Cost of Tree Removal: Build It From Sourced Numbers

How the tree removal cost calculator works

Search the cost of tree removal and you get lead generators quoting ranges they will never honor. That is marketing. This page uses none of it.

Every input underneath the price does get published. So the calculator stacks crew hours at the published wage band, a rental day, and the tip ticket. That total is direct cost.

Crew hours are the one thing nobody publishes. The height and access buttons fill a starting figure from shop assumptions. Overwrite it with what your crew does.

SimplyWise Cost Estimator turns a photo of the tree into an itemized estimate in about 6 seconds.

Crew wages are the biggest line

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks tree trimmers and pruners as occupation 37-3013. In May 2025 it counted 55,160 of them. That is your climbing and ground crew.

Those are wages paid, not rates billed. Payroll taxes, climbing-class comp, trucks, saws, and the office load on top. Three hands at the median burn $73.50 an hour.

What the machines cost a day

Two yards post rates on named machines. Posted prices on a specific machine, not a range in an ad.

The two grinder rows are the span the calculator adds when stump grinding is on, both from one price list. Three yards put a walk-behind at $132 to $215 on our stump grinding cost guide. No crane service publishes an hourly rate it is bound by, so the calculator prices the lift and leaves the crane to your quote.

Hauling, the line most bids forget

Wood is heavy and the scale house bills by weight. Two county schedules land within four dollars a ton, one on trunk wood, one on brush.

Those are county rate schedules, not estimates. Fairfax bills yard waste higher at $96 a ton. Leaving the rounds on site drops the line, so the calculator takes zero tons.

What we could not source

Four numbers got cut. No publisher stands behind a national installed price for a removal. Likewise, not one crane service posts an hourly rate. There is also no national permit fee, because permits are municipal. And nobody publishes crew hours by tree height, which is why that field is yours to set.

Permits are still real money. Portland, Eugene, and San Antonio all run tree permit programs with published fee schedules. The amount moves with your city, the tree, and the right of way. Pull your schedule.

How to price a tree removal job

1. Walk the drop zone first

   Decide whether the tree falls whole or comes down in pieces. That call drives hours harder than height does.

2. Put real hours against the plan

   Use your logged time from the last three jobs like this one. Enter it and let the wage band work.

3. Add machines by the day

   Rental yards bill in days. A nine hour job is two chipper days, so the calculator rounds up.

4. Load the cost before you quote

   Direct cost is the floor. Add overhead, insurance, the permit, and margin. Then hand over one number.