Out On A Limb Tree Company – Kathy Holzer

I’m always bemused by bad or «meh» reviews from people who complain of a tree service that they «couldn’t even tell the tree had been pruned.» Ladies and gents, that’s exactly what I want — a trim job so natural-​looking that it seems that the tree grew that way! When I ask for a tree to be thinned and trimmed, I want the deadwood removed and the balance of light, air and foliage restored. Which I got the first time round, when I called OOAL to thin our tall deodar cedar. Today OOAL came out to do extensive work: thin and deadwood a giant 3-​headed hemlock that had never been touched; limb up a Doug fir over our garage; trim and thin a large, weirdly shaped black walnut that was draped over our poor neighbor’s garden; prune a lanky Italian plum; and trim the aforementioned deodar. They also removed a sickly honey locust, a light-​starved rhodie, a bloomless lilac, a diseased plum and a volunteer Indian plum. From seven till two, three guys swarmed the place and I couldn’t have asked for a more courteous, knowledgeable and respectful crew. Did I have to schedule weeks in advance? Yep. Would I do it again? You betcha!

Why I use Out on a Limb.
1. I like that the owners name is Kathy
2. Her and her crew do good, safe work and a reasonable price.
3. Once, when I was an idiot and was whining about what I thought was an issue, I discovered that I was wrong, but Kathy and her crew did right by me anyway…
I like companies that work to make customers, not just a sale.

I wish there were 6 stars or 10 stars. Kathy came out to our house immediately after we contacted her about our tree problem. She set a date that was good for us and she and her crew showed up on time this morning. They were nothing short of amazing. To see her way up in the tree dexterously cutting limb after limb of a mature and sick cherry tree… was so reassuring. She and her crew were competent, strong and hard working. They were in and out in the time frame she gave us. She was respectful of our property and they all cleaned up perfectly. Kathy was kind enough to walk the property with my husband to talk about our other concerns and to give us advice.

It was difficult to schedule Ms. Holzer and her crew. By the time they were able to get to my house to trim some trees, it was many weeks out and I was on vacation. When I returned home, I can attest that the crew left my yard neat, but then again, there was little evidence they had done much. They supposedly trimmed a sweet cherry «for fruit production» but left most of the fruit producing branches 25 to 40 feet above ground level where they are impossible to harvest by anyone except the birds or perhaps someone with a «cherry picker». I have trimmed this tree myself much more effectively in the past. Another tree was supposed to be trimmed to enhance view, they failed completely in approaching that goal and left the tree’s crown very unbalanced in shape. In short, Out on a Limb Tree Company promised much but delivered very little. Although I paid them for their work, I will never use them again. They do not listen to the customer. If you are inclined to use them based on positive reviews (of which there are several), I suggest that you make sure you are on the premises when they work to make sure you get adequate service, but you will need to have a very flexible work schedule to accommodate them because they certainly will not accommodate you.
David in Seattle

I have worked with Kathy and her crew many times at our property on Capitol Hill. They are terrific and do some great great work.
I read the other reviews and while she does get very very backed up, I have never had the issues in communication others have had. She is very direct (as am I) and to the point, but I find her charming and nothing but professional, courteous and a VERY hard worker. Her team know what they are doing and get the job done and also educate you on your trees while they are it.
They are a very busy bunch of extremely hard working people, I would recommend them to anyone and I would invite Kathy over for Thanksgiving Dinner, she rules!

Unprofessional attitude, inappropriate communication, and very slow to respond. Chose not to hire her. I don’t need drama and attitude from my arborist.

Kathy and her employees are great.
They work quickly and more importantly SAFELY.
We have employed her company twice, and have been extremely satisfied each time.
They do exactly what was requested, making sure not to damage anything.
Kathy is very pleasant and personable. She lets us watch, keeps us safe, and has a wonderful sense of humor and personality. All her employees are very knowledgeable and pleasant people to be around.
We will always call on her when we need the kind of service she provides, and highly recommend her to everyone.
Nick & Mary Rutherford

Kathy and her team are quick, responsive and skilled. They clearly care about the work the do. It’s nice to know that they can handle the work without me having to be home and that we can touch base quickly via email. I’ve never been disappointed and would highly recommend them to anyone willing to trust an awesome team of professionals.

