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Land Clearing Costs

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amaralice

New member
I have .4 acres in PA that I am planning to build a 30 ft yurt on.

It is mostly wooded. I got my first quote for land clearing - a good 10 trees need to come down - and I am experiencing sticker shock. Is $9,500 high for the following line items?

  • [*]- Remove all of the trees and stumps that the customer requested (between 10-15)
    [*]- Haul the brush and stumps and logs that the customer doesn’t want
    [*]- Build a landbridge and diveway access point

I don't even know what #3 is (landbridge, etc)?

I plan to get at least 2 more quotes.
 
Three quotes is always going to be a good idea. In addition, ask for references.

Landbridge probably refers to the drainage culvert that is placed at the start of your driveway, so that the runoff ditch at the edge of the road does not get blocked and wash out/onto the road, damage the road, ditch, your land, the neighbors land etc. I know for a fact that neighbors get very irate and WILL take you to court if their property is affected by you not having a proper culvert and drainage. Seen it happen more than once. If you think 10K is expensive, see what a suit costs.

Tree removal and building that drainage culvert is a ton of labor. The last contractor I asked about tree removal costs was 5K and that was a few years ago. That did not include building any 'landbridge'. It covered dropping dozens of lodgepole pine trees and hauling them off.
 
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Thanks Bob helpful comparison.

The tree guys saw a landbridge on my neighbors property and that prompted the question - did I want them to do the same on my property.

Is the landbridge something I can address later and forgo now? I am building on the smallest possible budget using just my own salary so reducing costs is key.


Bob Rowlands said:
Three quotes is always going to be a good idea. In addition, ask for references.

Landbridge probably refers to the drainage culvert that is placed at the start of your driveway, so that the runoff ditch at the edge of the road does not get blocked and wash out/onto the road, damage the road, ditch, your land, the neighbors land etc. I know for a fact that neighbors get very irate and WILL take you to court if their property is affected by you not having a proper culvert and drainage. Seen it happen more than once. If you think 10K is expensive, see what a suit costs.

Tree removal and building that drainage culvert is a ton of labor. The last contractor I asked about tree removal costs was 5K and that was a few years ago. That did not include building any 'landbridge'. It covered dropping dozens of lodgepole pine trees and hauling them off.
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That is high, very high.

I had my spot logged off and the logger built the land bridge. We split the price he got on the logs and he charged my like $350 to do the bridge.

Definitely shop around.
 
Thanks Jafo.

How many trees went down?

The logger did say that most of trees (White Ash I suspect) were dead except for a few.

In the process of getting 2 more quotes for sure.


Jafo said:
That is high, very high.

I had my spot logged off and the logger built the land bridge. We split the price he got on the logs and he charged my like $350 to do the bridge.

Definitely shop around.
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Oh I do not remember, much more than 10 though.

If the trees are dead, then they are useless to anyone and many times it ups the cost because they are more dangerous to take down.
 
Okay so that is giving me some perspective.

I told the logger that I wanted to mill any usable trees for interior framing lumber. So that impacts the price since he would not be selling it. It might be more cost effective to simply buy the lumber then....


Jafo said:
Oh I do not remember, much more than 10 though.

If the trees are dead, then they are useless to anyone and many times it ups the cost because they are more dangerous to take down.
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That is definitely possible. Ask him what the cost would be if he took the logs.

You might also want to consider other ways to lower the price:

  • Agree to dispose of the limbs/tops yourself, but only if you are allowed to burn them. You might want to check locally to be sure. If you can't burn them, see what it would cost to rent a chipper for the weekend. Probably not that much.
  • Do you really need all the stumps removed? That is a bear of a job. Likely you only need them removed from the exact spot where the yurt will go. The rest you can remove over time yourself or by paying someone to grind them later on when you have more cash.
With the price of lumber right now, you might find you are getting a good deal on the logs. That is different area by area.
 
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I have worked on dozens of larger homes that had many lodgepole pine trees cleared from the building footprint, and also 30' around the home for fire mitigation codes. The cheapest route is to dig a large trench and bury the trees.
 
you know you could process the tree yourself, cut all the wood for your yurt and the interior for it, you could also use some of the stumps for footers you process the stump right just leave them in the ground, and put regular footer around them, if the stumps are in a good place, if not drill holes in the stump and plant fruit trees in them, Hey Bob when you start your own channel let me know I will be the first subscriber, or partner, qualfication , son of and Iron Worker/Farmer, Grandfarther a Tinker/Farmer, me Marine/factory worker/computer repair/builder of yurts/Farmer you know I am full of B.S. lol
 
The problem with putting footers anywhere near stumps or using stumps AS footers is that they rot.

The previous owner of my home had in fact, buried a bunch of stumps and then put a deck over it. Well, 10 years later and with me as the owner, a huge depression appeared and knocked the deck way off kilter. The stumps had rotted. I had to bring 5 dump truck loads of fill in, then smooth it all out, and then reconfigure the deck.

A small side note, but here in NY, you're not even allowed to transport stumps. You are basically required to bury them on site or burn them, which to me is just insane.
 
wow new york sucks, but once you have your notch or screw hole or what ever you are using to attached to the stump, take it off soak it in apple vinegar it will petrify the stump, and when it's wet attach what ever cause once it dries then you will need dimand tip or ruby tipped drill bits or saw blades so are you allow to grow fruit trees out of the stumps
 
Wow that is interesting about growing fruit trees from stumps. Reminds me of coppicing shoots. I read somewhere that yurt walls have been built from coppiced shoots. I made my grandsons a couple of nice walking sticks from coppiced shoots a few years ago. The sap was up and the bark peeled off very easily.

Building a foundation over unconsolidated fill is not good. Building a foundation over organic material is even worse. Foundation excavator STOPS at a particular depth, and DOES NOT refill to hit a particular grade. The footer needs to sit on virgin soil. The inspector checks for that very condition BEFORE the footer is placed. This is a classic example of why I like building department inspections. Way too much crap gets pulled otherwise.

Building any project over uncompacted organic fill is foolish. Biodegradable fill is going to settle over time as the buried material rots away.
 
Side note not about yurts. The deadly 1989 Loma Prieta quake in San Francisco- you know... the one that happened while sports broadcaster Al Michaels was calling a World Series game- that quake destroyed some buildings in San Francisco that were built on 'unengineered' fill from a century ago. I saw some of those buildings first hand. My bro in law is a san fran cop and took us on a tour through the closed area. Quite a few cops got side jobs doing construction on the rebuild.

Back to yurts.
 
Will you have a wood stove? If so there is the start of next years firewood . You can get a stump grinder, or cut as close to the ground as possible . We have a couple of stumps under our Yurt. Looks like your going to need a chainsaw . Good luck!
 
Wow - sorry I stopped getting the rest of this thread in my email inbox - had no idea there were more replies!

I am using a pellet stove because I want the heat as automated as possible and prefer not to have to chop wood.

Ivan said:
Will you have a wood stove? If so there is the start of next years firewood . You can get a stump grinder, or cut as close to the ground as possible . We have a couple of stumps under our Yurt. Looks like your going to need a chainsaw . Good luck!
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Update: I got a 2 more quotes one for $4500 and another for $2,500 (and that guy said that was the HIGH end of what the bill would be).


Should I worry that the $2500 was verbal? The guy seemed pretty informal.
 
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