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Trees Rarely Fail Without Warning

Mature trees are extraordinary engineers. They flex in gales, compartmentalise decay, and add a ring of new wood every year to shore up old weaknesses. That resilience is why most trees come down in storms without ever having been "sick" in an obvious way — and also why the early signals of trouble are so easy to walk past. A vertical crack in a trunk, a scatter of fresh bark at the base, a paving slab that has begun to lift: these are the quiet sentences a tree uses to tell you something is changing.

As a rough guide, a tree near a house, driveway, footpath or boundary should have a professional inspection every one to three years. If you suspect a crack, a hanging branch, or root damage near a building, don't wait for the next scheduled visit. Bring someone qualified in sooner rather than later. The cost of an assessment is a fraction of the cost of repairing a roof — or worse.

Cracks, Splits and Hollows

Not every crack is fatal. Some are old, sealed and stable. Others are the visible edge of a trunk that is slowly tearing apart under its own weight. The ones that deserve immediate attention are:

• Long vertical cracks running more than a metre up a trunk, especially if the edges no longer meet.
• Shear cracks — diagonal splits, often where a heavy limb meets the main stem.
• Included bark at a fork, where two stems press together with bark trapped between them. These joints are weak by design and split cleanly in high winds.
• Fresh swelling or bulging around a wound or old pruning cut, which can indicate internal decay pushing outward.
• Hollowing — though a hollow tree can stand for decades, an arboriculturist will want to measure how much sound wood remains.

A qualified tree surgeon will carry out a visual tree assessment, tapping and probing where appropriate, and may recommend a climbing inspection, decay detection, or a static pull test before deciding whether the tree can be retained, reduced, or must come down.

Hanging Branches and Storm Damage

After a gale, the obvious wreckage on the lawn is rarely the real problem. The dangerous items are the ones still up there: split limbs caught in the canopy, sometimes called "widow-makers", held only by a few fibres and a neighbouring branch. They can drop hours or weeks later, on a perfectly still day, often directly onto whatever is underneath.

Call a tree surgeon promptly if you notice:

• A branch hanging downwards at an unnatural angle, even a small one over a path or parking space.
• Fresh splits at the branch collar where a limb joins the trunk.
• Bark stripped from a limb, exposing pale wood.
• Uprooted soil at the base — a "root plate" lifted like a hinge. This is a genuine emergency; keep everyone clear and phone for help.

Never be tempted to pull a hanging branch down yourself, and never work from a ladder with a chainsaw. Storm-damaged wood is unpredictable, under tension, and often rotten in the middle.

Roots: The Damage You Cannot See

Roots are the part of the equation most homeowners miss, because they are invisible until something else goes wrong. A tree needs its root plate roughly as wide as its crown to stay upright. Excavations for extensions, new driveways, drainage runs, or even deep paving can sever the anchoring roots on one side, leaving a tree that looks perfectly healthy and is quietly unstable.

Warning signs worth a call include:

• Ground cracking, lifting or sinking on one side of a tree.
• A new lean, however slight, especially after building work or a wet winter.
• Exposed or severed roots after groundwork near a trunk.
• Soil heaving at the base during windy weather.
• Cracks appearing in nearby walls, patios or tarmac, particularly on shrinkable clay soils, where roots and foundations can work against each other for years.

Subsidence and heave investigations need proper expertise and often a surveyor working alongside the tree specialist. Don't simply cut the tree down and assume the problem is solved — the wrong action can make things worse, and could land you in trouble if the tree is protected.

Leaning Trees, Fungal Brackets and Legal Checks

A sudden change in lean is more significant than a lean that has developed over decades. So are fungal fruiting bodies: honey-coloured clusters of honey fungus at the base, or the large, layered brackets of giant polypore emerging from the soil around a trunk, both point to root and butt decay that compromises anchorage.

Before any work begins, check whether the tree sits in a Conservation Area or is covered by a Tree Preservation Order. Most work on protected trees needs consent from your local authority, and there is a separate requirement for a felling licence in many cases. A reputable tree surgeon will handle the paperwork, or tell you plainly when they cannot proceed yet. Any work should follow BS 3998, the British Standard for tree work — a useful benchmark when you're comparing quotes.

Choosing and Briefing Your Tree Surgeon

When you make that call, a few practical questions separate the professionals from the cowboys:

• Qualifications: ask about NPTC or Lantra certifications for chainsaw and climbing work, and demonstrable experience with your species.
• Insurance: request public liability cover of at least £5 million and employer's liability if they bring a team.
• Written quotation: itemising what will be removed, what will be retained, stump treatment, and who clears the arisings.
• Method: how will they access the tree, protect lawns and borders, and work safely near overhead cables?
• Payment: never pay the full amount upfront in cash.

Trust your instincts as well as the paperwork. A good tree surgeon will explain the reasoning behind their advice, offer options short of removal where the tree can safely be kept, and be honest when the answer is a straightforward "that's fine, we'll look again in two years". That conversation is exactly what you are paying for — and it is the cheapest form of tree care there is.