Tree Removal in Cape Town
Tree removal is more than just cutting it down. We fell the tree, climb and dismantle where needed, then remove every last branch and log so you're left with a clean, usable space. Free quotes, all over Cape Town.
Felling is the cut. Removal is everything after it.
Almost nobody phones because they want a tree cut. They phone because they want the space back — the driveway usable, light in the lounge, the corner of the garden that's been a no-go area for five years handed back. On a big gum or pine, bringing it down is often the shortest job of the day; hauling out what's now lying on your lawn is the rest of it.
That gap is where cheap quotes hide. A removal price should answer four things in writing: who loads the timber, who rakes and sweeps, who pays for the green-waste run, and what happens to the logs. A quote that's quiet on those is a felling price.
If what worries you is the take-down itself — a leaning pine between a boundary wall and a roof — that's covered on our tree felling page. This page is the other half: every last piece off the property, and a space you can use that afternoon.
The reasons Cape Town homeowners have a whole tree taken out
Very few people remove a healthy, well-placed tree, and we'd rather talk you out of it than into it. But when one of these applies, pruning only buys time.
It's dead, dying, or half of it already fell
Drought years left older Cape Town trees weak, and the winter north-wester finds every one. A cracked trunk, a canopy thinning from the top down, or a tree that's already dropped a major limb isn't a pruning job. Dieback in a box elder, oak or plane raises the shot hole borer question.
The roots are winning
Paving lifted into a trip hazard, a driveway cracking along one line, a wall pushed off plumb, roots hunting moisture around an old drain run. Relaying paving is wasted money while the tree that lifted it still stands.
Too big for the plot it's on
A sapling planted forty years ago is now twenty metres of tree on a small erf — dark rooms, gutters full, litter in the pool, branches over next door's roof. Hard cutting-back just buys two years and an ugly tree.
Listed invasives you're obliged to clear
Port Jackson (Acacia saligna) and rooikrans (Acacia cyclops) are listed Category 1b on the national alien and invasive species list, making control a legal duty on the landowner rather than a gardening preference. Australian blackwood sits in Category 2. What the regulations require is in our guide to Port Jackson and rooikrans on Cape Town properties.
Clearing before a build
Trees standing where the foundations, the pool or the new garage are going. The deadline is the builder's, everything leaves site rather than being stacked in a corner, and the ground has to be clear enough for a TLB. Give us the contractor's date and we'll price to it, stumps in the footprint included.
Access decides the job — and most of the price
Two identical trees on two Cape Town properties can be very different jobs. What it costs to move the wood matters more than the tree itself — so the route out is the first thing we look at, before we've even looked up.
Can a vehicle get near the tree?
A tree in an open front garden with the truck five metres away is the cheapest version of this job. The same tree in the back corner of a walled erf, reachable only through a standard side gate, gets carried out by hand an armful at a time — and if the chipper can't reach it either, the brush goes out whole, load after load.
Does anything have to come out over a roof or a wall?
On tight plots the only way out for a limb is sometimes up and across on ropes — nothing dropped, nothing dragged over the tiles. Where a tree is too dead or too enclosed to work any other way, we price in a crane or cherry picker. It's the biggest swing in a quote, and why we don't price by phone.
How steep is it, and what's the ground like?
On mountain-side properties and older hillside streets the tree often sits below the road, so every log comes up steps instead of along a level driveway. Soft lawn or a new deck on the route gets boarded rather than churned.
Estate, complex or sectional title rules
Estates and body corporates come with conditions: working hours, noise windows, crew details at the gate in advance, where a truck may stand, sometimes trustee approval for a tree on common property. None of it is a problem if we know beforehand — all of it wastes a morning if we find out at the boom.
What tree removal costs in Cape Town
Removal is priced per job, not per tree — the same tree in two gardens is two different amounts of work. What we can give you honestly are the endpoints. A small garden tree with easy access runs roughly R1,200 to R2,500, and most residential removals land somewhere between R1,200 and R15,000 — only genuinely large trees, the twenty-metre-plus gums and pines, go past that. Anything more precise is a number invented before seeing your property.
What we can be precise about is what moves your quote inside that range. None of it is a surprise charge — it's all visible on the first visit.
| What we're looking at | Why it moves the price |
|---|---|
| Size and species | Height sets the climbing time, density sets the weight — a wet gum log is far heavier than a conifer the same size. |
| Access to the tree | Truck alongside it, or every piece carried through a side gate. The biggest lever on labour hours. |
| What's underneath | Open lawn is quick. A pool, glass roof or the neighbour's carport means everything is rigged and lowered. |
| Stump left or taken out | Priced separately. A stump under paving costs more than one in an open bed. |
Every removal is quoted at one fixed written price before we start — hauling and clean-up included. Free on-site look, no call-out fee, or phone 084 966 4252.
