--- title: "Tree Service in North Knoxville & Halls — Leo's Tree Service" canonical: "https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/north-knoxville/" description: "Tree removal, pruning and storm response in Fountain City, Halls, Powell, Corryton, Gibbs and Heiskell, Tennessee. Call 865-360-6685 for a free estimate." --- # Tree service in North Knoxville ## Recent work in North Knoxville ### A cedar that looked sound until it split Halls · July 2026 A cedar in the back yard had grown in tight against the house. It came out in a day, along with a fir off the back that had reached the roof and gutters, and a light trim on a dogwood nearby. From the ground the cedar looked sound. Standing, green, nothing about it asking for attention. It split when it landed and opened along its length and showed a core that had rotted out well before we got there. That is the part worth stopping on. A tree carries its failure on the inside, and bark and a full canopy will hide it right up to the day something gives. Nothing visible from a window would have said this core was rotten. A power line crosses the property, which set the order of the work and where the lift could sit. The lift kept every cut controlled and brought the wood down where we put it rather than where it wanted to go — which matters more, not less, when the trunk is not as solid as it looks. The brush went through the chipper on site and all the hardwood was hauled off. If you have a tree close to the house and no particular reason to worry about it, that is roughly where this one stood. Look at the trunks rather than the leaves, and get someone out while it is still a quote and not an emergency. ### A blown-over walnut and the leaners on the shed Powell · May 2026 A small walnut had blown over into the back yard. That was the call. What made the job was everything it came to rest against. Several hardwoods were pinned along the back of the shed and the rear property line, with the canopy of more than one of them sitting over the shed roof. A pinned tree carries load in places you cannot see from the ground, and it does not come apart in the order you expect. Those took moderate to extensive rigging — pieces roped, held and lowered rather than dropped, because there was a building underneath and no room to miss. The lift went in the back for all of it. There was also a large pine back there that did not need to come down at all. Only the lower rung of branches came off it. The front yard was priced and worked separately. One large tree, moderately trimmed and shaped rather than reduced hard, which meant tracking the lift back out and resetting it in the front. Brush was hauled off to a disposal facility. The hardwood was cut to size and left with the homeowner, which is the cheaper way round if you burn or split. Hauling that off was available too, priced by the load. Two full days. ### Two cedars beside a house, one hollow at the core Corryton · November 2025 Two cedars stood hard against the side of the house. Not near it — against it. The canopy of one sat on the roofline and the trunk of the other had grown so tight to the eave that there was no gap to work a saw into from the ground. That ruled out felling. There was no drop zone on that side of the house, so neither tree could be taken whole in any direction. One of the two was hollow. Nothing showed from outside — full crown, sound bark, no lean. It showed in the cut face: good sapwood wrapped around a rotted, empty center. Redcedar around Corryton roots into six or eight inches of soil over limestone, and a hollow stem on a shallow root plate is how a tree that looks healthy ends up on a roof after one hard gust. Both came down the same way. A climber went up, roped in, and took each tree apart from the top in sections small enough to control on the way down. Limbs first, then the spar, cut by cut, until there was nothing left standing to fall the wrong way. Plywood and ground protection went down over the lawn and the deck surround before anything heavy landed on it. Every section was loaded onto the truck. All of it left the property. Two days, start to finish. The photographs on this page are the before, the during and the after of that job, including the cut face of the hollow one. The clip was shot from the climber's helmet, near the top of the second cedar. This was one of the first jobs Leo's Tree Service ever ran, and it is the one that got filmed. ### Limbs off a shed, and two oaks left standing Fountain City · April 2026 Two oaks, and we talked the homeowner out of felling both of them. The one in the back was a large red oak with a lean, carrying several heavy limbs directly over a shed. Those limbs were the problem. The tree was not. A number was written down for taking the whole thing, because it was asked for and it deserved a straight answer, but the recommendation was to take the weight off the shed and keep the oak. That is what was done — the threatening limbs cut off the lift, one at a time, over a building that had to still be there afterwards. The front-yard oak was the same conversation in shorter form. It had one large limb reaching out over the driveway toward the house. We recommended leaving the tree standing and took that limb off at no charge while the lift was on the property. The brush was separated from the wood, and the wood stayed where the homeowner wanted it. Nothing was hauled away that was not asked to be. A day to a day and a half. Fountain City has the oldest canopy in this part of the county, and a lot of it is oak of exactly this size — big, established, growing over things that were built later. Most of those trees do not need to come down. They need the two or three limbs that are actually over the roof taken off, and then they need leaving alone. ### Eight trees, two service drops and a hillside Powell · June 2026 Eight trees, two parts, and a set of power lines that set the order of everything. **Part one.** Two oaks and two black cherries stood pinched between two separate service drops running to two different houses. There is no version of that job that gets done with the lines hot. The homeowners called their provider and arranged service drops for the days we were working, and nothing was cut until that was in place. The four trees then came out off the lift. Brush was separated and hauled off site. The trunks were cut to size and left on the property, which is what the homeowner asked for. We also asked for permission to set the lift on the neighboring property for that part. It was the only position that put the basket where it needed to be. **Part two.