How much does it cost to cut down a 30-foot tree?

Published guides put a tree under 30 feet at roughly $150 to $450 nationally, and Houston company price pages run higher, around $450 to $900, once trunk size, a tight yard, and haul-off are counted. A small tree in open ground with truck access sits at the bottom of that range.

How much does it cost to cut down a 40-foot tree?

A 40-foot tree falls in the medium tier, which published guides price at about $450 to $1,200 and Houston companies at $900 to $2,500. One Houston pricing survey lists a 40-foot removal at $440 to $840. Trunk diameter and how close the tree stands to the house move it within that band.

How big of a tree costs $1,000 to remove?

Around Houston, $1,000 buys the removal of a medium to large tree, roughly 40 to 60 feet, in a reachable spot, or a smaller tree that has to come down in pieces over a roof or fence. Add stump grinding and haul-off and the same tree lands closer to $1,300 to $1,500.

Do you need a permit to cut down a tree in Houston?

On your own single-family lot inside the City of Houston, no. The city requires a permit only for trees on city property, in the right of way, or in a street setback, and its protected-tree rules exempt ordinary yard trees on single-family land. The Woodlands, Humble, Conroe, and Splendora have their own tree rules, so check the jurisdiction first.

Is tree removal cheaper in winter?

Often, a little. Demand drops after the storm season, crews have open days, and dormant trees are lighter to handle. Around Houston, the bigger saving is dry ground: a lot that a truck can reach without mats or a long carry is cheaper to clear in any month than a soaked one.

Do tree companies charge to haul away the wood?

Usually, yes, unless the quote says removal includes haul-off. Published ranges for hauling and chipping run about $100 to $300 per job. Leaving the rounds stacked on site is the cheapest option, and on acreage a forestry mulcher can grind the smaller material into ground cover and skip the truck entirely.

Where can I get free tree removal in Houston?

CenterPoint cuts trees and limbs off power lines and service drops during storm restoration, but leaves the debris for the owner. The city removes trees on city property and rights of way. For a tree on your own lot, there is no free program, though homeowners insurance may cover removal when a tree hits a structure.

How much does tree removal cost in the Houston area?

Around Houston, removing one tree runs from about $150 for a small ornamental to $2,000 or more for a tall pine or oak, and crane or hazard jobs can pass $8,000. Published national guides cluster most jobs between $400 and $1,500. The three things that move the number are height, trunk diameter, and how much stands in the way: a roof, a fence, a pool, or a CenterPoint line.

Tree removal prices by size

Two kinds of numbers exist for this question, and both are worth seeing. National cost guides survey thousands of jobs and skew low. Houston company price pages reflect local labor, dense timber, and clay ground, and skew high.

Tree size	National guides (This Old House, Lawn Love, Fixr)	One Houston company’s 2026 price page (Trees Over Houston)
Small, under 30 ft	$150 to $450	$450 to $900
Medium, 30 to 60 ft	$450 to $1,200	$900 to $2,500
Large, 60 to 80 ft	$800 to $1,500	$2,500 to $6,000
Very large, 80 ft and up	$1,000 to $2,000	Crane or hazard work, can exceed $8,000

HomeBlue’s Houston survey lands in the middle: an average of about $1,100, a common range of $400 to $1,700, and a three-person crew at $180 to $240 an hour. Angi’s Houston page puts the local average near $800 with most projects between $197 and $1,972. Per foot of height, LawnStarter and Lawn Love both publish $10 to $14.

A quick way to size a job: a 40-foot water oak in an open backyard with truck access is a medium-tier job. The same tree leaning over the house with a service drop through the canopy is a large-tier job, because every limb gets roped down instead of dropped.

What drives the price up or down

Height and trunk diameter set the base price, and access sets the multiplier. Valerio’s Tree Service in Houston prices by diameter: under 10 inches $150 to $500, 10 to 20 inches $500 to $1,200, over 20 inches $1,200 to $2,500 and up. LawnStarter notes that a tree crews cannot reach with equipment can cost up to 50 percent more.

