Stump Grinders

[buff]

I am from east Texas and I am wondering what other stump grinders are charging. Please tell me what size grinder you have and what you figure you are getting per hour.

 

[maxburton]

I've noticed that folks around here are reticent about discussing exact numbers, and for good reason. Local economies, equipment availability, climate, and more, as I'm sure you can imagine, affect prices so much that what's right for one member may be too high for one, too low for another.

But I'll tell you what people around here charge. Stump grinding in the upscale Doylestown area is about $3 per inch of diameter. The outlying, lower income areas usually see bills closer to $2 or $2.50 per inch of diameter. The bigger the machine you've got, the faster you can get those stumps out, but the more you'll have to grind to justify the cost of the machine.

 

[buff]

I have always found it hard to charge by the inch. A stump that is two foot tall may be 18" in diameter can be much larger closer to the ground. Often there will be roots and the hill to cut too. Anyway, how much do you believe your charge per inch to work out in dollars per hour?

 

[stumpy66]

there is no set formula, charge what you can. if things are good and you charge right you will still be there in 12 month.....else you got it wrong..its an under valued task...... and a hard game.......but we love it........we take the tree back to its roots..........

 

[woodchux]

I get about $50hr low end...
$100hr high end.
I'm way too cheap though.
Maybe $2.00 inch.

 

[woodchux]

I,ve got an old vermeer 630 stumper.

 

[a_lopa]

get what ever you can for stumps prices are all over the place,and have a mimimum callout mine is $75

 

[buff]

I had a Vermeer 630A for three years that I learned the business on part time. After I "retired" a tree friend of mine sold me his Rayco 1635A about 18 months ago for $8500. For a used grinder it was in better shape than usual. Most of the used grinders I have seen have not been taken care of and you would have to go completely through them. Many operaters take money from jobs that needs to go to maintenance and spend it somewhere else. I have found that about 1/3 of my fees goes for grinder maintenance and expenses. Stump grinders are real money grabbers. My truck only gets 12 miles per gallon too. Any how, last year I tool my gross and divided by the hours on the gauge and I was getting $90 per hour. It is $114 per hour this year. I have been asking for more and people seem willing to pay it when they would not in the past. Maybe it is a better economy. Hurricane Rita helped some too. When people spend thousands to take down trees they are not so shocked that stump grinding cost money too. Last year I grossed $27,000. I am expecting a little less this year. Unless we have another hurricane. I used to feel bad about what I charged customers. But with the new engine and all I have spent $13,000 in expenses plus fuel over the past 18 months. Sometimes when a home owner expresses shock at my price I tell them that my grinder is for sale if they want to buy it. Say, let me ask something. When I first started in 2001 it seems somehow that everybody thought grinding cost $5 per stump. They would always tell me how someone else that they knew told them that. It does not matter that this other person never owned a grinder but somehow they knew it cost $5 per stump. I would just tell them that I sure hope they did not loose that grinders number. Now the price has gone up. Everyone is certain that big stumps cost $25 each...even big ones. If they have a lot of them it should cost $10 each. I never could figure out how a person could buy a big diesel grinder and pay for it with $10 stumps.

 

[woodchux]

Same problem here people are real cheap when it comes to paying for grinding the stumps. I don't charge enough to really make much money at it, and 90% of my customers say no thanks on grinding them out, But they want you to cut it off at ground level [or below] with your chainsaw.
I really just use the grinder to land tree jobs where the customer wants one company to do both the tree and stump. Maybe 10% grind em out.

 

[spacemule]

Charging by the inch really doesn't make economic sense. Think about it--surface area of stumps is not directly proportional to diameter; rather, it's exponentially proportional. In other words, a 5" stump has 19.6 square inches of surface area. If we double the diameter to 10" though, the stump has 78.5 square inches. So, you're only charging twice as much for the 10" stump, yet you're grinding 4 times as much stump.

 

[maxburton]

That's an extremely good point, Spacemule. I will change my pricing because of it!

 

[Treeinnovator]

i always use an upside down 5 gallon paint bucket as a gauge to find out what people charge for stumps. i charge $75 for that.

