How to know a tree job was done right
What good work looks like before, during, and after — and how to hire a crew that protects your property, your family, and the tree you’re keeping.
A good tree company is easiest to spot before a single cut is made. It carries both liability and workers’ compensation insurance, it diagnoses your tree before it prescribes removal, it names how the work will be done, and it leaves your property — and any tree that stays — in better shape than a shortcut would. Almost everything that goes wrong traces back to skipping one of those.
At a glance
- Two insurances protect you: general liability (your property) and workers’ compensation (the crew). You want both, in writing.
- If a crew has no workers’ comp and someone is hurt on your property, the bill can land on you. This is the risk most homeowners never hear about.
- A license and a bond are not the same as an ISA Certified Arborist — and a good company might have one, both, or neither. What matters is matching the credential to the job.
- Topping a tree is the one red flag anyone can spot. Real professionals don’t do it.
- The best crews diagnose first. Sometimes the honest answer is “this tree doesn’t need to come down.”
Judging work you can’t do yourself
You’re not expected to know rigging or tree biology. But you are the one who has to decide whom to trust with a ten-thousand-pound thing standing next to your house — often once, under pressure. This guide gives you a way to judge that decision without becoming an expert.
The trick is that quality in tree work is mostly invisible from the ground. What a homeowner sees is a tree coming down; what actually matters is everything around it — insurance, planning, method, and restraint. So instead of teaching you to inspect chainsaw cuts, we’ll teach you to read the handful of signals that reliably separate a professional operation from a risky one. You’ll leave holding a scorecard you can run any company against.
We’re free to read, and we always will be — and reaching us or getting a recommendation never costs you anything. When a homeowner we’ve helped wants an introduction, we point them to a company we’d trust with our own home.
If that homeowner hires them and the job is completed, the company pays us a referral fee. You never do. We’re paid only when the work is done and done right — never for the introduction itself, and never for selling you anything. The scorecard below is the same one we hold any company to before we’d recommend them.
What “done right” actually means
Hold every company up against this. A good crew clears all of it without being pushed — the proof is offered, not extracted.
You don’t need to watch the climb. You need to recognize a professional operation.
- It carries both general liability and workers’ compensation, and hands you proof without a fight.
- It looked at the tree before pricing it — and told you honestly whether the work is even needed.
- It works to a recognized standard (ANSI A300 for pruning) rather than by whim.
- It protects what stays: lawn, beds, fence, the neighbor’s yard, and any tree that isn’t being removed.
- It leaves a clean site and cuts that heal — not stubs, not a topped silhouette, not gouged bark.
Every section that follows is one of these five, opened up so you can see what it looks like in practice — and what its absence looks like.
Insurance is the whole ballgame
What’s happening
Tree work is one of the most dangerous jobs there is — crews work at height, with chainsaws, near power lines, under heavy loads. A responsible company carries two separate policies: general liability, which covers damage to your property, and workers’ compensation, which covers the crew if someone is hurt. They are not interchangeable, and you want both.
Why it matters
Here’s the part almost no one tells homeowners. If a crew has no workers’ comp and a worker is seriously injured on your property, you can be pulled into the liability — in some cases treated as the worker’s employer, on the hook for medical costs that run into the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. And many homeowner’s policies will deny a claim outright if the damage was caused by an uninsured or unlicensed contractor. The cheap bid from the uninsured crew isn’t a discount. It’s a transfer of risk onto you.
What to look for
“We’re fully insured” — said out loud, on the phone, and taken on faith. It sounds like an answer. It isn’t proof.
A Certificate of Insurance sent to you directly from the insurer, naming both coverages. In Washington you can also verify a contractor’s license, bond, and standing through Labor & Industries at lni.wa.gov.
One specific trap to know: some outfits dodge the cost of real workers’ comp by calling themselves “landscapers” or labeling their crew “subcontractors.” So don’t ask “are you insured?” Ask “do you carry workers’ compensation for tree work?” — and then confirm it.
One question worth asking
“Can your insurer send me a certificate showing liability and workers’ comp?” — a real company says “of course” and means it.
License, bond, insurance, arborist — what each one means
These words get used interchangeably in ads, but they mean different things and protect you in different ways. You don’t need every one for every job — you need the right ones for yours.
| Credential | What it actually tells you | When it matters most |
|---|---|---|
| Contractor license | They’re registered with the state to do the work legally. | Always — the baseline for hiring anyone. |
| Bond | A financial backstop if they fail to meet obligations. | Larger jobs; a sign of a real business. |
| Liability & workers’ comp | Your property and their crew are covered if something goes wrong. | Every job. Non-negotiable. |
| ISA Certified Arborist | A person passed a rigorous exam on tree biology, pruning, and safety — the field’s most recognized credential. | Diagnosis, pruning, and any tree you want to keep healthy. |
An honest thing worth saying: a licensed, bonded, fully insured company with decades of experience can do excellent, safe removal work without an ISA arborist on staff — and a certified arborist is exactly who you want when the question is a tree’s health, not just its removal. Neither cancels the other. The mistake is assuming one word covers all of it. Match the credential to what you actually need done.
What a careful crew looks like
You can read a lot from the ground. A professional crew lowers heavy limbs on ropes rather than dropping them where they please, protects the lawn and beds, wears real safety gear, and keeps a tidy, controlled site. Climbing spikes belong on a removal — never on a tree that’s staying, because every spike wound is a door for decay. That is not a matter of taste. The industry’s pruning standard, ANSI A300, prohibits climbing spurs during pruning for exactly that reason, with only narrow exceptions. A crew in spikes on a tree they are pruning is a standards violation you can watch from your kitchen window.
