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How much does it cost to remove a linden?

Removing a linden around Indianapolis typically runs $400 to $1,900, with most jobs near $720. Two different trees ride under one name here: native American basswood (Tilia americana), usually a remnant woodland tree on lots carved out of timber, and littleleaf linden (Tilia cordata), the tidy pyramidal European street tree planted by the thousand in Indianapolis-area subdivisions. Which one you have changes the work — basswood suckers hard and often grows as a decay-prone multi-stem clump, while littleleaf stays single-stemmed and compact but is markedly less salt tolerant than the oaks sharing its tree lawn.

Mature size, and the bracket it puts you in

American basswood runs 60 to 80 ft with a broad crown; littleleaf linden tops out nearer 50 to 60 ft and stays narrower, so a subdivision littleleaf is usually a mid-bracket removal while a woodlot basswood is a high one. Both are capable of well over a century, but on basswood, heart decay at old multi-stem clumps usually decides the tree long before age does.

Condition changes the price

Linden wood is only moderately strong and the crown is dense enough to catch ice like a sail, so the classic Indiana failure is an entire codominant leader splitting out of the top of a mature basswood at an included-bark union. Damage tends to be leader and limb tearouts that leave a long strip torn down the trunk, rather than whole-tree windthrow.

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