There’s no contesting the fact that trees are extremely beneficial to the environment and the property your home sits on. With rare exception, you should always do everything you can to ensure that your trees are cared for professionally and keep them in place as long as possible. Unfortunately, when you have large trees that sit in close proximity to your home, there are certain risks that you should be aware of. So how do you know when you need to consider having a tree or trees removed from your property?
Eventually, the trees on your property will be too old to maintain and they will no longer be safe enough to keep them intact. Here are four ways that you can determine if your home is at risk of getting damaged and should have the tree removed:
Examine the ground that surrounds the base of the trunk and try to determine if its roots damaged or decayed. If they appear to be damaged or it looks as though they have decayed, chances are the structure of it has been compromised and it could fall over when you least expect it. This is the time to contact a professional in Palo Alto to examine the tree and determine the extensiveness of the damage and whether or not it needs to be removed for safety purposes.
Have a professional inspect the canopy of the tree on a regular basis to find any hard-to-see dead or rotted branches. The canopy is the area that is comprised of leaves and overlapping branches. In addition to finding those are areas that do put life and limb at risk, a professional inspection will indicate whether or not these conditions are present when you normally couldn’t see anything from the ground.
Inspect the trunk for cavities and cracks as these are “red flags” that indicate if a tree is no longer stable or structurally sound. Most importantly, call your arborist or tree care expert to determine if the structure is in jeopardy and if the tree can no longer sustain itself. The trunk can hold a number of clues about a tree and indicate if it is dead, infested, rotting, or sick.
Walk to an area where you can see the entire tree and examine it closely enough to determine whether or not it is leaning. Granted, there are many trees that just lean naturally. However, if you are uncertain about whether the tree has always been leaning and is safe enough to remain standing or if this is something you’ve just recently noticed, don’t hesitate to contact an arborist or tree specialist to evaluate the situation.
While an arborist or tree care specialist can easily determine how healthy or unhealthy a tree on your property is, the above four methods will help determine whether or not you should have it removed.