Why grinding wins
A stump grinder is a wheel of carbide teeth on an arm. It sits over the stump and chews it, and the main roots around it, into chips, working down to 300 to 400 mm below the surface. That depth is enough for turf, garden beds and most paving. The grindings stay in the hole as mulch, or we take them away and backfill with soil. On a typical garden stump the whole job takes an hour or two, the machine fits through a side gate, and nothing else in the garden is touched.
Digging a stump out means removing the entire root plate: an excavator or a lot of hand digging, a trench around the stump, cutting each root, lifting out a lump of timber and soil that can weigh as much as a small car, and then carting all of that away and backfilling. It costs several times more than grinding, tears up everything around the stump, and risks whatever is underneath: irrigation, drainage, sewer and stormwater lines, and the roots of the trees you want to keep.
When digging out is the right call
- Building on the spot. A slab, a pool or footings need the roots gone, and the engineer or builder will usually say so.
- A stump in the way of services work where a trench is being dug anyway.
- Very small stumps that come out with a mattock in ten minutes.
For everything else, grind it.
What it costs
Stump grinding is the one service we price from a photo: $200 to $800 per stump, depending on size, species and access. A hardwood stump a metre across with roots running under a fence is at the top of that range; a small ornamental in an open lawn is at the bottom. Several stumps in one visit are quoted together. Send a photo with something for scale and a photo of the access, and we quote the same day.
If you want the mulch, say so
Fresh grindings are mostly wood chip mixed with soil. They make good mulch for paths and under established trees once they have aged a few months. They are not a planting mix: fresh chips draw nitrogen out of the soil as they break down, so if you want to replant in the same spot ask us to remove the grindings and backfill with soil.
Do you need council approval to grind a stump?
No. Council tree rules apply to living trees. Once a tree has been lawfully removed, the stump is yours to deal with. If the tree is still standing, the council rules for your area apply to the removal first.