After an ice storm or windstorm, most properties around Kingston end up with a pile of brush and branches stacked at the back. I bring my chipper and clear it in a few hours. You can keep the chips as mulch for your garden beds and around established trees, or I haul them away. It is the simplest job I offer, and it solves a problem that most homeowners face every winter.
What wood chipping actually is
Wood chipping is the process of feeding branches, brush, and tree cuttings into a mechanical chipper that reduces them to small, uniform chips. The machine works by forcing material through rotating blades that shred it down to a size you can actually use or dispose of. What takes up an entire corner of your yard as a tangled pile becomes a compact heap of chips in a fraction of the time it would take you to cut everything into pieces by hand.
I bring my own chipper to your property. You do not need to haul anything to a depot or rent equipment. The chips that come out are roughly the size of your thumbnail, which makes them ideal for mulch. They break down over time and feed the soil, which matters more here than many people realize because our thin soil over bedrock dries out fast once July arrives.
Why it matters in Sydenham District
The main reason you need chipping is practical: brush piles are hard to dispose of. You cannot put them in your green bin. Burning is not always permitted, and even when it is, it takes weeks to work through a large pile. Hauling it yourself means renting a truck, making multiple trips, and paying a tipping fee at a disposal site. Leaving it to rot takes years, and it looks messy the whole time.
The secondary reason is that the chips have real value if you use them. Mulch around your trees and shrubs keeps roots cooler, reduces watering demand in dry spells, and suppresses weeds. In Kingston's climate, that moisture retention is genuine insurance against the stress that freeze-thaw cycles and thin soil place on established plantings. If you do not want to keep the chips, I take them with me, but most people find a use for them once they see what they have.
When to do wood chipping?
The obvious trigger is storm damage. After an ice storm or heavy wind, most properties have fresh branches down. I see this work most often in late winter and early spring, when the weight of ice or the force of spring storms brings material down. However, chipping is not seasonal. If you have been stacking cuttings from hedge trimming, pruning work, or removal jobs, or if you have accumulated brush over months, I can chip it whenever you are ready.
The practical signal that you need chipping is when the pile becomes hard to ignore. If it is taking up usable yard space, if it is blocking access to a shed or garden area, or if it is simply an eyesore, that is the time to call. Do not wait for the pile to grow larger or for the branches to start rotting, which makes them heavier and messier to handle. Fresh material chips faster and cleaner than aged brush.
How I work in Kingston neighbourhoods
The process starts with a phone call or message to me at (343) 505-6691. I ask a few quick questions: how much brush do you have, roughly what size are the pieces, and is it accessible by truck. Most residential piles take me a few hours to chip. I arrive with my machine, assess the pile, and start feeding it through the chipper. The chips drop into a pile on your property, usually spread across a tarp or confined to a section of your yard that I agree on with you beforehand.
Once chipping is done, I clean up any scattered chips and debris. If you are keeping the chips, I help you move them to the beds or areas where you want to use them, or I leave them in a neat pile for you to distribute later. If you want them hauled away, they go with me in my truck. The whole job is straightforward: no surprises, no hidden steps. I do the work, the debris disappears or becomes mulch, and your yard is clear again.
The situations I run into
Most of my chipping work falls into a few patterns. The first is storm cleanup: branches down from ice or wind, ranging from thumb-sized twigs to pieces as thick as my wrist. The second is the accumulated pile that builds up over a season or two, usually from my own pruning work on the property or from hedge trimming done by someone else. The third is site clearing before removal or major work, where I chip the smaller debris so only the main trunk or stump remains.
I also chip whatever you have been stacking up since the last storm. Homeowners often save branches in a corner, thinking they will deal with them later. By the time they call me, the pile is substantial. That is fine; I chip it all. The material does not have to be fresh. Branches that have been sitting for months still chip, though they may be heavier or have started to rot. The outcome is the same: the pile is gone, and you have mulch or I haul it away.
