Glasgow's Tree Health Specialists
Tree Health Inspection Glasgow
✓ NPTC/Lantra Qualified✓ Fully Insured✓ Free, No-Obligation Quotes
Free, No-Obligation Quotes
NPTC/Lantra Qualified & Insured
Fixed-Price Packages
Introduction
A tree health inspection is a different job from a BS5837 tree survey carried out for a planning application, and it isn't the same visit as the pruning, felling or crown work our tree surgeons carry out once a problem has actually been confirmed. It's the diagnostic step that tells you, and your insurer, mortgage lender or buyer's solicitor, what condition a tree is genuinely in before anyone reaches for a saw or signs off on a purchase.
Key Selling Points
- Free, no-obligation quotes before any inspection is booked
- NPTC/Lantra qualified arborists, fully insured for diagnostic and site work
- Fixed-price packages scaled from a single tree to a full estate
What Our Tree Health Assessment Covers and Where It Stops
- Ground-level Visual Tree Assessment of crown, trunk, root collar and visible root flare for every tree in scope
- Species identification and an assessment of natural life expectancy and growth habit for the site
- Diagnosis of visible disease, pest activity, decay indicators and structural defects such as cracks, cavities or included bark
- A photographic record of each tree and any defects found, kept on file for comparison at any future re-inspection
- A written report with a priority action plan and recommended timescales for any treatment
- Advice on whether a tree's documented condition is likely to satisfy an insurer, mortgage lender or buyer's solicitor
Not Included / Costed Separately
- Carrying out any recommended pruning, felling or treatment work itself - the report sets out what's needed, tree surgery is quoted and carried out as a separate job
- Climbing inspections of the crown - only added, and charged as an extra, when ground-level assessment can't answer the question
- Resistograph, sonic tomography or other internal decay-detection testing - brought in only where the visual assessment flags something ambiguous
- Laboratory pathology testing for an unusual disease - arranged and charged separately when needed
- BS5837 tree surveys for planning applications - a related but different service with a different scope and output
- Dimensional or mapping surveys for development sites - not part of a health inspection
How a Tree Health Inspection Actually Runs, Start to Finish
- Phone consultation: You describe what's worrying you - discoloured leaves, a lean, fungus at the base, or a lender's requirement - and roughly how many trees need looking at, so the right quote tier can be confirmed before anyone visits.
- Site visit and ground assessment: A qualified arborist walks the property examining crown, trunk, root collar and surrounding ground conditions for each tree, using an increment borer, resistance drill or binoculars where a closer look is needed.
- Additional diagnostics if required: If ground-level assessment can't fully answer the question - crown condition high up, or suspected internal decay - a climbing inspection or instrument-based test is scoped and priced before it goes ahead, not added afterwards.
- Written report delivered: Findings are written up tree by tree: species, condition, risk rating, and a priority action list with timescales, so you or your chosen contractor know exactly what needs doing and by when.
- Follow-up: Once any treatment is arranged, a follow-up consultation checks it's had the intended effect, or a re-inspection is scheduled for the following season where a wait-and-monitor approach was recommended instead.
What a Tree Health Inspection Costs in Glasgow
A single-tree inspection starts from £195, with a fixed £325 rate covering up to five trees on one visit - most domestic gardens and driveways fall into one or other of these tiers. Larger gardens, shelterbelts or a full estate need a walk-round first, because the number of trees and how much climbing or instrument testing might be needed both affect the price, so those jobs are quoted once that's known rather than estimated over the phone. Anything found during the visit that needs a Resistograph, sonic tomography or lab pathology test is priced separately and agreed before it goes ahead - it isn't folded into the base fee. If an insurer, lender or solicitor has set a deadline, mention it when you call so the visit and report can be scheduled to meet it, and a full, firm quote can only be confirmed once we've seen the site.
Which Type of Tree Assessment Do You Actually Need?
