Tree removal day in Pakenham, hour by hour.
One standard suburban tree is one day. Two vehicles and three crew arrive between 7:00 and 7:30am, the loud part runs roughly 8:00 to midday, the stump is ground by mid afternoon and you get your yard back by 4:00pm, raked and blown down. You need to move the cars, unlock the side gate and pen the dog. Everything else is on us.
Stage by stage on a typical one tree job.
Timings below are for a 12 to 15 metre gum on a standard estate block in Pakenham, Officer or Cardinia Lakes with side gate access. Acreage, crane work and multi tree jobs stretch the middle stages, not the ends.
| Stage | How long | What happens | What you need to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Quote and booking | 20 to 40 minutes on site, written quote in 2 to 5 working days | Free on site assessment, tree measured at 1.4 metres, Cardinia Shire planning mapping checked against your title, fixed price quote emailed. | Point out the septic, the sewer line, the irrigation, the retic wiring and the dog. Say if you want the mulch. |
| 2. Permit, only if the tree is protected | 14 to 28 days for a Local Law application, longer in spring | We measure the circumference, take photos at four compass points, draw the site sketch and lodge. The Local Law lodgement fee sits around $108. | Sign the owner's consent form. Nothing else. |
| 3. The day before | A 5 minute phone call, late afternoon | Confirmation call and a weather check against the next morning's forecast wind. | Move cars off the driveway and the frontage. Unlock the side gate. Work through the prep list below. |
| 4. Arrival, 7:00 to 7:30am | 30 minutes | Chip truck and tipper park, chipper positioned, ropes flaked out, saws fuelled. Quiet stage, no cutting. | Ten minute walk through with the crew leader. Confirm what stays and what goes. |
| 5. Safety setup, 7:30 to 8:00am | 20 to 30 minutes | Job safety analysis signed, exclusion zone taped, drop zone cleared, powerline distances confirmed, climber gears up. | Note where the tape is and stay outside it for the rest of the day. |
| 6. Sectional dismantle, 8:00am to midday | 2 to 5 hours. This is the loud part. | Climber works top down, limbs lowered on ropes, groundies drag to the chipper. Chainsaw and chipper running in bursts. | Nothing. Do not walk in with a cup of tea. Text the crew leader if you need something. |
| 7. Trunk and butt, midday to 2:00pm | 1 to 3 hours | Trunk sectioned down in blocks, or felled whole if there is a safe drop zone. Rounds cut to 400mm. | Final call on firewood: stacked on site, or carted away. |
| 8. Stump grinding, 2:00 to 3:30pm | 45 minutes to 3 hours | Guards up, grinder walked in through the side gate, stump taken to 150mm below grade or deeper if specified, grindings raked back. | Shut the windows on that side. Move any car within 10 metres. Grinding throws grit. |
| 9. Cleanup and handover, 3:30 to 4:00pm | 20 to 40 minutes | Rake, blow down paths and driveway, gear loaded, before and after photos taken, invoice issued. | Walk the site with the crew leader before you sign off. Raise anything now, not next week. |
| Weather delay | Rebooked, normally within 5 to 10 days | Sustained wind over about 35 to 40 km/h stops climbing. Lightning stops everything. Saturated clay stops a 6 tonne truck going on your lawn. | Nothing. We call by 6:30am, before you have moved the cars for nothing. |
Prices and permit detail for each stage are on our pricing guide and Cardinia permit page. Want a cheaper scope? See budget tree removal in Pakenham.
Prepare for the crew: your night before checklist.
The week before
The night before
Access, parking, power and water
People, pets and working from home
Do not do these on the day
Want to know what your day would look like?
Send a photo of the tree and we will tell you whether it is a half day, a full day or a two day job.
What it is actually like to be home for it.
A petrol chainsaw and a woodchipper both run around 105 to 115 decibels at the machine. At your back door that is roughly 75 to 85 decibels, about the level of a petrol mower two metres away, and it comes in bursts rather than continuously. Victoria's residential noise rules set prohibited times for power tools and equipment: before 7am and after 8pm Monday to Friday, and before 9am and after 8pm on weekends and public holidays. That is why a Saturday job starts two hours later than a Tuesday one, and why we prefer weekdays.
Dust is the underrated one. Chipping green eucalypt produces fine material that drifts 15 to 20 metres on a northerly, and stump grinding throws grit and sawdust hard for the first few minutes on each pass. Shut the windows on that side of the house, bring the washing in, and move a dark car out of range. There is a smell too: fresh cut eucalypt sap is sharp and pleasant, cypress is resinous and lingers, and a rotten wet stump smells like a compost bin for a day.
Pets are the most common problem we deal with. Dogs bark at the chipper for six straight hours, cats bolt through the open side gate and stay away for two days, and chooks stop laying for a week. Pen them, or send them somewhere else. Kids find the whole thing fascinating, which is exactly the risk, so the exclusion zone is taped for a reason and the crew will stop work if anyone crosses it. Working from home is workable if you schedule your calls: the quiet windows are before 8:00am, roughly 12:00 to 12:30 while the crew eats, and after the grinder shuts down around 3:30pm.
What a clean site looks like, and where the waste goes.
At handover, the driveway and paths are blown down, the lawn is raked, there is no rope, no wedge and no fuel can left behind, the fence panel is back on, and the stump hole is either backfilled with the grindings and levelled or carted out if you paid for that. Look behind the shed, along the fence line and in the neighbour's garden bed, because that is where a stray offcut hides. Check the gutters if anything came down over the roof line. Raise it at handover rather than a fortnight later, when it is a conversation instead of a dispute. Your rights if something is wrong are set out on our tree work warranty page.
The waste splits three ways. Brush and small limbs go through the chipper and become mulch, either in a heap on your block or in the truck. The trunk is cross cut into 400mm rounds, which season into firewood over a summer if you stack them off the ground with air around them. Anything we cart goes to a licensed green waste facility where tipping runs roughly $70 to $110 per tonne, which is exactly why keeping the mulch saves you real money. Stump grindings are a different material again: they are sawdust and soil, they are too acidic and too fine to use as garden mulch straight away, and they settle 30 to 60mm over the first wet winter, so plan on a barrow of topsoil before you re-turf.
One honest constraint. We do not do garden cleanups, hedging, mowing or landscaping, and we will not pretend the yard will look landscaped at 4pm. It will look like a tree left it: tidy, level, raked, and with a bare patch where the stump was. If you want turf and soil back down the same week, say so at quote stage and we will price it or refer you through the local trades directory.
Find out whether your tree is a one day job
Send the details and we will book a free on site look, then email a fixed written quote with the expected start time and finish time within 2 to 5 working days.
On the day questions from Cardinia homeowners.
How long does a tree removal actually take in Pakenham?
How loud is it and when can a crew legally start?
What do I need to move before the crew arrives?
What stops a tree job going ahead on the day?
What happens to all the wood and the mulch?
Do I need to be home for the tree removal?
Related reading: stump grinding in Cardinia · 24/7 storm response · how much mulch your tree will make · tree services in Officer
Book a date, know the plan, get your yard back by 4pm.
Cert IV arborists, AS 4373 pruning, $20M public liability, all of Cardinia Shire.