Stump grinding or full stump removal?
They are two different jobs and people use the words interchangeably. Here is the difference, and which one you actually need.
The stump is cut away below the surface.
A cutting wheel reduces the stump to chips and works down past ground level. The main root ball stays in the earth and rots away over the following years, out of sight, doing no harm.
- Fast, and it does not tear up the surrounding ground
- Leaves grindings you can rake, plant grass over, or use as mulch
- Reaches places a machine big enough to dig never could
- Costs a fraction of digging the stump out
This is what we do, and for the overwhelming majority of yards it is the right answer.
The whole stump and root plate come out of the ground.
Full removal means excavation. Something with a bucket digs around the stump, cuts the anchor roots and lifts the lot out, which leaves a hole the size of the root plate and a pile of soil and timber to get rid of.
- Torn-up ground either side of where the stump was
- A hole that has to be filled with something and then settled
- Heavy machine access, which a lot of back yards do not have
- Considerably more money and considerably more mess
You need it when you are building on the spot, running a new footing or a utility line through it, or replanting a tree in the exact same hole.
The honest test.
You want to mow over it, plant grass, or just stop looking at it
Grinding. Every time. Nothing about your situation is improved by digging a crater in the lawn.
You are pouring concrete or setting a footing on that spot
Removal, or a deep grind. Talk to us first. The SC352 goes to 14 in below grade, which is deeper than a lot of people assume, and for some builds that is enough. For some it is not, and we will say so.
You want to plant a new tree in the same hole
Say so before we start. A normal grind leaves wood in the ground that a young root system will not thank you for. We can go deeper and take more of the root flare out.
The stump keeps sending up shoots
Grinding stops it. Take the stump and the root collar out and there is nothing left to push new growth from.
Not sure which one you need?
Describe the stump and what you want to do with the spot. If grinding is not the right answer for you, Lance will tell you that on the phone.