4.9 · 462 Google reviews · Licensed & Insured
Tree Service in Oldsmar, FL
Oldsmar tree removal, trimming and stump grinding. Family owned since 1989, ISA Certified Arborist on staff, free estimates. (727) 365-1803.
“This was the second time I'd hired Happy's to take down some dead trees and I couldn't be happier with the job they did. First off they gave me a great price for the amount of work I needed done.”
- 462 Google reviews
- Licensed & Insured
- ISA Certified Arborist on staff
- Pinellas since 1989
Oldsmar sits in the top corner of Pinellas County, hard against the Hillsborough line, and that geography produces one honest consequence worth stating: a lot of the companies quoting tree work here are driving over from Hillsborough, and bringing Hillsborough’s rules with them.
They do not apply. Oldsmar is an incorporated city in Pinellas County and runs its own tree code. We are already in Pinellas, and we work under the code that actually governs your address.
Two housing eras, two different tree problems
Oldsmar’s stock splits cleanly. The original town, the pre-war grid near the bay and the older streets off St. Petersburg Drive, has mature trees on small lots, with the usual consequences of age: decay at old wounds, end-weight on long limbs, roots into slabs and driveways, and canopies that have grown into structures nobody imagined when the trees were planted.
The 1990s and 2000s subdivisions east and north have the opposite problem. Those trees are young enough to fix and old enough to have gone wrong: codominant stems with included bark, crossing scaffold limbs, and the structural defects that a single corrective pruning at year eight would have prevented. On those we are usually recommending structural pruning rather than removal, and it is cheaper now than the removal will be later.
Along the Mobbly Bayou side, the shoreline vegetation changes the legal picture entirely, mangroves are separately regulated under state law with authority delegated to Pinellas County, and no local tree permit or arborist letter covers them.
Whether you need a permit, and why we will not give you a rule
Oldsmar’s tree rules are Land Development Code Article XII, § 12.2. It protects two tiers, both drawn from the same eleven-species list: specimen trees (oaks, maples, sweet gum, hickory, elm and sycamore from 18" DBH; the bays and magnolia from 12") and resource trees (the same species from 6" or 8" up to specimen size).
So a 10-inch laurel oak here is a resource tree and a 24-inch one is a specimen tree, while a slash pine, a sabal palm, a citrus or a crape myrtle appears on neither table.
Here is the part other companies gloss over: Oldsmar’s code is written around site development, not around a homeowner taking down a tree. § 12.5(4) ties the whole article to "every development action that requires the issuance of a building permit," and there is no section that plainly states a homeowner doing no development needs a permit. the published code does not settle one, and we are not going to invent a bright line the code does not draw.
What we can tell you is what the City actually does: it runs a standalone Tree Removal Application for residential property, at $90 for up to three trees plus $10 per additional tree, and its Building Division FAQ lists tree removal among the work needing a permit. So plan on a permit, and call Planning & Redevelopment at 813-749-1100, or let us call. The full analysis, with citations, is on the Oldsmar tree permit page.
Start here
Send us a photo of the tree.
You do not have to know whether it needs to come down. That is the part we are for.
- One photo, whole tree in frameTrunk base to top. A close-up of anything that looks wrong helps.
- Text us the photoThe text button below opens the right thread. Add your street and city.
- We come out and lookEvery estimate is in person, free, sometimes the answer is that it needs nothing.
What we run here
We bring the machine the tree needs: a spider lift where a side yard is tight, bucket trucks and grapple trucks for the wood and the brush, and a crane on the picks that call for one. Our estimate is true and honest: no hidden costs, no extras, no add-ons and no surprises. An ISA Certified Arborist on staff looks at the tree before we put a number on it.
Removals, structural and clearance pruning, palm work, stump grinding, cabling and bracing, storm response and haul-away.
Where to go next
- Tree removal in Oldsmar, the county-line confusion and the bayou’s separate rules
- Tree trimming in Oldsmar, structure work on young subdivision trees
- Oldsmar tree permits, what the code says and what it does not
- Nearby: Safety Harbor · Palm Harbor · Clearwater · all of Pinellas County
Frequently asked questions
Am I under Hillsborough County’s rules? No. Oldsmar is in Pinellas County and has its own city code. Advice built on Hillsborough’s ordinance does not apply to your property.
Do I need a permit to take down a tree at my house? Plan on yes, the City runs a residential tree removal application and charges for it. But the code does not state the homeowner trigger plainly, so nobody can honestly hand you a rule. We call the City for the specific address and species before we quote.
Are my pines and palms protected? Not under Article XII’s two tables on their face, pines, palms and citrus appear on neither. That is a reading of the code’s structure rather than an express exemption, so it is worth confirming for a specific tree.
Do you charge to look at it? No. Estimates are free, and the arborist’s opinion on whether it should come down at all comes with it.
Call (727) 365-1803 for a free estimate anywhere in Oldsmar.
Google reviews
Rated 4.9 by 462 of your neighbors.
Reviews · Tree Service in Oldsmar, FL
4.9
462 reviews on Google, the count on our public Google listing
“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.”
“This was the second time I'd hired Happy's to take down some dead trees and I couldn't be happier with the job they did. First off they gave me a great price for the amount of work I needed done.”
Every one of these lives on our public Google listing, where we cannot edit or delete a word. Read them all on Google →
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