Stokes Tree Solutions

Tree trimming was fine. However, felt a little uneasy when Tom suggested I should take down a huge tree in my backyard because it was showing a crease in the back of the trunk and said he would give me a deal to take it out at 3k. I had 2 other licensed tree guys come look and they said it was fine and I had nothing to worry about (other than thunder storms). I declined and he kept trying to inquire to ask if I want it taken down because he was worried about the tree. Overall with his tree trimming service, i gave him a fair review because he cut one down which was originally not in scope and did not charge me extra which was appreciated. I also emailed several times for him to come back and cut down another part of a tree for $300 and i never got a response so I gave up on that. When getting a quote for the mulch bed maintenance in the fall (which included trimming of azeleas, removal of weed trees, remove of some ivy, and mulching), his quote was $1800. I said I would likely get that part done in the spring once the azeleas bloomed. When the spring came around, he said the price went up to $2,100 because there's more ivy then what he had originally thought (keep in mind he did not return to my house since giving me the quote). I responded and said the ivy removal would be very limited as I was able to remove a majority of it and I didn't feel a 300 increase just because was warented. Tom agreed to keep the price at $1800. I followed up to see if I could get all the pricing components of the scope broken down so I could decide if I wanted to do some of it and only have him do portions of the scope. What I got back was a summary of all the items he would be doing with a flat price of 2,100 (no break out or anything and at a higher price that was originally agree on). When I called him out for not listening to my request he appologied that i didn't understand and that he bundled the deal for me which didn't make one bit of sense. I told Tom i would be using someone else because of all the hassle and back and forth I had to deal with (not worth it). The logistics and communication with this company is lackluster at best. Scheduling and them going silent is par for the course.

I have hired Tom Stokes to remove 3 mature trees and grind down its stumps plus grind down two additional large stumps, to haul away logs and branches. His crew of about 7 arrived, as agreed, promptly at 9 am. They set out to protect the path for the Bobcat and other heavy-duty machines to drive over the grassy lawn to the back of the house. This has proven to be a very much appreciated precaution, as there was no damage done to the lawn. Tom and another man cutting the trees are both very skilled and knowledgeable in removing the limbs, tree trunks, and stumps in such a way that no damage to existing plants and shrubs would occur. The entire crew worked from 9 am till about 2 pm and a couple of men stayed a bit longer and finished the stump grinding. In the end, the site of work was properly cleaned up, and it was left looking better than it was before. I highly recommend Tom Stokes for any tree removal needs you might have. He offers a high-quality service at a very reasonable price. He is very accommodating in scheduling the work and he is punctual. The back and forth communication is open and satisfactory. He is insured and operates with good machinery and tools. Tom and his crew did an excellent job for me. I would hire him again in a snap.

Tom was flexible to deal with any issues which arose on the job site. They were professional, courtesy, and ensured that we were 100% satisfied with the cleanup and removal before the job was finished.

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When the and quot;durechoand quot; storm blew through the Washington area in July of 2012, a towering silver maple hanging over our home (and our neighbor's home) was and quot;shreddedand quot; by the high winds. This tree was 80-100 feet tall with multiple large leads coming off of the main trunk. Some of the leads hanging over our house were cracked making for a very dangerous situation. This was a huge tree that was not easy to take down. All of the other tree services we spoke with wanted to bring in a large crane to do the job. We got quotes ranging between 7,500 and 10,000. The problem was, putting a crane on our driveway would have broken up the concrete and would have forced us to replace the driveway. Stokes Tree Solutions was willing to take the tree down without the use of a crane and at a very fair price. It was a very tricky job. They handled it with great professionalism and skill. Most importantly, they did it without damaging either of the two homes which were very much at risk. We highly recommend Stokes Tree Solutions. <br />

So glad I found Stokes Tree Solutions. Top notch on all the important criteria: price, responsiveness, professionalism, speed of response, safety, etc. <br /> Tom is a hardworking guy that is on the job and in the tree himself. Very important and his way of doing things shows in the end results. <br /> I would definitely recommend Stokes Tree Solutions. <br />

