PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
You bought the lot. Now something has to come off it before anything can go on it. We clear build lots, homesites and acreage with forestry mulchers, keep the trees worth keeping, and quote the work in published machine days so you can see what you are buying before anyone turns up. Building on the lot? Start with our clearing land for a house guide: what to clear, what to keep, and what it costs.
A forestry mulcher takes standing growth down and turns it into a mulch layer where it stood. No dozer pushing piles, no excavator loading, no trucks hauling, no disposal fee. That is why it costs less than the traditional version and why it finishes in days rather than weeks.
People sometimes expect bare dirt at the end. What you get is a mulch layer over the ground, and it is doing work: holding soil through the first Texas downpour, keeping moisture in, and slowing the regrowth that wants to come straight back. Pushed and burned ground does none of that.
Mulching takes the growth down to the ground. If a slab, a driveway base or a septic field is going in, the stumps and roots have to come out too, and that is grubbing, a different machine and a separate line on the quote. Which one you need depends entirely on what gets built.
Our minimum is one machine day. A typical build lot is comfortably inside that, which means a half-acre lot and a full-acre lot often cost the same, because a lowboy, a machine and an operator have to turn up regardless. Better to know that now than after you have a quote.
The pad footprint, the driveway line and enough working room around both for the trades that come after. Builders usually want more cleared than the owner expects, which is worth settling before we start rather than halfway through.
Ten acres where you want two open and the rest thinned. This is where selective clearing earns its money: the cedar comes out, the oaks stay, and the place still looks like the reason you bought it.
Long drives on acreage are usually the first thing cleared and the last thing budgeted. We open the corridor to a width that works for a concrete truck, not just a pickup.
Field lines, service runs and easements all need clear ground before the installers arrive. We clear what they need opened and stay out of the design side of it.
You bought land that had been left alone for fifteen years and cannot walk it, let alone plan on it. Opening it up so you can actually see what you own is one of the most common first jobs we do.
Flag them and we will work around them. Our operators are good at it, but you know which oaks matter and we do not, so a walk with a can of marking paint before we start changes what you end up with.
$3,000 per day for a skid steer mulcher with transport included, or $4,000 per day plus transport for a high horsepower dedicated mulcher. One day is the minimum on either. Most contractors will not put those numbers on a page; ours are on our price page with the arithmetic worked out.
Most residential build lots are a single day, so $3,000 to $4,000 depending on the machine the growth needs. On acreage, light brush works out around $1,300 to $2,000 an acre, mixed cedar and mesquite $1,600 to $2,700, and heavy thicket $2,700 to $4,000, once the job is big enough to spread a day across.
Stem size and density before anything else. Then whether you want it clear cut or worked around keepers, how much room the machine has to manoeuvre, gate width, slope, and how far we are travelling. Small tight lots in town are slower than open acreage of the same size.
If a slab or a driveway base is going down, budget for grubbing as well. It is a separate machine and a separate line, and it is the difference between ground that looks clear and ground a builder can actually pour on.
Quote first, walk after you approve it. Same order as every trade we run.
Photos of the lot, the rough size, your county, and what is going on it. What you are building decides whether this is a mulching job or a mulching and grubbing job.
Machine days on paper: the machine, the days, transport, and grubbing as its own line if the build needs it. Priced from lots we have already cleared.
Once you approve the estimate we walk it together. Keepers get flagged, the pad footprint and drive line get agreed, and we settle how much working room the trades after us will need.
The lowboy brings the machine sized to the growth. We need a gate it fits through and somewhere to stage, and we work around anything you have asked us to protect.
Growth goes down and through the head, mulch stays on the ground. Most residential lots are a single day. You are welcome on site, outside the working radius.
A slow lap around the finished lot together, against the quote. Keepers standing, edges where you wanted them, ground ready for whoever comes next.
Almost every job where somebody is unhappy at the end started with the owner picturing the pad footprint and the builder needing room for a concrete truck, a lumber drop and a portaloo. Settle the working area on the walk, in front of both of you, and the problem disappears.
A quarter acre in town with a narrow gate, a fence either side and a neighbour to keep happy takes longer than an open acre on a ranch. Access and manoeuvring room drive the day count more than square footage does on small lots.
The most expensive lot clearing we see is the one done cheaply by somebody who cut everything flush and left it. Two years later the brush is back thicker and somebody pays again. If regrowth matters on your lot, price the root work now rather than the tidy-up later.
Standing growth hides slope, rock, low spots and where water actually runs. Plenty of owners change where they want the house after the lot is open, which is a very good reason to clear before the plans are final rather than after.
They did a great job for us. We had them clear our 4 acre residential lot of about 3 acres of cedar and yaupon.
Keith Williams, Google review
I am a home builder in Baton Rouge Louisiana, but I am working on a pretty large project in Austin Texas. I have a lot of experience working alongside contractors in all trades.
Alan Colby, Google review
I highly recommend Pierce Land Clearing! They were incredibly responsive and had a crew on site within a few days of our initial contact.
Ralph Sharp, Google review
Most residential build lots are a single machine day, which is $3,000 with a skid steer mulcher, transport included, or $4,000 plus transport if the growth needs a high horsepower machine. One day is our minimum, so a half acre and a full acre often cost the same.
Once a job is big enough to spread a machine day across: roughly $1,300 to $2,000 an acre for light brush, $1,600 to $2,700 for mixed cedar and mesquite, and $2,700 to $4,000 for heavy thicket. Below that size the day minimum governs instead.
Nothing much, beyond scale and habit. Lot clearing usually means a build lot or a homesite; land clearing usually means acreage. Same machines, same day rates, same crew.
Only if what you are building needs it. For ground going back to lawn, pasture or trail, the mulcher takes growth down and stumps can stay. If a slab, driveway base or septic field is going in, the roots have to come out and that is grubbing, quoted as its own line.
They go through the mulching head and stay on your lot as a mulch layer. No burning, no hauling, no disposal fee, and the mulch holds your soil through the first storm rather than letting it wash off bare ground.
Yes, and it is most of what we do. Flag them before we start. Walking the lot with marking paint takes fifteen minutes and it is the single biggest thing you can do to get the result you actually pictured.
Most residential lots are one day on site. Acreage runs from a day to several depending on size and how thick the growth is. The quote says the day count, and the day count is what you are buying.
No, but you are welcome. What matters is that the keepers are flagged and the working area is agreed before we start, which is what the site walk is for.
Send photos and tell us what you are building. You will have a ballpark in machine days the same day, from the rates published on this site.
Residential and lot work we have documented recently: a three quarter acre house pad in Austin. Each one is written up with the day count, the machine used and what it cost.