Glasgow's Commercial Tree Health Assessment Specialists Since 2005
Commercial Tree Health Assessment Reports Glasgow
✓ Trading since 2005✓ BS3998 standard✓ Fully insured✓ Free quotes
Trading Since 2005
BS3998 Standard
Fully Insured
Free, No-Obligation Quotes
Introduction
If you're responsible for a commercial site in Glasgow, a tree health assessment is usually needed for one of two reasons: routine duty-of-care - keeping an occupier's liability file up to date, satisfying an insurance renewal, or simply because a tenant or member of staff has flagged a tree that doesn't look right - rather than a planning application. This service covers that general condition check: an inspector walks the site tree by tree looking for the things that turn a healthy specimen into a liability - deadwood, cavities, fungal brackets at the base, root plate movement, a lean that's got worse - and puts the findings and any recommended action in writing.
The report is kept separate from any tree work that might follow, so what a property or facilities manager gets is a straight read of risk rather than the opening move in a bigger job. Where a visual check alone can't settle whether a tree has internal decay, resistograph or sonic tomography readings are brought in on that specific tree rather than a category being guessed at.
Key Selling Points
- Fully insured team working to British Standard BS3998
- NPTC Professional Tree Inspection qualified
- Free, no-obligation quotes for commercial sites
What's Covered in the Report Fee, and What's Billed Separately
- An on-site visual inspection of every tree on the property, checking crown density, deadwood, bark condition, cavities, fungal fruiting bodies and root plate stability or lean.
- A written report rating each tree's condition and the level of risk it poses, in plain terms a property or facilities manager can act on without decoding arboricultural jargon.
- Photographic evidence for any tree flagged with a defect, so the basis for a recommendation is documented rather than just asserted.
- A priority order for follow-up action, separating anything urgent - a dead limb over a car park, a leaning stem near a walkway - from trees that just need monitoring.
- Straightforward next-step advice - monitor, prune, or remove - kept independent of whether we end up carrying out that work.
- A dated, written record suitable for an occupier's liability file or an insurer, covering the condition of the trees on site at the time of the visit.
Not Included / Costed Separately
- Any recommended tree work itself - crown reduction, deadwooding, pollarding or felling - is quoted and invoiced separately from the report fee, so the report stays an independent document rather than a way into selling further work.
- Below-ground diagnostic techniques such as resistograph drilling or sonic tomography are only included where the assessment scope calls for it - a basic condition survey doesn't automatically carry that equipment cost.
- Same-day or next-day emergency assessments are billed at the standard rate plus a call-out charge, reflecting the reshuffle needed to get an inspector out at short notice.
- Repeat or follow-up inspections after the initial report - checking whether a flagged tree has deteriorated - sit under a separate monitoring arrangement rather than being bundled into the one-off report price.
- Attending court or a formal hearing as an expert witness, beyond preparing the written report, is arranged and quoted as its own piece of work.
How a Commercial Assessment Actually Runs, From First Call to Report in Hand
- Scoping call: A short phone conversation establishes roughly how many trees are involved, what's driving the request (a planning application, an insurance renewal, or a specific tree that's started looking unwell), and whether that points to a basic condition survey or a full BS5837 planning survey.
- Site inspection: An inspector walks the site tree by tree, checking crown density, stem condition, root plate movement and any visible cavities, fungal brackets or deadwood, and brings out the resistograph or sonic tomography equipment only where a visual check has flagged something that needs a closer look.
- Categorisation and write-up: Findings are worked into the report format the situation calls for - A/B/C/U categorisation and Root Protection Area mapping for a BS5837 survey, or a straightforward condition-and-risk write-up with photographic evidence for a general duty-of-care check.
- Report delivery and walkthrough: The written report is delivered digitally and talked through by phone or in person, so whoever is submitting it to a planning department, an insurer, or a board doesn't have to decode the categorisation and recommendations unaided.
- Follow-up action: Depending on what the report found, this might mean a separate quote for recommended tree work, submission support for planning condition discharge, or scheduling the site into an annual monitoring arrangement so flagged trees get checked again rather than forgotten about.
