PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
There are three honest answers to a stump, and the right one depends on what the ground is for. Here is how each works, what it costs, which one we do and which one we send you to somebody else for.
If something is going to be built on or driven over the ground, the stump and its roots have to come out: that is grubbing, excavator and dozer work, and it is what we do. If the stump is in a yard and you just want it gone below grade, that is stump grinding, a different machine and a different trade, and we do not run one. If the ground is pasture, woods or anything that stays soft, most stumps can be cut low, mulched over and left to rot, which costs nothing. The mistake is using the yard answer on a building site.
Most of the stump questions we get are really land questions in disguise. A tree came down, or a lot was cleared with a mulcher, and now there are stumps and the owner wants to know how to get rid of them. Before choosing a method, decide what the ground is for. That answer picks the method for you.
Grubbing means removing the stump and the root ball together, with an excavator or a dozer with a root rake. The machine hooks under the stump, breaks the taproot and the laterals, lifts the whole crown out, and the hole gets backfilled and compacted. Nothing woody is left under the surface.
This is the only method that leaves ground you can build on. A stump ground flush and buried under a pad rots over the next five years and the fill above it settles, which is how slabs crack and driveways sink. Every geotech report on a Texas building site says the same thing: organics out of the footprint. It is also the only permanent answer for mesquite, which resprouts from the crown below ground when it is cut or ground and comes back thicker.
What it costs: grubbing is priced by the machine day, with the excavator and dozer as their own lines separate from mulching. Our 12 acre San Antonio grubbing job ran three days at $18,000 to $21,000, and a house pad footprint on a lot that has already been mulched is usually a single dozer day. Full detail on the grubbing page and the tree and stump removal page.
When it is the answer: building pads, driveways and roads, septic fields, any pasture where mesquite has to be gone for good, and fence lines where the posts are going in.
A stump grinder is a wheeled machine with a spinning carbide wheel that chews the stump down to six or twelve inches below the surface. The roots stay in the ground and rot over the following years. It is fast, it is cheap per stump, and it leaves a hole full of chips you can rake out and sod over the same afternoon.
It is the right answer for a stump in a lawn, next to a house, under a driveway that is not going to be rebuilt, or anywhere an excavator would tear up more than it fixed. It is the wrong answer under anything that is about to be built, because the root mass is still there. And on mesquite and hackberry it is temporary, because the crown resprouts.
We do not run a stump grinder and we do not quote single residential stumps. Stump grinding is its own trade, a tree service or a stump grinding outfit does it well and cheaply, and we will say so on the phone rather than send an excavator to your front yard. If you have one stump in a lawn, call a grinder. If you have a lot full of stumps and something planned for the ground, call us.
On pasture, woods, hunting land, trails and anything else that stays soft, most stumps do not need to come out at all. A forestry mulcher cuts them to within an inch or two of the ground and leaves a mulch layer over them, and they rot into the soil over a few years. Cedar and most hardwoods do not resprout from the stump. You can drive a truck or a tractor over a mulched stump field the day the machine leaves.
This is the cheapest answer because it is included in the clearing. It is the wrong answer for mesquite, huisache and hackberry, which resprout from the crown and need either a follow-up mulching pass in two to three years or grubbing. And it is the wrong answer for a pad. The after forestry mulching guide covers what grows back and when to bring the machine back.
Chemical stump killers, drilling and salting, and burning the stump out all work eventually on a single stump in a yard, and none of them scale to a lot or a pasture. Burning is also illegal under a burn ban and dangerous next to a mulched tract. If you have more than a handful of stumps, the arithmetic favors a machine every time.
Whatever method takes the stump, the ground behind it is not finished. A grubbed hole gets backfilled with the spoil, compacted in lifts, and graded so it does not settle or hold water. A ground stump leaves a chip-filled depression that settles for a year unless the chips come out and the hole gets soil. Mulched stumps leave the ground level and covered. On a build site the pad is cut and filled to the engineer’s grade after grubbing, with the mulch scraped off the footprint, and that is dozer work covered on our excavation and dirt work page. The sequence for a homesite, from clearing to pad to driveway, is in the clearing land for a house guide.
It depends on the ground. Grubbing with an excavator removes the stump and roots and is the only method that leaves buildable ground. Stump grinding takes a single yard stump below grade quickly and cheaply but leaves the roots. On pasture or woods, cutting low with a mulcher and leaving the stump to rot costs nothing extra.
Yes, under any pad, driveway or road. Stumps and roots left under fill rot and settle, which cracks slabs. The footprint gets grubbed to bare soil and the mulch scraped off before grading.
No. We grub stumps and root balls out with excavators and dozers as part of land clearing and site work. We do not run a stump grinder and do not quote single residential stumps; a tree service or stump grinding outfit does that better and cheaper.
Grubbing is priced by the machine day with the excavator and dozer as separate lines. A 12 acre San Antonio grubbing job ran three days at $18,000 to $21,000; a pad footprint on an already mulched lot is usually one dozer day. Grinding a single yard stump is a tree service price, not ours.
Cedar and most hardwoods do not resprout from the stump. Mesquite, huisache, hackberry and yaupon resprout from the crown below ground and come back thicker; those need grubbing or a follow-up pass every two to three years.
Yes. Mulched stumps cut to an inch or two above ground can be driven over immediately and rot into the soil in a few years. They only have to come out where something is being built or where mesquite needs to be gone permanently.
A grubbed hole is backfilled with the spoil, compacted in lifts and graded. A ground stump hole should have the chips removed and be filled with soil or it will settle. A build pad is cut and filled to the engineer’s grade after grubbing.
Send photos and tell us what the ground is for. We will tell you which stumps have to come out, which can stay, and what the machine days look like. One stump in a lawn, call a grinder.