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How Much Does Tree Removal Cost in Texas? 2026 Prices for Live Oaks, Storm Damage, and Oak Wilt Season

How much does tree removal cost in Texas? 2026 prices by size, oak wilt timing rules, storm and crane work, stump grinding, and how to check a crew's insurance.

How Much Does Tree Removal Cost in Texas? 2026 Prices for Live Oaks, Storm Damage, and Oak Wilt Season

Most Texas homeowners pay $650 to $2,400 to have a tree removed in 2026. The middle of that range, somewhere near $1,300, covers a mature live oak or pecan standing in an open yard with room to work.

Small ornamentals like crape myrtles and redbuds come down for $350 to $600, and less than that if a crew is already working the street. A 70 foot pecan leaning over a roof in an older Dallas neighborhood can pass $5,000 once a crane and a lane closure get involved.

Three things push Texas prices around in ways homeowners do not expect. There is a season when cutting an oak invites disease, a drought hangover that left thousands of brittle trees standing, and a storm calendar that keeps crews booked solid for weeks at a stretch.

What Crews Charge by Size and Access

Height sets the starting number and access decides the rest. A 40 foot hackberry in a front yard with a clear drop zone is a two hour job for a three person crew. The same tree behind a locked gate, with a pool on one side and a neighbor's fence on the other, becomes a rigging job that eats most of a day.

Trunk diameter drives the wood handling more than height does. Rounds cut from a 36 inch live oak weigh a few hundred pounds apiece, so the crew either brings a grapple truck or spends an hour breaking them down by hand.

Most Texas companies bid the whole job instead of charging by the hour, and that bid folds in travel, dump fees, and the equipment they expect to need. Ask what changes the number if they hit something they did not plan for, because a hollow trunk found at the first cut can turn a climb into a crane call.

Small Trees and Everyday Yard Jobs

Anything under 30 feet runs $350 to $700 removed. That covers crape myrtles, Bradford pears, yaupon holly, and young cedar elms, and crews will often take three of them in one visit for less per tree than a single removal.

The 30 to 60 foot range is the everyday Texas job. Cedar elms, Arizona ash, hackberries, and yard live oaks in that band typically run $800 to $1,900, with an open side yard and truck access keeping you near the bottom.

Large Trees, Cranes, and No Room to Drop

Between 60 and 80 feet, expect $1,800 to $3,400. Above that, the big pecans, cottonwoods, and post oaks on older lots commonly land at $3,000 to $6,000, and a crane adds $1,500 to $4,000 depending on how long it sits in the street.

Tight lots are what make a crane worth paying for. Inside Houston's loop and in the older parts of San Antonio, houses sit close enough together that a 90 foot tree has nowhere to fall, so the crane buys back a full day of labor.

Oak Wilt Sets the Calendar in Central Texas

Oak wilt is a fungus that moves between oaks two ways, through connected root systems underground and through sap beetles drawn to fresh cuts. It has killed oaks in a wide band running from the Hill Country through Travis, Williamson, Bexar, and Tarrant counties. Live oaks share roots across property lines, so one infected tree can take a whole block with it.

The practical rule is a calendar rule. Texas A&M Forest Service advises against pruning oaks from February 1 through June 30, when those beetles are most active and fresh wounds are most likely to get infected. Any crew worth hiring will raise this on the phone and offer to move non emergency oak work to July or the winter.

Sealing cuts is the other half of the habit. Every oak wound in Texas, whether it came from a pruning cut, a stump face, or a mower scrape, should get painted with pruning paint or latex the same day, in every month of the year. A crew that leaves oak cuts open is handing you a problem the invoice never mentions.

Taking down a tree that is already infected costs more than a healthy one of the same size, usually 15% to 40% more, because the wood gets handled as contaminated material. Infected red oak wood should not be stacked as firewood or hauled to another property, since fungal mats under the bark can start the cycle somewhere new.

Trenching to cut root grafts between live oaks is the other oak wilt expense. Residential jobs commonly run $1,500 to $5,000 depending on how much line has to be cut and how deep, which is why it usually pencils out only when several mature oaks are worth saving.

Drought Stressed Trees and What They Do to a Bid

Post oaks are the ones dying across North and Central Texas. Hypoxylon canker gives them away, with bark sloughing off in sheets and a gray or tan surface underneath, and it takes hold in trees already weakened by years of dry summers. Once it shows on the trunk, the tree is finished.

Dead wood is more dangerous to work than live wood, and the price reflects that with a bump of 20% to 45%. Brittle limbs shed with no warning, a climber cannot trust the trunk, and the job moves into a bucket truck or a crane.

Waiting works against you in a straightforward way. A dead post oak removed the year it dies might cost $1,400, and the same tree left standing four more years becomes a $2,600 crane job because nobody will climb it.

