How Do Arborists Send Estimates? Yard Walk to Signed Work Order

Short answer: How do arborists send estimates? Same visit, in most cases — written on a work order in the yard, or texted as a PDF within a few hours. The number is per tree, built from a height class, trunk diameter measured at 4.5 feet, and an access class that decides whether the tree drops in one piece or comes out in forty. Stump grinding is quoted separately at a stated depth below grade. Thirty days is a common validity window.

The homeowner standing in the driveway is comparing you to two other trucks that came this week, and the one thing they cannot compare is the part that sets your price: what it takes to get the wood safely to the ground. A number handed over before you leave beats a better number that arrives Thursday. What that estimate says also decides how the money goes later — see tree service customer won’t pay, where most disputes trace straight back to a line nobody wrote.

How fast does the estimate go out, and can it be priced from photos?

Same visit for anything you can see fully from the ground. Write it, hand it over, take the deposit if they say yes on the spot.

Photo and satellite estimating is common in this trade and it is the most reliable way to underbid. An aerial view shows a crown; it does not show the fence eight feet from the trunk, the septic field in the drop zone, the 30-inch gate a chipper will not pass, or the service drop running through the canopy. Two identical-looking maples on the same street can differ by a factor of three in hours, and every bit of that difference is at ground level. Use photos to triage — is this worth a drive, and what crew size — and price on site. If you must quote sight-unseen, quote a range with the conditions named and say the number becomes firm at the walk.

Storm work is the exception in the other direction: a verbal price and an authorized card before the truck rolls, written up afterward.

What gets measured in the yard before a price exists?

Seven things, and the tape measure only handles one of them.

Input	How you get it	What it changes
DBH — trunk diameter at 4.5 ft	Diameter tape around the trunk	Wood volume, cut time, saw size, disposal weight
Height class	Sighting against a known reference, or a clinometer	Climb time, rigging setup, whether a crane enters the conversation
Crown spread and piece count	Walking the drip line, looking up	How many pieces the tree becomes
Drop zone	Pacing the open ground	The single biggest cost fork on the job
Access to the trunk	Gate width, slope, soft ground, distance to the chipper	Whether wood is carried or dragged, and how far
Targets	House, fence, pool, septic, sunroom, the neighbor’s shed	Rigging, mats, and risk
Overhead conductors	Looking up before anything else	Legal ability to touch the tree at all

That last row is not a pricing question first, it is a legal one. Under OSHA’s line-clearance rules, work within 10 feet of energized overhead lines is line-clearance tree trimming, and electrically unqualified employees must keep that 10-foot minimum approach distance — the OSHA line-clearance tree trimming eTool is the reference. If the tree is inside that envelope, the estimate is either for a qualified line-clearance crew at line-clearance pricing, or it is a referral to the utility. Quote it any other way and you have priced work you cannot do.

Dead trees get their own adjustment. A standing dead ash cannot be climbed with confidence, the wood breaks where it wants to, and the whole job shifts toward a bucket or a crane.

Which access class is the tree in?

This is the estimate. Height and diameter set the range; access sets where in the range you land, and it can move the hours by a multiple.

Access class	What the crew actually does	Relative time
Open drop	Notch, back cut, one piece, buck it where it lies	Baseline
Partial rigging	Limbs roped down, trunk felled into a clear lane	Meaningfully longer
Full rigging over a target	Every piece tied, lowered, and cleared before the next cut	Multiples of baseline
Bucket access	Truck can reach the crown from a driveway or street	Faster than climbing, if it fits
Crane assist	Picks set, crane billed by the booked day	Fewest hours on site, largest committed cost

The same 65-foot oak is two entirely different jobs depending on which row it sits in, and this is exactly what the homeowner comparing three quotes cannot see. Say it out loud in one sentence at the walk: this tree cannot be felled because of the fence and the service drop, so it comes down in pieces on ropes, and that is where the hours are.

How many options should the homeowner see?

Two or three, and in tree work the options are usually about scope rather than about grade.

