Trees provide beauty, shade, character, and value to a home…unless they do none of those things! Some trees are just too old, diseased, or structurally compromised to contribute beauty and value to the home landscape—in fact, they can actively detract from it. If you’re a homeowner in King or Snohomish Counties, it’s important to be aware of how a damaged tree can negatively affect your property value—and what to do to remove it.

A Damaged Tree Is A Dangerous Tree

Trees are considered dangerous when they are in close proximity to people or buildings and pose a danger to them because of:

Location or lean—a leaning tree is more likely to fall over in wind and weather events.
Physical damage—a tree with wounds on its trunk or limbs is much more vulnerable to deadly infection and to random limb breakaway.
Overhead hazards—limbs growing into power lines, etc.
Deterioration of limbs, stem or root system—a tree that is slowly rotting away poses risk in several ways. It can be easily knocked down or lose branches in high winds or simply when the stress on the wood becomes too much. It can also be a significant fire hazard, especially if it is nearby the house or other structure.
A combination of the above.

When it comes to a damaged tree, it only a matter of time before the wood loses structural stability and becomes a serious risk to life and limb. Trees with weak limb attachment or with two leaders are particularly prone to literally falling apart. And depending on how close to your house they are, they can pose a significant risk to the safety of the structure.

Visible signs of a hazard tree include:

Dead wood
Cracked bark or cankers
Cavities
Missing bark
Cracks and splits
Weak branches
Dead branches
Two leaders instead of a single central trunk
Root damage
Irregular crown form with sparse leaf cover

A Damaged Tree Can Result in Liability for You

There is an entire blog dedicated to the ins and outs of trees, neighbors, and the legal system. As it turns out, landowners are often held responsible for the damage their trees cause to neighboring properties—especially homeowners in dense urban areas like King and Snohomish Counties.

When a tree on your property displays obvious signs of damage and instability, then you can be held responsible for any damage it may cause to your neighbors’ property if (or when) it finally topples.

For example, imagine you have a tree with a split trunk and several weak, dead branches planted down by your driveway by the fence between you and your neighbor. Eventually—due to wind, weather, or chance—that tree falls down across your neighbor’s fence, driveway, and on top of their car, seriously damaging it. In a situation like this, you might owe your neighbor a payout!

If you have a damaged tree that threatens to interfere not just with your own property but with your neighbors’ as well, it’s a good idea to at least get that tree assessed by a certified arborist from a professional tree company to determine how its risk can be minimized, or how it can best be removed.

Structural Damage Caused By Root Invaders

Tree roots can cause an unbelievable amount of mostly unseen property damage. They can infiltrate plumbing and septic tanks, lift walkways and driveways, and even drill into the foundation of a house or cause soil subsidence that weakens the soil around your foundation.

And, similarly to the above example, if the roots of your tree travel underground cause damage to your neighbor’s foundation, plumbing, etc., you will be responsible!

A tree too close to a house or structure will be a huge red flag for a potential homebuyer or their assessor, especially if it is a mature tree with a correspondingly large root system, or if it is one of special tree species that are known for their vigorous, invasive roots, like willows, poplars, or American elms.

Removing these trees can make your life easier and also restore value to your property by eliminating a future problem.

What Kinds of Trees Should Be Removed?

Trees that are too close to the house or other structures. These trees are considered the most hazardous because if they fail, they will almost certainly damage property and may cause injury or death. They can also be significant fire hazards, have roots that infringe on foundations or plumbing, or otherwise affect the aesthetics of the home.

Trees that are dying or dead. These trees are slowly losing their structural integrity, meaning that they will someday begin to drop limbs or fall over altogether. Diseased trees will also often start to lose their visual appeal as they get sicker.

Trees with damaged root systems. The roots don’t just obtain water and nutrients for your tree; they also anchor it to the earth. If a tree on your property has roots that are broken, rotting, decayed, or only at the surface of the soil instead of sinking deeper, they won’t be able to hold it steady against strong winds.

Trees with invasive root systems. This includes species like American elm, willows, and hybrid poplars, which can wreak havoc with foundations, plumbing, and swimming pools.

Trees with two leaders. A “leader” in arboriculture refers to the trunk of the tree—or in this case the trunks of the tree. In this case, a tree that should only have one central leader instead developed two, attached at the bottom and growing in a V-shape. Co-dominant leaders are almost always a cause for concern, as they are often inclined to fall away from each other, splitting the tree down the middle.

In some cases, if the tree in question is young enough, an arborist can prune away one of the leaders, creating a more stable and valuable tree in the long run.

Trees with weakly attached limbs. In this case, it’s not so much the tree that needs to be removed as the branches that are threatening to drop off of it. A branch that falls off a tree can literally peel away large sections of its outer bark and inner heartwood, creating a wound that a tree might never recover from. But you can hire a certified arborist to safely and cleanly remove these branches before that happens.

Trees growing into utility lines. While a common practice is to drastically prune tree branches back from power lines, in the long run this is problematic. A tree that wants to get forty feet high but is constantly being smacked back to twenty feet high is going to become very stressed, and a stressed tree is more susceptible to disease, bug infestation, or branch die-back. Trees that are pruned in this way also tend to look distorted and awkward, which further detracts from their value.

How To Get Your Trees Assessed

If you’re concerned about the health or your trees or how they might be affecting your property value, Elite Tree Care offers tree risk assessment in order to help you determine if you need tree removal.

Tree assessment by a professional, qualified arborist who knows your area is helpful not just because of their expertise in identifying problem trees, but also because of their ability to help you form a plan for tree trimming, tree removal, and even stump grinding.

How To Remove a Damaged Tree

While it might be tempting to whip out your chainsaw and try your hand at being a lumberjack, tree removal is best handled by the experts at tree removal companies.

This is especially true of large trees, trees with significant amounts of dead wood or damage, and trees that are near the house. These trees need to be dismantled carefully and strategically in order to avoid a catastrophic failure of the tree, and to minimize damage to your home or other structures. This process often involves arborists using complicated rigging and mechanical lowering devices like cranes to safely carry out.

Elite Tree Care provides tree removal to homeowners in Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Mountlake Terrace, and many of the surrounding areas. We specialize in tree removal, with many of our arborists holding the International Society of Arboriculture’s qualification for Tree Risk Assessment and with years of experience in removing undesirable trees from private property.

We also handle Emergency Tree Removal, for trees that have fallen because of wind or weather. We even offer stump grinding services to completely remove any unsightly traces of a tree from your yard.

Maintaining Your Trees for Maximum Property Value

While damaged trees can definitely have a negative impact on your property value, a well-maintained and healthy tree can increase it by up to seven per cent. One study conducted in Portland, Oregon found that a single shade tree increased a home’s sale price by $8,870.

With that in mind, once you have addressed to most problematic trees on your property, it’s a good time to make a plan for future tree maintenance: how you’ll care for your other trees on an ongoing basis.

It’s best to have your trees inspected about every three years. Have an arborist assess them for disease, insect damage, or structural problems. You should also hire a certified arborist—not just your lawn guy!—to prune your trees as needed.

Removing dead and damaged trees from your property, and maintaining your living trees, will result in a home landscape that is healthy, beautiful, and valuable.