A tree is dead, leaning, or too close to the house
Dead wood gets brittle fast in Colorado’s dry air. A tree that has been standing dead for two winters is not the same risk it was the first winter.
How removal works →Aurora & the Denver Metro · Since 2003
Tree service that starts with an arborist, not a chainsaw
Plenty of the trees people call us to remove do not need to come down — and the ones that do, we take down clean. Either way an ISA Certified Arborist walks your property first and puts the price in writing before anyone starts a saw.
Free assessment. Written quote. Nobody touches a branch until you say go.
Free on-site assessment · Written quote · No obligation
- ISA Certified Arborist
- Aurora-Based Since 2003
- 4.8★ from 191 Google Reviews
- Licensed & Fully Insured
Almost every call we get starts with one of these six
Find the one that sounds like your yard. Each goes to the page that explains what we’d actually do about it.
Branches are over the roof, the driveway, or the power line
Most of what looks like a removal is a pruning job. The right cuts now buy a tree another twenty or thirty years.
How pruning works →The leaves are yellow, thin, or dropping early
Yellow leaves with green veins usually means iron chlorosis from our alkaline soil, not a dying tree. It is treatable, and it is commonly misdiagnosed.
How diagnosis works →You have an ash tree and you have heard about the beetle
Emerald ash borer was confirmed in Aurora in September 2025. Ash is roughly 15% of Colorado’s urban forest, and an untreated infested ash does not recover on its own.
How treatment works →There is a stump where a tree used to be
Stumps sprout, attract carpenter ants, and make mowing miserable. Grinding takes them below grade so you can plant or sod over the top.
How grinding works →The lawn is thin, weedy, or patchy under the trees
Turf and trees compete for the same water and the same nitrogen. Feeding one without accounting for the other is how people waste a season.
How the program works →Five promises, in writing, on every job
Nearly every complaint people have about tree companies comes down to the same thing: something happened that the homeowner never agreed to. These five exist so that cannot happen here.
- Know Before We CutA certified arborist walks your property and explains what is wrong before a saw comes off the truck.
- Know Before You PayYou get a written quote. The number you approve is the number you pay.
- No Unauthorized ExtrasNothing gets cut, treated or hauled that is not on the quote you approved.
- Your Property Comes FirstRigging and drop zones planned around your roof, fence and beds — not around our schedule.
- Cleanup Is Part of the JobChips hauled, limbs gone, lawn raked. It is not a line item and it is not extra.
Six services, one certified arborist behind all of them
The same person who diagnoses the tree designs the work. Nothing gets handed to a salesperson in between.
Tree Removal
Dead, dying, hazardous, or simply in the wrong place. Rigged down in pieces when a fell is not safe, and the site left clean.
See how removal works →Tree Trimming & Pruning
Clearance from roofs and lines, deadwood out, weak unions addressed. Pruned to ANSI A300 standard. We do not top trees.
See how pruning works →Stump Grinding
Ground below grade so you can sod, plant or mow over it. Chips backfilled or hauled — your call, stated on the quote.
See how grinding works →Pest & Disease Control
Ips beetle, scale, borers, cytospora canker, anthracnose. Identified first, treated second — and only when treatment is the right answer.
See how diagnosis works →Tree Injections
Trunk injection for emerald ash borer, iron chlorosis, scale and fungal disease. Delivered into the tree, not sprayed across your yard.
See how injections work →Lawn Fertilization & Weed Control
A season-long program built around the trees already on the property, so the turf and the canopy stop fighting each other for water.
See how the program works →What actually happens when you ask for an assessment
Four steps. No deposit, no contract, and no one on your property with a saw until you have said yes in writing.
1
You call or send the form
Tell us what you are seeing — a limb over the roof, a tree that looks sick, a stump you want gone. A rough description is plenty. We do not diagnose over the phone.
2
An ISA Certified Arborist comes out
He walks the property, looks at the whole tree and the ground it is standing in, and tells you what is actually wrong. If the answer is “leave it alone and water it,” that is what you will hear.
3
You get the price in writing
Scope, method, cleanup and cost, itemised. Take a day, take a week, get another quote. There is no deposit and nothing to sign on the spot.
4
We do the work and clean up behind us
Rigging planned around your roof and beds. Chips hauled, limbs gone, lawn raked. The last thing we do is walk it with you.
2003
Caring for Denver metro trees since
25,000+
Residential clients served
1,000+
Commercial and HOA properties
4.8
Stars from 191 Google reviews
Why people call us instead of the truck that knocked on their door
After every wind event, trucks appear in Denver metro neighborhoods offering cash prices for work nobody diagnosed. Some are fine. Some are uninsured, and the homeowner finds out after something goes through a roof.
- An ISA Certified Arborist does the assessment — not a commissioned salesperson working from a photo
- Family-owned since 2003. Not a franchise, not private-equity owned, not a call center
- Licensed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture for tree and lawn applications
- Pruned to ANSI A300 standard — the national arboriculture standard. We never top a tree
- General liability and workers’ compensation insured, and we will hand you the certificate before we start
Why there is no price list on this page
Two ash trees on the same street can be a $600 job and a $3,200 job. Anyone quoting you a number before seeing the tree is guessing, and a guess always gets corrected upward once the crew arrives. Here is what actually moves the number, so you can judge a quote — ours or anyone else’s.
What drives the price up
Size and species. Distance from a drivable surface. A roof, fence, deck, shed or power line inside the drop zone. Trees that must come down piece by piece on ropes instead of being felled. Difficult access through a narrow gate.
