Stump clean up efficiency

Jehinten said:
I have recently been getting several stump clean up jobs. Almost all stumps that are ground out (by a subcontractor) are left as a no clean up. If the customer requests a price for clean up the sub would always handle it.

Recently he's decided to not clean up anymore as he is retired and only grinds as a way to stay busy and as he put it "clean ups are more work than I want to do"

In an attempt to help customers out and to keep them happy I have taken on the extra task but I do feel that it is terribly inefficient.

Tools I'm using. Bobcat mt100 with a smooth bucket and a grapple rake and a BMG rake. Backpack blower and groundskeeper rake. I do not have a dump trailer, so I have been hauling topsoil to the job in bagsters that I can load/unload with the grapple truck.

Today's stump was a white Oak in a backyard. Haul bagsters with topsoil to the backyard, dump out soil, scoop grindings into bagsters, haul to the road and load into the grapple truck. I did not have enough bagsters, so I did have to dump them in the debris box, and fill them again, load the last of the bagsters, spread dirt, chop out missed roots with an axe.... all in all, 3 hrs on site. Working around playground equipment and hauling debris back and forth to the backyard slowed me down but I feel it can be done quicker.

On jobs in the front yard by the street, I typically skip loading the bagsters and I grapple straight into the debris box.

Any suggestions on speeding things up? Any tricks that you guys use?

This was the white Oak from today. I don't have measurements but not massive. View attachment 99793
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What do you think about your outlay/ time versus revenue?


Edit: Do you feel good about your system and want it better, or is it not good enough now?
 
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Another thing I’ve seen is using a leaf sucker for stump clean up. There is a municipality by me that uses one on the regular and it does an amazing job. I do not know the make or the model of the vacuum but it’s old and beastly. It’s a tow behind unit and quite large, roughly the size of a 18” chipper, probably a 16” intake hose. I’ve watched it suck up a 40ish” stump grind in a few minutes and the area looked, well, vacuumed. I don’t think it would be a backyard machine.
 
evo said:
Derail. How well do they work for moving chips compared to a bucket? Using my imagination I’d think they are quicker on and off than dealing with hydraulic lines?
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Scoops are great.

They are a worthwhile change-over in 5 minutes or less, once they are at the machine.

Easier for me to bring 2 scoops that I can carry together or separately at about 60 pounds each than the mulch bucket. They take up less space on the trailer by a bit.
 
RyanCafferky said:
Sounds like you need to ditch the sub and get your own grinder. Then you can bill for the whole job and make it as efficient as can be.
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I've always steered away from this due to not being able to haul a grinder in my current setup. This means a separate trip and the extra time on site.

That said with now doing clean up, I'm making that separate trip regardless. Its something to think about.
On the other hand, I have a great relationship with my current sub, hes's been grinding for me for 10 years and he sends a lot of work my way as well.
 
Daniel said:
3:35 here


it's just a weed whacker or kmbi tool attachment.. I think the attachment runs in the mid 300s... might have gone up...
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I priced them today. The power rake attachment is $380 and the Kombi is $550 plus tax.


I can definitely see where they'd work well for a smaller stump or limited equipment access.

I have a 6' BMG rake followed up by a backpack blower. I'll probably get one of those eventually, but I have two big stumps to clean up tomorrow that I'll have to do without the power broom.
 
southsoundtree said:
What do you think about your outlay/ time versus revenue?


Edit: Do you feel good about your system and want it better, or is it not good enough now?
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I can't say that I feel particularly good about it. It gets the job done and is better than a shovel and wheelbarrow for sure. It may also be that I just need to raise my rate for this service and accept that it is a time draw. As it is, I do not currently make the same per hour as I typically do.

Tomorrow's stumps are pretty big with a large area being ground to remove exposed roots. It's about 90' up a hill to where a dump trailer can be parked.

To cut down on drive time up the hill, I'm thinking to load IBC totes. Fill a couple of them, switch to forks. Flip them in the trailer and then go back down the hill to fill them again.

In a test run, I can carry a tote with 5 buckets of dirt in it. Reducing my travel time by 5-ish (some time loss in switching attachments and flipping totes over) this should also reduce a loss of material while driving as the totes won't be filled to the brim due to weight.
 
Charge accordingly. Bill for the removal, bill for the grinding, bill for the clean up, and bill for dirt. I draw the line at seed or sod because there is no guarantee that they will get watered.
 
flushcut said:
Charge accordingly. Bill for the removal, bill for the grinding, bill for the clean up, and bill for dirt. I draw the line at seed or sod because there is no guarantee that they will get watered.
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That's what I did on the stumps for today. It's a learning curve like when I started bidding removals and pruning.

These stumps I gave them the price I normally would have for digging out and filling with dirt, but just for backfilling with grindings and hauling off the excess. Then an additional price for digging the rest and topsoil.
 
Jehinten said:
I priced them today. The power rake attachment is $380 and the Kombi is $550 plus tax.
I'll probably get one of those eventually, but I have two big stumps to clean up tomorrow that I'll have to do without the power broom.
Click to expand...

I just found one for 100 on fb marketplace...
While I was there I grabbed these lights out of his dumpster
You don't need the
Kombi... a regular weed Wacker will do.

If you're doing a lot of stumps, it's a good tool for the job... even just leaving it all in a pile.
 

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A one-man show can't diversify too much. Too many tools sitting idle.

I'd love resistograph, but I can't have $7k sitting around doing nothing most of the time, imo.

I have a grinder, but avoid using it amap. I need it for good customers occasionally, and I've had it for 17 years. Well paid for itself. Grinding is easily avoidable around my market. I was happy when I had a solid stump contractor...mostly I passed on his number, let him stump and I would climb and cut. The coordination was not worth the money.
 
20251015_124835.webp20251015_124917.webp

I thought I'd share pics of the stumps I did today. I'm really thinking the only way to be efficient on large stumps in open areas is a full size skidsteer/tractor which I do not have.

The top pic is a red Oak, somewhere around 36" where we felled it.
The 2nd pic is a roughly 42-48" siberian elm at the felling cut that had 20' of exposed roots all around it. The Oak alone filled a 16' dump trailer. As I pulled the pea gravel back from around the siberian elm, I noticed that the exposed roots pulled up pretty easily with a grapple rake. I was able to pull a lot of the roots to cut down on the amount of grinding. 20250930_140150.webp


The job went well enough, just always looking for what can make it go faster/ easier
 
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