Al,
My .02 - depends what you want to do with the land after dealing with the stump. Cedar won't rot down for a LONG time - even if you grind it down. Buddy of mine out in WA state still has Cedar stumps on his land from when it was first clear-cut over 50 years ago. The wood is still pretty solid.
My experience is with the stump of an 80ft Maple that was within 10ft of my house - hence had it ground down. I wanted it to revert to grass. Here's the lessons I learned:
1. Don't underestimate how much the ground has been heaved up by the tree. The guys that did my stump took it down about 6" below the surface around the tree. Really needed it down 12" below to get to the true grade in that part of the yard.
2. Make sure you clear off all the woodchips from the stump so that you can see how far down the grinder has gone - before the grinder leaves site. It's really hard to get the surface levelish under all those chips - had better than 18" of chips on top of my stump - and some very high spots that needed re-work.
3. Don't leave the stump ground in a 'bowl' - makes for a mess. Water will just sit in it.
4. Before you get the stump ground identify where the big lateral roots are and have those ground out too. On my maple they were as thick as some of my smaller tree stumps!
5. If you want it to grass over, get rid of the woodchips and bring in fresh dirt from somewhere else. It takes a while for the woodchip / dirt combination to break down.
6. If you don't have an FEL, move the chips when they're dry. In fact, even if you do, you'll still have some shoveling to do. Wet chips = sore back.
I don't think any grinder will do a good enough job to allow you to use that area for anything other than grass. The stump will be there for years.
Don't know the cost - I had it included as part of a bid to drop the tree (needed a lot of top work before they could fell it because so close to the house - had extensive disease damage). I did all the other clean-up.
Patrick
My .02 - depends what you want to do with the land after dealing with the stump. Cedar won't rot down for a LONG time - even if you grind it down. Buddy of mine out in WA state still has Cedar stumps on his land from when it was first clear-cut over 50 years ago. The wood is still pretty solid.
My experience is with the stump of an 80ft Maple that was within 10ft of my house - hence had it ground down. I wanted it to revert to grass. Here's the lessons I learned:
1. Don't underestimate how much the ground has been heaved up by the tree. The guys that did my stump took it down about 6" below the surface around the tree. Really needed it down 12" below to get to the true grade in that part of the yard.
2. Make sure you clear off all the woodchips from the stump so that you can see how far down the grinder has gone - before the grinder leaves site. It's really hard to get the surface levelish under all those chips - had better than 18" of chips on top of my stump - and some very high spots that needed re-work.
3. Don't leave the stump ground in a 'bowl' - makes for a mess. Water will just sit in it.
4. Before you get the stump ground identify where the big lateral roots are and have those ground out too. On my maple they were as thick as some of my smaller tree stumps!
5. If you want it to grass over, get rid of the woodchips and bring in fresh dirt from somewhere else. It takes a while for the woodchip / dirt combination to break down.
6. If you don't have an FEL, move the chips when they're dry. In fact, even if you do, you'll still have some shoveling to do. Wet chips = sore back.
I don't think any grinder will do a good enough job to allow you to use that area for anything other than grass. The stump will be there for years.
Don't know the cost - I had it included as part of a bid to drop the tree (needed a lot of top work before they could fell it because so close to the house - had extensive disease damage). I did all the other clean-up.
Patrick
