Getting ready to clear a 1.4 acre site. Mostly tall straight pines. Gently sloping site. Whats the most cost effective way of clearing a lot?
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Get an experienced land clearer with a track loader (i.e. giant front loader with tracks; sort of like a bull dozer but has large bucket instead of a fixed blade). My guy came in and leveled the trees like tooth picks. He drove along side the trees, then backed up so that the back of the bucket caught the tree near the base, then he just kept going back and to the opposite side of the tree and just kept laying them down. His son cut the root stumps off and hauled the logs off too (I kept some for my saw mill).
Someone with this kind of equiptment could clear the lot in a day or two. Including hauing off the stumps and logs. Depending on your area, you'll probably pay in the vicinity of $150 - $200 per hour.
most cost effective way of clearing a lot?
call a lumber company " you cut the trees you can have them" it be clear cut before noon.
"Most cost effective" is going to leave the lot looking like WW3 was fought there. Make sure you are clear with the timber folks about how you expect the lot to look when they are done.Steve.
That might be another one of those regional differences things. Some states have fairly strict guidlines and rules for logging practices
Welcome to the Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime. where ... Excellence is its own reward!
Do you really want to clear all of the trees? And do you want to keep any for firewood, or even to mill for lumber?
In NE Indiana, when living there, we would call a Mennonite guy, who brokered services and did the driving and hauling for some Amish guys.
Day later, an extended-cab pickup hauling a horse trailer would show up, the Mennonite guy driving. Two Amish men, one Amish boy, and some chainsaws and tools and fuel come out of the truck. Out of the trailer comes a big Belgian draft horse. The kid outfits the horse with his harness and log chain, while the men fire up the saws.
The men whack the trees, and the kid hauls out all the stuff with the horse.
napalm...
#$&%(*$#
Please excuse our mess....
Tagline under reconstruction...
awwwww, the smell of victory
Are you SURE about that ??...a bad day at the beach is better than a good day anywhere else... :)
fom the movie "Apocalypse Now"
I was going to say "a daisy cutter," but napalm has the advantage of leaving only ash.
daisy cutter will leave ya fence and no stumps..
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
ah yes....
Napalm
the quicker picker upper!!!!
1001 uses....
if YOU have a handy use for Napalm send your idea to PO box 14779 Battle Creek, Michigan
write Clearcut on the envelope...#$&%(*$#
Please excuse our mess....
Tagline under reconstruction...
Do not use napalm.
Napalm sticks to kids.
From the Redneck Test:
5. Your cousin wants to clear some trees off his property for a junk yard, and has a chainsaw which operates at 2700 RPM. The density of the pine trees in the plot to be harvested is 470 per acre. The plot is 2.3 acres in size. The average tree diameter is 14 inches. How much beer will be drunk before the trees are cut down?
D-11H with a V chain blade...
won't have to set yur beer down.. get to keep the cooler close at hand too..
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!<!----><!---->
Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
Edited 10/12/2006 8:43 pm by IMERC
I believe a trackhoe is the best piece of equipment for removing trees. They have tons of power and a lot of reach. They're far better than a bulldozer.
sell the lumber on the stump to a preofessional logger
Welcome to the
Taunton University of Knowledge FHB Campus at Breaktime.
where ...
Excellence is its own reward!
If you just want to clear it and don't give a sh!t about the wood or saving any trees, get a guy to come in with a chipper head on a tracked excavator. He'll turn those trees into big chips in about 30 seconds per tree. When he leaves, you'll be walking around on 1.4 acres of unglued OSB.
But that whole route is a crime against nature. And while it may be time efficient, it's not cost effective, because you wind up wasting a valuable resource. The chips are so big it takes forever for that stuff to compost, and it's too coarse to be decent mulch. Most outfits just bulldoze it under where it won't decompose for lack of oxygen. It makes bulky but unstable fill. You can't do anything worthwhile with it. It's a waste product; a liability rather than an asset.
Don't do it. Instead, put on your class one Vikings, flag the trees to save, and start clearing by cutting the small brush with a bladed Stihl whacker. Run that through a regular chipper and you'll get good mulch and compost material. Save that for your landscaping later, or bag it and sell it to a garden center. Retail price on a big bag of mulch now is about $17; you ought to be able to get at least half that wholesaling it to the dealer.
Then go to the downslope side of the lot and start cutting the trees. Chip the branches and have a guy with a portable sawmill come in and mill the trunks. Put the planks in stick to dry; you can plane them next year. Then sell (or use) them. Right now, select grade white pine is selling for over $5 per board foot; #1&2 is bringing in about $3. If you're lucky and get any CVG boards out of your trees, you're looking at close to $10 per BF.
I can't see the trees on that lot so I can't estimate how much you could get, but it could easily be several thou. You really don't want to bulldoze all that under, do you?
Dinosaur
How now, Mighty Sauron, that thou art not brought
low by this? For thine evil pales before that which
foolish men call Justice....
Here is the problem with the above suggestions to call a lumber company. They won't take out the stumps. By far, the best way to get the stumps out is to push the trees over. The weight of the tree is used to pop the root ball out of the ground. A full sized track hoe or large track loader is what is used around here. Track hoes are easier on the dump trucks as they can set the logs in the bed.
Call a heavy equipment guy who does clearing. He will send whatever usable logs there are to the mill and get a pulp guy to come take the softwoods. The stumps and the rest of the stuff will go to the dump. All this will be factored into the price.
Clearing isn't cheap. Around $10k +- per acre here.
Where are you? What's the size of the trees (height/girth)?
