A Tree Fell on Your House. Here's What to Do, in Order

When a tree comes through the roof, the next hour matters more than the next week. We've worked storm damage across Sarasota County for 23 years, and the homeowners who come out of it best all do roughly the same things in roughly the same order. Here's the list.

1. People First

Get everyone out of the damaged part of the house. If the structure looks compromised, get out entirely. Stay away from the tree itself: fallen trees are under tension in ways that aren't visible, and they take down power lines with them more often than people expect. If lines are involved, that's a call to the power company before anyone else.

2. Document Before You Touch

Photograph and video everything. The tree on the structure, the room inside, the roof line, the yard. Wide shots and close-ups. Once the tree is removed the evidence goes with it, and your insurance claim leans on what you captured in this window. It costs ten minutes.

3. Call Your Insurance Company

Report the damage before authorizing major work, and follow their guidance on emergency mitigation. Most policies expect you to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, like tarping, and insurers deal with this constantly. Every policy is different, so let them tell you what your coverage looks like rather than taking anyone else's word for it, ours included.

4. Get the Tree Off Correctly

This is where things go wrong. A tree on a structure is not a chainsaw job. Cut the wrong limb and the weight shifts, and the second hit is often worse than the first. We remove trees from structures with cranes and rigging, piece by piece, so nothing else comes down. Our emergency tree removal runs 24/7 during storm season.

5. Watch Out for the Storm Chasers

After every named storm, out-of-town crews sweep through Venice knocking on doors. Some are fine. Plenty aren't insured, and a few will ask you to sign over your insurance claim. Ask any crew for proof of general liability and workers compensation before they touch the tree. A legitimate company hands it over without blinking. We do.

Tarping and Keeping the Weather Out

Once the tree is off, the hole it left is the new emergency. An open roof in a Florida wet season takes on water fast, and water damage compounds by the hour in ways a tree strike doesn't. Emergency tarping is standard mitigation, and most insurers expect you to get it done promptly, so keep the receipts. A few practical points: don't get on a storm-damaged roof yourself, especially a wet one, because the deck under you may be compromised in ways you can't see. Have the tarping done by whoever is already safely up there for the removal, or by a roofer, and make sure it's fastened to sound structure, not just draped and weighted. A tarp that blows off in the next band of rain protects nothing. We coordinate removal and tarping in the same visit when we can, because the fewer trips across a damaged roof, the better for everyone.

How a Crane Removal Actually Works

People are often surprised that the safest way to get a big tree off a house is from above. With a crane set up in the street or driveway, our climber rigs each section of the tree to the crane hook before it's cut. The crane takes the weight first, then the cut is made, and the section lifts up and away from the house instead of rolling or sliding across it. Piece by piece, the tree leaves the roof without ever pressing harder on it than it already was. Compare that to cutting from below, where every cut changes the load in ways that have to be predicted perfectly, over your bedroom. This is why we own cranes and bucket trucks rather than renting when something's already gone wrong: storm weeks don't wait for a rental yard's schedule, and neither should a family with a tree in the living room.

After the Tree Is Off

The removal is the loud part, but a few quiet steps afterward matter just as much. Get the roof professionally inspected even if the visible damage looks minor, because impact damage spreads beyond the hole. Have the rest of your trees looked at while the event is fresh, since a storm that took one tree stressed the others, and the second failure is often cheaper to prevent than the first was to clean up. And keep every document: photos, invoices, the tarping receipt, our written scope of work. Your claim moves faster when the file is complete, and so does the next conversation if anything about the damage turns up later.

What Not to Do While You Wait

The window between the tree landing and the crew arriving is where good situations get worse, so here's the short list of restraint. Don't start cutting, even the small stuff, because limbs on a loaded tree are springs, and releasing the wrong one moves the whole mass. Don't climb on the roof to look; that's what your photos from the ground and our assessment are for. Don't pull anything with a truck and a strap, which is how a controlled situation becomes a viral video. Don't sign anything, from anyone, no matter how helpful they seem, until you've read it in daylight and checked who you're dealing with. And don't run a generator anywhere near open windows while the power's out; every storm season adds carbon monoxide tragedies that had nothing to do with wind. Make coffee if the stove works, keep people and pets out of the damaged rooms, and let the professionals inherit the problem. It's what they're insured for.

Frequently Asked Questions

How fast can you get here?

During storm events we run around the clock and triage by danger: trees on occupied homes first. Text or call and send photos, that's the fastest way for us to size up the job before we arrive.

My neighbor's tree fell on my house. Whose problem is it?

That's a question for the two insurance companies, and the answer depends on the situation and the policies. Don't burn energy on the argument while the tree is still on the roof. Document, report it to your insurer, and let them work it out.

The tree fell but missed the house. Is it still urgent?

Less urgent, still worth attention. A down tree in the yard can be under tension, and one leaning against another tree is genuinely dangerous. We'll tell you honestly whether it can wait.

Do you tarp the roof too, or just remove the tree?

We coordinate both wherever we can, because getting the tree off and the weather out are one problem, not two. If your roofer is already lined up, we'll sequence with them so the roof is exposed for the shortest possible window. Either way, the goal is that the house is protected the same day the tree comes off.

What does emergency removal cost compared to normal work?

More, honestly, and we'd rather tell you why than pretend otherwise: night and weekend crews, crane time, and work that has to be done carefully on a compromised structure. What we don't do is storm-price. The rate is the rate, it's in writing before work starts, and it'll survive comparison with any legitimate outfit's emergency pricing. The door knocker quoting cheap has left something out, and after a storm, what's usually left out is the insurance.

Tree on the house right now? Text 941-445-3027 with photos and your address. We answer 24/7 in storm season, across Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee Counties.