It’s the most common request homeowners make, and it’s the clearest sign a company is willing to harm your tree for a quick sale.
Cutting a tree’s main branches back to stubs — topping — is explicitly prohibited by the ANSI A300 standard. The tree responds with a burst of weak, fast regrowth that is taller within a few years and more likely to fail, while every stub becomes an entry point for rot. The correct way to reduce a tree is crown reduction: cutting back to living lateral branches that can take over. It’s slower, more skilled, and costs more — because it’s the version that actually works. If a company offers to top your tree, you’ve learned what you need to know.
One question worth asking
“What pruning standard do you follow?” — “ANSI A300” is the answer you want. A blank or dismissive reply is its own answer.
Do you need a certified arborist, or is licensed-and-insured enough?
Both can be the right answer. It depends entirely on the job in front of you — and knowing which you need saves money and prevents mistakes.
Clear-cut removal work
A dead or plainly hazardous tree that needs to come down, in a spot with normal access. What you need here is a safe, insured, experienced crew with a solid plan — not a diagnosis.
Health, doubt, or a tree you value
A tree that’s sick, declining, or one you’d rather save than lose. This is a diagnosis before a decision, and an ISA Certified Arborist is who makes it — sometimes concluding you don’t need removal at all.
The dangerous move is paying removal-crew prices for a health question, or paying for a full arborist assessment when you simply need a dead cottonwood dropped safely. Name your actual problem first; the right credential follows from it.
The best tree crews are the ones willing to tell you to do less.
The tree-service scorecard
Run any company through these four rows before you hire. Green in every row is what you’re looking for; a single red flag isn’t always disqualifying, but it’s always worth a question before you sign.
1 · Credentials & insurance
Green flags
- Certificate of insurance direct from the insurer
- Both liability and workers’ comp, named
- License & bond verifiable through L&I
Red flags
- “We’re insured” with nothing to show
- Calls itself a landscaper to dodge comp
- Can’t or won’t verify a license
2 · The estimate & the plan
Green flags
- Walked the site before quoting
- Written, itemized scope
- Named the method and the cleanup
Red flags
- A price without seeing the tree
- Vague about what’s included
- Pressure to sign today; cash only
3 · Judgment & standards
Green flags
- Follows ANSI A300 for pruning
- Will say a tree doesn’t need removal
- Recommends crown reduction, not topping
Red flags
- Offers to “top” the tree
- Pushes removal of a healthy tree
- Spikes a tree that’s staying
4 · Conduct & the finished job
Green flags
- Ropes down heavy limbs; protects the yard
- Clean site, clean cuts at the collar
- Clear on stump and haul-away
Red flags
- Drops limbs carelessly; gouged bark
- Stubs, flush cuts, or a topped shape
- Debris or the stump left unexpectedly
The three questions that do the most work
“Can your insurer send me a certificate for liability and workers’ comp?” · “What pruning standard do you follow?” · “Does this tree actually need this work — and what would you do if it were yours?”
What we’d do
- We’d confirm liability and workers’ comp in writing, from the insurer, before anyone climbed.
- We’d verify the license and bond ourselves through L&I — it takes a minute.
- We’d ask what standard they prune to, and walk away from anyone who offered to top a tree.
- We’d get a diagnosis before a removal on any tree we’d rather keep.
- We’d trust the crew that told us to do less over the one that upsold us.
Because the goal was never to hire someone. It was to get the right thing done — even when the right thing is nothing at all.
Questions homeowners ask
Do I really need an ISA Certified Arborist?
Not for every job. For safely removing a dead or clearly hazardous tree, a licensed, insured, experienced crew is what you need. For a tree that’s sick or one you want to keep healthy, an ISA Certified Arborist is worth it — they diagnose before recommending, and sometimes the recommendation is to do nothing.
How do I actually verify insurance?
Ask for a Certificate of Insurance sent to you directly by the company’s insurer, not a photo of a document. It should name both general liability and workers’ compensation. In Washington, you can also confirm licensing and bonding through the Department of Labor & Industries at lni.wa.gov.
Why is workers’ comp such a big deal for me?
Because tree work is genuinely dangerous, and if a crew without workers’ comp has someone injured on your property, you can be drawn into paying for it — potentially treated as the employer. It’s the single most expensive thing that can go wrong, and it’s entirely avoidable by confirming coverage first.
Is topping ever acceptable?
No. Topping is prohibited by the industry’s pruning standard and damages the tree — weaker regrowth, decay, and a taller tree within a few years. If you want a tree made smaller, the right method is crown reduction. A company that offers to top has told you something important about how they work.
They want to use climbing spikes — is that fine?
Only if the tree is being removed. Spikes wound the trunk, so using them on a tree that’s staying invites decay. On a removal, they’re a normal tool.
Should I always take the cheapest bid?
Only if it’s a complete, fully insured quote that happens to be lowest. A bid far below the others usually means something’s missing — often the insurance that protects you. Cheapest and safest are sometimes the same number, but never assume it.
When you’re ready, we’ll point you to someone good
You may never need our recommendation — that’s fine. But if you’d like an introduction to a tree company that clears every row of that scorecard, tell us what’s going on and we’ll take it from there.
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This guide is independent and research-driven, informed by working professionals in western Washington’s tree trade. Pruning practices reference the ANSI A300 tree-care standard; the ISA Certified Arborist credential is administered by the International Society of Arboriculture. Contractor licensing, bonding, and workers’ compensation status in Washington can be verified through the state Department of Labor & Industries (lni.wa.gov), which is the authoritative source for a company’s standing. Insurance and liability outcomes vary by policy and circumstance; confirm specifics with the insurer and your own coverage. Where local permit rules apply, your city or county is the final word.