I have dealt with heartwood twice and two different houses. The first time I feared I was going to have to pay thousands of dollars on the many trees in my yard. To my relief the heartwood specialist said, "Nope, your trees are OK. We don't need to to anything." The second time they told me that a tree that another tree guy said had to go did not have to come down. They took down one tree and did major pruning on another and cleaned up after themselves. Very professional.