 

[woodchux]

$40 ish depending on root flare maybe more $80 minimum per visit

 

[a_lopa]

Charging by the inch really doesn't make economic sense. Think about it--surface area of stumps is not directly proportional to diameter; rather, it's exponentially proportional. In other words, a 5" stump has 19.6 square inches of surface area. If we double the diameter to 10" though, the stump has 78.5 square inches. So, you're only charging twice as much for the 10" stump, yet you're grinding 4 times as much stump.

Grigory the russian guy had a spreadsheet/graph that was quite good at doing workings as such.

what grinder will you hit the big stump with a 25hp or a 72hp ???? what should be charged,as ive said as MUCH as you can get.

 

[stumpy66]

the problem is, there is not enough in a stump to go and price it, then return later when the customer has made him mind up to grind it, the extra time and fuel kills the job....(it might only be a £60'er) so you have to quote a ball park figure over the phone....then requote properly on site...this works for me.....so for me quote on th ephone using call out fee + £1.50 an inch then if they can affort that then they want the job done. i see the job and requote on site and haggle. no other way of doing it that i can think of!

 

[Bigstumps]

I knew a guy in Detroit years ago that advertised in the local paper "Stumps Removed $40 each" As crazy as this sounds it worked great for him. Some customers would call with 5 small stumps and already figure on $200. Sometimes he would end up getting big stumps that were worth well over $40 but he would still do them.

He never had to go do estimates and return. He always got every job he went to. He would have the customers leave checks in the mailbox if they weren't going to be home.

Claimed he never had a day he didn't do at least 10 stumps.

 

[buff]

I never quote on the phone for a couple of reasons. One is that the stump is always twice as big as the customer describes. If you quote by phone it will always be to high or more likely too low. Going to the site gives you a better opportunity to sell the job. If the home owner only wants a phone quote then he is fishing for a price to use to squeeze another grinder with. I never help in these fishing expditions. If a caller has an urgent need for stump grinding like the concrete man is coming in the morning then you can bet that you will get that job and good money too. If the caller gives directions to his house without asking about cost this is another sign you will get a job. If they call and want you to come out for a bid or estimation you stand a good chance of getting that job too. But there is one word I watch for in conversations with callers. If callers want you to give them a "price" on the phone or come out and give the "price" then you can bet you will not get that job. They are just fishing. Do any of you other guys experience the same?

 

[stumpy66]

i its difficult to price over the phone but ball park figures seem to work. as for pricing per stump...i think that can work...but if you just go to one stump that kills the job dead for money.......a few more stumps and yes it works. maybe i will try it in the local paper as a mad spring sale....one month only.... so all these responses and still no definitive way of pricing......with all our combine intelligence and experience...there must be one way that is fool prove and profitable.... givebeer:

 

[Curbside]

I price nearly all of my residential stumps over the phone. I price them by the stump. All I need is the customer to give me the diameter of the stump over the phone. I look at my chart that I developed for my pricing and give the price. If I get to the customer's yard and the stump is out by an inch or two no big deal, I've already saved huge by not having to estimate it first and then come back with the equipment. The first stump is always the most expensive as travel time is calculated in. The 2nd third etc is then factored in minus the travel the calculation. If the job has many stumps then I go and see the job. It works very well for me and allows me to be stumpin rather than chasing.

 

[buff]

I have just never been able to bid over the phone. To begin with, the stump is always twice as big as the customer describes. And, the diameter of a stump does not tell you anything about how tall it is. A six inch tall stump is different from a two foot stump on a hill that has to be knocked down too. And what about the roots? They add to the diameter to be ground too. The diameter of a tall smaller than the diameter you will have to cut toward the bottom. You simply can not get an accurate description of a stump over the phone. I live in east Texas and you can not ask one of these country illiterates the diameter of a stump because they do not know what diameter means. You have to ask "how wide is it?" Then they still do not know. Trying to get how tall it is out of them is no better. I do not now how a person can have a stump in his front yard for five years and have no idea how tall or "wide" it is. Then they start out to tell you how rotton it is and how you could probably just kick it over. I tell them to go out and kick it. And, if the stump does not fall over I will come grind it for them. After hurricane Rita I have had people tell me that they have a root ball less than knee high. When you go out to see it the ball is taller than your head. I do not know how to make bidding over the phone work. How much luck do the rest of you have with it?