I would not recommend this organization.
June of 2008 I had this company come out prune a flowering purple leaf plum so it would be healthy — remove crossing branches — remove branches growing straight up (perpendicular to the ground) etc.
Setting up the trimming was easy. They came and performed their service during the arranged time. They cleaned up all their trimmings very nicely.
The actual trimming left me dissatisfied. All the branches that were growing straight up out of other branches were left. (if you have a flowering plum you know the branches I’m talking about). The tree was «trimmed to code» on the street side which essentially meant a giant chunk was cut out of the street side canopy. I can actually accept this sever trim code being code. However this chunk wasn’t balanced at all by any other canopy adjustments so my tree looked extremely ridiculous and like someone with no idea of how a tree should be shaped just hacked away at it and left it to grow out.
When I very politely communicated my astonishment at all the straight up growing branches being left and the giant gouge out of the side canopy with no other adjustment to balance the «code» trimming I was told «Your tree was trimmed to code and according to accepted arboreal practices. There was nothing wrong with our work.» No effort was made or offered to address my concern.
I could have done a better job myself and indeed I ended up having to remove all the straight up branches they left and have over the last few years attempted to reshape the tree so it is balanced AND fits code
I would never ever recommend this organization.

All correspondence was over email. Kathy came and assessed our tree situation while we were at work, which was fine, but it was a little strange to not have any face to face contact. She was very professional and responded pretty quickly to emails and concerns. The reason why I am giving 3 stars is b/​c I wanted to have our trees pruned back away from the house more, but what they ended up doing was cutting off branches that were close to the house. I guess I was just expecting to see a marked difference in before/​after the pruning and I have to say that it didn’t look like much pruning had been done. Still, the service was good.

i needed a couple of plum trees pruned & was able to get a time set up very quickly. kathy came, listened carefully to what i wanted, told me what she was going to do, gave me some thoughtful advice about another tree in my yard & then got to work.
i watched her out there in the drizzle, carefully trimming away, stopping to assess her progress & then continuing on. i think the end result shows she cares about trees.
i will definitely use them again for any pruning needs i have in the future.

After a bad experience with a bamboozling «arborist» who came to our house and tried to scare us into spending a lot of money on our trees, we requested a number of estimates from tree trimmers. Kathy’s estimate was the most clear and straightforward. Her crew arrived on time, and Kathy went through the yard with us to explain what she thought needed to be done both immediately and in the long term. They did exactly what we discussed, left the yard in great shape, and the bill was consistent with the estimate. Can’t ask for much more. Highly recommended. We WILL hire them again.

Kathy did some work for me last spring. She came well recommended by a friend. She’s pruned my fruit, and lilac, trees. I found her knowledgeable and pleasant to work with. I don’t understand the review below– I’d say she’s quite professional and knows her stuff.

We had a great experience with Out on a Limb. In fact, Kathy came over to our house within a day or two of our inital contact. We had a tree that ended up having to come down. It was so large she was going to coordinate with someone to help her. She was so concerned that she arranged the additional help quickly. After the tree was removed, she spent an addtional day pruning the rest of our lot. Several of our neighbors were so impressed they hired her, without issue, too.
Recently another aborist was working at our neighbors and asked who did such great work on our trees. When we told him Kathy had done the work several years ago he was blown away. He was professionally impressed.

Only way to contact this company is over email. Won’t call you on the phone and won’t commit to a timeline to do the work. She gives you an estimated timeline and then never contacts you again. Wanted some light pruning done around my home, shouldn’t have been a big deal. Very unprofessional and a total waste of my time waiting around for nothing. Wouldn’t recommend this company to anyone unless you like being jerked around.