Around Houston, four local factors show up in nearly every quote:

Species. Hardwoods cost more than softwoods to cut and handle. Live oak wood is heavy and strong, so sections have to be smaller. Water oaks live only 30 to 50 years and are often hollow by 40, which makes the drop less predictable. Loblolly pines on wet clay grow a short taproot and shallow lateral roots, so they lean and windthrow, and a leaner is a rigging job.
Ground. The Lake Charles clay that runs under much of the metro cracks open for 60 to 90 days a year when dry and turns to grease when wet. Wet clay slows equipment and adds mats and carry time, and that time shows up in the quote.
Power lines. CenterPoint’s rule is to stay at least 10 feet from any power line, and work near lines belongs to qualified line-clearance crews. A tree tangled in a service drop is priced as a rigging job.
Cranes and emergencies. A mid-size crane runs about $150 an hour with a four-hour minimum, and most residential crane removals price between $3,500 and $8,000. Storm and after-hours work carries a premium of 20 to 50 percent at the low end and two to three times the standard rate at the high end.

Stump grinding, stump removal, and haul-off

Tree removal quotes usually stop at a flush cut. The stump is a separate line, and so is the wood.

Add-on	Published range
Stump grinding, under 12 in.	$100 to $200
Stump grinding, 12 to 24 in.	$200 to $350
Stump grinding, 24 to 36 in.	$350 to $500
Stump grinding, 36 in. and up	$500 to $1,000+
Full stump removal, roots dug out	Two to three times the grinding price
Debris hauling	$100 to $300 per job
Chipping on site	$75 to $125 per hour

Grinding several stumps in one visit typically saves 15 to 25 percent. Full removal, with the root ball dug out, costs more and tears up the yard, so it only makes sense where a slab, driveway, or septic field is going in. Stump grinding is the right call for a lawn; grubbing is the right call for a building pad.

When tree removal becomes land clearing

Past three or four trees, per-tree pricing stops making sense. Clearing a wooded lot is priced by the acre and by density. Daniel Dean Land Clearing, which works Spring, Conroe, and The Woodlands, publishes light brush at $2,700 to $3,500 an acre, medium growth with trees to five inches at $2,700 to $6,000, heavy brush at $4,250 to $8,200, and dense growth at $6,000 to $11,000, with mature timber quoted per tree. Forestry mulching of the smaller material runs $2,700 to $3,500 an acre on the same list.

That is the work our tree removal service is built around: taking down the big pines and hardwoods that stand in the way of a build, a fence line, or an open pasture, then grinding or hauling the rest. Our land clearing cost guide breaks down the per-acre math, and how long clearing takes covers the schedule side. Storm-damaged trees are a different job with a different price, covered in our guide to storm and hurricane tree removal.

Do you need a permit?

Inside the City of Houston, a homeowner removing a tree on a single-family lot does not need a permit. The Houston Permitting Center is direct about it: a permit is required to remove a tree on city property, in the right of way, or in a setback, and residents should contact an arborist or tree service for trees on their own land. The city’s Chapter 33 protected-tree rules cover street and parkway trees and council-designated trees, with an exemption for land used for single-family housing, and a storm exception when a damaged tree becomes an immediate threat.

Outside Houston the answer changes by jurisdiction. The Woodlands requires written approval before removing any living tree over six inches in diameter, and Humble, Conroe, and Splendora each have tree ordinances tied to lot clearing. Our guide to tree removal rules in The Woodlands walks through the most detailed of them.

Getting a real number

Every range above is a published market range, not our price. The only way to price your tree is to see it: the species, the trunk, what it leans toward, where the lines run, and what the ground will carry that week. We give free estimates across Spring, Montgomery County, and north Houston, and the price we quote is the price you pay. Call (281) 432-7360 or send the job through our contact page with a photo of the tree.