| Service | What it's for | Typical starting cost | Who normally needs it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tree health inspection (this service) | Diagnosing disease, decay, pest damage and structural risk in an existing tree | From £195 per tree, £325 for up to 5 trees | Homeowners worried about a specific tree, insurers, lenders, buyers |
| BS5837 tree survey | Mapping tree positions, species and root protection areas for a planning application | Quoted per site once scope is known | Anyone with a construction or extension project affecting nearby trees |
| Tree safety survey | A faster, risk-focused check for obvious hazards rather than a full health diagnosis | Generally lower cost, narrower scope than a health inspection | Landlords or owners with an immediate safety concern, not a health question |
| A DIY visual check | Spotting obvious problems like broken branches or dead wood | Free, but no report and no insurance-standard documentation | Nobody relying on the result for insurance, a sale, or a genuine health concern |
Reports Built on Diagnostic Tools, Not Guesswork
Our inspections are carried out by NPTC Professional Tree Inspection qualified arborists, working to BS3998, so the report format and terminology are ones an insurer's surveyor or a lender's solicitor will usually already recognise rather than having to interpret from scratch. When a ground-level check can't settle a question - a hollow-sounding trunk, a fungal fruiting body with no obvious cause - the same visit can bring in an increment borer or resistance drill to measure what's actually happening beneath the bark before anyone recommends removal on a hunch. That distinction matters commercially too: a tree flagged as a risk on a mortgage valuation is often salvageable once the real extent of decay is measured rather than guessed at, which can turn a lender's condition into a course of treatment instead of a felling job. Glasgow Trees is a registered Glasgow company based at Clyde Offices on West George Street, fully insured for the diagnostic visit and any follow-on site work, so a report has a business standing behind it rather than one contractor's opinion on the day.
Towns and Villages We Reach Beyond the City
Beyond the city and its immediate suburbs, inspections are also carried out in Giffnock, Clarkston and Newton Mearns, where large Victorian and 1930s gardens often have mature trees close enough to the house to matter for a mortgage or insurance assessment. Barrhead and Baillieston fall within the same call-out area, as do Bothwell and Blantyre in South Lanarkshire. Further out, villages including Strathblane, Killearn, Balfron, Fintry and Kippen sit toward Stirling and the Campsie foothills - semi-rural properties here tend to have larger, older specimen trees and shelterbelts rather than a single garden tree, so mention rough tree numbers and age when you call. Bo'ness, at the eastern edge of the coverage area, is assessed on the same basis.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a tree health inspection different from a tree survey?
A health inspection is about diagnosis - what's actually wrong with a specific tree, and what to do about it. A BS5837 tree survey is a different document built for planning applications, recording tree positions, species and root protection areas across a whole site rather than the condition of one tree. If a planning authority has asked for a survey, that's the service you need instead of this one.
What actually happens during the site visit?
An arborist walks the whole site examining crown, trunk, root collar and the ground immediately around each tree, using binoculars for anything high up and, where something needs a closer look, an increment borer or resistance drill to check the wood beneath the bark. Straightforward cases are usually done within an hour or two; a garden with several mature or veteran trees takes longer.
Will an insurer or mortgage lender accept the report?
The report records species, condition and a risk rating tree by tree, with photographs kept on file in case anything needs checking again later - the kind of format an insurer's surveyor or a lender's solicitor is used to working from. Whether it satisfies a specific policy condition depends on that insurer or lender's own wording, so it's worth checking exactly what's been asked for before the visit and mentioning it when you book.
What if the ground-level inspection isn't enough to tell what's wrong?
Sometimes a trunk sounds hollow, or there's a fungal bracket with no obvious cause, and a ground-level look can't settle it either way. In that case a climbing inspection or an instrument-based test - a Resistograph or sonic tomography - is scoped and priced on the day rather than assumed as part of the standard visit, so there's no surprise cost.
Do you also carry out the tree work the report recommends?
Yes, but as a separate job. The inspection's purpose is to establish what condition the tree is in and what, if anything, needs doing about it; any pruning, felling or treatment that follows is quoted and scheduled on its own once you've seen the report and decided how to proceed.
How long does the written report take to arrive?
It depends on how many trees are involved and whether any additional testing was needed, but timing is discussed at the point of booking so there's a clear expectation rather than an open-ended wait - useful to know if a lender or solicitor has set a deadline.
If a tree is found to be low risk, is that the end of it?
Not always. Where a tree is sound but showing an early sign worth watching - a small area of dieback, for instance - the report can recommend a re-inspection the following season rather than immediate action, so any change can be tracked over time instead of guessed at.
Can one inspection cover several trees at once, like a whole garden or driveway boundary?
Yes - the fixed-price tiers are built around that, covering up to five trees on one visit as standard, with larger numbers, shelterbelts or a full estate walked round and quoted individually because visit time and any follow-up testing scale with the number of trees involved.
Get a Written Answer Before You Commit to Anything
A tree flagged as a risk by a surveyor, a neighbour or your own eye doesn't have to stay a guess - a site visit and written report can confirm what's actually happening beneath the bark before an insurer's condition, a lender's deadline or a house sale forces a decision either way.
Get a Free Tree Health Inspection Quote
Tell us how many trees and what's worrying you, and we'll confirm the right quote tier before anyone visits.
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