Land Clearing, Lot Clearing & Forestry Mulching

The work

What this actually involves

Lot clearing for new builds, brush clearing on overgrown ground, and forestry mulching that leaves the chip on site.

Clearing to a line, not to the fence

Most clearing jobs are not 'take everything'. There is a build envelope, a septic field or a drive to protect, trees the owner wants kept, and a property line that matters. We walk it and mark it first. Taking one more row than you were asked to is not something you can put back, and on a wooded lot the trees left standing are usually worth more to the owner than the ones that came down.

Mulching versus grubbing — they are not the same job

Forestry mulching takes standing brush and small timber down to chip and leaves it on the ground as cover. It is fast, it holds soil on a slope, and it does not create a pile anyone has to deal with. What it does not do is remove roots. If the ground is going to carry a building, a drive or a finished lawn, the stumps and root mat have to come out and the holes have to be filled and compacted. Mulch a build pad and you have bought yourself settlement.

What happens to the material

There are three honest answers for cleared material and the right one depends on the site: chip it and spread it, pile and burn it where the county and conditions allow, or haul it off. Burying stumps on site is the fourth answer and it is the one that comes back — organic material buried in fill rots, and the ground above it drops. We agree which of the three it is before the first tree comes down, because it changes the price.

Cost and mulching

Clearing cost and forestry mulching

What decides the price of clearing an acre, and a closer look at forestry mulching in our two nearest counties.

Clearing in Boone County: see lot clearing in Zionsville and brush and lot clearing in Whitestown.