Storm Damage Cleanup & Fallen Tree Removal in Rhodesdale, MD

When You Need This

A nor'easter, a hurricane coming up the bay, or one hard summer thunderstorm — it does not take much out here. The wind comes off the water with nothing in the way, the ground is soft, and trees on flat wet ground do not have deep roots to hold with. So they lay over. Then you walk out in the morning and the lane is blocked, the fence is under a treetop, and there is a pile of limbs where the yard used to be.

Storms don't keep business hours. Steve answers the phone around the clock — call when it happens, not the next morning.

This page is about the mess that is already on the ground. Trees and limbs down across a driveway or a farm lane. A tree laid across a fence line, flattening wire and posts. Tops and limbs scattered through a field where a combine or a mower cannot go until it is picked up. Big limbs hung up in a ditch, holding water back. Debris packed into a culvert at the road so the pipe stopped taking water in the middle of the storm. A gravel lane with a channel washed down the middle of it and the stone sitting in the grass.

Storms do their real damage twice. The first time is the wind. The second time is the water, a week later, when the ditch is still plugged with brush and mud and the next rain has nowhere to go. Most people call about the tree. The thing that costs them again in a month is the ditch and the pipe.

Say plainly what he does and does not do, because it matters. Steve works on what is already down. He does not climb and he does not work on standing trees. That is a good thing for you: it means he shows up with an excavator and a skid steer that can pick up a trunk and carry it, move a root ball, rebuild a washed-out lane and clean out a pipe — all in the same trip. If something is still standing and leaning, get the right person for that part, and Steve will clean up the ground afterward.

Being reachable around the clock is not the same as being at your place in an hour, and he will not pretend otherwise. He answers his own phone and he will tell you straight where you sit in line and when he can be there. That is worth more than a promise nobody can keep after a storm that hit the whole county.

How Steve Does It

First job is making the place usable again. Access comes before looks. If the lane is blocked, that gets opened first so you can get a truck in and out, because everything else is easier after that. He cuts the trunk and the limbs into pieces that can be handled, then moves them clear with the excavator and the skid steer instead of dragging everything across your yard.

Where the wood goes is your call, and you decide it before he starts. Trunk wood can be stacked where you want it, cut to length if you burn it. Brush and tops can be piled in a spot you pick, or piled for burning where the county allows it. Nothing gets left in a place you did not agree to.

Root balls are their own problem. When a tree lays over on this ground it usually brings the plate of roots and dirt up with it, and that leaves a hole on one side and a wall on the other. He digs the ball out, breaks the dirt back off it, fills the hole and packs it, then blends the grade so you are not left with a trap in the yard for the mower to find. Fence line work is the same idea: get the material off the wire so a fence can be repaired, and leave the ground along it walkable.

Then the water side, which is where the excavator earns its keep. Limbs, brush and silt get pulled out of the ditch and the ditch gets cut back to a steady fall, because a ditch that holds water in the middle is not a ditch. Culverts that plugged or silted in during the storm get cleaned out or replaced, and the ends get protected with stone so the next storm does not undercut them. Where the storm proved the water has nowhere to go, the honest fix is drainage and he will say so — see culverts and storm drain.

Lanes and drives come last. A washout gets cut open, the mud cleaned out of it, and rebuilt with stone in lifts and packed, not just topped off so it looks right for a month. Then it gets recrowned so the water runs off the sides instead of down the middle, which is what caused it the first time. Channels cut through a yard get filled, packed, seeded and strawed. If the whole lane needs it and not just one spot, that is driveway regrading.

Where a storm knocked down a whole edge of woods or a fence row full of brush, the cleanup runs into land clearing and it gets priced that way, so you can see what is cleanup and what is clearing.

What It Costs in Rhodesdale

How much material is down and how big around it is. Two limbs across a drive is an easy morning. A hundred foot tree across a lane with the top in a fence is a day.

Then access. If he can reach the work from the lane, it goes quickly and cheaply. If the machine has to work out into a soft yard or a wet field to get to it, that is slower and the restoration afterward costs more. Where the wood and brush end up matters too, since moving it two hundred feet is not the same as moving it to the far corner of the farm.

Root balls, holes to fill and packing. How much washout has to be rebuilt and how much stone that takes. Ditch length and how badly it is silted. Whether pipe can be cleaned or has to come out and be replaced, and how big it is. Travel to the site. Then restoration at the end — packing, topsoil, seed and straw so the ground closes back up.

Estimates are free and written, itemized so you can hand it to an adjuster. Call 443-439-1019 any time, day or night. Steve answers his own phone. He is fully insured and will send the certificate before he starts.

Common Questions

A tree came down across my lane, what now?
Call 443-439-1019 and tell Steve where it is and how big it is. He works on trees that are already down. He cuts the trunk and limbs into pieces, moves them clear of the lane with the excavator and skid steer, and gets you in and out again.

Do you take the wood away?
You pick. Most people have him stack the trunk wood somewhere on the property and pile the brush. He can also move it to a spot you choose out of sight, or pile it for burning where that is allowed. Hauling purchased material is not something he does, so anything leaving the property gets worked out with you first.

Do you take down trees that are still standing?
No, and that is on purpose. He does not climb and he does not work on standing trees. He works on fallen trees, downed limbs and storm debris that is already on the ground. If something is still up and leaning, you want somebody who does that work, and Steve will come in behind them and clean up the ground.

Will you work with my insurance?
He gives you a written estimate with the work itemized, and you can hand that straight to your adjuster. He does not bill carriers directly. You pay him and settle with your insurance company.

Why Choose Marshy Hope

Steve Hackett owns the business and runs the machine. Fifteen years in the trade, six of them working for himself out of Rhodesdale. He carries a $1,000,000 general liability policy and will send the certificate to you or your builder before he starts. Estimates are free, and you hear back the same day or the next one. One crew handles it from dirt to concrete, so nothing gets dropped in the handoff.