Past about 60 feet the arithmetic of a removal changes. A climber can still take a big pecan apart piece by piece, but every piece has to be roped, lowered and cleared before the next cut, and on a tree with an 80-foot spread over a house that is two or three days of work. A crane picks whole sections out and sets them in the drive, and the same tree is gone in a day.
Which is why a crane often makes the job cheaper, not dearer. Send a photo from across the street so we can judge the height against the roofline.
What large tree removal costs
| Tree | Climbed | Crane-assisted |
|---|---|---|
| 60 – 70 ft, open access | $1,600 – $2,400 | $2,400 – $3,200 |
| 70 – 80 ft over a structure | $2,800 – $4,500 | $3,200 – $5,000 |
| 80 ft+, tight access | $4,500 – $7,000 | $4,000 – $6,500 |
| Heritage live oak over the house | Often not safe | $5,000 – $8,000 |
Crane time is billed by the day and the machine has to physically reach the tree, which in older Austin neighbourhoods is the real constraint. A 30-ton crane needs a street it can set up on, outriggers that will not crack your driveway, and clear air above. Overhead power on the street will stop a crane job before it starts.
When we bring a crane
- The tree is dead or decayed, so nobody should be climbing it at all.
- The canopy sits directly over a roof, pool or conservatory, and rigging every piece would take days.
- There is no route to walk or drag wood out, so it has to be lifted over the house.
- The trunk is big enough that rounds cannot be handled by two people.
We will tell you honestly when a crane is not needed. Plenty of 70-foot cedar elms in open Round Rock back yards get climbed and dropped for a fraction of the price, and suggesting otherwise would just be selling you machinery.
How a crane day runs
- Site visit, always, for anything crane-assisted. We are checking setup position, ground bearing, overhead clearance and where the wood gets processed.
- Street or driveway closure arranged if the crane has to occupy the road.
- On the day, the climber rigs each section to the hook before cutting it free.
- Sections get flown out over the house and set down in the drop zone.
- Ground crew processes on the ground, where it is safe, then the yard is cleared and raked.
Heritage trees make this complicated
Most trees this size in Austin are protected. At 19 inches in diameter you need a permit; at 24 inches it is a Heritage tree, and for protected species like live oak and pecan the city expects a real justification, not a preference. Those applications take time and they can be refused.
Start that process before you book a crane. We handle the documentation and measurement as part of the quote, and we will not schedule machinery against a permit that has not come through. See the Austin permit guide for the thresholds, and note that Round Rock and Georgetown run different rules again.
Questions about big trees
How do I know how tall my tree is?
Compare it with your house. A single-storey Austin roofline is about 12 to 15 feet, a two-storey about 25. A tree twice the height of a two-storey house is around 50 feet. You do not need to be precise, you need to be in the right band, and a photo from across the street tells us more than a number.
Will the crane damage my driveway?
It can, which is why we look first. Outriggers concentrate a lot of weight into four small pads, and an older residential slab may not take it. We spread the load with steel plates and cribbing, and where the drive is clearly not up to it we set up in the street instead and take a longer reach.
Is crane removal safer?
For big or compromised trees, considerably. The wood is under control from before the cut until it is on the ground, instead of swinging on a rope, and nobody is standing in a decayed tree hoping the anchor holds. For a dead 70-foot pecan over a house it is the only method we would use.
Can you do it without taking down my fence?
Usually, and that is one of the arguments for a crane: the wood goes up and over rather than through. Where access is genuinely impossible we will ask about removing a fence panel, put it back afterwards, and it is nearly always cheaper than the extra labour of carrying everything out by hand.
Where we take down large trees
Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Pflugerville, Leander, Hutto, Lakeway, Kyle and Buda.