Need to clear a couple acres of brush and trees for new construction

[KCWB]

I have recently purchased 2 acres of Industrial land that I need to clear so I can make room for a 6500 sq. ft. building. I have started cutting down the shrubs and small trees but I'm at a loss when it comes to the bigger stuff and at an even bigger loss when it comes to the stumps.

My plan is to cut down the trees I can and pile them somewhere on the property to then either sell what I can for fire wood (or give it away) and shred whats left. My problem lies with what do you with the stumps and the best machine to take them out. I have been in touch with specialists in the area and they want upward of 30k so I figured Ill give it a go myself.

Any suggestions about my stump problem and other tips on what to do to make it easier to put up a building and parking lot would be great.:confused:

[o-so-n-so]

You should call someone else. 30K to clear 2 acres is crazy. Sell the mature timber with the agreement that the timber co. push all the tops in a few burn piles. You cut whats left...rent a track loader with a grapple and a brush cutter to detail it up....sub out the stumps.

[Canon Landscaping]

Rent a D5-6 dozer or 160-200 class excavator with thumb or both and you can clear it off in a day or two easy pile the trees and brush and burn it if permitted or hire someone with a tub grinder to come and grind it all up for you. 30k is way too high around here I would say around 10-15k if you get it ground up.

[ksss]

I am assuming you have heavy equipment operating experience and that you don't own any yourself. I would do it as follows depending on the size of trees you have rent an excavator with a thumb. Topple the trees as they stand assuming this is possible. The benefit is the stumps come up when the tree is toppled. Cut the stump from the tree and do with the stump and timber as you wish. I have been clearing trees in Mt for the past month and this has proven to be the fastest method if your not concerned much about the timber. We have done the same thing. Seperated the slash, stumps and hauled them off. The timber has been hauled away for firewood. Trees we have been taking are 36" in diameter and smaller. It does not take a lot of machine to topple these trees. The trees we are taking are 40'-60' tall. Should the ground be frozen that may complicate the matter. Everything could be done with an excavator. A skid steer maybe nice to cleanup with but wouldn't be necessary. The size of excavator will depend on size of trees. A zero tail machine would be ideal especially in this type of environment and I am guessing that your not an operator by trade (less chance of scratching the machine). Everyone will offer their views of how to take the job on, you'll have to decide what fits your job site.

[gammon landscaping]

he is correct push the tree over is the only way, it doesn't take a large machine to take down a tree we grub trees 24"-40" with a 312 all the time. a case backhoe will do it, all you have to do is dig around it and push. the roots hold it up. so take out the roots and the tree is just balancing itself and almost any thing can push it over

[Gravel Rat]

The best way to clear it is with a excavator you do a cleaner job. The bigger trees fall them with a chainsaw the scrub trees push them over cut the stump off with a chainsaw. Anything that is 8 to 12 inches in diameter is good for firewood anything larger is mill-able wood with a woodmizer type mill.

The scrub brush scrape it up and pile it if your allowed to burn burn it or haul it away in dumpster bins. Once you get the property cleared then start grooming it with a dozer or grader.

A 160 sized machine will do the job or a 200 you don't need anything bigger. I don't know what kind of trees you have on the lot are they a scrub tree like maple ?

Any of the larger diameter wood cut it in 21 foot lengths most woodmizers will take 20 foot long material the extra foot leaves the mill guy options to trim the ends. With the mill-able timber try keep it clean as possible don't drag it through the mud or the mills won't pay you anything for the wood. Its why a excavator with a thumb works good you can cleanly deck the wood

The old stumps you will have to try burn or haul away if you do fall the trees with a saw make sure you leave enough stump to have some leverage to yank it out. You have to be very carefull pushing old maple and alder trees over with a excavator if you get the top swaying back and forth it can snap off and land on the machine.

Have a decent access road built so you can back in a rolloff truck to drop off you some cans to throw the brush into. Also have a area to deck the good wood for the sawmill and a free fire wood pile for the wood magots that are looking for free firewood.

Try keep the site clean as you might have to strip the organic material (topsoil) off you might beable to give that away to somebody.