How'd it go? Tom Stokes (Stokes Tree Solutions) and his crew did a FANTASTIC job!! I had four dead trees cut down and removed from my property. I also had trimming and dead branch removal from several other trees on my property. One of the trees (a White Oak) that I had cut down was four feet in diameter and over one hundred feet tall. Unfortunately this Oak tree had died and had the potential to severely damage my home if it fell down. Also, the tree was very close to an additional building on my property. I was well aware that my house and the additional building could be damaged or destroyed if the tree removal was not performed with absolute precision and care. I was very concerned about the danger involved for anyone performing the work. I spoke with several different tree removal folks but did not have confidence in them for such a large and dangerous job. A neighbor recommended Tom Stokes. I met with Tom and found him to be very knowledgeable about trees, bushes, plants, grass and anything to do with beautifying a yard. Tom is very professional, knowledgeable, and polite. After talking to Tom, I realized he had the equipment, skill, and experience to do the job. I was in awe observing the precision Tom had in cutting, removing, and placing on the ground large limbs and sections of the tree from as high as 100 feet. Each large limb and sections of the tree was placed on the ground without touching my house or the additional building. Tom and his crew hauled away the enormous amount of wood and branches from the trees and left the work area clean. Should I ever need any tree or yard work performed in the future I will definitely be calling Tom Stokes. <br /> <br /> <br />

All I can say is that their whole operation from estimate to completion of the work was quite exceptional. Tom is a very personable fellow. His estimate was competitively priced. There is great communication from his sister Lauren who sent copies of their license, and insurance along with the contract. The team showed up when they said they would and did the work efficiently. He surveyed my property and pointed out a problem tree which we be removed. I am happy that I now have a and quot;Tree Guyand quot; <br /> <br />

The owner, Tom Stokes, knows trees like a old Forest Ranger, but he's not old! He's a tree expert that knows how to safely bring down 100 ft tall oaks near houses. He correctly guessed which of 19 trees were diseased, and sure enough, he was 100% correct when we cut the tree down at looked at which ones had rotten cores and which ones were healthy. His crew was professional and never damaged anything. They did not require any supervision and got the job done each day. I leave for work in the morning and come back home in the evening to find impressive progress! It was a tremendous relief to have the trees removed safely, and well worth every penny. <br />

EXCELLENT service, crew!! Look forward to using them again - and will plan to have them maintain property. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />

This Chestnut Oak tree was obviously dying, so my wife and I started shopping around... <br /> My next door neighbor said she was having someone out that day to look at dangerous trees on her property, so we asked Tom Stokes to give us a quote as well. He surveyed the situation, worked with us to determine the extent of work, and provided a quote on the spot. <strong>Since we had already received several quotes from competitors, we knew his price was excellent. His description of the work involved reassured us that he and his crew knew what they were doing.</strong> This was of considerable concern to us when determining who to hire given that the tree overhung our house and deck. <br /> <strong>We were extremely pleased with the schedule of work</strong> -- Stokes was able to squeeze us in immediately after the completion of work for my neighbor, which occurred the next day. In other words, work on our tree commenced hours after his first visit to our property! Not needed, but hey -- pretty cool. <br /> I offered up the use of my driveway for both jobs which helped given the location of my neighbor's trees. There was much less hauling involved, plus it meant his crew could setup the chipper and truck filled with wood chips on a safe and level location. My only concern was that a beautiful Shasta Viburnum tree of mine adjacent to the path may be damaged. <strong>They assured me it would be safe, and it was!</strong> Same for all the shrubs. <br /> Before beginning work on our Chestnut Oak tree, the crew foreman, John, offered to temporarily move two native azaleas from near the base of the tree after my wife expressed some concern for their safety (yes, I believe my wife treats these plants better than our own children!). That was *really* considerate, plus it shows they know what makes the job successful -- keeping the client (a.k.a. wife) happy. <br /> When it came to the actual tree destruction process I watched in awe. One guy in the crew -- I believe his name is Carlos -- was amazing in his agility to climb, tie-off, and cut sections of the tree safely while working with the other crew members to slowly and carefully lower that section to the ground. This tree was HUGE when they started, so they simply dissected it piece by piece. <strong>Not once did anything hit the house, the deck, the fence, the stone path or any shrubs.</strong> Not once did I hear a loud thud from anything hitting the ground hard (there truly was no good place for them to allow that to happen given the location of this tree). <br /> Every piece of brush was carefully hauled away to the chipper. All the remaining wood was cut into 18and quot; lengths just right for the fireplace, then stacked in nice long piles. Some of these sections are huge (6 feet in circumference) but they moved them to where I wanted no problem. I guess now I have my work cut out for me... <br /> During all this heavy work, the foreman, John, even took the time to help my wife bring groceries to the house because their equipment had the driveway blocked. <strong>Again, top notch service!</strong> <br /> When they were finishing, they swept the deck and entire length of the driveway of all wood chips. <br /> I can't say a single bad thing about this experience. I have to thank my neighbor for the referral (who did find Stokes using Angie's list), and also Tom Stokes and his entire crew for the excellent work! I will be a repeat customer if/when I'm in the need of additional tree service. <strong>And yes, I would recommend this company to anyone who needs the job done right!<br /> </strong> <br /> <br />

