DIY Tree Work vs Hiring a Boise Crew: Where the Line Is
Pruning branches you can reach standing on the ground is reasonable DIY tree work in Boise. Putting yourself on a ladder with a chainsaw, near a power line, or under a limb that can swing is not. What decides it is what happens when a cut goes wrong.
Which tree jobs can a Boise homeowner do alone?
More than the trade usually admits. There is a real category of tree work that a careful homeowner with ordinary tools can do well, and pretending otherwise just makes the rest of this page sound like sales copy.
Ground-level pruning and small limbs
If you can reach it standing on the ground, with both feet planted, and the branch is small enough for hand pruners, loppers or a pole saw, that is yours. Deadwood on a small ornamental, suckers at the base, a branch across the walkway, shaping a young tree in its first years. None of that needs a crew.
Brush hauling and cleanup
Dragging brush to the curb and hauling debris is just labor. If the crew is coming for the cutting anyway, cleanup is normally part of the job, but on a small self-managed project this is a genuine saving. Note the one Boise wrinkle: for a privately owned tree, the city moves debris off the street or sidewalk but the tree owner has to haul it away.
Watering, mulching and watching
Unglamorous and the highest return of anything on this list. A young tree in a Treasure Valley summer lives or dies on water, and a ring of mulch that is not piled against the trunk prevents a decade of problems. Nobody needs to be paid for this.
Where is the hard line?
Size is not what decides it. A forty-foot tree over an open pasture is a simpler job than a twenty-foot one over a garage. Three situations turn a Saturday project into an emergency room visit or a claim on your homeowner's policy.
Ladders and chainsaws do not mix
A chainsaw takes two hands. A ladder needs one. The moment the saw binds or the limb swings, the ladder is the thing that moves. Professional crews climb on rope and saddle or work from a lift for exactly this reason, and the industry safety standard, ANSI Z133, requires a chain saw to be operated with two hands at all times, one on each handle.
The injury numbers are not subtle. Penn State Extension reports that from 2018 to 2022, nearly 128,000 people were treated in a US emergency department for chainsaw-related injuries, around 70 a day, with upper and lower extremities accounting for more than 80 percent of them. Those are overwhelmingly not professionals.
Trees near the house, the fence or the shed
Felling is only simple when there is somewhere for the tree to fall. Once a roofline, a fence, a shed or a neighbor's driveway is in the drop zone, the job stops being cutting and becomes rigging. You take the tree apart in pieces, each one roped and lowered under control. That is a skill and a kit, not an afternoon. The cost of getting it wrong is a structure, and your policy may take a dim view of a homeowner who felled a tree onto it.
Storm-damaged wood is loaded wood
A cracked or hung-up limb is holding energy. Cut it in the wrong place and it releases that energy in a direction that is hard to predict from the ground. This is the single most dangerous thing a homeowner can decide to handle personally, and it is precisely the situation that tempts people, because the damage is already done and the tree looks half broken anyway. Storm work goes to a crew.
What does the power line rule actually say?
This one is not a judgment call, and it is the reason a DIY plan sometimes ends before it starts. Under OSHA's rules for line-clearance tree trimming, only qualified line-clearance tree trimmers, workers with specific training for the job, may work within 10 feet of energized power lines and equipment. That restriction applies to a tree whose branches are within 10 feet of the line, not just to the line itself, which sweeps in a lot of ordinary front-yard maples.
Idaho Power says the same thing to customers in plainer language: never prune a tree near their lines yourself, keep at least 10 feet from all power lines, and contact them if a tree needs pruning or removal near a line. Their number for it is 208-388-2323. Their contractors use directional pruning to train the tree away from the conductors, and there is no charge to the homeowner for that work.
So the sequence for a tree near a line is: call the utility first, get their part done, then talk to a tree service about the rest of the tree. Not the other way round, and never with your own pole saw.
How much does DIY actually save?
Less than the sticker difference suggests, once the day is priced honestly. Renting a chainsaw and a chipper, buying the protective gear that should come with them, hauling to a disposal site, and spending a weekend on it are all real costs, and the ones that do not show up on a receipt are the ones that bite. A rented chipper for a day plus disposal fees plus two days of your weekend is not free, and it buys you a job done by someone doing it for the first time.
Equipment, disposal and the day you lose
- Gear. A saw is the cheap part. Chaps, a helmet with face and hearing protection, and gloves are the part people skip, which is visible in the injury statistics.
- Disposal. Brush has to go somewhere, and in Boise the owner of a private tree is responsible for hauling its debris away.
- Time. A crew of three with a chipper does in two hours what one person with a bow saw does in two weekends.
- Insurance. A licensed, insured company carries the liability for what the tree hits. Working alone, you are the insurance.
Where the money actually goes on a hired job
It is worth understanding what you are buying rather than comparing it to zero. Crew time, rigging, the chipper, the grinder, hauling and the insurance behind all of it. Our Boise cost guide breaks the ranges down by job type and explains what pushes a particular tree to the top of its range, so you can judge a bid instead of guessing at it.
DIY versus a hired crew: the honest comparison
| The job | Who should do it |
|---|---|
| Pruning you can reach from the ground | You |
| Shaping a young tree | You |
| Mulching, watering, brush hauling | You |
| Anything needing a ladder plus a saw | Crew |
| Removal with a house, fence or shed in reach | Crew |
| Cracked limbs or hangers after a storm | Crew |
| Stump grinding | Crew |
| Anything within 10 ft of a power line | Utility first |
The pattern is consistent: the DIY column is work where a mistake costs you a branch, and the crew column is work where a mistake costs you a roof, a limb of your own, or a power outage on your street.
If your job sits in the second column, the next questions are usually whether the tree needs to come out at all and what it will run. Start with the signs a tree needs removal, then removal versus trimming, and see what Boise tree removal and stump grinding actually involve. If the tree is in the right-of-way, check the Boise permit rules first.
DIY tree work questions, answered straight
The questions Boise homeowners ask before they pick up the phone.
Can I remove a tree myself in Boise?
Is it safe to use a chainsaw on a ladder?
How dangerous is homeowner chainsaw work?
What are the rules for trees near power lines in Idaho?
Does Idaho Power charge to trim a tree off the line?
What gear do I need before cutting anything myself?
Should I cut a storm-damaged branch down myself?
Can I grind a stump myself with a rental machine?
How much money does doing it myself actually save?
Who hauls away the debris from a private tree in Boise?
Job on the wrong side of the line?
Describe the tree and what is around it and the crew will tell you straight whether it is a Saturday project or a rigging job. If it is a Saturday project, go do it. Mind if we take a look first? Free estimates from a licensed, insured, family-owned Boise crew with ISA Certified Arborists on staff.
(208) 902-2295Last updated .