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Got a quote of £600 to remove grind one pretty big beech stump in the garden.
Was going to hire a concrete breaker to remove some wall foundations and noticed that the hire company also does stump grinders. But they do seem pretty small compared to the pro's...
Done loads of stump pulling out in the past but never used a grinder. Is it fraught with problems or relatively straightforward?
The 600 is just grinding. We'll have to remove all the chips etc afterwards.
I would do it, what can possibly go wrong? As long as the teeth on the grinder are sharp.
Be ready for the rotting roots to produce some spectacular crops of fungi over the next few Autumns.
As long as the teeth on the grinder are sharp.
Ah. They certainly won't be for long. The whole area is infested with gravel and bricks and stones......
How big is the stump? I had an old Ash tree which measured about 3 foot diameter at about 4 foot above the ground. The stump was left at about that height after we cut it off about 10 years ago as the saws we had would go any thicker. It used to be tucked away in the corner and no issue, but recently I wanted to use the space to park a trailer. I looked at getting a stump grinder in to do the job, but then was digging around the thing with my 3 tonne mini digger and wondered how much of a job it would be to dig it out. 5 minutes later I had the thing completely free and on a trailer to cart away. It is worth remembering that tree roots tent not to go that deep and you if you can expose the bigger ones below the surface and cut them with an axe, it isn't long before there is not much left holding the stump in the ground. Then it is only a matter of pulling it over, either with a digger, like I had, or with a winch.
What I am trying to say is that if the stump is not massive, then maybe ask a local man with a digger for a quote to rip it out. £600 would buy a lot of hours of work and I bet he would do it for far far less.
I agree about trying to dig it out. I've done a few and its quite satisfying. Once it is out then its less mess to deal with and less left in the hole (although you do end up with a heavy lump). I expect Welshfarmer's man-with-a-digger will do a load of the foundation removal for you too. Might even have a digger mounted breaker.
I'm currently battling with the three tensioning stumps from some large leylandii. Largest is nearly 2ft actually and I think it's beaten me. I've dug a hold well over 1m deep and it's still going. I think it depends what sort of ground they are in. If it's a slope,I think it may be harder than some people think.
It will depend on surroundings as to whether you dig or grind it out, also what underground services there are. If you hire a grinder it's a fairly simple job but you need to attack it from the side(s). They work on the shear rather than top down. It will just take a little longer than pro versions. Remove any big rocks and stones but don't worry about little pebbles. A thick pair of trousers and a double layer of eye protection (visor and glasses) are my recommendations.
Ive dug a laurel and several leylandi out of our garden. Its not that bad. Especially if you've had the tree down a while, the big roots will still be there but all the little fibrous ones that actually grip the soil will have rotted. As long as you can vut through the big ones they just pull out of the soil.
If its bigger than about 18" diameter though Id hire a man + digger, thats about the size at which manhandling it becomes difficult even with 2 people.
Clear as much stone/gravel/non-wood away and then got for it...simple enough to do but don't expect huge chunks gone with each pass, but it'll grind it down.
I hired one a few weeks back to get rid of a Sycamore stump and root network. PITA job as the grinder fired all the bits under itself (safest place) but it meant it just buried itself in about 2 mins and I'd have to move it, shovel the huge pile of earth / clippings and then move it back and eat away another 2" worth of stump. The novelty of this process soon wore off! You also can't see what you're grinding as the petrol engine was in the way, so you had to go by feel. You can't take a look as if you let go of the safety handle the engine cuts out instantly.
In the end I thought I'd got it all, but I then had to dig a drain through the root network and found out I'd missed loads and had to chop through roots for several feet.
Not a very satisfactory experience if I'm honest.
NB They're a brute force machine and the 'blade' was just two lumps of hardened steel (totally blunt) but when spinning at 500 rpm, anything in their way was smashed to pieces inc rocks.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770653066_4011cd76bb_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770653066_4011cd76bb_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2iQ4Bb3 ]Stump grinding[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770121933_1efab022c1_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770121933_1efab022c1_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2iQ1Thz ]Stump grinding[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770653251_d3f7bb570b_z.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/49770653251_d3f7bb570b_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2iQ4Bee ]Stump grinding[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Using a sharp object create a bowl in the stump, add oil/diesel mixture, add lit match, sit around it with a beer and lockdown pal in the evening.
My brother had a medium sized tree in his front garden that he felled himself but couldn't do the stump. So he phones this bloke & a price was agreed but the bloke & his stump grinder never appeared. About a week later there's a knock at the door. It's the next door neighbour who my brother is (was) on good terms with. Conversation goes something like, "Were you getting someone in to do some tree work"? Err, yes says my brother, why's that? Well says the neighbour, my silver birch has been felled and the stump removed whilst I was out for the day & the contractor has left me an invoice for several hundred pounds!
Make sure your contractor has the address correct :o)
The average cost of tree stump removal in the UK ranges from £50 to £300 per stump. I think £600 is pisstakingly expensive. Get another quote, there's loads to choose from.
Christ, I didn't look at the cost!
I had a quote for 400 quid for 4 pretty large stumps.
Try your local StumpBusters, they're franchised all over the place.
remove all the chips etc afterwards
We got local stumpbusters guy in, no chips left as it gets all mixed up in the soil.
+1 for price taking the piss
I hired a stump grinder last year, was quite a big one and think it was about 60 for the weekend. Iirc recently cut stumps took longer but ones that had been down for a while took little to no time. I ground a stump at my mums about 6ft across in less than 5 mins (May have been rotten though)
Think the one I got was something like £125 per day too hire (Cambridge prices though)....