Debris Hauling and Wood Chipping in Greensboro, NC

This is included, not an add-on

Worth saying plainly at the top, because it is the thing that catches people out when they compare quotes: on a Triad job, hauling the wood and chipping the brush is part of the job.

Cleanup is the single most mentioned thing in the Google reviews. Reviewers keep using the same phrase, which is that the yard looked better than it did before the crew arrived.

What that means on the day. Wood goes out on the grapple truck. Brush runs through the chipper. The driveway gets blown off and the grass gets raked before anybody leaves.

If a quote from anybody looks cheap, the first question to ask is whether the wood is leaving. A pile of trunk rounds in the middle of a lawn is a real problem that somebody has to solve later, and moving it is not a job you want by hand.

We also haul when we did not cut. Storm debris, a pile another crew left behind, brush from a job you started yourself and gave up on. You do not have to have bought the removal here for us to come and take it away.

Your call

What leaves, and what you can keep.

Everything below is decided at the estimate, and none of it changes the work much. It just changes what is sitting in your yard afterwards.

Large trunk sections laid out along a residential street with a skid steer and crew alongside — One tree makes more wood than you would picture. This is a single trunk.

Firewood, cut to length and stacked

Say so at the estimate and the crew cuts the trunk wood to firewood length and stacks it where you want it, instead of loading it out.

Worth knowing before you say yes to a big oak: green wood is not firewood yet. Most hardwood needs somewhere between six months and two years split and covered before it burns properly, and a mature tree makes a great deal more of it than people picture.

Splitting is not part of the job. What you get is rounds, cut to the length you ask for, stacked rather than dumped.

One thing worth knowing if you were planning to take a load to a cabin or a campsite: burn it where it falls. Moving firewood any real distance is how tree pests travel, which is why the NC Forest Service asks people to buy and burn locally.

Crew member feeding brush into the chipper beside a house with a large mound of fresh chips on the ground — That mound is one afternoon's brush. Say the word and it stays.

Wood chips, if you want them

Everything that goes through the chipper has to land somewhere, and by default it lands in the truck. Ask, and the crew will blow it into a pile where you want it instead.

Fresh chip is good mulch for paths and around established trees and shrubs, laid a few inches deep. Keep it off the trunk itself and out of vegetable beds. Wood pulls nitrogen out of the soil as it breaks down, which established plants shrug off and seedlings do not.

The ISA has a short guide to mulching properly, including the volcano of mulch piled against the trunk that is the most common way people kill a tree they were trying to help.

There is usually more than people expect. A single mature tree can fill a truck, so it is worth deciding where the pile goes before the chipper starts.

Skid steer loading a heavy log into the bed of a dump truck with a crew member on the truck

Why the big wood needs a machine

A green oak round two feet across weighs more than two grown adults can lift, and a mature tree produces dozens of them. That is why the grapple truck and the skid steers matter more than they sound like they should.

The tidy-looking cheap quote is worth a second look. Anybody can fell a tree. Moving what is left is the part that needs equipment, and a crew without it has to leave the wood where it lands.

The city will not take this

Greensboro collects yard waste on a schedule, and that service is set up for bagged leaves and small brush at the curb. Trunk rounds and a mature tree's worth of limbs are well past what it is meant to handle, and the piece sizes and volume limits mean most of it will simply be left there.

Check your own collection rules before you plan around them, and assume a real tree's worth of debris is leaving on a truck rather than at the curb.

Hauling on its own, when the tree was never ours

A good share of the hauling calls Triad takes have nothing to do with a tree Triad cut down.

After a storm. Limbs across the whole yard, a neighbor's pine in your fence line, half a canopy in the driveway. The cutting is often already done by the time we get there and what is left is a volume problem.

After another crew. Somebody felled the tree, the wood was not in the quote, and it has been in rounds on the lawn ever since. That is a normal call and nobody is going to make you feel bad about it.

After a Saturday that got away from you. Plenty of people start with a chainsaw and a plan, and discover halfway through that a tree makes an amount of debris that does not fit in a truck bed.

What we cannot take with it

Clean wood and brush is straightforward, because it goes somewhere that takes wood and nothing else. Once a pile has fencing, roofing, treated lumber, tires, or general household junk mixed into it, it has to be disposed of differently and paid for differently.

None of that is a refusal, it just changes the job. Mention it when you call rather than on the day, and it gets priced properly the first time.

Pricing

What actually changes the price.

On a removal, hauling is already in the number. Priced on its own, as a cleanup call, three things drive it.

01

Volume, and what kind

Brush chips down to almost nothing. Trunk wood does not, and it is measured in truck loads rather than in piles.

02

Whether a machine can reach it

A pile beside the driveway and the same pile behind a locked gate on a slope are very different jobs.

03

What it is mixed with

Clean wood and brush is straightforward. Wood mixed with fencing, roofing, or general junk has to go somewhere else and be paid for differently.

Where we work

Greensboro is home, and the yard is at 4262 Pleasant Garden Rd. The crews cover the wider Triad: High Point, Winston-Salem, Jamestown, Kernersville, Summerfield, Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Archdale, Thomasville, Gibsonville, Whitsett, Browns Summit, Colfax, Stokesdale, McLeansville, Randleman, and Julian.

If your town is not on that list it is still worth asking. The answer is usually yes.

Common questions

Hauling and chipping questions we get every week.

Is hauling the debris away included, or is it extra?

Included. On a Triad job the wood leaves on the grapple truck, the brush goes through the chipper, and the driveway gets blown off before anybody goes home. If another quote looks cheap, the first thing to check is whether the wood is leaving.

Do tree companies give away wood chips?

We will leave yours on site if you ask for them at the estimate, blown into a pile where you want it. There is usually more than people expect, so decide where the pile goes before the chipper starts.

What should I do with wood chips from a tree removal?

Fresh chip works well on paths and as mulch a few inches deep around established trees and shrubs. Keep it off the trunk itself and out of vegetable beds and seed beds, because wood pulls nitrogen from the soil while it breaks down.

Can I keep the firewood?

Yes. Say so at the estimate and the crew cuts the trunk wood to the length you ask for and stacks it rather than loading it out. Splitting is not part of the job, and green wood needs six months to two years split and covered before it burns well.

Will you haul away debris from a tree I cut down myself?

Yes. Storm debris, a pile another crew left, or a job you started and thought better of are all normal work. You do not have to have bought a removal here.

Can the city just collect it with the yard waste?

Not a real tree's worth. Municipal yard waste collection is set up for bagged leaves and small brush at the curb, with limits on piece size and volume that a mature tree blows straight past. Check your own collection rules, but plan on it leaving by truck.

Do you take fencing, roofing, or general junk with it?

Clean wood and brush is straightforward because it goes somewhere that takes wood. Debris mixed with fencing, roofing, or household junk has to be disposed of differently, so mention it when you call rather than on the day.

How big a pile can you take?

Bigger than you are probably picturing. The grapple truck moves whole trunk sections and the chipper eats limbs faster than a crew can feed it. Volume is priced in truck loads, so a photo when you call helps.

Also on this site

The rest of what we do.

Crane and bucket truck set up in a yard to take down a tall pine in sections

Tree Removal

Large and hazardous trees taken down in sections, with the cleanup already included.

Storm Damage

Trees on houses, across driveways, or hung up in other trees. Seven days a week.

Lot & Land Clearing

Building sites, fence lines, and overgrown acreage cleared with skid steers and a mulcher.

Debris hauling and wood chipping, included on the job and available on its own