Tree work generates a startling amount of brush. A single mature limb becomes a pile that fills a driveway, and a full removal can produce more material than most people expect to see on their lawn. Wood chipping is how that pile leaves your property — reduced on site to clean chips that are either hauled away or left behind as mulch, entirely your call.
Arbor Ridge Tree Service chips on site for every job we do in Buffalo and Erie County, and we also take standalone chipping work.
Standalone Chipping
You do not need to have hired us for a removal. Common reasons people call for chipping on its own:
- Storm cleanup. Wind came through and left the yard covered in limbs that are too much for the curb.
- A brush pile that got away. Years of accumulated trimmings behind the garage that have quietly become a habitat and a fire concern.
- After a DIY job. You did the cutting yourself and discovered that disposal is genuinely the harder half.
- Lot and fence-line clearing. Overgrown scrub and volunteer growth along a property line.
- Property turnover. Getting a yard presentable before a sale or after a purchase.
Why Chipping Beats the Alternatives
Municipal brush pickup runs on its own schedule, caps what it will take, and has rules about length and bundling that a real storm pile does not respect. Burning is restricted, weather-dependent, and a poor neighbor. Renting a chipper puts a genuinely dangerous machine in the hands of someone using it for the first time — chippers cause severe injuries and they do it fast.
Professional chipping turns the whole pile into chips in a fraction of the time, with the material either mulched back onto your property or hauled off for green disposal. Nothing goes to landfill.
Keep the Chips as Free Mulch
Wood chips are a genuinely good mulch and most people are pleasantly surprised by how far a load goes. Spread two to four inches deep over beds and around trees, they hold soil moisture through summer, suppress weeds, moderate soil temperature through Buffalo’s freeze-thaw swings, and feed the soil as they break down.
Two rules worth following:
- Keep mulch off the trunk. Pile it against the bark — the “mulch volcano” you see everywhere — and you trap moisture against the trunk, invite rot and rodents, and encourage girdling roots. Leave a few inches of clear space at the base.
- Keep them on top, not mixed in. Fresh chips tie up nitrogen while they decompose. As a surface mulch that is harmless. Tilled into soil around annuals or a new planting, it starves them.
Tell us where you want the pile and we will drop it there. If you would rather not deal with it at all, we load it out and the property is left clean.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big a branch can you chip?
Our equipment handles ordinary residential brush and limb wood comfortably. Large-diameter trunk sections are cut and hauled as wood rather than chipped — tell us what you have when you call and we will bring the right machine.
Can you use chips from a diseased tree?
For most common issues, composted chips used as surface mulch are fine. There are exceptions where we will recommend hauling the material off instead, and we will flag it if your tree is one of them.
Is chipping included with removal and trimming?
Yes. Cleanup is part of every removal and trimming job we quote, not an extra line at the end.
How much mess does it make?
Less than the brush pile did. We rake and blow the work area before leaving, and lawns generally come through with nothing more than flattened grass.
Related Services
Clearing up after a storm? Start with emergency tree service for anything still hazardous, then chipping for the debris. Left with a stump too? See stump grinding.