Stump Grinding....Leave or Take grindings?

[Friendlytree]

How many people leave the grindings on site and how many take them away? I like to leave them, for the simple reason don't need a dump truck, just one guy can take a pickup and the grinder out and get to a lot more stumps. Some times I feel kinda bad leaving a large pile of chips for the client to get rid of, but that is what was agreed on in the contract. Does anyone take them and then offer the service of top soil and grass seed?

 

[jodystreeserv3]

We offer the service of top soil and sod but most people say to just leave the grindings

 

[Lumberjack]

We offer anything up to sodding the area.

Usually we leave the debris as is, which is generally how I sell it.

 

[WolverineMarine]

I'll take the grindings but at extra cost to the customer..and to be honest..I dont offer the service unless they request it..its a pain to have to have to deal with

 

[AspenArbo]

It all depends on what they are wanting to pay for... Don't sell yourself short and do things they aren't paying for!

 

[SimonCX]

We usually take the grindings away because alot of our customers don't want it left behind, but we charge extra for it.

 

[treehumper]

Left them behind in a neat pile or charged to remove.

 

[TANNER]

Usually add the price to clean mulch, when it is a full removal. If just grinding I like to price it both ways. But it is nice quick in, grind, out! Don't really try to get into a bunch of dirt work, but do occasionally.

 

[Daniel]

I almost always leave the grindings, but want to start offering the service of taking them.. Bought an F-350 dump for just that reason... Might haul some wood with it too... And really want to set up to take the chips and put down topsoil. Why give it to the landscapers?

 

[southsoundtree]

A person could package grinding hauling with soil hauling, bringing you to the site full, and leaving full.

This will also set you up for replanting, which can then also be packaged.

I don't like doing the grunt work of hauling stump grindings, but I am accustomed to manually dealing with brush at times,anyhow. I would rather have the whole deal (dispose, fill, plant) or just grind, ideally.




What do people do with grindings for disposal?

I fill some low spots in my field with the wood/ soil mix.

 

[cory]

Leaving the grindings is always easy, but most people can't handle cleaning it up, so we usually do it. Usually it is X to grind and 2X to clean up the mess.

 

[Lumberjack]

I haul the stump chips to the same place that takes my other tree debris.

What's so hard about cleaning up stumps for the customer? Granted today's 82yo customer with a cane probably "couldn't" but my average customer can handle it no problem. They may not want to, but they surely can.

 

[treehumper]

Just don't give it away. That's the important part. It's labor and thus has a cost associated with it.

 

[lickitysplitter1]

with our company stump removal means just that..grind it clean it up.. done i cant believe customers give anyone a final payment with a large pile of woodchips/stump grindings left behind.. it would be nice to get paid extra for that but i see it as part of the overall tree removal

 

[RyanCafferky]

The company that I work for almost always hauls away grindings. Especially if it is a stump in a landscaped yard. What we found works really well is to just grind the body of the stump and to avoid getting dirt into those chips. Then we back the machine up, load those chips into the chip truck, and then finish the grinding. After doing this, the small amount of grindings left from the roots and the rest of the body of the stump usually doesn't impact replanting or regrading the area. We tell our customers that we charge a little more than other tree services do for stump grinding but we also tell them that we know we are doing a better job.

I remember one 8' giant sequoia stump that we ground that had so many grindings we hauled at least 10 yards of grindings off of it. Luckily we were able to use the tractor to load all of those instead of using the garbage can like we usually do. When you grind sequoia stumps the wood is really soft so you can take big bites with the grinder and the chips come off like big curly shavings. It might grind really fast, but the problem with that is they take up a lot of space in the truck.

 

[cory]

[ QUOTE ]
I haul the stump chips to the same place that takes my other tree debris.

What's so hard about cleaning up stumps for the customer? Granted today's 82yo customer with a cane probably "couldn't" but my average customer can handle it no problem. They may not want to, but they surely can.

[/ QUOTE ]

Many people have no place on their property to toss the grindings, so a DIY job is made unlikely.

 

[Lumberjack]

Here they can either haul it off, bag it up, or just put it on the street and the city will pick it up.

 

[TANNER]

Ryan that method sounds like it would work good to keep the dirt out. Dirt does make it hard to clean up. You are probably talking about a tow behind or a big four wheel drive model. Our little 252 wouldn't do so good, but good tip!

And Cory, it so happens that I have thrown my cane down to clean stumps before. I am not 82, but I did do it when I was on a cane. Well I was probably still soppost to be on a walker! Last summer an older gentalman insisted to leave the mess. I came by later to collect and he was doing it. Way to hot, and there was a lot! So I insisted on cleaning it up.

A few years back, a guy had my dad put down a couple of maples. Did not want to spend much money. His wife called my dad the next day MAD! GET OVER HERE AND CLEAN THIS STUFF UP! What had happened is, he got out to clean it up, and had a stroke within an hour. So yes, I agree, there is a line to when you leave a mess and when you don't!

 

[pajeepman]

We almost always leave the grindings. We always rake them up and leave a neat pile. The customer is ALWAYS told there will be a pile, sometimes quite larger. Cleaning them up isn't bad if we can get a skid steer to the pile. We have hauled them away and put in topsoil, a few times we have laid sod down also. The largest stump we did was a silver maple stump. We bought a ms880 with a 60" bar to flush the stump, had to hit it from both sides. We still have the stump, it's at least 7' at it's widest point. It took an 8 hour day to grind it and clean it up, it could only be flushed about 2' above grade with the flare rock at the base, surrounded by a driveway. It filled a F-550 stakebody with 3' side and 20' long bed at least twice. I have pictures of the stump, I need to try and post them.

I have ground stumps for another "tree service" since he doesn't have a grinder. He said grind 4" below grade, load the grinder and go, it didn't feel right doing that half a$$ a job. No clean up or anything, I was glad we were towing the chipper with his truck so our name wasn't associated with the crappy job.

I ground my neighbors stump, they put trash bags with grindings out every trash day for a few weeks and got rid of the grindings that way.

 

[treehumper]

People have time or money to trade. Find out what the person has more of and is willing to part with then offer them the solution that best fits at the price that works for you.