Get my removal quoteWhat customers say about the clean-up
I had a great experience with Peter. They were very efficient, arrived on time, and trimmed my palm tree beautifully. They also cleaned up everything afterwards and removed all the rubble, leaving the area neat and tidy.
We had wind damage in a big cypress tree in Marina da Gama. Peter did a great job. Neat, safe and tidy work, and he kept us informed along the way. Good work.
Very professional, safe, respectful, lovely guys. Second time using Peter's team. Very pleased with the result. These guys are going far. I recommend them.
Where the tree actually goes
A mature tree is a surprising amount of material once it's down, and there are three destinations for it. Chipped on site, where there's room to work the chipper: the chips make good mulch, so say the word and we'll leave you a heap.
Cut to firewood lengths and stacked, if the tree is worth burning: we cut the trunk and larger limbs to the lengths you want and stack them where you'd like them, rather than hauling off wood you'd buy back in winter. Say so at quote stage.
Off to a green-waste site: everything else goes with us to a proper facility, not tipped on a vacant plot down the road. Disposal sits inside the quoted price, so there's no second invoice for the dump run.
The exception: shot hole borer
If the tree is infested with the polyphagous shot hole borer, the wood does not leave your property intact and must not be kept or sold as firewood — the City of Cape Town's rule is that infested trees are chipped on site and not removed from the property. Moving the logs is how the beetle reaches the next suburb. We look for the tell-tale pinhead holes and staining before quoting, and say so if we find them. More in our guide to the shot hole borer in Cape Town.
Removal with the stump, or without?
Standard removal leaves a low, neatly cut stump with the root plate still in the soil. For plenty of gardens that's fine — it sits in a bed, you plant in front of it, and it rots down quietly.
Two things change that. The first is species: Port Jackson in particular resprouts strongly from an untreated stump, and you end up with a thicket of shoots where you had one trunk. If we're taking out something that coppices, we'll say so at the quote.
The second is what you want the space for. If you're paving, laying a lawn you'll mow, replanting in the same spot or building over it, the stump and root plate have to come out — and a stump hidden by grass is a real trip hazard. Grinding is a separate line on the quote, so you can see the cost and say yes or no; detail on our stump grinding page. If you're at all likely to want it gone, do it in the same visit — the site is already cleared, and it beats bringing a crew back later.
What we do to protect the rest of your property
The tree is coming out either way. The question worth asking a contractor is what the garden looks like when it's gone. Most removal damage isn't dramatic — a cracked slab, a snapped sprinkler, a lawn churned to mud — and nearly all of it is decided before the first cut.
So we walk the site with you first and agree the drop and stacking zones, then move cars and anything breakable out of the way. Paving and decking under the landing zone get boarded rather than taking log impacts, and pool covers stay on where we can work around them. Precast walls take a rope load badly, so anything near one is lowered rather than swung, and where limbs overhang next door we'd rather knock beforehand than apologise afterwards. Do point out your irrigation lines — they're invisible from up a tree.
Then the bit that gets skipped: beds raked out, sawdust swept off the paving, no offcuts behind the shed, gates closed. You should see nothing afterwards but a gap where the tree used to be. That's the whole point of what we do across Cape Town — the space handed back clean, at one fixed price agreed in writing before we arrived.
Our tree removal process
Assess access and risk
We check the tree's condition, what's around it, and how we'll get the wood out — driveway, side gate, or over the roof on ropes.
Climb and dismantle
For big or dangerous trees a climber takes it down limb by limb, lowering each section safely to the ground.
Cut down and load
Everything is cut into liftable lengths and loaded out — no trace left dragging through your garden.
Full site clean-up
We rake, sweep and remove all debris. Add stump grinding to clear the root base completely if you'd like to replant or pave.
Every tree removal job is quoted up front in writing, and cleaned up afterwards.
Get my free quoteTree Removal jobs in Cape Town
These are our crew on real jobs — no stock photography. More of them are in the job photo gallery.
Get a free tree removal quote
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Tree Removal FAQs
Common questions about this service in Cape Town.
Tree Removal across Cape Town
We provide tree removal right across the city — including Camps Bay, Sea Point, Constantia, Newlands, Durbanville and Table View. Not on the list? We cover the whole of greater Cape Town.
Other tree services we offer
All across greater Cape Town.
Tree Felling
Safe, controlled felling of large and awkward trees anywhere in Cape Town.
Learn more
Stump Removal & Grinding
Grind out unsightly stumps below ground level so you can pave, build or replant.
Learn more
Tree Pruning & Trimming
Shape, thin and lift your trees for health, light and a tidy garden.
Learn more
Palm Tree Removal & Cleaning
Remove, trim or clean tall palms — our specialty across the Cape.
Learn more
