M ost homeowners have never watched a tree being dismantled and reasonably want to know what is about to happen in their garden. This guide walks through a normal tree surgery day in Stoke-on-Trent — the pre-visit, the arrival and site setup, the climb or MEWP, the section-by-section dismantling, the cleanup and the proper sign-off. It also covers the bits that surprise people: how long it takes, whether you can stay home, what happens if it rains, and what the lawn looks like at the end.
Before the day: site visit and written quote
A competent contractor never quotes a tree job by photo alone. They come and look — usually a 20–40 minute site visit a week or two before the work, free and no-obligation in any reputable network including ours.
The visit covers the things that decide the price and the method. The contractor will: measure the tree (height in metres, diameter at breast height — DBH — measured 1.3 m above ground), inspect for visible decay, fungal brackets, hollowing, dead wood, ivy load and structural defects, walk the access route from the road to the tree (gate widths, gradients, anything fragile to protect), identify the drop zone, check for overhead services (BT lines, the supply cable from the road), and look at the neighbouring boundaries — sheds, conservatories, greenhouses and the neighbour's lawn matter.
For a Tree Preservation Order or Conservation Area tree, the visit is when the contractor decides whether the work needs a §211 notice or a full TPO application under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990. They will write the application on your behalf in most cases and handle the council correspondence.
The quote that follows should arrive in writing within five working days. It sets out the scope, the method, the access kit (climbing-only, MEWP, HIAB), the waste plan, the price, the insurance position, and a likely date window. Once you accept it, the contractor will give you a firm date — usually two to six weeks ahead, sometimes longer if a council process is running.
In the week before the work, the contractor should confirm by phone or text the morning of arrival, parking arrangements, and whether any cars or bins need moving from the access route.
Arrival and site setup
The crew arrives, usually between 7:30 and 8:30 am. A standard crew is three: one climber (or MEWP operator), one ground crew lead handling rigging and the chipper, one ground crew on cleanup and traffic. Larger jobs use a four- or five-person team.
First 30 minutes are setup. The lead climber or supervisor walks the job with you, confirms the scope ("we are taking 25% off the canopy, finishing back to lateral growth points; the lower limb over the shed comes off completely; stump stays for a separate grinding visit Thursday next week"), and asks any last questions — do you want the wood for firewood, where would you like the chip pile.
If the job is on a road or pavement, the ground crew sets up traffic management before anything else. For a residential street that means cones, "Tree Work Ahead" signs at 50–100 m approach, and sometimes a Chapter 8-trained banksman if there is a sightline issue. If the parking bay outside the property is suspended, the suspension notice should already be up — it goes up five working days before the work and stays until the morning after.
The contractor knocks neighbouring doors to let people know there will be noise from a chipper for several hours. This is a courtesy, not a legal requirement, but it heads off the irritated knock at the gate halfway through the job.
The chipper — usually a 6-inch or 9-inch tracked or towed unit — is positioned where the brash can be fed straight in. Sheets go over delicate lawn, the patio, the neighbour's fence, and anything else likely to take a hit from falling sections. A ground tarp catches small chip and sawdust for easy lift-out.
The climb or MEWP setup
Whether the work happens from a climbing rope or a mobile elevated work platform (MEWP — the cherry-picker, usually a 14–22 m boom) depends on the tree and the access.
Climbing is cheaper and more flexible. The climber ascends on a moving-rope system or a single-rope SRT system, anchored to a strong upper limb or a TIP (top tie-in point) chosen during the inspection. Climbing makes sense for any tree where the canopy is reachable from inside it, the wood is sound, and there is somewhere safe to drop or rig sections.
MEWP makes sense where the tree is dead or decayed (climbing into brittle wood is a serious hazard — climbers refuse for good reason), where the access for the MEWP is straightforward (a driveway or a clear pavement), or where the work is roadside and a stable platform is faster than rigging from the tree itself. The MEWP costs more — typically £350–£500 a day on top of the crew — but it can halve the time on the right job.
Before any cutting starts, the ground crew is briefed: who is calling cuts, where each section is going, what the emergency signal is, where the first-aid kit and the climber-rescue kit are located. NPTC CS38 (tree climbing and aerial rescue) qualification on the climber and a current emergency rescue plan are mandatory in the industry — the ground lead should be trained to bring the climber down if anything goes wrong.
The homeowner stays inside the house during cutting, or behind a clearly marked exclusion line at least 15 metres back. Children and pets are kept indoors throughout.
Sectional dismantling — how it actually works
Most domestic tree work is sectional dismantling, not straight felling. A tree in a Stoke back garden cannot be felled in one piece — there isn't the space — so it comes down branch by branch, top down.
