Stump grinding and stump removal

A stump is the part of a tree job that gets quietly left out and then sits in the middle of a lawn for a decade. We quote it as its own line on the estimate, so you can see exactly what it adds and decide either way. Most people say yes once they can see it written down, because grinding it at the same visit costs a fraction of bringing a machine back on its own later.

Our grinder is tracked rather than wheeled, which matters on the properties round here. Tracks spread the weight, so it crosses a lawn without cutting it up and it will go up a slope and through soft ground that a wheeled machine would churn. It is narrow enough for most side gates, so a back garden stump does not mean taking a fence panel out, though we will take one out and put it back if that is the only way in.

How deep we go depends on what the ground is for afterwards. If you are putting turf over it, we go deep enough that the root plate is below anything a mower will ever find. If you are planting into the same spot, we go deeper again and take more of the lateral roots out, because a new tree will not thrive sitting in the remains of the old one. If it is going under a patio, a path or a shed base, tell us at the estimate and we grind to that. Say what you want the ground to do and we grind to suit it.

Grinding produces a surprising volume of chip, roughly the size of the stump again in loose material. You have a choice. We can take it all away and backfill the hole with soil, which is what you want if the area is being turfed or planted. Or we can rake the chip back into the hole, which is free, settles over a season and is perfectly fine if the spot is going to be bed or rough ground. We will point out which one suits your plan.

We also grind stumps left behind by somebody else, and old stumps that have been there long enough to have gone soft. Surface roots running out across a lawn get taken out at the same time where they are causing a problem. Estimates are free and happen at the property, and the same rule applies as everywhere else. We come and look before we quote.

There are stumps we will not grind, and we would rather tell you at the estimate than discover it with a machine running. Anything with a utility running through it, a stump we cannot reach with the grinder without taking out something more valuable than the stump, and stumps sitting in ground with concrete or old wire buried in them. Concrete and metal destroy grinder teeth in seconds, so if we can see it we will say so, and if we suspect it we will tell you it is a risk before we start rather than afterwards.

One thing to know about grinding a stump is that what comes out is chip and soil, not a clean hole. The area needs a few weeks to settle before you build, turf or plant on it, and it will drop a little as it does. We will tell you how long to leave it for what you have planned. Estimates are free, they happen at the property, and most jobs are quoted the same day we look.