About Flatout Tree Service

It started with stumps

This business began as a stump grinding outfit, and that is still the part people recognise me for — the old name was Flatout Stump Grinding. Grinding taught me the useful half of this trade: how to get a machine into a yard without wrecking it, how to read what the ground is doing, and what people are actually paying for when they pay somebody to come out. It grew into the whole job because customers kept asking me to take the tree down as well as the stump. So now that is what we do, and stump grinding is one service on the list instead of the only one.

A crew of four

There are four of us — me and my crew. That matters more than it sounds like it should. Four is enough to put somebody in the lift, somebody on the ropes and somebody keeping the ground clear and the wood moving, which is how a big tree comes down in pieces instead of all at once. It is also small enough that you are not dealing with a dispatcher. When you call, you get me or one of my crew.

Lifts, climbers, and a 36-inch gate

I run lifts and climbers. A pine leaning over the roof gets sectioned from a lift and lowered on a line; where no lift will reach, it gets climbed. My equipment is built to fit through a 36-inch gate, which is the reason a fenced backyard is an ordinary job around here rather than a reason to say no. Stumps are ground up to 12 inches below grade — I grind them, I don't dig them out, and I will tell you why if you ask.

Fully insured, and answered around the clock

I'm fully insured, and I'll show the paperwork to anybody I am under contract with. The phone is answered open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, which is not a slogan — storms here do not keep office hours, and a tree on a roof at two in the morning is the call I would rather take than miss. If that is where you are right now, start here.

Straight prices, told up front

My removal minimum is $800 and stump grinding is $7 per inch of diameter with a $200 minimum. The rest of the numbers are published on the price page rather than kept back for the driveway conversation, because I would rather you knew before I turned up. There are better rates for seniors, military, more than one stump at the same address and contractors and tree companies with ongoing work — I don't publish percentages, so ask and I'll tell you where you land.

Where I work

Hampstead, Wilmington, Jacksonville, Surf City, Sneads Ferry, Holly Ridge, Rocky Point, Burgaw, Topsail Beach, Scotts Hill / Porters Neck — Pender County, New Hanover County, Onslow County. Home is 532 McClammy Rd in Hampstead, so most days I am somewhere on the US-17 corridor. The whole service area, town by town.

One more thing

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

I've been blessed with good equipment and a crew I trust, and I try to run this the way I would want somebody to run it for me: show up, say what it costs, do what I said, and leave the yard clean. I'd love to be your tree guy.

Whether I manage that is better judged by my customers than by me.

Give me a call

Tell me what the tree is doing and roughly how big it is, and I can usually get you a free estimate pretty quick. Or send it through the form and I'll call ya back soon as I can.