stump grinder

[smwwoody]

Hi All

I have recently cut about 30 poplar and white oak to expand my yard.  they were all about 20" DBH.  I got a price of $3500 from a friend to dig them all out with an excavator.  I can rent a large stump grinder for $500 / week.  will the stup grinder do a good enough job to make yard after they are all ground.

Woody

[moosehunter]

It will if you get the correct grinder. Some of the small rental center units will only go a few inches deep. You need to be 12- 18 inches deep to have enough top soil over what is left to have lawn on.

[Chuck White]

Might want to check out a stump grinder service!

Around here, if you have 6 or more stumps, they'll do them for $50.00 each!

They'll go down into the ground pretty good too.

[snowstorm]

$3500???? he is not your freind. what dose he have for an excavator? half a day should do it unless there is something special about this job

[js2743]

i think for that price i would let them rot or burn them out. Get a barrell and set over the stump and burn them. 

[Busy Beaver Lumber]

I am going to agree with Snowstorm. I would not consider anyone a friend that offered to charge me $3500 to pull stumps. A friend would say, pay for my fuel and travel costs and buy me a steak dinner and we will call it even. I don't see that being more than 3 to 4 hours work with a decent size machine. I used to run a Kamotsu PC-120 with a 1 yard bucket and pulled 20 to 30 stumps per hour with it. Even with a Case 580 backhoe, I could pull about 10 an hour of the 20 inch variety. So first suggestion is to get a new friend >:

[NWP]

A friend of mine has a self propelled grinder. It does a good job. He charges $3/inch I think. If you could rent a stump grinder attachment for a skid steer that would probably do a good job

[DonT]

I have my own stump grinder and do it commercially. That said, if you have that many stumps in an area that you want to turn into a lawn , I would not advise grinding them. Many times the grinder does not remove all the stump but grinds it down to below ground level, usually about 10-14 inches  . Eventually the rest of the stump will decay and you will start to have soft spots in your lawn. I would suggest digging them out. Maybe you could dig a hole somewhere else and bury them, using the dirt from the hole for your lawn. Around here I can get a large excavator and operator for about 1500.00 a day, and it can do a lot in a day.   

[5quarter]

For $3500., I would expect that he pull the stumps, bring in topsoil, grade the whole area and seed it. even then, he might be a little high. ;)