Stump Grinding Estimates

[corndogg]

Are you saying $600 for a 7' stump is excessive? I guess it depends on your hourly rate and your expected travel time. But it's going to take 3-4 hours to grind and clean up (assuming its a leave mulch). At $125/hr thats still $500 and you need to build some travel time into that price.

I don't mind the price but I don't think anybody is gonna pay it. Like I said, the HO will wait till some lowballer will do it for $100 cause he needs to make his payment next week. It's a sad world. I think I did a nearly 7 footer(cottonwood) last year and I don't think it took over 2 hours with a 1625 Rayco but I did have a helper raking mulch away. I don't know, I like the square inch method but the lowballers are gonna get the work. I just bid a 14 ft cottonwood trunk with this 84" stump. I told him $500. He said " That's about what I thought it would cost" I knew it was a little cheap but I thought "I just know somebody took the rest of the tree for 1100 (lowballer)" You've gotta bid em to get em, otherwise I'm just out sightseein. I drove there with the dump truck and skid loader. Flopped her and cut into three chunks and loaded. Drove a half hour and dumped for free(mulch is in high demand so they take wood for free luckily) Came back for skidloader and was out in three hours. Now I gotta find someone to grind the 84" stump. They can drive up to it with a pull behind grinder. Leave mulch, don't worry about tearing anything up, landscaping soon. I was figuring I could get someone to do it for $2/inch = 168. Know anybody that can do it around here? Am I crazy?

 

[masiman]

You're right, I was just thinking it through without double checking the calcs on paper. If you double the diameter you 4x the area (2 squared), if you 4x the diameter then you 16 times the area (4 squared). Thanks for correcting my oversight.

I knew that you knew the math. I thought it might help someone else

 

[Gunsmoke]

Like we said it will only be a matter of time before a guy like this (unless he has some "illegal employees") couldn't be around for long. At the rate he got paid he may as well put in 4hrs at Lowe's or somewhere! After fuel to get there, fuel in mach., teeth wear, his wage to himself, etc.... he should have stayed home. Keep on going after it man... let these boneheads run until there wheels fall off!!! Then go to their auction and have a hotdog and a Coke and smile as you bid on some cheap equipment

 

[Gunsmoke]

Just to be clear I was talking about the lowballer who stole the job from bombdude for $100.

 

[ropensaddle]

Just to be clear I was talking about the lowballer who stole the job from bombdude for $100.

May have been a lowballer, may have had a big grinder! My grinder
will grind that stump in ten minutes time so 25.00 diesel = 7.50 per minute
not bad!

 

[tomtrees58]

est

stumps here on LI NY its 5$ and inch you con do over phone tom trees

 

[Gunsmoke]

That's pretty good rate @ $5 per/inch. Ropensaddle, it looked like he only had a 35 1/2" gate to get through." I just bid a 56" pine stump w/6' of roots in each direction (probably about 17 linear feet of grinding area), inside a stone wall fence with one 35 1/2" cypress doorway." I figured it must be a portable to get to it. Is your big machine a tow behind? I know w/ my 7015 it would take a little while to get that one done(depending on full depth, neighbor wanting to count how many grinder teeth are on machine,etc). without seeing it I would ballpark it @ $275. Just what I was thinking. If you could get a big old horsepower grinder to it in an open area and blow it out quick... you are right @ $100 you'd do good.

 

[tomtrees58]

tree stumps

hi tom trees here and yes i have 630b 5$ and inch is the nom rember this is L I N Y The gold cost have a good day

 

[Gunsmoke]

I got ya. I would take a guess that you guys pay more for everything in your area? $5 an inch here would be a beautiful thing in Ohio. THX for the reply.

 

[ropensaddle]

That's pretty good rate @ $5 per/inch. Ropensaddle, it looked like he only had a 35 1/2" gate to get through." I just bid a 56" pine stump w/6' of roots in each direction (probably about 17 linear feet of grinding area), inside a stone wall fence with one 35 1/2" cypress doorway." I figured it must be a portable to get to it. Is your big machine a tow behind? I know w/ my 7015 it would take a little while to get that one done(depending on full depth, neighbor wanting to count how many grinder teeth are on machine,etc). without seeing it I would ballpark it @ $275. Just what I was thinking. If you could get a big old horsepower grinder to it in an open area and blow it out quick... you are right @ $100 you'd do good.