Around here the pines generally don't have much of a root system and a front loader can snatch the stumps out quite easily. Different story for hardwoods. It's sometimes difficult to find big time cutting operators to do lots as small as yours but there are quite a few individual pulpwooders that'll take the trees but leave the stumps.
You are right. The pulp guys come and take the trees for free, but leave the stumps, foliage and the brush. You still have to get serious heavy equipment onsite to dig out the stumps and load the dumptrucks to remove the trash. This isn't gonna happen with a bobcat and a 2 ton dump truck. Plus even though you say "Around here the pines generally don't have much of a root system and a front loader can snatch the stumps out quite easily. " which may be true except you will still up to double your machine time getting the stumps out.
A little story: The neighborhood I live in is a bit different than some in that owner-builders were allowed. Each lot required about 1 acre of clearing for house driveway and septic field. The woods are mixed long leaf southern pine and hardwoods with a few medium large hardwoods per acre. One guy on our culdasac decided to DIY his lot clearing. These people are eccentric tree huggers, although it alludes me why they wanted to move to a neighborhood with acreage since they never come out of the house. He started by getting the pulp guy in there, who removed maybe 30% of the tree trunks. They like them not too big and not too small. Then the HO shows up with his mommy van, 8' trailer and a chain saw. Works on it on and off for 3 weeks or so doing I don't know what. Then he sends a tree company (arborist) over there to remove the big ones (pines and hardwoods) and clean up the place some. These guys generally charge maybe $500 per tree... They actually climbed and cut some of the trees to prevent damage to other close by trees that were to be saved. They also removed some of the stumps by grinding with a stump grinder. Then a heavy equipment guy came in there and dug the stumps for the house area. I'll bet $100 our HO spent significantly more on his eco-friendly clearing methods than it would have been to start with a 270 series track hoe, a 953 Cat tree killer, a couple labors and the dump trucks.
Then once the house construction started the footer guy was over there for maybe week. I was building a few doors down so decided to go talk to the footer guy and find out why he was there so long. He told me he was having a heck of a time because of all the big roots left in the ground and that his mini excavator was really just not strong enough to get some of them out.
Summary of the rest: footers came out poor. Whole house (ICF) was significantly out of wack (out of plumb and level) and took 2 years to build. They never finished the faux stone veneer on the outside of the foundation - the HO told me he was way over budget and ran out of money. I had given the HO a phone # for a trim guy I know, who later told me abput building bookcases on a wall that had the floor 1.5" out of level and that he he was gonna charge me extra on the next house for me giving this guy his phone number (TIC) (maybe).
To the OP: you have the right attitued about containing expences, but you gotta know when to call in the big guns too...
Edited 10/13/2006 8:55 am ET by Matt
which may be true except you will still up to double your machine time getting the stumps out.
You've clearly been around that block.
Was talking to my dentist yesterday. She was arborist-quoted $650 to remove a pine. Horrified, 'cause she has a bunch she wants gone. Told her if there was room, I could have it on the ground in 15 minutes. Buddy with a large chipper... Then we got to talking root balls.
Now I've gotta go find out if she needs the big equipment or leave the stumps in the ground. Sometimes these little conversations turn into substantial jobs. Need to complete the planning. Pretty sure she doesn't yet know what she wants, other than her mountain view back.
I did mention that I know some small logging crews who'd cut small acreage and she should call the local softwood mill to see what they were buying. Might get the trees removed for free, if leaving the rootballs in the ground was acceptable. Otherwise, we're gonna shake the earth some. PAHS Designer/Builder- Bury it!
...Need to complete the planning....
the magic phrase - and one that's been lacking for the most part in this thread -
the OP needs to get his plan in order before he does anything else -
if he's building (I assume he is) he needs to get the whole tree(s) out of the construction area - that means tipping them over, rather than sawing off the top and dealing with the rootball later -
but it's unlikely(?) that he would want to remove every tree on the lot - which would mean protecting any trees that remain from disturbance/compaction/grade change -
"there's enough for everyone"
Been waiting Jon S to supply the size and slope info also.
When I clear stuff unde a foot in dia simply doze it out, root ball and all with the track loader, then saw to what the use for the logs will be, often simply re-bury the stumps now, used to burn them. 1-1/4 acre in the olde days when burning was allowed it was 1 day/acre to clear with a small 5 ton machine, another 1/2 day to pile and start the burn, 2 days to keep an eye on the burn pile.
On big stuff, like 4 ft dia cottonwood or a 3 ft dia D fir, fell and then dig around with backhoe and cut off stump a foot below ground level and re-fill.
35 years ago used the clearing excuse to buy first dozer (old D2), but just one acre Jon S maybe should just rent for a day - be sure machine has Rops and Fops.
Around here they drop the large trees with a chainsaw and clean up with an excavator that has a thumb. They often clear the lot, dig the foundation hole and pour the footing in two or three days, They don't bother chainsawing anything the excavator can push over.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
Pines come out pretty clean. Stump / roots aren't too deep. The pulpwood guy may or may not be interested in such a small stand. It depends on his work load, the current price of pulp in your area, and the proximity of other dwellings, overhead power lines, etc.
If you have many large trees, what we call "saw logs" here in Georgia, he'll be interested. Here, we put larger tracts up for bid, and we usually get three or four pulpwood guys interested.
I cleared 19 acres a few years ago to put it into cultivation. I got $24,000 for the mixed hardwood timber, but it cost me almost $30,000 to get it cleared, with the stumps piled and burned. This included working the whole tract with a root rake, so we could farm it without tearing everything up on rocks and roots.
My Uncle used to buy a small used dozer, keep it for about a year to do all of the clearing on his own land, then he'd sell it for what he paid for it. He did this three times in a period of about ten years.
Greg