FANTASTIC!!!! <br /> Will get them back in the fall for more work.. <br />

<strong>Overall, I'd use Stokes Tree Service again.</strong> However, there were problems and knowing what they were will help you decide if they're right for you. For me, I could live with and risk what I did. Communication after the job started wasn't as good as before it started. One example is they showed up to work when they could fit it into their schedule regardless of when they said they'd next be here. Also, the job lingered over 11 days instead of 2 days like initially planned. Both of the 2 planned days were nice days and if Stokes had sent a full crew in on the Second day, they'd have finished. Finally, if we would have let them just keep sending on one guy when they could, they'd likely have finished all work as agreed, but we couldn't be sure and had to get on with it without them. Great start, good price, poor finish, and progressively worsening coordination/communication with customer. <br /> WORK DAYS BELOW... <br /> <strong>Day 1, Friday</strong>: Everything started out great and on target. Communications were good and they actually arrived a day early to do the job. It was planned for two days and the first day a full 5 person crew showed up, one of which was the climber. Amazing enough, the climber managed to cut down all 12 trees (most were 65 to 75 foot tall oaks) and the crew chipped all the branches and debris into the wooded area of my property. that left the logs to be moved to the side yard, cut into 18and quot; sections, the stumps ground, and 3 trees to be pruned (again, large trees). Paid them with a check for $2000.00 (40%) as agreed previously. <br /> <strong><br /> Day 2 Saturday:</strong> No one showed up as planned and no one contacted me until I contacted them around noon. When I was able to finally reach them, a mechanical failure was claimed as the reason for not showing, but no explanation for not contacting me to let me know. This was different that before as Tom would call me to let me know if they'd be late for anything. <br /> About 1:30PM, one guy finally showed up with the stump grinder and began grinding stumps. Another guy showed up an hour or so later with a machine to pick up the logs and move them to the side yard; which he did for all of them. By the end of day 2, about 1/2 of the stumps where ground with the shavings in the holes. At this point, they had to trim/prune the three trees yet and cut the logs into 18and quot; sections, finish grinding stumps, and chip the tree trimmings into the woods. They said that - pending the expected rain, they'd come back on Monday or as soon after as it was dry enough to work. I gave them the remainder of the money (yeah...I know..stupid). <br /> <strong>Day 3, Tuesday, (it rained Monday)</strong>: Although late in the day, they returned to continue grinding stumps. The climber returned to trim the trees, and they cut the logs into sections between 18and quot; and some up to 30and quot; (way to large yet to move with two men). <br /> Because they didn't bring the chipper back, all the tree trimming and branches remained on the yard and they wanted to just drag them into the woods and leave them. I wasn't home, so my wife said she didn't mind. However, that wasn't the agreement and I got the sense that they were not bringing the chipper back. So, I compromised and told them (left signs) to simply cut it into 12' sections that would fit on my trailer and they could either load what they could on my trailer and leave the rest on the ground and I'd haul it myself to the landfill in lieu of having a trash pile in the woods at my house. <br /> <strong>Day 4, Friday:</strong> They finally returned and finished loading what they could on the trailer and left the rest on the ground in piles... some cut to fit the trailer, some not. The yard was a mess with small sticks and debris and most stump holes had the shavings around the hole, not in it or hauled into the woods. At this point, I called the owner Tom again and asked him what we're doing... am I hauling this off and you're done the job now and I have to clean up, or are you planning on coming back. Tom told me that I shouldn't have to haul this off as the agreement was they'd chip it into the woods. I told him I have the sense that he didn't want to bring the chipper back as he keeps sending one guy out here to work and I haven't seen the equipment come with him. Tom said he'd be back with the chipper tomorrow, Saturday to finish the job. <br /> <strong><br /> Day 5, Saturday;</strong> No one showed up, no one called. We figured that's it and they're not coming back anymore. Even if they are, we just want this cleaned up and we can do it in a few days ourselves. We felt like we did get our money's worth and the work we couldn't do ourselves was done. So, my wife, some friends (that was getting the firewood and had a tractor), and myself put the stump shavings into the woods with the tractor and raked up the yard. <br /> Day 6, Sunday: We still didn't hear anything from Stokes Tree Service and it didn't matter at this point. My wife and I spent the rest of the day cutting the branches into sections that fit the 12' trailer, loading it, and made 3 trips to the landfill with a total of about 2,500 lbs of tree trimmings. We raked up most of the 1/2 acre front yard (sticks and debris) and about a 1/4 acre of the back yard that had debris. <br /> <strong><br /> Day 7, Monday:</strong> (11 calendar days since start). Stokes sent one guy out today with a truck, a wheel barrow, and a shovel. I'm sure this guy was relieved to see all the branches gone and the stump shavings removed to the woods. All that remained was a few small piles of sticks that my wife and I had raked up and had not yet bagged or thrown into the 96 gallon trash cans for removal. He picked those up and put them in the truck and then spent some time with a blower cleaning up the yard (mostly saw dust now). <br /> <br /> <br />

