Emergency tree removal in Atlanta, answered day or night

Emergency scenes we work, and the first move for each

Almost every after-hours call is one of a handful of scenes, and each one has its own starting point.

What happens the night a tree hits the house

This is the sequence we follow on almost every after-dark call, and the first three steps are yours.

1. 1

   Get everyone out of those rooms

   Close the doors to any room under the tree and keep people and pets on the far side of the house. A roof carrying a trunk can shift again without warning.

2. 2

   Treat every wire as live

   If a line is down, sagging or touching the tree, stay well back and report it to Georgia Power. Don't touch the tree, a wet fence or a gutter it rests on.

3. 3

   Photograph before anything moves

   Shoot the tree, the roof, the car and any ceiling damage from several angles, plus a few wide shots of the whole scene. Those photos are what an adjuster sees first.

4. 4

   Call and describe the scene

   Tell us where the tree sits, what it's resting on, whether a wire is involved and whether water is coming in. We answer 24/7 and plan the order of work from that.

5. 5

   Take the load off in stages

   The crew lights the scene, removes the lightest reachable limbs first and works toward the trunk, cutting nothing that still bears on the house until it's rigged or supported.

6. 6

   Clear the deck for the roofer

   Once the tree is off, a roofer tarps or dries in the opening. We leave the roof surface clear and the debris pulled aside so they can get straight to work.

7. 7

   Document and finish cleanup

   We photograph the roof again after the tree is off, then chip the brush and cut the wood, either that night or on a return visit in daylight.

Why we never start by cutting the trunk

A tree lying on a roof is a loaded spring. The trunk might rest on the ridge, a wall and a broken rafter at once, while the root plate is still partly anchored in the yard. Cut the trunk in the wrong place and the top section can drop straight through the ceiling, or the butt end can jump sideways toward whoever is holding the saw.

So the first cuts are small. Our climber ties into a sound neighboring tree or works from a lift when there's room, takes off the lightest limbs within reach and lowers each one on a rope. Every piece removed lightens the load on the framing. We watch how the trunk settles after each cut, because that tells us where it's still bearing.

Only when the limbs are off and the trunk is held, either by a rigging line to another tree or by a crane, do we cut the trunk itself. On a big oak across a two-story house, that can mean making the house safe tonight and booking a crane pick for daylight, which is gentler on the framing than any amount of rope work in the dark.

Photos and paperwork that make the insurance claim easier

Your insurer decides what's covered, not us, but the records we hand you make that decision easier to reach. Before we cut, we photograph the tree where it fell, every point where it touches the house and any damage visible from the ground. After the load is off, we photograph the roof and framing again so the adjuster can see exactly what the tree did.

The invoice spells out the work in plain lines: removing the tree from the structure, rigging or crane time, cleanup and hauling. Policies often treat a tree on the house differently from a tree in the yard, so keeping those lines apart saves a round of questions later. Our article on the first hour after a tree falls on a house has a fuller checklist.

We also plan around the roofer, whether that's a company your insurer sends or one you already trust. Our last cuts are timed so the opening is clear when they arrive, and we pile the wood away from the side of the house where they'll set ladders. If the tarping is done by others, we tell them which rafters took the hit.

Atlanta storms, soaked clay and the trees that come down

On September 27, 2024, Tropical Storm Helene soaked the ground and uprooted trees onto homes across metro Atlanta. Many of those trees didn't snap. Whole root plates lifted out of saturated red clay, which holds water after long rains and keeps roots shallow, so a tree that had stood through a dozen dry storms went over in one wet one.

The usual culprits are aging water oaks and tall loblolly pines left standing when subdivisions went in. In Grant Park, the call is often an old oak on a Victorian roof with no rear access. In Tucker and Dunwoody, it's more often a pine across a driveway or a ranch house. Inside Atlanta, a fallen tree resting on a structure needs no removal permit, but photograph it and notify the city's Arborist Division.

What moves the price of an emergency removal

An after-hours removal costs more than the same tree on a planned day because the work is slower and riskier. Night lighting, a trunk still bearing on framing, rain, and a wire that has to be cleared by the utility all add time. A tree on a roof also means more rigging and smaller pieces than one lying across the lawn.

Often the night visit only makes the house safe, and the rest is finished in daylight, which can lower the total. Cleanup and hauling are part of the job. Stump grinding is separate, and our price list for every service shows typical ranges. For yards full of broken limbs but nothing on the house, storm cleanup is usually the better fit.

Where we do emergency tree removal around Atlanta