Commercial Tree Structural Assessment Glasgow

No. The duty of care under the Occupiers' Liability Act applies whether or not a tree is protected. A Tree Preservation Order or conservation area designation affects what you're allowed to do about a defect once it's found - for example, you may need council consent before pruning or felling a protected tree - not whether you need to know about the defect in the first place. If a flagged tree turns out to be protected, the report says so, so you know consent is needed before any remedial work goes ahead.

Yes, for most of it. Ground-level assessment and resistograph testing don't require closing car parks or pedestrian routes, and we can work around opening hours or delivery schedules if you flag them in advance. Climbed inspections needing rope access do require a cordoned area under the tree being worked on for the time it takes - typically an hour or two per tree - which gets flagged at the quote stage so you can plan around busier trading periods if it matters to you.

For a straightforward site with a handful of trees checked from ground level, the report is usually ready within a few working days of the visit. Where resistograph or sonic tomography readings have been taken on specific trees, add a bit more time, because those readings need interpreting properly rather than just written up from notes taken on site - rushing that step is how internal decay ends up under- or over-stated.

The person carrying out the inspection holds the NPTC Professional Tree Inspection qualification, which is a distinct qualification from the climbing and felling certificates that cover the practical side of tree work - it's specifically about reading defects, decay and structural risk and writing that up in a way that stands up to scrutiny. Reports follow BS3998 methodology, the British Standard most insurers and councils expect to see referenced when a tree-related claim or Tree Preservation Order decision comes up.

Yes - that's usually the main reason a commercial client commissions one. A dated report showing what was checked, when, and what was found (or wasn't) is the record that demonstrates reasonable care under the Occupiers' Liability Act. It doesn't remove liability if something goes wrong afterwards, particularly if a flagged defect is left unaddressed, but it is the document that shows the risk was known about and managed rather than ignored.

If something is found on the day that looks like an immediate hazard - a cracked stem, a hanging branch over a walkway, obvious root-plate movement - that gets flagged to you before the surveyor leaves site, not left to wait for the written report. Making the area safe there and then, if needed, is usually treated as emergency work and priced on the emergency rate rather than folded into the survey fee, since it's a different job to the assessment itself.

Older or larger trees need more thought than a quick ground-level check, because the consequences of missing something are bigger and because defects in a big tree don't always show the same way they would in a young one. That judgement is backed by the same NPTC/Lantra training that covers large tree felling and windblown trees specifically - certificates that are about understanding how a big, ageing or storm-stressed tree actually fails, not just the general climbing and rigging tickets that cover routine crown work on smaller trees.