Stump Grinding yay or nay?

[YoGi_93]

So still carrying on the trail of threads helping me decide where to go with this game. Is stump grinding a decent thing to get into? Ive heard from my uncle who is a mechanic for garden machinery and stump grinders/chippers that lot that aparently theres an alright amount of money in it for the kind of industry and theres not many people doing it either. Is it worth it or is it just a very tedious and boring way of making a huge mess? Cheers for the help

[Hodge]

Have a look into how many people around your way are offering stump grinding, if there is nobody offering this service then ask yourself why, if people are the are they making a decent living out of it. I have had 5 different machines over the years and I have never made a living soley from stump grinding it is just a service I can offer when I have removed the tree.

[skyhuck]

Years ago when stumpgrinders were new and very expensive it was a pretty good number, but these days most tree Co's have one (I have 2)

 

When there are large stumps or a lot of smaller ones, I use "stumpbusters" they are very reasonably priced and nation wide.

[Ian C]

I do all my own, have 2 grinders. did 70 conifer stumps and a cherry last week. good money and helps to get work but i wouldnt want to do it on its own.

[John Shutler]

Years ago when stumpgrinders were new and very expensive it was a pretty good number, but these days most tree Co's have one (I have 2)

 

When there are large stumps or a lot of smaller ones, I use "stumpbusters" they are very reasonably priced and nation wide.

 

 

i like having the ability to do stumps if needed, bigger stumps go to stump busters as i find large stumps are a pain to do and are incredibly mundane plus i cant get near stump busters on price (£2+Vat per inch)

 

i own 3 grinders and my biggest (carlton 2500-04) will be going up for sale soon as i havnt used it since the first week of january

[maljack]

I always say to tree surgeons that they will make more money concentrating on what they do best.

I grind stumps 100% and have been for the past twelve years and now in my opnion is probably not the best time to get into it.

Carlton 66 horsepower Kubota and 13 horsepower covers all my work in East Anglia

hello

[Ian C]

 

i like having the ability to do stumps if needed, bigger stumps go to stump busters as i find large stumps are a pain to do and are incredibly mundane plus i cant get near stump busters on price (£2+Vat per inch)

 

i own 3 grinders and my biggest (carlton 2500-04) will be going up for sale soon as i havnt used it since the first week of january

 

John, your such a tackle tart!!!

[Paul Jenks]

It's a bolt on service for us. Clients can always get it done cheaper. Tree surgeons are geared for tree work not necessarily grinding and their prices reflect this. Many purely stump grinding co's don't remove the grindings so there is a big cost saving there.

 

Give 2 prices. One to leave and one to remove leaving the site level. This price for removal has to reflect not only the costs associated with hauling it out of the garden but also the cost for disposal.

I was criticized on a big felling and grinding job a few years ago. We had about 30 large H.chestnut stumps to deal with. We ground them down to about 650-750mm and each was about 1-1.5m across. There was about 2-4tonnes from each stump. The client compared our costs with a contractor in the midlands a quarter of the price, who, when one read the small print it turned out didn't remove the spoil and 'prices were based on grinding to 50-100mm below ground level'. Yes, 50-100mm. We never go another spot of work on the site. Can't educate pork.

[Kev Stephenson]

Like alot of others have said I have my own small grinder. It will never make me a living but it can be thrown on the back of the van and make me an extra £50 on a job for a few minutes work and seems to offer the edge when quoting as an added extra.

 

Where we tend to work there are a lot of narrow access gardens and and terraced gardens so the small grinder gets where a bigger ir even tracked machine wouldn't.

 

There is a company 50 or so miles from me that does stumps and is a lot better than our local stump busters. He does an awful lot of miles generally chasing the jobs the tree surgeon doesn't want or can't do. A living is possible and the work not difficult with the right machines but be prepared to put the miles in and you need a good reputation for the number of jobs/referals you will need.

[YoGi_93]

Cheers for all the input lads. Reading all that and talking to my uncle the possible plan would be to get a small pedestrian grinder and a trailer and do stump grinding just of a weekend or evening to put a bit more money in the bank, whilst still carrying on with my tree firm employment of a week. Does that sound plausible? I'm a bit sceptical because all my colleagues have said its very boring, expensive replacing teeth and makes one hell of a mess...one lad even said I'll be claiming on insurance every week for smashed windows or cut cables.