What brings it down
Open space to drop into. Truck access to the trunk. Bundling work on one visit instead of three. Catching a problem while pruning still solves it, before removal is the only option left.
What is always free
The on-site visit. The arborist’s diagnosis. The written, itemised quote. Being told a tree does not need work at all. There is no trip charge and no obligation of any kind.
After a wet spring snow, look up before you get out a ladder
March and April snow in Colorado is heavy and wet, and it lands on trees that have already broken bud. That combination is what takes limbs off silver maples, ash and honeylocust across the metro every spring. What breaks is rarely the whole tree — it is a single leader or a co-dominant union that had been weak for years and finally had weight put on it.
A limb is hung up in the canopy
A hanger can sit for weeks and then come down with no wind at all. Stay out from under it and do not try to pull it down from a ladder.
The trunk has split at a fork
A split union does not heal. It either gets cabled, gets pruned to reduce the load, or the side that split comes out.
Anything is touching a power line
Call Xcel Energy first, not us. Nobody should be near that tree until the line is confirmed de-energised.
Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM
HOAs, property managers and commercial grounds
More than a thousand commercial and HOA properties across the Front Range. One arborist, one written scope, one invoice — and a tree inventory you can take to the board.
HOA common areas
Board-ready scopes and budget documentation, so the work survives a vote.
- Written tree inventory and condition report
- Multi-year pruning rotation by zone
- Ash inventory and EAB treatment planning
Apartment & multifamily
Liability-first work on properties where residents park and walk under the canopy.
- Deadwood and hazard removal on a schedule
- Clearance over walkways, lots and roofs
- Storm-damage assessment and cleanup
Office parks & retail
Curb appeal that is somebody’s job to defend at renewal time.
- Entrance and signage sightline pruning
- Parking-lot island tree health
- Seasonal plant healthcare programs
Builders & facility managers
Tree work coordinated around trades, tenants and access windows.
- Pre-construction tree protection plans
- Lot clearing and stump grinding
- Arborist consulting and written reports
191 Google reviews, 4.8 stars, and not one of them written by us
★★★★★
“Derek… refused to try to upsell me on treatments I didn’t need but had been quoted as necessary by two other companies. He also was not afraid to let me know I could check with an independent source as to whether his assessment was correct compared to the others. This made me feel very confident in his expertise and honesty.”
— Michael H. · Verified Google Review
★★★★★
“ZERO limbs broke off of my 80 year old siberian elm! Storms like we just had leave me feeling scared not knowing if the tree was going to break onto the house. AWESOME job! I will be a forever customer. Robert, Ben and Jack did a full prune on my 80 foot elm.”
— S. S. · Verified Google Review
★★★★★
“He could definitely have sold me on unnecessary work, since I don’t know much about trees. Instead, he reassured me not to worry about several things… My invoice was for the quoted amount and no more. UPDATE almost a year later and my silver maple is thriving. Those iron injections really worked!”
— Wendy B. · Verified Google Review
Where we work
The shop is at 312 Norfolk St in Aurora. Crews run across the Denver metro daily — south to Castle Rock, east through Aurora, west to the foothills suburbs.
Aurora · Centennial · Parker · Greenwood Village · Castle Rock · See all service areas →
Not sure if you are in range? Call and ask — it takes ten seconds and we will tell you straight.
Questions people ask before they call
How much does tree removal cost in the Denver metro?
There is no honest flat rate, because price is driven by size, species, access and what is underneath the tree. The same size ash costs far less in an open backyard than it does leaning over a roof, because the second one has to come down piece by piece on ropes. Ironwood gives you a free on-site assessment and an itemised written quote, so you are comparing a real number instead of a phone estimate.
Is the assessment really free, or is there a trip charge?
It is free, with no trip charge and no obligation. An ISA Certified Arborist comes to the property, inspects the tree, and leaves you with a written quote. If the answer is that the tree does not need work, you will be told that, and it still costs nothing.
Can my ash tree be saved from emerald ash borer?
Usually yes, if you start before the canopy has thinned badly. Emerald ash borer was confirmed in Aurora in September 2025, and ash makes up roughly 15% of Colorado’s urban forest. Trunk injection protects a tree for about two years per treatment. An ash that is already far into decline is a different conversation, and an arborist has to look at it to tell you which one you have.
Do you top trees?
No. Topping is considered malpractice in arboriculture and Ironwood does not do it at any price. Cutting a canopy back to stubs forces weak, fast regrowth that fails in the next storm, and it starts decay in every cut. We prune to ANSI A300, the national standard. If a tree genuinely needs to be smaller, the honest options are crown reduction done correctly, or removal.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes — ISA Certified Arborist on staff, licensed by the Colorado Department of Agriculture for tree and lawn applications, and carrying both general liability and workers’ compensation. Ask for the certificate before work starts; we will hand it over. If any tree company hesitates on that question, that is your answer.
Do I need to be home for the assessment?
No, as long as the arborist can reach the tree. Plenty of people leave a gate unlocked and get the written quote by email. That said, being there is worth it if you have questions, because you will get the reasoning in person instead of a number on a page.
You cannot buy a forty-year-old tree
You can replace a fence, a roof, a driveway. You cannot replace four decades of growth, and the shade over your west windows took just as long. Most of the trees we end up removing were savable two years earlier — nobody looked while looking was still the answer. If something on your property does not look right, have an arborist tell you what it is. It costs nothing to find out.
312 Norfolk St, Unit A, Aurora, CO 80011 · Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM · Serving the Denver metro since 2003