Stump Grinders - Chips - Please Vote

[juststumps]

that is bad. If there are people doing it that cheap. I could probably get away with an entire week, per month, of steady grinding 8hrs a day for $700 bucks. Which would be less than my expenses for having my own machine, paying employee, fuel. I would definitely be looking into sub contracting all my stump work out at that price. Only problem is here unless the stump is out the same day the tree gets removed you piss people off. I could see me delaying 3 weeks to remove a stump. Ha!

Doesnt seem like it makes sense to have your own grinder or even bother to go pick up a rental.

around here "NO GRINDEE NO PAYEE" ..don't get paid till the jobs done...
do a $1000- 2000 take down, with the stump grinding included.. "YOU SAY" give me $900-1900, and i'll be back later to get the stump.... "THE CUSTOMER SAYS" HAHAHAHA !!!! if you have the job in writing,,, they won't pay till it's done.

 

[corndogg]

That's the main reason I grind stumps myself. Sometimes throwing the stump in for what they think is cheap is what sells the job. Don;t get paid till stump is out. Waiting for sub is a nightmare and usually he didn't do it good enough. PLus I don't want anybody else talking to my customer. Stumps are a nice break from climbing and a fun toy to own. I don't fill in the hole as the proper way to repair lawn would be to remove all chips and fill with dirt. I'm expecting the customer to do that. I rake lawn to the pile and blow of walks. Usually you have to move chips to make sure you ground stump completely anyway so why not load into trailer and charge for it. I want to set up a stump rig with dump trailer pulled by small dump truck and tractor/pto grinder in back. Load chips into back of truck. Black dirt in trailer for backfill. Offer seed/straw or even sod for a premium price. It makes sence to me to get it all done complete in one call/person to deal with. I don't know if current economy will support it though.

A wise man once told me you are selling tree service. SERVICE Anyone can start a saw or rent a grinder but you must provide quality service. Answer the phone, do what you say when you say. These days people want it done right after they hang the phone up. That makes em happy. Tough to do but it works.

 

[John464]

around here "NO GRINDEE NO PAYEE" ..don't get paid till the jobs done...
do a $1000- 2000 take down, with the stump grinding included.. "YOU SAY" give me $900-1900, and i'll be back later to get the stump.... "THE CUSTOMER SAYS" HAHAHAHA !!!! if you have the job in writing,,, they won't pay till it's done.

yup. I have a $2600 job we did a few days. wasn't able to get this massive Tulip Poplar stump out due to time constraints and told the homeowner I'll have it out Saturday evening.That's if I can free up one guy from the jobs tomorrow. If not, looks like I'll be doing it on a Sunday. Not a dime till its done

 

[lawmart]

Wow !!!!
I cant believe you get that low of a price on stumps, We/I get $5.00 to $7.00 dollars per inch. I have a min. of 100.00 for any stump and up from for there. I don't back fill but do rake up chips and blow the chips that fly away.
My reason for not back filling is that i prove to the client that i have done what i said i was going to do, i was paid to do grind 8"-10" below grade. I actually use that as a selling point because some stump guys only go down
2"-3" , and i have been called to regrind there stumps. But i do have a small municipal contract (approx.500 stumps per year) where i have to clean and fill and sod. it is very time consuming. This year i am looking into a vacuum to suck the chips up into the trailer instead of shoveling them, hopefully this save some time and money.

lawmart

 

[Marquis]

I have a PTO stumpbuster, for my 955 J/D, works great! I usually grind and clean up everything, then back fill with a bit of nice soil, and throw a little seed down. Looks really nice when you are finished. Usually trees aren't too big here in northern Maine, so I don't have to haul a truck full of dirt. I just take a few buckets with my J/D and drive my tractor right on top of the dirt on the trailer. That way I don't have too many vehicles to drive to site. Done stumps by the hour (grind and go on snowmobile trails), and some by the inch.

 

[stihlhere]

i have a antique 65hp vermeer paid $700.00 for when i started out 3 years ago, down here we only get 1.50 inch for grind 2.50 for backfill i have a 50.00 min and only purchased add to my tree removal service.

 

[TreeClimber57]

I ran into a customer last year who wanted to do his own stump, was using a product called "Stump-Knot" or "Stump-Not" forget which. I have never used it, but the old guy said it works wonders and stumps are gone in a month.

Ever seen it before? Not sure if he saved any money in the end, not sure what it costs.

 

[gr8scott72]

I ran into a customer last year who wanted to do his own stump, was using a product called "Stump-Knot" or "Stump-Not" forget which. I have never used it, but the old guy said it works wonders and stumps are gone in a month.

Ever seen it before? Not sure if he saved any money in the end, not sure what it costs.

It will still take more than a month. Probably much more.

 

[newb]

Maybe the reason there are so many low-ballers out there is our own fault! When we upgrade our equipment we should't be selling off the old stuff so cheap. These guys are getting a great deal on used grinders and making beer money to boot. Life is good. Pete

 

[Saw Dust Smoken]

I rented for years on grinder. Saved back and bought/paid for stump grinder a year ago. If under cut on grinding I dont bother going lower. If your only thing is grinding tough luck. More uneducated people looking for work. Prices go down before going up!

 

[ddhlakebound]

We bid all but the largest stumps for full cleanup and topsoil refill, and on the big ones we usually give the customer pricing options and let them pick.

Hauling grinding chips is a pain, and moving dirt's no fun either, but when the job is done the finished product is as good as it possibly can be. We've put down sod on several we've done.

We usually get premium prices on stumps (for this area anyway), because nobody else wants to clean up the mess. Plus, once you've got the pattern down it really does not take much more time, especially if you grind onto a tarp.