Which Type of Assessment Fits Your Situation (Guide Prices Only - a Full Quote Follows a Site Visit)
| Assessment type | Typical trigger | What you get | Starting guide price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Basic tree condition survey | Ongoing duty-of-care, insurance renewal, general risk check | Per-tree health and structural findings with written recommendations | £300-£600 per site |
| BS5837 planning survey | Planning application on a site where trees are present | Tree categorisation (A/B/C/U), Root Protection Area mapping, Tree Constraints Plan | £500-£1,200 |
| Advanced diagnostic assessment | A visual check has flagged possible internal decay or root damage | Resistograph or sonic tomography readings on the specific tree(s) of concern | £800-£1,500 per investigation |
| Annual monitoring contract | Ongoing compliance across one site or a portfolio | Scheduled repeat inspections with updated categorisation over time | £400-£1,000 per site |
Routine Health Checks From an NPTC-Qualified Tree Inspector
A tree health check only earns its keep if the person carrying it out knows what a defect actually means for risk, not just what it looks like. Our assessor holds NPTC Professional Tree Inspection qualification, on top of the trade certificates the wider team carries for tree work itself, so a report reflects training specific to reading condition and structural risk rather than a general working knowledge of trees. We keep any recommended work - pruning, deadwooding or removal - quoted and invoiced separately from the report, which matters most for a duty-of-care record: the findings need to stand on their own if a tenant, an insurer, or your own health and safety file ever needs to refer back to them, not read like the opening move in a sales pitch. Any work we do go on to carry out is still to British Standard BS3998, and the whole team is fully insured, so the same cover applies whether it's the inspection visit itself or a job that follows from it.
Where We Carry Out Assessments: Glasgow and the Surrounding Council Areas
Most commercial assessment and reporting work is on sites in and around Glasgow, extending out along the M8, M74, M77 and M80 corridors into East Dunbartonshire, West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, East Renfrewshire, Inverclyde, selected parts of South Lanarkshire, Stirling and Falkirk (including Bo'ness). Glasgow's own tree canopy cover runs to roughly 15%, above the UK's urban average of around 10%, so a good number of the business parks, retail units and older commercial premises we get called out to have mature trees on or close to the boundary - planted well before the current tenant took the site on, and more often than clients expect sitting under a Tree Preservation Order or within a conservation area, which changes what a report needs to cover and what any follow-up work needs consent for. Where a client has more than one site spread across these council areas, the visits are usually scheduled as a single coordinated run rather than separate bookings, which keeps categorisation consistent from property to property and travel time down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you assess a single tree that looks unwell, or is this only for planning and portfolio work?
Yes - a lot of assessment calls start with one tree a member of staff has flagged, whether that's a thinning crown, fungal brackets at the base, bark splitting, or a lean that's got worse since the last storm, rather than a planning condition. The site visit and report process is the same whether it's one specimen or two hundred; the price simply scales with the number of trees and what's found.
If the report recommends work, do you carry it out, or is that a separate job?
We can carry out the tree work ourselves where it's recommended - crown reduction, deadwooding, pollarding or felling, all to BS3998 - but it's quoted and invoiced separately from the assessment. Keeping the two apart means the report stays an independent document rather than something shaped around generating extra work, which matters if it's going to an insurer or planning department as evidence.
Will the assessment tell me if a tree is actually dying, or could it just be a seasonal thing?
Telling dieback apart from ordinary dormancy is one of the harder judgement calls in a visual assessment, particularly in winter when deciduous trees are bare anyway. We look at bud condition, bark texture and colour beneath the outer layer, and any fungal fruiting bodies at the base or stem, rather than judging purely by leaf cover on the day of the visit. Where the picture stays ambiguous, that's when a resistograph or sonic tomography reading earns its place instead of guessing from the outside.
Can one arrangement cover several sites if I manage a portfolio of properties?
Yes - portfolio clients are usually scheduled as a coordinated run rather than separate one-off bookings, which keeps costs down and gives consistent categorisation across sites, useful if you're comparing risk levels site to site for budget planning. Each site still gets its own report, but scheduling and invoicing can be handled as one arrangement.
Do you offer a follow-up assessment once a flagged tree has had work done, or after a set period?
Yes - that's what the annual monitoring arrangement is for. Rather than commissioning a fresh one-off survey each time, a repeat inspection is scheduled to check whether previously flagged trees have deteriorated, recovered, or need re-categorising. It's worth having in place where a tree was given a monitor recommendation rather than an immediate action one.
Is your report format accepted by planning departments and insurers without needing to be redone?
BS5837 surveys follow the British Standard methodology - categorisation, Root Protection Area mapping, Tree Constraints Plan - that Scottish planning departments expect to see, so it isn't something that then needs converting into another format. For insurance and legal use, the report includes the photographic and written detail generally asked for as supporting evidence, though if a specific insurer works to its own template it's worth flagging that at the outset so the findings can be formatted accordingly.
What if a tree that needs assessing is on a boundary or partly on neighbouring land?
We can still look at it and report on it - what changes is what work can actually be carried out without agreement from the neighbouring owner. The report notes where a tree's canopy or roots cross a boundary, and where any recommended work would need access to, or consent from, the adjoining property, so that's factored into planning rather than discovered later.
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