Option	What it is	When to offer it
Prune instead of remove	Reduction, cleaning, or raising, written in ANSI A300 terms	Live tree with a structural fix available
Remove, wood left on site	Bucked rounds stacked, brush chipped and hauled	Customer burns wood — a real discount, so show it as one
Remove, everything hauled	Brush, rounds, and debris off the property	Default for most suburban yards
Stump grind, standard depth	Ground to a stated depth below grade, grindings left	Fence line, lawn edge
Stump grind, deep with backfill	Deeper cut, grindings removed, topsoil in	Anywhere something is getting planted or built

Never bury the stump inside the removal price. It is a different machine on a different day, it needs its own utility locate, and folding it in is what strands a balance when the grinder is booked for next Thursday. Price it per stump by diameter and by the depth you are committing to.

Do not offer topping as an option. If a customer specifically requests a cut you would not recommend, put their request and your recommendation in writing on the estimate before you make it.

What has to be written on the estimate so it is not argued later?

Everything that becomes a fight in the yard. Each of these is one line.

• Which trees, identified beyond doubt. Species, DBH, and location — “41 in silver maple, southeast corner, over the fence.” Not “the big one out back.”
• The pruning type in standard language, if it is a pruning job, and the percentage of live crown affected.
• Wood disposition. Hauled, or bucked and left, and where it gets stacked.
• Grindings disposition and depth. Left as a mound, raked into the hole, or removed with topsoil in.
• Utility locate. Stump grinding is digging, underground lines sit inches down, and 811 tickets typically need a couple of business days and stay valid only for a limited window — the Arbor Day Foundation’s 811 explainer covers why. Grinding is scheduled around the locate, not the reverse.
• Turf and driveway conditions. Outrigger and crane pads leave marks. Say whether mats are included, and photograph the yard before the trucks move.
• Permits and protected trees. Many municipalities require a removal permit above a certain DBH or for protected species, and HOA approval is separate. Make the estimate conditional and name who pulls it.
• Insurance and credentials, attached rather than mentioned: a readable certificate of insurance and your ISA or TCIA credentials.
• What is excluded. Fence removal and reset, carrying wood past a stated distance, root work, pre-existing debris, and anything found inside a hollow trunk.

How long is a tree estimate good for?

Thirty days is a reasonable default for standard removals and pruning, and it should be printed with a reason next to it rather than as a bare date.

Two things move faster than that window. Crane day rates and subcontractor availability shift with demand, so a crane-assisted quote should carry a shorter window or a note that the crane rate is confirmed at booking. And storm pricing is a different price book entirely: after a regional event, crews, dump capacity, and equipment are all scarce at once, so an emergency call is quoted at emergency rates on the day and not held open at all.

Say the assumptions the price depends on in one short block: the drop zone stays clear, the gate stays passable, the tree is what it looked like from the ground, and the stump is grindable at the marked depth after the locate comes back.

When do I follow up, and how does the yes get recorded?

Tree work decisions run slower than the anxiety that produced the call. Somebody looked at a leaning trunk after a windy night, called three companies, and then calmed down.

When	What you send
Same visit	The written estimate, handed over or texted before you leave
Day 2 or 3	One call, answering the question they did not ask in front of you — usually about the fence or the neighbor
Day 10 to 14	A note that the window is running, plus the next open crew date
At expiry	One message closing it out and offering a refresh

Then stop. Four touches is a follow-up; nine is a reason they stop answering.

Record the yes on paper that survives a dispute: a signed work order naming the trees, the access class, the wood and grindings disposition, the total, and the scheduled date. A dated text saying “yes, do the maple and grind the stump, $4,720” is worth more than any remembered conversation. Take a deposit sized to what you commit before you arrive — the crane’s booked day, the permit fee, traffic control — rather than a habitual third of the job.

How do I build my own per-tree number instead of copying one?

