Clearing 1/2 Acre...You Want How Much???

[Kyle241]

I'm more of a fan for using a mid sized excavator for the job. Have had both bulldozer and excavator do work for me and the excavator does a much nicer job. A lot of them come with blades now for grading. Nice thing about the excavator is he can pile the trees for you after you cut off the root and tops, makes it nice and easy to cut up for firewood. When they do roots for me they pick them up and drop them to get the dirt off the roots, much nicer for burning.

Good point George. There is a Kubota KX 161 that is for rent close to me. I know it has a lot more breakout force than my B20. As you can see, I still want some seat time as there is nothing more fun than that.

 

[BeezFun]

I would get more estimates from tree guys. We just had a lot of storm damage and had a crew of 4 with a chipper and truck in for 8 hours and it was $1250. The chipper was enormous, it swallowed 12" trunks without missing a beat. They did a huge amount of work, took down several whole trees that were probably 24" at the base, topped off some others, very high and difficult work to avoid dropping debris on the house and other landscaping. I'm in the Chicago suburban area, so things aren't cheap here. They grind the stumps if I want it, most of this work didn't require it.

 

[grsthegreat]

I had a guy come in with a full sized excavator and the popped my 6-10" diameter trees out of the ground..roots and all. Then stacked them in a nice pile for me to chip and chop. He took out i believe 9 -10 trees, stacked them then closed up the root holes for $230.00 (just got the bill). He told me hes just taken down an acre of trees in about 6-8 hrs, and the cost would have been around $600.00. (for a future arena). This guy was really trying to hose you big time.

 

[dodge man]

$350 per hour for 5 guys and all there stuff is not out of line. What is out of line is how the heck are they going to make that last 5 days? I'd think 5 guys would do a job like that in a day or less easy, unless there is hundreds of trees. I cleared about that much land on my place, just kind of messing around with it when I had free time. It took me several months just doing it a couple of hours at a time, but I'd guess me working alone with nothing but a BX2350 and a chainsaw took no more than 40 or 50 hours. I did hire someone to come in with a stump grinder, but that only cost me a couple of hundred bucks.

If it were me, I'd just cut the smaller stuff off close to the ground and let the stumps rot. Its hard on the chainsaw, but it's cheap. The bigger stuff I'd think your B20 would do a good job on, just might take a little time. The few stumps I left sticking up at my place have started to rot away and will be gone within a couple of more years.

 

[roamerr]

Only way to do it is a dozer. That way the tree gets pushed over and the roots pop up. A good size dozer should be able to do it in 5 hrs or less if it's a flat open 1/2 acre. Carrying off the trees is a different story -- most do not want to do that.

I had 5 acres cleared and graded. It was only 30% trees. Paid $4000 and it took a full week for 2 men and they carried off all the trees and brush. Graded me a 100 x 100 pad level for my storage building also. The key for me was finding a local "farmer" that had a dozer, access to a dump truck, and land to put the leftover wood scraps on. This guy was insured but bid far lower than anyone else since he did it to fill in gaps in time.

 

[wrooster]

I had a guy come in with a full sized excavator and the popped my 6-10" diameter trees out of the ground..roots and all. Then stacked them in a nice pile for me to chip and chop. He took out i believe 9 -10 trees, stacked them then closed up the root holes for $230.00 (just got the bill). He told me hes just taken down an acre of trees in about 6-8 hrs, and the cost would have been around $600.00. (for a future arena). This guy was really trying to hose you big time.

Don't get too attached to that guy, as he will be out of business soon.

Wrooster

 

[20 20]

excavator

 

[charlz]

Good point George. There is a Kubota KX 161 that is for rent close to me. I know it has a lot more breakout force than my B20. As you can see, I still want some seat time as there is nothing more fun than that.

Get a quote to have some tree guys come in and drop the trees, buck up firewood size stuff and chip the rest. Then you get your seat time on the KX161 digging out the stumps :thumbsup:

 

[grsthegreat]

Don't get too attached to that guy, as he will be out of business soon.

Wrooster

well, dont think so, since hes been in business for over 20 years here in idaho.

 

[MarkV]

Your a lucky guy. Here you could not get anyone to deliver a full size excavator for $230.00.

MarkV