Stump Grinding and Stump Removal in Ohio: $4 per Inch, Lots by the Day

Grinding takes the stump 6 to 10 inches below ground level and leaves the root system to rot; they do not rotate out with it. Stump removal involves pulling the entire stump and ball out with an excavator, $160 an hour, and filling the hole. Grind where grass or a driveway goes. Remove where a footer, a septic field or a pad goes, because rotting wood under a slab is a void in ten years.

On a lot with a pad, grubbing beats grinding: the excavator is already there and the stumps go out with the brush at $600 to 1,100 a load. On a finished yard, the grinder wins every time; it fits through a 36-inch gate and leaves the grass. Tell me what goes on top of the stump and I tell you which one.

$4 per inch of diameter measured at the widest point of the cut, $150 minimum per stump. A 24-inch maple stump is $150. A 40-inch oak is $160. Ten or more stumps on one lot are priced by the day instead, usually $900 to 1,400 for a full day of skid steer work with the grinder attachment, professional stump equipment, not a rental.

• Single stump under 36 inches: $150 minimum.
• 36 to 60 inches: $4 per inch, $144 to 240.
• 10 or more stumps: by the day.
• Haul the grindings off instead of leaving them: add a load, $600 to 1,100.
• Surface roots ground flush: $4 per inch, same minimum.

Pricing on a stump grinding job bundled with clearing drops because the trailer is already parked. Frozen ground, December to February, grinds the same as summer; mud season adds a day because the machine ruts the turf. Call (740) 729-8625 or send the form with photos and a tape measure across the cut. I email you a budget range and two dates before the end of the day.

Till clay under Columbus and Delaware grinds clean and fills the hole with its own chips. Gravel terraces along the Great Miami and Scioto eat teeth; a set of carbide teeth that lasts 40 stumps in clay lasts 15 in gravel, which is in the day rate. Around Dayton the limestone sits within 3 feet and sometimes within 10 inches, so the cutting wheel stops where the rock starts and we tell you the depth before we quit.

Frozen ground is no problem for the grinder; the stump is wood, not soil, and the chips fly the same. Water in the hole is the April problem on Kokomo flats and lake-plain clay. We grind, let it drain a week, then fill. OUPS 811 marks underground utilities 48 hours before any grinding below grade. Tile lines are not marked, and a 30-inch deep tile under a 60-year maple is common on a farm lot.

Dead ash grinds fast because the wood is dry and already checked; the emerald ash borer did the first cut years ago. White oak grinds slowest and dulls teeth, so a 40-inch oak takes an hour. A maple stump is the easy one. Walnut stains the chips and the grass under them for a season.

What grinds clean stays dead. What resprouts is the problem: honeysuckle from the crown, callery pear and tree-of-heaven from every one you leave. On those we grind the crown flush and treat the cut within minutes, or the grass is a thicket of suckers by July. Ash, oak and maple do not sucker. Decay in till clay takes 5 to 8 years for what is left below the grind.

Most of our grinding follows a clearing job. A 1-acre lot in Lebanon last fall was a callery pear thicket: one day with the mulcher, $2,500, then 9 stumps the owner wanted flush for seeding, $360. The mulcher leaves stems at ground level; the grinder takes them 8 inches under so a mower never finds them.

After a dead ash removal the stumps are 18 to 30 inches and there are usually a dozen. That is a day job. Tree removal of a live oak near the house is climber work and we refer it out, but once the trunk is on the ground the stump is ours. Leftover grindings fill the hole and the surplus goes on the beds as mulch.

Ten or more stumps are a day, not a per-inch sum. A typical township lot after clearing has 15 to 25 stumps from 6 to 30 inches, which is one long day with the skid steer and the grinder attachment. Surface roots on a maple get ground flush at the same $4 an inch so the mower deck stops catching. Tree roots deeper than the teeth reach stay and rot.

A fully cleared quarter acre of stumps ahead of a slab is grubbed instead: the excavator pulls the root structure whole, debris and all, and the pad contractor gets clean clay. Heavy machinery for that is already on the lot during clearing. I will tell you from the photos whether your lot is a grinder day or an excavator half day.

Stump grinding is a hydraulic cutting wheel, 20 to 30 inches across, set with carbide teeth, turning at 1,000 rpm, that sweeps side to side across the wood until the stump is chips. The stump grinding process is simple: grind the top flush, then step down in 2-inch passes to 6 to 10 inches below grade, then chase the big roots a foot out. The chips and dirt mix stays in the hole.

Our stump grinder is a skid steer mount, not a walk-behind rental, which matters on clay and on a 40-inch trunk. A tracked grinder goes where a wheeled one sinks. Pest trouble, carpenter ants in a dead ash, ends when the wood is chips. Protective screens and a glove and face shield on the operator are standard; a tooth that lets go is a bullet. Use a machine sized to the stump and a 30-inch oak is 40 minutes. Rent one for a weekend and it is Sunday night.

The grindings fill the hole and the pile on top shrinks by half in a season. We rake the surplus into the beds as mulch or haul it, $600 to 1,100 a load, if you want the turf seeded the same month. Grass seeded straight into fresh grindings fails; the chip pulls nitrogen as it rots. Pull the chips, add 4 inches of topsoil, then seed.

Termites are the question every homeowner asks. Ground chips in an open yard dry out and are not the problem; a buried stump against a foundation is. That is the case for grinding the entire stump near the house rather than leaving it in the landscape. Regrading the hole after a month, when it settles, is a shovel job we leave to you or do for the hour.

Within 60 miles of Delaware or Lebanon, which covers Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati and the counties between. Any clearing job statewide includes grinding at the per-inch rate, including Cleveland, Akron, Canton and Toledo, where transport bills from Delaware. A single stump near you in Lorain or Lucas County is a long drive for $150; hire a local pro for that and call us for the lot.

Stump grinding is quicker, cheaper and cleaner than digging a stump out by hand, and it does not dig up the lawn around it. We eliminate the trip hazard, the mower damage and the unsightly stump in your yard. Everything you need to know is above; the price is $4 an inch. Send the form with photos or call (740) 729-8625 for a budget range before the end of the day.