Stump Grinding Cost Calculator

Around $195 for one 24 inch stump ground to standard depth with the grindings left on site, with most jobs that size falling between $160 and $245. A 12 inch stump is about $150, a 48 inch one about $285, and a six inch one about $130. The range is narrow because most of the price is getting the machine to the property rather than the grinding itself.

Because a grinder weighs most of a ton, is towed on a trailer, and has to arrive whether the stump is six inches across or four feet. Most contractors quote a minimum of $80 to $160, and that figure is the trip under a different name. It is also why a small stump costs nearly as much as a medium one, and why the second stump on the same visit is so much cheaper.

Considerably, and it is the easiest saving on this page. Three 24 inch stumps on one visit come to around $410, or $137 each against $195 for one alone; five come to about $125 each. That is roughly 30% to 36% off per stump, which is what the trade quotes, and it happens because the trip and the unloading are paid once however many stumps are ground. Count the stumps in the yard, not the one you were thinking about.

A standard grind takes the stump four to twelve inches below grade and leaves everything below that in the ground, including the roots. That is enough to be rid of the stump, to mow over the spot and to stop a species that suckers. If you want to plant a tree in the same place it needs 16 to 18 inches or more, which costs correspondingly more, so say so when you ask for the quote.

Grinding chews the stump down below grade and leaves the roots; removal digs or pulls the whole root ball out. Removal costs two to three times as much and leaves a much bigger hole to fill, so it is only worth it when the roots themselves are the problem — a foundation, a drain, or something being built on the spot. For almost every homeowner who just wants the stump gone, grinding is the right job.

Not in the grindings. As the wood breaks down, soil microbes pull nitrogen out of the surrounding ground to do it, and seed sown straight into chips comes up thin and yellow. If the plan is lawn, either pay to have the grindings hauled away and the hole filled with topsoil — about 35% more — or scrape them out yourself and buy a few bags of soil. A nitrogen-rich slow-release fertilizer helps whichever way you go.

By default they are raked back into the hole, and because grindings come out at three or four times the volume of the stump, that means a mound rather than a flat patch. It settles over a year or two. Left in place they are harmless and work fine as mulch away from the house; hauling them away and filling with topsoil costs around 35% more and is what you want if the spot is going back to lawn.

Often not. The large roots radiating out from the trunk are frequently excluded, and on an old maple or poplar there can be a great many of them running under the lawn. Point at them during the walk-round and ask explicitly whether they are in the number, because grinding them is extra passes with the machine and extra grindings to deal with.

A standard tow-behind grinder is about four feet wide and a standard garden gate is 36 inches, which is why the most common failure in this trade is a crew arriving, walking round the back and leaving. Measure the narrowest point on the route and give the contractor the number. It decides which machine comes: the full-size one, a narrow-access machine at about 25% more, or a handheld grinder at about 55% more. Taking out a fence panel is sometimes cheaper than any of those.

Know where the irrigation lines, invisible dog fence, cable and gas service run, and call 811 a few days ahead if you do not — it is free. Clear gravel, concrete and old fence wire from around the base if you can, because grit destroys carbide teeth and a contractor who finds it unannounced will want more money. Move cars out of the firing line; a grinder throws whatever it meets.

You can rent a grinder for around $150 to $400 a day, which on a single stump saves very little once you have towed it home and back, and on five or six saves a real amount. The reasons to think twice are that it is a spinning carbide wheel at ankle height, that it throws debris hard enough to break a window, and that hitting a buried gas or electric service is a serious event rather than an expensive one. Know what is under the stump first.

You can, but it is a large piece of dead wood in contact with the soil: it attracts termites and carpenter ants, it hosts root rot fungi that can move through the soil to living trees nearby, and in species that sucker — poplar, willow, elm — it will keep sending up shoots for years. A hardwood stump takes a decade or more to break down on its own. None of it is urgent, but it does not get cheaper, and it does get harder to find under the grass.