Tree Removal
Felled where there is room, rigged down in sections where there is not, lifted out by crane where there is neither. The method gets chosen for the property.
Tree removal
4.9 · 462 Google reviews · Licensed & Insured
Clearwater, Florida · Family owned since 1989
We take care of your trees so you don’t have to.
Family owned and operated in Clearwater since 1989. Tree removal, trimming, palm work and stump grinding across Pinellas County, with an ISA Certified Arborist on staff. Free estimates, and an honest answer about whether the tree needs to come down at all.
“We were looking for a tree service with a certified arborist. We got just what we needed with Happy Tree Service. Steve gave an estimate and knowledgeable advice. They arrived on time did an excellent job and cleaned up all debris.”
- 462 Google reviews
- ISA Certified Arborist on staff
- Pinellas since 1989
The easiest way to start
Send us a photo of the tree.
Most people call a tree company because something worries them and they cannot tell how serious it is. You do not have to work that out first. Take a picture, send it, and we will come out and look at it with you. Free, and with no pressure attached.
- Stand back and take one photo Far enough back that the whole tree fits in the frame, trunk base to top. A second close-up of anything that looks wrong helps.
- Text us the photo The text button below opens the right thread. Add your street and city.
- We come out and walk it with you Every estimate is done in person, free, and the quoted number is the number. Sometimes the honest answer is that it needs nothing.
1989The year the first
Happy’s truck went out. Same county ever since.
0Hidden costs. Our estimate is true and honest: no extras, no add-ons and no surprises.
100%Of estimates done in person, free, the owner looks at every job before it is priced.
462Google reviews,
averaging 4.9 stars, left by customers across
Pinellas County.
How a tree actually comes down
We bring what the tree actually needs.
Some trees come down with a rope and a saw. Some need a spider lift to reach a back corner, a grapple truck to get the wood off the driveway, or a crane to lift a stem clear of the house. Which of them your tree needs is settled at the estimate, not on the day, and a crane job is quoted as a crane job.
Family owned since 1989
We will leave your investment in better care than when we showed up.
Happy’s has been a family business since 1989 and it still works like one. The same family answers the phone, comes out to look at the tree, and is who you call afterwards if anything is not right.
Ask us where you sit in the schedule and you will get a straight answer rather than a promise. And we’re fanatics about clean up, because the tidy yard is the part you actually live with.
Licensed and Insured, and happy to send the certificate before anybody starts a saw.
The difference that is checkable
There is an ISA Certified Arborist on staff.
Most companies quoting tree work in Pinellas County do not employ an arborist. They employ estimators. An estimator is paid to close the job standing in front of him, and the one thing he will almost never tell you is that your tree does not need to come down.
There is an ISA Certified Arborist on staff at Happy’s. The tough calls get the arborist’s review before we put a number on them, and a fair share of the time the recommendation is reduction pruning, or cabling, or moving whatever is sitting under the limb, not removal. That is a worse day for the invoice and a better one for you.
ISA certification is held by a person, not a company. Ask anyone bidding your work who on their staff holds it, including us, and then check it on the ISA’s public verification tool.
- Credential
- ISA Certified Arborist
- Held by
- A member of our staff, not a consultant we call in.
- Certificate
- Ask any company bidding your work who on their staff holds it, then check the ISA registry.
- Verify
- ISA public registry, look him up yourself, the same way you should look up anyone else bidding your work
The certification belongs to a person, not a company. Ask every company quoting your tree who on their staff holds it, if nobody can give you a name, that has answered the question.
Several codes require one
Clearwater requires a tree inventory prepared by a certified arborist on every commercial, multi-family and subdivision permit. Pinellas Park and Seminole waive fees or replacement only on a certified arborist’s finding. This is not marketing, it is in the ordinances.
He can tell you it is fine
It is the most common reason a customer ends up spending less than they expected. An assessment that ends in “leave it alone and look again in two years” is a real outcome here.
Written when it needs to be
Where a written report is needed, an insurer, an HOA, a permit file, you get one that is signed rather than anonymous.
What we do
Everything a Pinellas tree needs, and nothing it doesn’t.
Trimming & Pruning
Structural pruning, deadwood, clearance from roofs and lines. Done to standard, not topped, topping is how a good tree becomes a hazardous one.
Tree trimming
Emergency & Storm
Tree on the house, tree across the drive, tree leaning on a line. This is what a crane and a grapple truck are for.
Emergency service
Crane-Assisted Removal
For trees with no drop zone at all, over a pool cage, tight between two houses, or with a septic drainfield underneath that has to survive the day.
Crane removal
Stump Removal
Ground out below grade so you can plant, pave or re-turf. Quoted at the same visit as the removal so there is no second decision to make.
Stump removal
Tree Risk Assessment
A proper look at species, root plate, unions, canopy and what sits underneath, written up when an insurer, an HOA or a permit file needs it.
Risk assessment
Cabling & Bracing
The answer for a codominant union worth keeping. Hardware in the canopy is often cheaper than the removal, and you keep the tree.
Cabling & bracing
Replanting
Where the county requires replacement, or where the yard simply lost its shade, the right species in the right spot beats whatever is on sale.
Tree replacement
Land Clearing
Lot clearing and multi-tree work, where grapple trucks and a real haul-away plan decide the whole schedule.
Land clearingGoogle reviews
Rated 4.9 by 462 of your neighbors.
4.9
462 reviews on Google, the count on our public Google listing
“We were looking for a tree service with a certified arborist. We got just what we needed with Happy Tree Service. Steve gave an estimate and knowledgeable advice. They arrived on time did an excellent job and cleaned up all debris. We recommend them and will use them again.”
“Steven was great, him and his crew got out early and was here all day taking out my four laurel oaks for me. Start to finish it was a pleasure working with happy tree service. The speed and efficiency of the work was fantastic.”
“Happy trees did an amazing job cutting my trees and providing information. Steve was really nice and knowledgeable. Great communication and pricing. Definitely will be using their service again!!”
Every one of these lives on our public Google listing, where we cannot edit or delete a word. Read them all on Google →
Where we work
Helping our neighbors keep their yards looking gorgeous.
The canopy here is mostly live oak, laurel oak and sabal palm, on lots that run from wide suburban yards to tight coastal properties with a pool cage, a power line and a neighbor’s roof inside the drop zone. We have been working these species, on these lot sizes, under these ordinances, since 1989.
The thing that surprises everyone
In Pinellas, a dead tree still needs a permit.
The county’s tree code applies inside city limits as well as outside them, and there is no storm exemption, no dead-tree exemption and no emergency exemption written into it.
The number worth knowing before you hire anyone
Removing a protected tree without authorization carries a penalty of $150 per DBH inch, a thirty-inch oak is $4,500, and the liability is joint and several between the property owner and the contractor who did the cutting. Anyone offering you a cash price to “just take it down” is offering to share that with you.
How Pinellas tree permits actually work, the thresholds, the homestead exception, and the one statewide route that removes the permit entirely.
Already down?
If it is on the house, call, don’t text.
A failed limb across a roof, a trunk on the drive, a tree leaning into a service line: that is a different phone call from a quote. Tell us what it is sitting on and whether anyone is inside.
Three ways in, pick whichever suits you
Talk to us before the next storm, not after.
Free estimate, no pressure, and a straight answer about whether the tree needs to come down at all. Sometimes it does not.
Text a photo
Send a photo and your street, done from your phone in under a minute. The button opens the right thread.
Text a photo nowUse the form
For planned work, HOA and commercial properties, and anything that needs a paper trail.
Start the form