Tree Removal in Plainfield, IL

Tree Removal in Plainfield covers a wider range of trees than almost anywhere in the area, because the village itself covers such a wide range of ages. Plainfield is identified as the oldest community in Will County, going back to the Walkers' Grove settlement on the DuPage River by 1828. Yet in 1990 it had only 4,557 residents. By 2000 it had 13,038, by 2010 39,581, and by 2020 44,762, with more than 14,000 housing units across about 25.8 square miles of Will and Kendall counties. So one street might have a 120-year-old tree beside an old house near Lockport Street, and a mile away a subdivision where every tree was planted after 1995.

Near the river and the old downtown

The DuPage River runs through the center of the village on its way south to the Des Plaines. The Lockport Street historic downtown has been added to the National Register of Historic Places, and the older streets around it have large, mature trees that predate most of the village. Removal there is careful work. Trees are close to older homes and garages, roots run under sidewalks and foundations, and the wood is often heavy enough that we lower it in sections or bring in a crane. Homes on the low ground near the river can also have soft soil, which affects how equipment gets in.

The 1990s and 2000s subdivisions

Most Plainfield homes are in subdivisions built in the last thirty years. Census QuickFacts puts the owner-occupied rate at 88% and the median owner-occupied value at about $431,400, with an average of 3.17 people per household. That means a lot of families on well-kept lots, and a lot of trees now hitting 20 to 30 years old. The problems we see most:

• Ash trees planted in those years that emerald ash borer has since killed or badly thinned
• Callery pears splitting apart in wind, a common weakness of that tree
• Evergreen screens grown together and dead at the bottom
• Maples and other shade trees planted too close to the house, now rubbing the roof
• Stumps left in the middle of lawns from earlier removals, ready to be ground

The 1990 tornado

Plainfield is where the August 28, 1990 F5 tornado did its worst. The storm killed 29 people, injured 353 and damaged or destroyed more than 1,100 homes in about 30 minutes over a path of more than 16 miles. It destroyed the village's only high school at the time, now Plainfield Central High School, and the warning sounded only after the tornado had passed. No pruning or removal plan protects against a storm like that. But ordinary summer thunderstorms are another matter: dead limbs, split forks and hollow trunks are what fail first in a strong straight-line wind, and those are worth dealing with before storm season.

Getting started

Call (779) 324-4241 or send the form. Tell us whether you are near the old downtown or in a newer subdivision, what the tree is near, and whether there is an HOA involved. We will come out, look at the tree and access, and leave a written estimate. Get a free estimate