I initially trusted Google's ratings and thought Tall Timber was a responsible company. However, working with them turned out to be the worst nightmare of my entire home-building process.
I wanted to remove five massive Douglas fir trees from my lot. After obtaining an arborist report and the city's tree permit, I requested quotes from several companies. After some consideration, I ultimately chose this company.
At first, everything seemed to go smoothly. On the scheduled day, they arrived in the morning and started work. Since I was busy with work, I wasn't supervising the whole time. When I returned at 2pm, they had already stopped working, and one person stayed behind to take the cash from me (they quoted low price but required cash payment).
As a beginner of building house, I didn't know how to inspect their work properly, and I trusted them. Seeing that the trees had already been felled, I made the payment (my builder was also at fault for not ensuring a proper inspection before paying). However, I soon discovered several serious issues:
1. One of the felled trees, with a tree log diameter of 3ft and length of 20ft, was left resting on my neighbor's fence, with about 3ft of the log extending into their property. As a result, my neighbor lodged a serious complaint and almost called the police and reported the issue to the city. The company just left without addressing it.
2. Despite the severity of the situation, they delayed responding for three days after we asked them to fix it. During those three days, I faced immense pressure from my neighbor.
3. The contract specified that they should cut the trunks into smaller sections so that our excavator could easily lift them onto a dump truck. However, they didn't do this and left five massive logs on my site. After multiple requests from my builder and me, they demanded an extra $600 to return and finish the job. When I refused, they simply hung up on me. To avoid delays in my construction schedule, I had no choice but to give in and pay.
4. The contract also required them to cut the stumps as close to the ground as possible. However, they failed to do so. One stump was left at nearly five feet high. Again, they only returned to lower it after I paid the additional fee.
5. The contract also included the removal of three trees in the backyard, but they left without cutting them. Trevor told me to ask the builder to use the excavator to pull them out.
6. They didn't even bother cleaning up. The sidewalk and my neighbor's garden were covered with fallen branches and leaves, and I had to clean everything up myself.
I hope no one else has to go through an experience like mine--it was truly awful. read more