Good Luck

Oh ya some lots I have worked on we hauled away 4 or 5 loads of logs off and its not short wood its 50' long logs with a 24 inch butt on the logs thats usually off 1 acre of land about 15-20 logs a truck.

[Scag48]

A 120-160 excavator will do just fine. I don't recommend knocking the trees over, crap can fall out of the trees and land on the cab or the tree might snap entirely. Fall them with a saw, buck them into 20' lengths, then manage them with an excavator. A thumb is an absolute must for this job. 2 acres isn't that much, shouldn't take more than a day or 2. I can clear 2 acres of orchard in 3 hours very easily with a 12 ton excavator.

[KCWB]

The best way to clear it is with a excavator you do a cleaner job. The bigger trees fall them with a chainsaw the scrub trees push them over cut the stump off with a chainsaw. Anything that is 8 to 12 inches in diameter is good for firewood anything larger is mill-able wood with a woodmizer type mill.

The scrub brush scrape it up and pile it if your allowed to burn burn it or haul it away in dumpster bins. Once you get the property cleared then start grooming it with a dozer or grader.

A 160 sized machine will do the job or a 200 you don't need anything bigger. I don't know what kind of trees you have on the lot are they a scrub tree like maple ?

Any of the larger diameter wood cut it in 21 foot lengths most woodmizers will take 20 foot long material the extra foot leaves the mill guy options to trim the ends. With the mill-able timber try keep it clean as possible don't drag it through the mud or the mills won't pay you anything for the wood. Its why a excavator with a thumb works good you can cleanly deck the wood

The old stumps you will have to try burn or haul away if you do fall the trees with a saw make sure you leave enough stump to have some leverage to yank it out. You have to be very carefull pushing old maple and alder trees over with a excavator if you get the top swaying back and forth it can snap off and land on the machine.

Have a decent access road built so you can back in a rolloff truck to drop off you some cans to throw the brush into. Also have a area to deck the good wood for the sawmill and a free fire wood pile for the wood magots that are looking for free firewood.

Try keep the site clean as you might have to strip the organic material (topsoil) off you might beable to give that away to somebody.

Good Luck

Oh ya some lots I have worked on we hauled away 4 or 5 loads of logs off and its not short wood its 50' long logs with a 24 inch butt on the logs thats usually off 1 acre of land about 15-20 logs a truck.

Thanks for the advice. I'm trying to save some money and do as much of it as possible. I have a small amount of experience using a back hoe but nothing serious.

Most of the land I can clear myself with a chainsaw but I didn't think about leaving the stumps high enough to get some leverage when pulling them down. Except for a few the largest trees are probably about 24" in diameter and are mostly pine and maple.

I was thinking of cutting the smaller trees and scrub down and then mulching it up and use it for some type of fill and/or spread it around where the lawn is planned to go.

I called the local Equipment Rental store and they will rent a CAT302 for $430/Day. Would this be enough Machine to remove the stumps I checked it out on the web and it looks pretty small.

Thanks alot for your advice as a first time land clearer I need all the info I can get. :confused:

[Gravel Rat]

A machine that size is pretty small you could dig the stumps out with it but its going to take a long time :dizzy:

Any of the big stuff have a tree trim company come in and do the big trees they can drop them for you. If the maple is a large enough diameter and isn't rotten the guys with the small sawmills will want it. The pine trees you might get somebody that wants them.

See if the rental place has atleast a 12,000lb excavator and keep in mind it might be cheaper to have a contractor to do the job and you do the rest.

[KCWB]

I figured it was going to be too small. I'm guessing the guy I was talking to has never used this machine to clear 2 acres of stumps. As for the contractor part I'm meeting one on friday who says for his machine it would be about $125/per hour. So now we'll see how many hours he thinks it will take him to do it.

[KCWB]

If I'm going to be turning a portion of the land into a driveway and parking lot how much gravel and stone do I need to lay down? I asked a local contractor and he said I'd need about 18" but to me that seems like alot. Any opinions on this?

