Tree Service in Spartanburg, SC

One county over, with the line running through Greer

Say the county plainly, because people mix the two up: the city of Spartanburg lies entirely in Spartanburg County, and Greenville, Mauldin, Simpsonville, Taylors and Travelers Rest lie in Greenville County. The line between the two counties runs through Greer, which is why Greer's own page on this site talks about two sets of rules. The Census Bureau's 2024 estimate puts the city of Spartanburg at 39,606 people, up a little from 38,727 in 2020. What the county line changes is not the price of the work but the public rules around it: whose curbside truck comes past, where a homeowner's own debris can go, and which office answers the permit question.

The city's green waste rule, in its own words

Inside the city limits, Spartanburg collects green waste at the curb from residential homes on a rotating schedule, and the city's page is unusually direct about what the service is for. It is "strictly limited to residential yard clippings from routine pruning and landscaping activities," and it "does NOT include debris generated from commercial tree cutting or landscaping services." Stumps, dirt, land-clearing debris and contractor waste are out. For the pruning you do yourself, the rules are these:

• No limb longer than 6 feet or thicker than 6 inches.
• Three separate piles: brush, grass clippings and leaves, with the leaves kept apart from the limbs and twigs.
• Piles at least 3 feet from mailboxes, utility poles, parked cars and other obstacles.
• Nothing in plastic bags, nothing blocking the sidewalk, the street or a bicycle lane.
• Check the posted schedule the week you set anything out. The city runs its numbered areas in a clockwise rotation, calls the posted areas estimates, and warns that weather or equipment can move them.

Why haul-away has to be written into a Spartanburg estimate

The city's solid waste page closes the other door too: the city does not pick up "contractor-generated construction/demolition materials or green waste," and it sends residents to Spartanburg County Solid Waste for that kind of load. So when a tree company takes down an oak inside the Spartanburg city limits, no city truck is coming behind it, and a six-by-six limb rule was never going to fit a trunk anyway. Either the company takes the limbs and the trunk with it when it leaves, or the pile is yours. That is why a Spartanburg estimate should say, in writing, that haul-away is included; a lower number that leaves the wood by the road has simply handed you the hauling. The county's own pages could not be read for this page, so nothing here says what the county's sites take or charge: ask the county before loading a trailer.

What a tree removal runs in Spartanburg

Spartanburg jobs are priced off the ranges this site publishes for the Greenville area, set by the size of the tree and what sits under it. A small tree under 30 feet runs $300 to $600, one between 30 and 60 feet runs $600 to $1,200, and a large oak or pine runs $1,200 to $3,000 and sometimes more, with a tree dismantled piece by piece over a roof at the top of its range. Grinding the stump afterward adds $100 to $400, and because the grinder works below the surface, the free SC811 locate request goes in at least three full working days ahead of that part of the job. The full table and the roof band sit on the page for the Greenville tree removal ranges Spartanburg is quoted from.

Permits, power lines and the right-of-way

Whether the City of Spartanburg asks for anything before a tree comes down is a question for the city itself, and this site has not read the city's code, so it makes no claim either way: inside the limits, ask the city before the job is booked and have the answer written into the estimate. The Greenville County tree ordinance described on this site's Taylors and Fountain Inn pages is a Greenville County rule and does not reach across the line. Two things do not change with the county: anything tangled in a power line is Duke Energy's to handle, not a tree company's, and a tree standing in the road right-of-way belongs to whoever owns the road.

Trimming, stumps, storms and the storm drain

Not every Spartanburg call is a removal. Pruning that takes the deadwood out of a mature oak leaves brush that fits the city's limit once it is cut to length and piled on its own. Stump grinding chews the stump out below grade and waits on the SC811 marking first. After a storm, the first hour is covered on the emergency page and the week after on the storm damage page. One more Spartanburg detail: the city's Stormwater Division takes reports of illicit discharges into storm drains, and its complaint form lists grass clippings running into the drains as a category of its own, so the chips and sawdust from a job get raked up, not hosed into the gutter.

Send a request through this site and it goes to a single independent tree company that works the Greenville area. That company comes out to Spartanburg, looks at the tree and puts a price in writing with the haul-away spelled out. Call (864) 501-0549.