shaving removal

[bombdude]

I'm one of those grinders that never removes shavings, although I've had a few customers request it. I usually grade & level them, & dress them up with a rake.

Actually, I did 2 removals. The first reminded me of why I don't like to do it. The second I paid my 19 yr old son when he was home from college.

Anyway, I've thought about using a large backpack blower to blow the shavings outta the hole, & then scoop/rake them up. I carry a small hand blower with me for cleanup of porches & sidewalks when necessary, but I know it ain't got the power to blow shavings.

Have any of y'all tried this?? Does it work??

I guess a part of me is itching to buy a new power tool, but I hate to buy something that doesn't do the job.

 

[arbor pro]

I'm one of those grinders that never removes shavings, although I've had a few customers request it. I usually grade & level them, & dress them up with a rake.

Actually, I did 2 removals. The first reminded me of why I don't like to do it. The second I paid my 19 yr old son when he was home from college.

Anyway, I've thought about using a large backpack blower to blow the shavings outta the hole, & then scoop/rake them up. I carry a small hand blower with me for cleanup of porches & sidewalks when necessary, but I know it ain't got the power to blow shavings.

Have any of y'all tried this?? Does it work??

I guess a part of me is itching to buy a new power tool, but I hate to buy something that doesn't do the job.

Using a blower doesn't make much sense to me. You'll just scatter the chips all over the place again.

If you want to keep costs low, then rake/blow everything to the hole. Go to a farm supply store and buy one of those 12-prong (about 18" wide) pitch forks. They work great for wood chips. If you can't pitch them directly into a pickup or trailer, then spend another $100 on a poly wheelbarrow and make a small ramp for running the wheelbarrow up into the vehicle.

I cleaned up several hundred stumps this way before investing in a mini skid loader with a grapple bucket (but that costs a bit more than your average power tool).

 

[BC WetCoast]

A backpack blower has enough power to blow the mulch out, depending on how wet is, how much dirt and mud is mixed in, whether you packed it down with the machine.

A skid steer is out of the question, so all removal is using the armstrong machinery.

All I'm supplied with is a 4 pronged pitch fork, a steel tined leaf rake and a grain scoop. If the mulch is sitting on a flat surface (eg concrete or grass), then the grain scoop works well running it along the interface. For a pile of mulch I use the pitch fork. The rake allows me to clear out the hole pretty quickly.

If I can't scoop directly into the truck, then I either use a wheelbarrow or garbage can. If I have to climb stairs, then garbage can it is.

Mulch hauling should be priced minimum at the same price as the stump, and realistically more.

 

[stevieb]

On the same subject. I don't take the spoil away. Never have and I always put it to the customer I earn £100.00 per hour on these machines, can they afford to pay me to take it away, and they dont get charged for it, machine time only. However in the autumn I see the council trucks going around sucking up the leafs. They use a self powered engine on the back of a pick up with a hose about 6" dia. About 10/mtrs long and I often thought what a great idea and very quick.

 

[Blakesmaster]

I don't usually grind stumps. I do climbing for a buddy of mine with a grinder and trade off our stumps to him. Mainly cause I hate it. When I do borrow his machine for our stumps I always haul the mulch. Pitchfork, stone rake, shovel and wheel barrow. Not much fun but it definitely makes for a cleaner looking job site, which usually means more neighborhood work.

Does anyone hear topsoil and seed after they clean up the mulch? If so, how do you price that?

 

[jason2078]

cleanup-pricing

I usually get 2.00 an inch on jobs where the inches add up to enough to keep it at 2.00 otherwise, I get 3.00 an inch. If its a 2.00 an inch job I offer to clean up chips and backfill the last 2 to 3 inches over the top of wood chips with top soil and grass seed for 3.00 an inch. I use a grain shovel and pitch fork as well as three 55 gallon rubbermaid heavy duty trash cans on wheels to get the shavings to my trailer. I would say on average half my jobs are chip removals and soil replacement and when the stumps are big that extra buck an inch really adds up and like someone said " a clean job leads to more jobs".

 

[Bigstumps]

I've always avoided it. My little grinder has a blade on it and I've gotten pretty good at pusing the stuff back in the whole and grading it pretty flat - this is as far as I'm going though - too much work to take it away and backfill it.

The Sandvik doesn't scatter the chips near like my other grinders.

 

[treemandan]

I grind the stump, axe out laterals, scoop it all up about 3 inches below grade, flaten the mound, haul in soil, seed, straw, spread all that crap around and turn on the hose- so there.

 

[Mowingman]

I do not remove shavings from stump grinding. I just rake up the pile as neat as possible. The property owner can do whatever they want with them. When someone asks me about removing them, I give them the names of a couple of my friends who do landscaping.
Shovel and wheelbarrow handles do not fit my hands anymore.

 

[stevieb]

I do take my hat off to you guy's that remove the spoil. It must be very satisfying to look back and see a neat job? But the truth is while your doing that i'v moved onto my next job. And at the end of the day when my nearest competitors are doing the same I don't feel the need to change. On the odd occasions I have put a price in for removal the customer never bite's.

However I'm not blind to the fact there is an opportunity to make money which is being overlooked. I know on many occasions they have brought in local landscapers and Gardner's to re-instate the ground with topsoil, turf, slabbing and even the odd bag of tarmac. So there is good money to be made outside of what would normally be considered just a removal of the spoil.