For us, it's the only way to make having a grinder worth it, as everyone else has said, the lowball beer money grinders bid way to cheap to compete on price......so service is all that left to beat them on.

 

[tree md]

X2

I always give them different pricing options but at the very least I rake the mulch back into the hole and smooth things out. I did three 24" stumps with the root system included on two of them this morning. I started at 9:30 and was done by 12 noon. One stump was so dead I literally had it ground in 2 minutes. The other two was a biotch (I hate grinding stumps). $400 for 2 1/2 hours work. Did it myself. It would have taken any of my ground hands 6 hours.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

My last grind was three river birch removals, stump grind, prep to replant on two of them package.

Major learning experience, but it was worth it.

I rented a 252. Not enough grinder...lol!

I put a bunch together and rent a grinder and offer service options.

I might sub for now on though. It's fun, but I'd rather be doing something else.

Now then, give me one of those 4x4 carltons with the remote and push blade and I might have more fun...

 

[TreeClimber57]

It will still take more than a month. Probably much more.

Thanks, figured as much.

 

[Marquis]

I ask the customer what they want, some leave the chips, others just clean the chips up, and most, clean, loam, seed, and hay. Of course, everything comes with a price.

 

[arbor pro]

Price to grind stump = x dollars - no raking, no cleanup of any kind other than to possibly blow off the sidewalk or driveway if the debris may cause a trip or fall to the general public.

Price to cleanup stump generally = 50 - 100% of the grinding cost depending on number of stumps and location (whether I use wheelbarrow or mini skid)

Price to fill stumps with soil additional fee.

I always offer cleanup for a fee. if the homeowner doesn't want to pay for it, then the liability is his but I always offer it - just not for free. If I'm going to rake the stuff back into the hole, I might as well be picking it up with the mini skid and loading it onto the truck. The raking is the hard part if you have a machine to push it up into a pile and load it.

As far as price goes - I bid at $2/inch on average but tend to make about $100-$150/hr. Originally, I was bidding to make about $75 an hour but I've become more productive and now expect to make more. $75/hr is a disappointment to me. $150 is good money. That's whether I'm using my sc252 or my 665a but 90% of my jobs are with the sc252. For what little it costs to own and operate one of those, they are by far the best bang for the buck as far as stumpers go IMO. If I ever had to choose between the 252 and 665a, the big tow behind would be gone in a second. Of course, if I wanted to invest another $20k into a larger self-propelled, I'm sure they would be even better but, for the cost of a new 25hp self-propelled stumper, you can't go wrong with that small of an investment. All you need is a few stumps a month to make your payments for you - the rest is money in the bank.

 

[arborworks1]

I bought one last year after my sub that I was using started getting greedy. I make the payment on it grinding for a tree service out of town once a week. I told him up front what the deal was that I needed to grind after hours or on saturday morning. We made an agreement and its working out so far. Grinder is available anytime I need it and when he calls we make a time and stick to it. I was also smart enough to see that this area needed a large self propelled grinder. Alot of the guys that have big tow behinds are still to proud to call in another tree service to grind for them though. They are coming around though word is spreading how fast the 7015 is at backyard stumps.

The guy that has the only other selfpropelled has a 252. You can't even compare prices when it takes him hours to do one stump that takes me 25 minutes.

Most people will not pay for cleanup. It is rewarding when you get a cleanup job and it looks like the stump was never there.

 

[ozzy42]

.

Not near as elaborate as other stuff posted here,but I came up with the idea myself one day,and just kinda threw it together with my little mig welder, chop saw and some scrap box tubing and expanded metal.
Simple ,but it sure saves me a lot of time pushing mulch back over stump hole

I have made a total of 3 of these ,all on 252s,,,,Works wonders.That's why I don't mind pushing mulch back in the stumphole.
I agree with you ,lil slow but the 252 is the best bang for the buck.
Leased mine,cost me $260.00 pr mo.Make that in hour,and a half easy.

BTW I sold my old 252 4yrs ago, and bought a used 630 because I wanted to grind faster.Big mistake,lost more stumps than I got due to accessability.Bottom line was I made less money with the bigger mach. over the course of 1yr.
Went back to the 252 after that.

Price to grind stump = x dollars - no raking, no cleanup of any kind other than to possibly blow off the sidewalk or driveway if the debris may cause a trip or fall to the general public.

Price to cleanup stump generally = 50 - 100% of the grinding cost depending on number of stumps and location (whether I use wheelbarrow or mini skid)

Price to fill stumps with soil additional fee.

I always offer cleanup for a fee. if the homeowner doesn't want to pay for it, then the liability is his but I always offer it - just not for free. If I'm going to rake the stuff back into the hole, I might as well be picking it up with the mini skid and loading it onto the truck. The raking is the hard part if you have a machine to push it up into a pile and load it.

As far as price goes - I bid at $2/inch on average but tend to make about $100-$150/hr. Originally, I was bidding to make about $75 an hour but I've become more productive and now expect to make more. $75/hr is a disappointment to me. $150 is good money. That's whether I'm using my sc252 or my 665a but 90% of my jobs are with the sc252. For what little it costs to own and operate one of those, they are by far the best bang for the buck as far as stumpers go IMO. If I ever had to choose between the 252 and 665a, the big tow behind would be gone in a second. Of course, if I wanted to invest another $20k into a larger self-propelled, I'm sure they would be even better but, for the cost of a new 25hp self-propelled stumper, you can't go wrong with that small of an investment. All you need is a few stumps a month to make your payments for you - the rest is money in the bank.