The only reason I couldn't give Tom all As was due to scheduling problems. The job was repeatedly scheduled and rescheduled. Then it took 2 days to bring the tree down (it became too windy after cutting the branches, and we agreed we didn't want to take any risks so close to the houses). Tom was late the first day due to a mechanical breakdown. Tom was to have returned the following day, but he didn't show up nor did he call. I finally called him and learned that he had an unexpected illness in the family. This was understandable, but I thought it was unprofessional just to not show up when I was waiting for him. I have asked him to trim another tree for me, and we have scheduled that three times now. First, it was too wet. Then it was too cold. I hope the third time will be the charm. This is admittedly the first time I have had reason to deal with a tree service, and, in fairness, it may be that these services are inherently difficult to predictably schedule due to constraints imposed by weather. We did finally get the other tree trimmed and Tom did a good job of that also. He's also a very nice guy; you're just going to need a lot of patience to deal with the scheduling issues. <br /> <br />

Excellent service. Very professional and extremely polite staff. More than willing to work around our schedule. Work was needed do to wind storm damage including tree removal and stump. Although they were extremely busy (many calls for help due to the storm) they came to provide an estimate when they said they would and explained everything they would do and they did. Very nice people and easy to recommend to others. <br />

They did a good job, cleared stuff out fairly well. I was quite happy with the service. I was a little bit questioning about the price as I was somewhat over a barrel at the time because the fact that they could come out and deal with it within a matter of a couple of hours and time was of the essence. They were classical contractors, in the sense that they had many jobs on the go at the same time, but they were at least accurate in communicating when they would or would not be there.