I did not know the access thing, ya that would be a high dollar.

 

[tomtrees58]

yes L I $$$ 3 man trim 1200.00 pr day tom trees

 

[masterarbor]

hi tom trees here and yes i have 630b 5$ and inch is the nom rember this is L I N Y The gold cost have a good day

 

[ropensaddle]

Me too, but I read between L I & z lines lol!

 

[OLD CHIPMONK]

Stump included $ 3850.00

Remove Water Oak; open backyard 4men, myself (11hrs total ) Included (2 hrs. & 45 min. grinding w/ 630B all hauling ( 2 mi. from dump ) 5 load total @ $25.00 a load. Figured stump 28 ft. grind area @ 8" average depth $500.00 . Everything cleaned-up> everyone happy. $ 3850.00 mid-price for our area. Sawed & dropped ( after removing hips ) Sthil 046 / 32" Bar. ALL OLD SCHOOL WORK !

 

[Slvrmple72]

You could see the "rookie stump grinder" show up to a stump like that with a little 25hp manual grinder that he bid over the phone for like 100 bucks:jawdrop:

Nice job and good price on that ol' Oak.

Do you stump fellas have a large and a small unit for flexibility in dealing with close quarters or small stumps that wouldn't warrant the trouble of getting the big grinder out? I realize that when you start out you are using one unit usually so this question may apply more to an established co.

 

[stump grinder]

When I first started grinding 6 years ago I tried to set up by using the circumfrence/area method. What i found was that this was a good reference for me only. I currently charge $2.25/ inch up to around the 36" range. Then I use $3 / inch as a starting point. I take into account the extra roots and if the root ball requires me to level out the surrounding ground. Also the amount of grindings I need to clear away to see what I am grinding. The larger ones go on the invoice as a quoted price and not by the inch as the smallers ones do because of this. I also use a rayco 1625. I account for the time I think I will have into the larger stumps. To avoid sticker shock to the customer I look at what else they are having me do. Three small stumps that take 30 minutes and fetch $100 lets me adjust the price for the larger stump. I have also charged the full rate on larger stump and then do some of the smaller ones for free.In the end I look for about a $100/ hour income. It really is a judgement call that comes from experience. Expect to burn and then learn. My first job with a rayco 1620 took 14 hours, all 5 foot plus stumps and loaded with embeded rock. I made about $35/ hour. Burn and learn. You want to bid to get the job, but when it comes to the larger stuff make sure you bid high enough to make it worth your while. Remember that you are in this for profit and not charity. On the other side of this. Last year I did a row of mature cedars, about 50 of them. I bid $650 . I did the job in two hours. Much faster than I expected. I made sure to do a good job cleaning up outside of the grinding area. I told the customer that it went well and to call if they found anything that they did not like. You don't want the customer to feel like they got screwed because the job went well. I am confident that they will use me again.

 

[bombdude]

That's pretty good rate @ $5 per/inch. Ropensaddle, it looked like he only had a 35 1/2" gate to get through." I just bid a 56" pine stump w/6' of roots in each direction (probably about 17 linear feet of grinding area), inside a stone wall fence with one 35 1/2" cypress doorway." I figured it must be a portable to get to it. Is your big machine a tow behind? I know w/ my 7015 it would take a little while to get that one done(depending on full depth, neighbor wanting to count how many grinder teeth are on machine,etc). without seeing it I would ballpark it @ $275. Just what I was thinking. If you could get a big old horsepower grinder to it in an open area and blow it out quick... you are right @ $100 you'd do good.

yep. definitely a restricted access job. Don't know who the guy was or what kind of machine he was runnin'. But apparently there is one low baller out there with a portable machine.

ropensaddle, man what size is your machine?? 10 minutes, wow!! gotta be a rush to have that kinda power. Back up to a big old stump & blow it away. My little 34 horse gets the job done, but it's a little slow on the bigger stumps. I did an 8 footer a while back that took right at 3 hours. That included cutting it down and shoving the block (6') into the woods. luckily he
lived in a rural area & I didn't have to haul it away. I bid $350, so it worked out pretty well.