Tree Removal in Joliet, IL

Tree Removal in Joliet is not one kind of job, because Joliet is not one kind of place. The city covers about 65.8 square miles and reaches into nine townships, seven in Will County and two in Kendall County, more townships than any other city in Illinois. A removal on a narrow lot in the old east side has almost nothing in common with taking out a storm-cracked maple behind a cul-de-sac home on the far west side. We plan each one around the lot in front of us, and the estimate is written before any saw starts.

The older core: big trees, tight lots

The Des Plaines River splits Joliet into its east and west sides, and the downtown sits down in the river valley. Two of the city's neighborhoods are listed on the National Register of Historic Places: the Joliet East Side Historic District (listed 1980) and the Upper Bluff Historic District (listed 1991). Streets like these were built out long before anyone thought about how big a silver maple or an elm would get beside a two-story house. Many of the large Victorian homes were divided into multi-family units in the 1940s, so a single backyard can sit between garages, fences, overhead service drops and several sets of neighbors.

On those lots, felling a whole tree in one piece is rarely an option. The usual method is sectional removal: a climber or a lift takes the crown down in small pieces, each piece is lowered on a rope, and the trunk comes down last in short rounds. It takes longer than a single cut, but it keeps limbs off slate roofs, porches and the car parked next door.

The newer edges

Most of Joliet's 52,737 housing units (2020 Census) are not in the historic districts. Long stretches of the west and far west side are subdivisions where the trees were planted when the houses went up. Those trees bring a different set of problems: ash trees that were planted in large numbers and later killed by emerald ash borer, fast-growing species crowding the house, and trees planted too close to the foundation or the property line. Removals there are usually quicker, but stump grinding and cleanup matter more, because people want the lawn back.

Wind is the real test here

Joliet sits on flat, open land, and the summer thunderstorms that cross northern Illinois tend to hit it at full strength. The city's place in local storm history is fixed: on August 28, 1990, the F5 Plainfield tornado tracked southeast from near Oswego through Plainfield and Crest Hill and lifted in Joliet near Woodlawn Avenue and Campbell Street, after killing 29 people. Most storms are nowhere near that, but straight-line winds do split codominant trunks and drop dead limbs every summer. Ice is the winter version of the same problem; Joliet averages about 16.9 inches of snow a year, and a glaze of freezing rain on a weak limb can do more damage than a foot of dry snow.

What we take on in Joliet

• Dead and dying trees, including ash that has lost most of its crown
• Storm-split trees and hangers left after a thunderstorm
• Sectional removals over houses, garages and fences on older east side and Upper Bluff lots
• Trees crowding foundations, driveways and sidewalks in newer subdivisions
• Stump grinding after removal, with grindings cleaned up or left for mulch, your call
• Trimming and pruning when a tree can be kept instead of removed

Before you call

Check where the tree stands. If it is in the parkway, the grass strip between the sidewalk and the curb, it is a City of Joliet tree; report a dead or dying one to the Forestry Division at 815-724-3650, and the city will mark it, take it down, grind the stump about a month later and, if you send in a replant request, consider you for a new tree. Trees on your side of the sidewalk, and trees in alleys, are yours: the city says it does not remove those. For a tree on your own lot, call (779) 324-4241 or send the form with a photo and a rough location on the property. We will come out, look at the tree, and leave you a written price. Get a free estimate