Does anyone do re-instating on a regular basis and what percentage of the stump customers ask for it. Also is it worth doing compared with grinding revenue?

 

[dave k]

When asked how the job will be done I always reply that the stump and any major running roots will be removed the area will be left tidy and that they should leave the chips to settle for about a 7-10 day period on a large stump before they do any reinstatement work. I find it stops them asking you about doing the work. You can tell some folk arn't sure what is to be left behind but the sandvik leaves good chip behind and before Im finished quite often the customer will say how they will use the chips elsewhere in the garden.

So it's not that I don't remove grindings it's more a case of getting the customer to not even think about asking you ! On small stumps I advise them to take top couple of inch off and replace with soil from elsewhere in garden and reseed.

In the two odd years since stopping climbing and doing stumps only I've never done a removal of grindings and it has made no impact on work,but ,never say never !!

 

[Curbside]

I usually get 2.00 an inch on jobs where the inches add up to enough to keep it at 2.00 otherwise, I get 3.00 an inch. If its a 2.00 an inch job I offer to clean up chips and backfill the last 2 to 3 inches over the top of wood chips with top soil and grass seed for 3.00 an inch. I use a grain shovel and pitch fork as well as three 55 gallon rubbermaid heavy duty trash cans on wheels to get the shavings to my trailer. I would say on average half my jobs are chip removals and soil replacement and when the stumps are big that extra buck an inch really adds up and like someone said " a clean job leads to more jobs".

I'm assuming you are charging 2 or 3 an inch just for cleanup or does that include the grinding. You supply soil for that as well. Sounds like a good deal for the customer.

 

[Steve-Maine]

Steve-Maine

I did stump grinding for 41 years and never haul any chips. I think we lost only 1 or 2 jobs because we wouldn't haul chips. There is alot more money grinding that cleaning up. When the customer called I explained over phone before looking at job that we didn't do clean up. We did of coarse clean drive, walks, and street. Most people where glad to get some mulch or let their landscaper clean up.

 

[jason2078]

$3.00 an inch

$3.00 an inch gets my customers a ground out stump, chip removal, soil replacement, and grass seed. I use a helper to dig out around stumps, pick up chips, replace top soil and grass seed while I move on to the next stump in the yard. I use an 18 foot trailer to haul my vermeer 252 on so it leaves plenty of room to haul my garbage cans full of stump grindings. You would be suprised how many people will still have you put the grindings somewhere in the yard which makes it even easier. The average stump only needs 3 bags of top soil at $1.27 a bag (wal-mart). so, a 30 inch stump that would pay 60.00 with no removal of grindings then pays 90.00 in half a hour lets say. That extra $30 costs $3.81 for top soil, grass seed a few cents, and $4.00 for a half hour helper wage, leaving $22 extra dollars on a 30 inch stump. How can you go wrong? Not to mention the word of mouth business you get.

 

[oldirty]

.

If you want to keep costs low, then rake/blow everything to the hole. Go to a farm supply store and buy one of those 12-prong (about 18" wide) pitch forks. They work great for wood chips. If you can't pitch them directly into a pickup or trailer, then spend another $100 on a poly wheelbarrow and make a small ramp for running the wheelbarrow up into the vehicle.

QUOTE]

yes sir indeed! those bulk pitch forks are all worth every penny. material movers for sure. if you do stumps and dont have this kind of pitch fork you are missing out. bigtime.

if you want to go all out then get a power broom! together with the bulk pitch fork, blower, and power broom you'll have the greatest stump cleanup of all time.

 

[ropensaddle]

.

If you want to keep costs low, then rake/blow everything to the hole. Go to a farm supply store and buy one of those 12-prong (about 18" wide) pitch forks. They work great for wood chips. If you can't pitch them directly into a pickup or trailer, then spend another $100 on a poly wheelbarrow and make a small ramp for running the wheelbarrow up into the vehicle.

QUOTE]

yes sir indeed! those bulk pitch forks are all worth every penny. material movers for sure. if you do stumps and dont have this kind of pitch fork you are missing out. bigtime.

if you want to go all out then get a power broom! together with the bulk pitch fork, blower, and power broom you'll have the greatest stump cleanup of all time.

For people living in the north the name is a cottonseed fork, correct name!
I have actually packed a bale of cotton.

 

[oldirty]

sorry bub.

not much cotton where i come from. hence the different name.

lol

 

[ropensaddle]

sorry bub.

not much cotton where i come from. hence the different name.

lol

Just telling you the real name and why they were made.
They work for many things very handy but were made
for scooping cottonseed back into the augers to be smashed
by a roll machine then made into cooking oil.

 

[oldirty]

thank you for the info

 

[stevieb]

Jason 2078 that sounds like a nightmare. I can understand it if you have work 5-days a week every day with out fail. But like a lot of stump grinding outfits is hard work to keep the machines running all day everyday and you need to make it where you can. I have over £70'000 tied up in equipment, 3-machines, SC352, SG13, SC252(back-up). Van, Trailer, selection of saws, blower, tools, cable detecting equipment etc.. etc... and you just have to keep as much profit as you can. I aim to get £100.00 per hour. Sounds a lot but when you average the working hours out on the year it's no longer £100 per hour. We have a lot of down time and people the UK are not spending money at the moment. When you consider I had a plumber in the other day. Tatty van and a bag of spanners and hes charging £45.00 an hour. Where's the investment??? I replace my stuff every 3-years. There is no way I could afford a helper. I would like one...