6411 Evanston Ave, Raytown Missouri 64133
I have been using Durban’s tree service since 2006. I love my trees, and I wanted a knowledgeable, certified arborist to work on them. Mistakes by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing can’t be fixed so I was willing to pay a little more, and Doug Durban did not disappoint! I was really impressed by his knowledge and the care he put into the work as well as the excellent cleanup. Doug was there the entire time working and supervising. I’ve been using Durban‘s tree service ever since.
This time, Doug’s son Garrett came out to give me an estimate. I have six mature trees, five different types, and as they have gotten older, they have gotten much bigger so of course much more expensive to work on. I knew I couldn’t afford all of the work at once but I showed him what my biggest concerns were and he pointed out some things I hadn’t considered. I told him how much that I could afford to pay at this time and asked him what he would consider the most pressing to take care of right now and what could wait. He was here with three other members of his crew about eight the next morning and they worked till nearly 4. He’s such a perfectionist about the trees, that I think he tends to do more than he bid, for. He went back and looked at the trees from all sides and then they went back and trimmed some more until he was satisfied. Then he had his people clean up virtually every leaf and twig, leaving my yard looking great. It was a lot of money, but I think I got way more for the money than any other company does.
On a side note, I had a large dead limb fall out of my green ash tree, which had reached a girth of 12 1/2 feet around. Doug told me at that time that he wasn’t able to tackle a tree that size. I had Arbor Masters come out and the supposed arborist briefly looked over the tree and told me that they had the lift to do the job but it should be done in the winter. I questioned how they would know which branches were dead, and he said they could tell because by then the live branches would have buds starting. They made an appointment for January 12, but failed to show up or call. When I contacted them, they said that their lift machine had been broken for a couple of weeks, and they did not know when it would be working. They finally made it out near the end of February, but the arborist did not come with them and in fact, it appeared that no one was really supervising the job. It cost $3300 and when the tree leafed out I could not really tell the difference. In fact, there were two large dead branches still hanging low over my patio. When I called and complained, they tried to tell me that they probably died after they did the work. I told them they were the same branches that I had pointed out to their arborist. I went round and round with them before they finally had someone come out and take off the branches that were hanging over the patio, but still leaving other dead branches in the tree. I feel like they just came out and hacked off branches, dead, or alive.