** Three hardwoods at the back, plus a large hickory right on the property line. The ground falls away into woods behind the house, and that slope was worth using. Each of the three was rigged and dropped downhill into the trees and left uncut — the least invasive and least expensive way to take a tree down when there is somewhere for it to go. No brush removal at all on that part. The hickory was trimmed off the lift first to get weight off the property-line side, then rigged and felled the same direction. The backyard deck was the structure to protect throughout. A neighbor's small front-yard maple was quoted separately and taken out entirely. Part one ran a day and a half. Part two took less than a day. ### Two trees already down, and two broken limbs Corryton · January 2026 Two trees were already on the ground when we got there. A third was still standing with two damaged limbs hanging in it. The two down trees were cut up and taken off the property. Everything went through the chipper or onto the truck, and the tractor pulled what was too heavy to carry out by hand. The standing tree was the decision. Two limbs on it had failed, and a broken limb held up in a crown is the thing most likely to come down on its own with nobody watching. There were two honest answers, so both were written down and priced: take the two limbs and leave the tree, or take the whole tree while the crew and the gear were already on site. Both numbers went on the same page. A tree with two failures in it is worth a second look, but two failures is not the same as a tree that has to come down, and that judgement belongs to the person who has to live under it. The limbs came off. The tree stayed. Winter work like this is common after a wind event. If something is already down and you are not sure whether what is left standing is safe, that is exactly what a free estimate is for. ### A sycamore over the fence, brush chipped on site Corryton · June 2026 A large sycamore in the back yard had grown out over the fence line. Sycamore gets big fast and sheds limbs at size, and the whole spread of this one was on the wrong side of the fence. A smaller maple sat in the corner of the same yard. Both came out on the same day. The lift did the work on both. That kept the crew out of the canopy and, more to the point, kept the weight of every cut section under control on the way down instead of over a fence that would have folded under any of it. The brush did not leave the property. The homeowner wanted chip, so the chipper was set up in the back yard and everything green went into a designated spot — a mulch pile where it was wanted rather than a truckload driven off. The hardwood was a different matter, and all of it was removed and hauled. One day, two trees, and a fence still standing. Chipping on site is the cheaper end of debris handling when you have somewhere to put it. Tell us on the estimate whether you want the chip or want it gone. ### Six trees priced one by one, and a seventh left Heiskell · March 2026 There were seven trees worth discussing on this property. Six came down. The seventh was left standing, on our recommendation. That was the whole shape of this estimate. There were more trees here than the homeowners wanted to pay for at once, and rather than quote a single number for clearing the lot, each tree was listed and priced on its own — by how hard it was to get to, what it threatened, and how soon it needed doing. Anything that was not on that list, we recommended leaving alone. Those trees posed less of a threat than the ones that made the list, and they can be looked at again whenever you want them looked at. A tree that is not a problem yet is not a job yet. The property was tight. A house, a shed, a chicken coop and a woodpile all sat inside the working area. Two things made the difference on price, and both of them were the homeowners' to arrange: - The chicken coop and the small woodpile behind the house were moved out of the way for the duration - Permission was obtained for trees to be dropped across the back property line That second one mattered more than it sounds. Tree number one had somewhere to go because of it. Without that permission it would have had to come out over the top, off a lift and on extensive rigging, and it would have cost several times what it did. Six trees, up to two days, and a seventh still there. ### A dying front-yard tree beside the power lines Halls · June 2026 A large tree in the front yard was dying, and it was standing near the power lines. That combination is why it came out on a lift rather than a rope. A dying stem is unreliable wood — it does not hinge the way sound wood does, and it can let go early or in the wrong place. Put a service drop underneath it and there is no margin for a piece going where it was not sent. The basket put the cutter at each limb, so every piece was taken off small and under control instead of being felled and trusted. Nothing left the property. All the wood and all the brush stayed on site at the homeowner's request, cut and stacked where it was wanted. Less than a day. ## What we do in North Knoxville - [Tree Removal](https://leos-treeservice.com/tree-removal/): Full removal of hazardous, dead or unwanted trees, including tight-access work near structures, septic fields and power lines. - [Tree Pruning & Trimming](https://leos-treeservice.com/tree-pruning/): Structural pruning and canopy work that leaves the tree better able to hold itself up, not a chainsaw and a guess. - [Emergency Storm Response](https://leos-treeservice.com/emergency-storm-response/): Priority response when a tree comes down on a house, a drive or a line. We clear it and we clean up after ourselves. - [Wood Chipping](https://leos-treeservice.com/wood-chipping/): On-site chipping so the brush pile leaves with us instead of sitting in your yard until spring. ## Other areas we serve - [Union County](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/union-county/) - [West Knoxville](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/west-knoxville/) - [Anderson County](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/anderson-county/) - [East Knoxville](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/east-knoxville/) - [Knoxville](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/knoxville/) - [South Knoxville](https://leos-treeservice.com/service-areas/south-knoxville/) ## Get a free estimate - Get my free estimate: https://leos-treeservice.com/quote/ - Call [865-360-6685](tel:+18653606685) (Mon–Sat 7:00a–6:00p) - Leo's Tree Service, LLC — Maynardville, TN 37807