[Scag48]

Depends on the size of the stone. 4-6" aggregate as a base would suffice nicely at maybe 8" or so, then maybe top that with something a little smaller for another 4 inches or so. That would be a nice driveway. I did a driveway widening project this summer, it was more of a parking area off to the side of the driveway, very low traffic but I still wanted it to turn out nice. I just brought in a whole bunch of pit run to bring up grade, compacted very well, and then finished with 4" of 5/8". Turned out very nice, customer couldn't have been happier.

$430 a day for a 302? :laugh: :laugh: I would have hung up on them. I can rent a 312 for a day for $450 up here. $125 an hour for a machine sounds about right depending on the machine, better be a 200 or larger. We were in the $110 per/hr range with a 120 and our prices up here are higher than most.

[crab]

You're going to cost yourself more money than you will ever save.Hire a reputable contractor, go get a few bids.

[KCWB]

Thanks. I appreciate the info and even if I don't end up doing it myself I like to know as much as I can before talking to contractors so I know what questions to ask and if what there doing is the cheapest and will need to be re-done sooner or a waste of money. Appreciate you guys sharing your knowledge.

[Scag48]

You're going to cost yourself more money than you will ever save.Hire a reputable contractor, go get a few bids.

I doubt it, you can rent a 12 ton excavator for a week for around $1300. Add on fuel and your time of running it, there's no way you could lose money on that deal. Cost of renting a machine for 40 hours is less than $40 per hour. Materials for doing the driveway is the same whether you do the work or have it hired out. Only wildcard with this job is the timber sales. We're only guessing that any of it can be sold. If it can, then I would agree to hire it out. If not, you could save yourself a fair share of money by renting a machine for a week and doing it yourself. I'd talk to a few guys, find out if the timber is worth selling and then decide from there. There isn't anything difficult about this job, you can't screw it up if you do it yourself. In the end, you're just running a machine all day, there's nothing complicated about that, so why pay someone $125 an hour when you can rent for about $40 per hour? Something to think about.

[ksss]

tipping the trees as they stand went twice as fast as cutting them and coming back and pulling the stumps but with limited operating experience it may be a little more risky. I agree with GR a 12K machine would be the min. Thats the size of machine that I use and I had no problem knocking down the same size trees as you have. On the road I would listen to the advice of a reputable excavator in the area. The size of the rock is important but the ground conditions are more important. If the ground is soft or doesn't have a lot of rock in it naturally than you'll need to go with more pitrun. It is hard for anyone not familiar with your ground conditions to advise you on something like that. As far as doing it yourself or hiring out. That really depends on your skill level I think. Clearing a lot of trees is not that difficult, but renting equipment can get expensive if your too slow and scratching and denting rented machines is expensive. I agree I would try and get several bids on clearing the lot and pencil out what you can do it yourself for. you then can decide if the savings is worth your time. Building the road probably would not be worth your time as the greatest cost will be material and trucktime. Since you will be hiring that out I assume, you will still be paying the bulk of the cost anyway. One last point on going thin on the pitrun. I would assume this road will be paved at somepoint. Should you go thin and the road is paved and it starts sinking and developing holes, the extra pit run will have seemed like a bargain compared to fixing or replacing asphalt.

[Gravel Rat]

Wait till summer light a match you should beable to burn off 2 acres :laugh:

The rate that was meantioned 125 per hour is a little on the high side a 200 sized machine in B.C. goes for about 115 per hour a 160 sized machine is 107 per hour.

Of course its hard to tell what its going to take without seeing what your up against. If its a commercial lot I assume its flat so its easy to work on its just the matter of getting rid of the organic junk and get it ready for the building.

For me clearing tree's isn't a problem I can fall anysize tree I have been doing falling for people I work for a few years and not really scared of chainsaws especially when they have a 48" bar on them :D

Anyhow take your time and don't hurt yourself old maple trees can be killers they are unpredictable at times when cutting
them down :canadaflag:

[minimax]

The bad part about falling trees by pushing them over if the tree does not want to go over and you push to hard you can buckle the tree in the middle and the top can come over backwards and land on the machine,we had a guy on the island get killed by pushing on a tree with a rented 200 size kobelco and the tree broke and came over backwards and put a 8" limb through the top of cab.

minimax