nest or bat survey where the timing or the tree demands one, usually GBP 50-300 in total.
- Value of logs kept as firewood (advanced): a mature hardwood fell can yield GBP 100-300 of logs at seasoned-firewood prices, which the net cost card deducts for wood-burner households seasoning their own fuel.
- Cost per tree (advanced): the all-in figure divided by the trees, for comparing quotes that bundle the work differently.