Tree Removal
Safe removal of any size tree. Full debris haul-away included.
Learn MoreService Area · Onslow and Pender Counties
Tree Service in Surf City, NC
Godhans Tree Company serves Surf City and Topsail Island. Compact lots, houses close together and salt air make this the tightest-access tree work we do, and the trees here hide their problems better than most.
Services We Provide in Surf City
Tree Trimming
Crown work, deadwood removal, and precision pruning.
Learn MoreStump Grinding
Ground 10 inches below grade, grindings hauled, yard ready to use.
Learn MoreEmergency Service
24/7 response for storm damage and hazardous situations.
Learn MoreA job we did in Surf City
A $2,200 oak that was hollow a mile from the ocean
An oak about a mile from the Atlantic, carrying heavy heartwood rot. None of it was visible from the outside — which is the whole problem with hardwoods, and the reason we drill them rather than look at them.
It came down and was removed. What the cut face showed was a thin shell of sound wood around a hollow core, which is to say the tree had far less holding it up than its canopy suggested.
$2,200 for the removal. If you have a mature hardwood on the island and no idea what is inside it, that is a measurement question before it is a removal question.
Surf City, and what it does to trees
Surf City is one of the few towns around here that sits in two counties at once: it spans Onslow and Pender on Topsail Island, with the Onslow portion in the Jacksonville metro area and the Pender portion in Wilmington's. If an approval is ever needed, which county you are in is worth establishing first.
Source: Surf City, North CarolinaHurricane Bertha came ashore near here on July 12, 1996, with sustained winds the National Weather Service puts at 105 mph before landfall. The largest surge, 8 to 10 feet, was measured up the coast at Swansboro and Emerald Isle.
Source: NWS Wilmington — Hurricane Bertha 1996In our experience salt air and island conditions do not usually kill a tree outright — they wear it down. What we find on Topsail is interior decay in hardwoods that still look healthy in leaf, which is exactly the failure mode you cannot assess from the driveway.
Questions we get from Surf City
Can you get equipment onto a Topsail Island lot?
Usually, and that is the question that decides the price here more than tree size does. Our spider lift collapses to about 36 inches and passes a standard four-foot gate on rubber tracks, which covers most island lots. Where it will not fit, we climb and rope the tree down instead.
My oak looks fine but it is old. Should I worry?
Possibly, and looking at it will not settle it. A hardwood can be substantially hollow and still leaf out green every spring — the Surf City oak above is exactly that case. A resistograph measures how much sound wood is actually left, which turns the question into a number instead of an opinion.
Is Surf City in Onslow or Pender County?
Both. The town straddles the county line on Topsail Island. We work the whole of it either way.
Why Surf City Homeowners Choose Godhans
Surf City is tight-access work: vacation and rental homes packed close, little room to drop anything, and salt-hardened oaks and pines that take a beating every season. The oaks hide what is wrong with them; the pines tell you, which makes them the easier of the two to judge from the ground.
A good share of our island calls come from owners managing a property from somewhere else, so we photograph what we find and send it rather than describing it over the phone.
Veteran-Owned, Family-Operated — Serving Onslow County Since 2013
- Veteran-owned & disabled-veteran-owned
- Family-operated — you talk to the people doing the work
- Serving Onslow County since 2013 — 3,500+ jobs
- $2M general liability + workers' comp; every machine individually insured
- Godhans LLC — registered & active with the NC Secretary of State (SoSID 1961439)
$2M general liability and workers' comp on every job — and every machine, including the spider lift, is individually insured. If a contractor's equipment isn't on the policy and it damages your home, you hold the bill. Ours is covered.
Meet Michael and James — the brothers who own the company and run the crew.
Serving Surf City, NC — Free Estimates
Veteran-owned, fully insured, and available 24/7 for emergencies throughout Onslow County and beyond.