Reverse the price. Start from crew hours out of your own completed jobs for that access class, at your loaded hourly cost — wages, payroll burden, workers’ compensation at tree-care rates, the chipper, the bucket or climbing kit, saws, fuel and bar oil, and the truck. Add committed outside costs: crane day, permit, traffic control, disposal by weight. Add overhead across the hours you actually sell, not the hours the crew is on the clock. Then add profit as a margin.

That last step is where money quietly disappears. A 35 percent markup on $2,000 of cost bills $2,700 and keeps $700 — a 26 percent margin, not 35. To keep 35 you divide by 0.65 and bill $3,077. On a trade with a short season, high insurance, and equipment that depreciates whether it runs or not, that gap is the difference between replacing the chipper and renting one.

Treat any published per-tree range as a sanity check only. Removal prices swing with region, access, species, disposal cost, and season, and a number from a forum belongs to someone else’s dump fee.

What happens once the estimate turns into a job?

The estimate becomes a file: the signed scope, the before photos, the 811 ticket, the permit, the disposal weight ticket, the crane invoice, and the two invoices this job produces — one for the removal and one for the stump.

Estimating is not what Keel does; that feature is still being built. What it handles is the hour after the yes. The deposit invoice goes out from the phone at the curb, and the removal invoice goes out in the yard before the chipper is loaded, in about a minute, with your numbering, logo, brand color, and a payment link the homeowner scans as a QR code. The stump gets its own invoice on its own day — the single habit that stops a grinder booked for next week from holding a four-figure balance. Dump tickets, fuel, chain, and the crane subcontractor’s bill get photographed and read on-device by Apple Intelligence: no account, no bank connection, no cloud, no login, and an App Store privacy label reading Data Not Collected. Drives between estimates log as mileage, which in a trade that quotes six yards to sell two adds up; the receipt side of the same habit is what a contractor receipt organizer is for. Free is $0 with unlimited invoices, receipts, and mileage; Keel Pro is a one-time $249.99 Lifetime purchase, not a subscription.

Frequently asked questions

Do tree companies give estimates on the spot or send them later?

Most give a written price the same visit, because access has to be judged from the ground and the homeowner is comparing three trucks in the same week. Complex jobs — crane picks, protected trees needing a permit, anything near conductors — get a same-day or next-morning PDF once the crane rate or the permit fee is confirmed. Storm calls are priced verbally before dispatch.

Can an arborist quote a tree from photos?

For triage, yes. For a firm price, rarely. Photos and satellite views show the crown but hide the things that set the hours: gate width, drop zone, slope, septic fields, service drops through the canopy, and how far wood has to be carried. If you must quote remotely, give a range with the conditions listed and state that the number becomes firm at the walk.

What measurements go into a tree removal estimate?

Trunk diameter at 4.5 feet, height class, crown spread, the size of the usable drop zone, access width and distance to the chipper, the targets around the tree, and the position of any overhead conductors. Tree condition matters too — a standing dead tree cannot be climbed with confidence and pushes the job toward a bucket or a crane.

Should stump grinding be included in the removal price?

No. Quote it as its own line, priced by stump diameter and by the depth below grade you are committing to, with the disposition of the grindings stated. It is a different machine on a different day and it requires its own utility locate before anyone digs. Bundling it is how a completed removal ends up waiting on a grinder booked for next week.

How long should a tree service quote stay valid?

About 30 days for standard pruning and removals, printed with the assumptions it depends on. Crane-assisted quotes deserve a shorter window or a note that the crane day rate is confirmed at booking. Storm and emergency work is priced on the day at emergency rates and not held open, because crews, dump capacity, and equipment are all scarce at the same moment.

How does an arborist record that the customer accepted the estimate?

A signed work order naming each tree by species, diameter, and location, with the access class, wood disposition, grind depth, total, and scheduled date. A dated text approving a specific total does the same job. Then a deposit sized to what you commit before arrival — the crane’s booked day, the permit, traffic control — rather than a reflexive percentage.

---

This article is general information, not professional or tax advice.