The climber starts at the top. Each branch is roped (a rigging line is tied just below the cut point, run up through a rigging block higher in the tree, and held by the ground crew on a lowering device). The climber cuts, the section drops a controlled few metres, the ground crew lowers it to the ground. Smaller dead wood and twigs are cut and dropped freely into the marked drop zone.
The ground crew chips immediately — feeds brash into the chipper while the climber works the next section. This keeps the drop zone clear and means the climber never has to wait. Larger logs (the main stem in sections, big limb wood) are cut to manageable lengths with a chainsaw and either stacked for the homeowner as firewood or loaded into the chip truck for removal.
For a full fell, once the canopy is off the climber works down the stem in 1–1.5 m sections, each one roped and lowered. The final stump is cut at ground level or left at 30–50 cm for the grinder to grip on a follow-up visit.
This is why sectional dismantling is safe in tight gardens: nothing ever falls uncontrolled, every cut is rigged or dropped into a clear zone, and the climber's escape route is planned before each cut. It is also why the job takes longer than a straight fell — a tree that would drop in 20 minutes if you could just push it over takes four to six hours dismantled. The price reflects the time and the skill.
What you should and shouldn't see
A well-run tree surgery day looks orderly, even when the noise is constant. There are things you should see, and things you shouldn't.
You should see: ground crew in helmets, hi-vis and chainsaw trousers (the Type A or Type C protective trousers); the climber in a climbing helmet, harness and chainsaw trousers; a clearly marked drop zone with no one inside it; the chipper running with the operator standing to the side, never directly in front of the feed; ropes being tied with care, sections being lowered, not dropped; the crew shouting clear cut and clear calls back and forth.
You should not see: anyone working without a helmet, anyone in trainers near the chipper, the homeowner or a neighbour standing in the drop zone, a child or dog in the garden, sections being dropped uncontrolled into a small space, the chipper jammed and being cleared with the engine running, or anyone working under a half-cut hanging limb.
If you see anything from that second list, ring the office of the contractor and ask the supervisor on site to pause. A reputable crew expects that and will fix it without resentment — bad practice on a domestic job is a sackable offence in any insured outfit.
Noise is constant — chainsaws and chippers run for most of the day. If you work from home and need quiet for calls, plan to be out, or warn your meetings in advance. The noise carries fifty metres or more, so neighbours appreciate a heads-up the day before.
Stump grinding and cleanup
Stump grinding is usually a separate visit. The grinding kit — a tracked or wheeled stump grinder, often 50–75 cm wide to fit through a gate — is different from the climbing and chipping kit, and grouping it with the felling day usually doesn't save time because the grinder waits while the fell finishes.
A typical pattern: fell on a Tuesday, grind on a Thursday or the following Monday. The grinder operator arrives, runs the stump down to 150–200 mm below ground level, leaves the chippings to backfill the hole (you can take them away or top with topsoil and turf later), and is usually done in 30–60 minutes per stump.
Cleanup at the end of the felling day takes 30–60 minutes too. The crew rakes the lawn, brushes paths, lifts the protective sheets and runs a leaf-blower over the patio. The chip pile is sited where you asked at the morning brief, or removed if you wanted offsite disposal. Photos are sometimes taken for the contractor's records — these are useful if a neighbour later disputes any boundary damage.
Lawns recover. A felling day with a 9-inch chipper and a tracked MEWP will leave wheel ruts and compacted grass — usually back to normal within two to four weeks of regular watering and a light rake. Bigger machinery on wetter ground (a November fell after rain) can leave heavier ruts that need topdressing and reseeding in spring. A fair contractor flags this risk on the quote and reduces the price slightly if the job is being booked at a wet time of year.
Walk-around, invoice, and certificate of insurance
The job is not finished when the kit is loaded — it is finished when the homeowner has walked the site with the supervisor and signed it off.
The walk-around takes 10–15 minutes. The supervisor points out what was done, checks the homeowner is happy with the cut points and the canopy shape (for a reduction), shows the boundary fences and any neighbouring property, and notes anything that needs follow-up — a stump grind booked for next week, a sister tree that should be monitored, a regrowth check in two years.
The invoice should arrive by email within 24–48 hours, or be handed over on the day. Payment is usually by bank transfer or card on receipt; some contractors take a 30–50% deposit on booking and the balance on completion. Cash payment is fine if both sides prefer, but should always come with a receipt and an invoice.
A certificate of public liability insurance — the £5 million minimum standard — should be available on request. Reputable contractors carry a PDF on their phone and forward it after the job to the homeowner's records, especially for any work near a boundary or a road where a future claim is conceivable.
For TPO or Conservation Area work, the contractor should also send a copy of the council consent or notice acknowledgement for your records. If a future buyer's solicitor asks about tree work on the property — common in conservation areas around Trentham, Hartshill and Penkhull — that piece of paper is the answer.