Carolina Forest grew fast, and the builders left the pines. It made for pretty streets and a lot of seventy- and eighty-foot loblolly pines standing within reach of roofs, driveways, and the neighbor's house. Nearly every call we get here starts with one.
The pine problem
Loblolly pines are fine trees in a forest. In a subdivision they are trouble. They grow straight up with the canopy at the very top, so every limb they shed comes from sixty feet in the air. Their roots are shallow, and when the ground is saturated and the wind is up, they lean and then they go. They also die standing: a pine that lost its top to lightning or beetles will stand dead for a year or two, shedding bark and limbs, before it comes down on its own.
Signs a Carolina Forest pine should come down: a lean that is new or getting worse, a top that is brown or gone, sawdust and pitch tubes on the bark from beetles, or a trunk within falling distance of the house with no room to fell it. Signs it is fine: straight, full green top, and standing where it can only hurt the lawn if it falls.
Working in a Carolina Forest yard
Lots in Plantation Lakes, Waterford Plantation, The Farm, Berkshire Forest, Avalon, Covington Lake, and the other neighborhoods off Carolina Forest Boulevard and River Oaks Drive are small, with houses close on both sides, fences to the line, and irrigation and utilities under the grass. You cannot drop an eighty-foot pine in that yard. You take it down in pieces.
A climber goes up, tops out the crown, and works down the trunk, lowering each section on a rope to the ground crew. The pieces land where we want them, on the lawn or straight onto the trailer. The neighbor's roof is never in play. If the pine is too rotten to climb, a compact tracked lift fits through the gate and does the reaching.
HOAs
Most Carolina Forest neighborhoods have an HOA, and many of them have rules about tree removal, especially trees in the front yard or on the street. Check your covenants or ask the management company before scheduling, and tell Corey what they said. We are used to working within them.
What else Carolina Forest homeowners call about
- Dead lower limbs on pines hanging over the roof and driveway.
- Young oaks and maples planted by the builder that need shaping before they grow into the house.
- Storm debris after a summer thunderstorm brings down limbs across the neighborhood.
- Clearing a few trees to make room for a pool or a screened porch.
Call (843) 927-2499 and describe what you see. Corey comes out and gives you a price before anything is scheduled.
