Should I Remove a Tree That’s Close to My House?

Remove a tree close to your house if it’s dead, leaning toward the house, dropping limbs on the roof or damaging the foundation, and a trim won’t fix it. A healthy tree a few metres from the wall is often fine. Distance matters less than the tree’s condition, its size when fully grown and what its roots and branches are doing.

Signs the Tree Should Come Out

• It’s dead or dying. Bare branches in summer, bark falling off or fungus at the base.
• It leans toward the house. Especially if the lean is new or the soil is heaving up on the far side.
• The trunk has a crack or cavity. A split trunk or a hollow you can see into.
• Large limbs hang over the roof and are dead. One of these falling in an ice storm can go through shingles.
• It’s the wrong tree for the spot. A silver maple planted two metres from the wall will outgrow the space.

If you’re not sure whether the tree is alive, read how to tell if a tree is dead.

When a Trim Is Enough

A lot of the trouble with trees near houses comes from branches, not the tree itself. Branches scraping the shingles, filling the eavestroughs or reaching toward the hydro line can be cut back. Raising the crown and cutting the roof side back a metre or two often fixes the problem and keeps the shade. If that’s all your tree needs, we’ll tell you.

Roots, Clay and Foundations

Most of Vaughan is built on heavy clay. Clay shrinks as it dries and swells when it’s wet. A big, thirsty tree like a silver maple or willow can pull a lot of water from the soil in a dry summer, and that can let the ground under a shallow footing drop. Roots also follow moisture into cracks that already exist in old foundations and drain pipes.

Roots rarely break a sound concrete wall on their own. If you’re seeing new cracks, doors that stick or a sewer line that keeps backing up, have the foundation and the pipes checked before you decide the tree is to blame.

Roof and Eavestrough Contact

Leaves and seeds from a tree beside the house fill the eavestroughs every fall, and a blocked trough sends water down the wall toward the foundation. Branches that rub the roof wear through shingles. Cutting the roof side back gives you a gap of a couple of metres, which keeps the gutters clearer and keeps squirrels and raccoons off the roof.

Trees Near Older and Newer Homes

In older parts of Woodbridge and Thornhill, maples planted in the 1970s and 1980s have grown to full size within a few metres of the house. In newer Vellore Village and Patterson subdivisions, the issue is often a tree planted in a narrow side yard that’s now crowding the wall. Both are common, and both can usually be managed.

Removing a Tree Beside the House

A tree beside the house can’t be dropped in one piece. We climb it and take it down in sections from the top, lowering each piece on ropes so nothing lands on the roof, the deck or the fence. The trunk comes down last, in short lengths. Branches go through the chipper, the wood goes on the truck, and the yard gets raked and swept before we leave. See tree removal for how the job runs.

If the tree is 20 cm or wider, the City of Vaughan requires a permit. A dead or hazardous tree’s permit has no fee.

Get It Looked At

Call or text (289) 444-0864. We’ll come out the same day, look at the tree and the house together, and tell you plainly whether it needs to come down, needs a trim or is fine where it is.