Things couldn't have gone smoother. Called for an estimate. Had one within a few days, work was done within a week of the estimate. They arrived promptly, with a full crew and all the equipment needed. Work was done as expected and site cleaned nicely. He threw in some and quot;extrasand quot; that were not part of the agreement, but we sure appreciated. We're very happy with Tom and his company. We'll definitely use him again, and recommend his company to others. <br />

Tom and his staff responded quickly to my inquiry for a quote to remove a large dead Oak tree and pruning a very large Oak Tree behind my house which was severely damaged from a recent storm. I found the quote to be better than 3 of the leading tree companies on Angie's List which I received. We agreed on a price and the work was scheduled very quickly. <br /> The work took 2 days which I felt was fantastic considering the scope and difficulty of the work required. Tom and his ample crew were professional, courteous, and cleaned the property of all wood and tree debris in a methodical fashion. Tom also agreed to remove 3 smaller trees which I wanted removed the day and his pricing for the extra work was more than reasonable. <br /> I am very pleased to have found a family owned tree company which gives their clients the family feeling of service. I will certainly recommend Stokes Tree Solutions to all of my neighbors in the Oakton area and will certainly use this company again for all of my future tree work. <br /> GREAT JOB TOM and CREW!!!!

What i particulary liked was that Tommy knew exactly what to do first, trimming branches first so as to provide a cushion for larger pieces as they were cut and dropped into the yard. he cleaned up teh work area and offered suggestions for other trees to address later in the year. His knowledge of trees goes way beyond just cutting them down, but how to ensure proper manintenance and health of the trees. <br />

OUTSTANDING! You should definitely consider an estimate from Stokes Tree Solutions before making a decision on tree issues. Being a contractor myself, I was sorta in a bind as I had my driveway widened and decrepit stairway to my duplex home removed, as well as the Sugar Maple tree roots removed from both of our lawns, while my neighbor was on holiday .. As part of that deal the tree stump was to be removed also. but the bobcat the driveway company had was incapable of yanking the stump out of the ground. Knowing that my neighbor would be returning home soon from their vacation, I had to act fast to find a tree company to remove the stump as their lawn was damaged in the process.I also needed the soil to be replaced and the lawn to be seeded. While searching Angie's List I found another company who gave me an estimate. Upun reading their reviews I found out about Stokes Tree Solutions. The other customer had hired Stokes because their pricing was more reasonable. When I talked to Tom the first time, I miscalculated by sight the actual size of the stump to be ground out,and after measuring it, I called Tom and informed him that the stump was not really 18 inches, but truly 26x22 inches. Tom had already scheduled his stump crew for that day (4 days later) while they would be working with their equipment within my general area. Tom didnot even blink (after all it was not an Oak stump) and told me the price would still apply and thanked me for my honesty.After all was said and done, Stokes Tree Solutions had ground my stump,applied topsoil,seeded the area and covered affected area with straw. I highly recommend Stokes Tree Solutions as they were full service when the other company had to be pressed to provide soil,seeding and straw and even then their price shot up dramatically.Tom's energy and committment to excellent customer service was far above even my high expectations.

Very competent crew lead by Tom Stokes. Work performed involved complex work on very tall trees. Extremely impressed with communication, knowledge and promptness. Crew were all very nice, clean cut, very comfortable having them work around our property. Tree work, clean up, haul away of trees exceeded my expectations. While they are new to Angie's list, I would highly recommend you give them the opportunity to bid on tree work.

Everything went very well. They showed up, cut my trees and cleaned up. <br /> <br />

It went very well. Tom responded very quickly after I inquired through his great website. Anytime I called or emailed him he was very responsive. Especially via email. The estimate came very quickly. His services were fast and thorough. He was very friendly. He showed me the job that he had done and asked if there was anything else that I may need done. He came back and trimmed the front tree for free! He really seems like he enjoys his job as well. I didn't meet his crew but my wife says they too were very nice and great to deal with.