Pecans fail differently. They are prone to summer limb drop, where a heavy limb lets go on a still, hot afternoon with no wind at all. Taking one large pecan limb off a driveway ahead of time runs $400 to $900, which beats the alternative outcome by a wide margin.

Storm Work, Hail Alley, and Emergency Rates

The corridor from Wichita Falls through Dallas and down to San Antonio takes some of the worst hail in the country, and the same systems bring the straight line winds that put trees on roofs. After a big storm, every crew in the metro is booked out and pricing firms up fast.

Emergency removal, meaning same day work on a tree that hit a structure or blocked a driveway, typically runs $1,500 to $5,000. After hours and weekend calls carry premiums of 25% to 100% over a scheduled job, which covers overtime and the added risk of cutting in the dark.

Insurance behaves in a way that catches people off guard. Most homeowners policies pay for removal only after the tree damages a covered structure, and debris removal is often capped near $500 to $1,000 per tree. A tree that falls in the yard and hits nothing is generally yours to handle.

Photograph everything before the saws start. Pictures of the tree resting on the roof do more for a claim than any conversation after the fact.

Stumps, Hauling, and the Line Items People Forget

Stump grinding is quoted separately roughly four times out of five. Budget $100 to $400 for an average stump, priced on diameter, and $250 to $600 for something the size of a mature live oak. Grinding leaves a mound of chips and a shallow depression, so ask whether backfill and cleanup are part of the number.

Wood disposal is the other swing item. Leaving the logs stacked on your property can save $150 to $400, which is a fair trade if you burn wood or know somebody who does. Haul away pricing tracks the dump fees in your county, and that is one reason Austin and Houston bids sit above Abilene for the same tree.

Four extras come up often enough to raise before you sign anything:

• City permits where a tree ordinance protects trunks above a set diameter
• Root grinding for surface roots that have lifted a sidewalk or driveway slab
• Crane or lift rental when the drop zone is blocked by a house, pool, or power line
• Sod repair after heavy equipment crosses a soft lawn

Austin's rules are the ones to check first. The city protects trees measuring 19 inches in diameter and up, with a separate heritage category above 24 inches for certain species, and removing one without approval carries real penalties.

Texas Does Not License Tree Companies, So Check Insurance Yourself

Texas licenses electricians and air conditioning contractors through the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation. Roofers are not on that list, and neither are tree services or arborists. Anyone with a truck and a saw can print a business card here.

Workers compensation is the check that matters most here, because Texas is the only state where private employers can decline to carry it. If an uninsured climber gets hurt 40 feet up in your pecan, that claim can end up pointed at your homeowners policy. Ask for proof of general liability and workers compensation, and have the insurance agency send the certificate to you directly.

Certification fills part of the gap the state leaves open. An arborist certified through the International Society of Arboriculture has passed an exam and keeps up continuing education, and a company accredited by the Tree Care Industry Association has been audited on safety. Neither is required by law, and both tell you something.

Three written bids from insured tree removal companies serving your area will expose the outlier quickly. Make sure each one says the same thing about stump grinding, wood removal, and cleanup, since that is where quotes quietly drift apart.

Getting a Fair Number in a Big Metro

Drive time is baked into every Texas bid. A crew based in Plano quoting a job in Waxahachie is putting two hours of windshield time into the price, and you will usually do better with a company that already runs your side of the metro.

Timing works in your favor if the tree is not a hazard. Winter is the slow season for tree work in most of Texas, and a crew will sharpen a January price they would not touch in June. Shopping during storm season is the most expensive way to buy this service.

Put everything in writing before work starts, including the date, the scope, the cleanup expectations, and the payment terms. Our home service cost guides for Texas homeowners walk through the same comparison steps for roofing, fencing, and foundation repair.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is tree removal cheaper in winter in Texas?

Usually. Demand drops between December and February outside of storm events, and crews will often come down 10% to 20% from a summer quote. Winter also happens to be the safer window for oak work, since the beetles that spread oak wilt go quiet in cold weather.

Who pays when a neighbor's tree falls on my house?

In Texas, the owner of the property where the tree landed generally files on their own policy. That flips only when the tree was visibly dead, the neighbor was told about it, and nothing was done, so a dated letter about a dying tree is worth sending.

Do I need a permit to remove a tree in my own yard?

It depends on the city. Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and several Dallas area suburbs regulate removal above a set trunk diameter, while unincorporated county land often has no rule at all. One call to the city arborist or the planning desk settles the question.

How much does stump grinding cost by itself?

A standalone visit runs $150 to $500 for a single stump, since the company is paying for the trip either way. Bundling several stumps into one visit brings the price per stump down toward $75 to $150.