Clearing a wooded lot costs??

[jconnor3]

We are putting our house up for sale shortly and will be looking for a new home that has some land to it. Im curious what the ball park cost would be for having some land cleared. 1 home I like is on about 2 acres, but 1 of them is heavily wooded.

I'd like to remove the majority of the trees (keep a handful for shade and appearance) but the end goal is to be able to grow grass and mow/use this acre once completed. So this would include stump grinding/removal as well so it's usable land.

Anyone have about an acre cleared before and mind sharing the costs?

 

[Showkey]

Why buy a wooded lot and clear it............you likely are paying a premium for a wooded lot ? Clear enough for the house and a small buffer.

 

[My Old Tools]

Mowing 2 acres is a pain. I would clear just enough to see through it, get rid of the trash trees and brush, and plant shade loving ground covers. But, each to his own. Find a lot that is already pasture.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Without defining what heavily wooded means (like is it a bunch of 10 or 20 year old trees or old growth stuff that's 100 feet tall) it's hard to say.

However, I have to side with the people asking about why buy a wooded lot only so you can cut it down. Personally, I like trees and hate mowing, so I'd clear a small spot for the house and leave it at that.

 

[Thumper68]

It really depends on what kind of trees they are, There is a local logging company that will come out and selectivity thin out trees for free if they are good old growth stuff that they can sell to a specialty mill. You have to take care of the stumps yourself.

 

[jconnor3]

I'd love to find a long that was perfect, but with the competitive housing market those perfect lots are a real premium and they go within hours typically of being posted. There is a house on the lot already, its just a dump and we would have to do a major renovation on it. But what good is a 2-acre lot is only 1 acre is usable is my thinking. Plus, I like to mow and love having a big back yard with tree spread through out it.

 

[ssdave]

I'd guess $15,000 per acre to remove the trees and vegetation and stumps. Maybe another $5,000 to $25,000 per acre in lost value, depending on how much wooded land is worth where you are at versus bare worked ground.

 

[pendragon1998]

I'd love to find a long that was perfect, but with the competitive housing market those perfect lots are a real premium and they go within hours typically of being posted. There is a house on the lot already, its just a dump and we would have to do a major renovation on it. But what good is a 2-acre lot is only 1 acre is usable is my thinking. Plus, I like to mow and love having a big back yard with tree spread through out it.

Hell, do what you want, but a lot of people would think that the forested acre provides a privacy buffer between you and the neighbors, a little habitat for wildlife, shade, less maintenance, and aesthetic considerations.

Lawns are getting a lot of bad press these days. They're not very ecologically friendly.

 

[kd3pc]

In virginia at the time, 7 or 8 years ago - was close to $10K to clear, stump, level and plant grass seed for 30K sq ft. area in our 3 acre splotch.

Cheaper to clear the lot now, rather than doing it every year - $3-4K each time to remove the trees dead or damaged in the construction....our neighborhood is now going through clearing like this, 3 or 4 years after the home was built. The retirees are really unhappy about the "unexpected" costs.

 

[kmacht]

It varies a lot depending on your location. Here in CT it is around 5k an acre to take down the tress and stump. Other places I have seen it for as little as 2k and as high as 15k. You will then be left with a mess of brush from the trees which you will either have to burn or pay someone to chip (1 to 2k)Depending on the soil that remains you will likely have to pay someone to remove all the rocks, roots, level the area, bring in some top spoil and seed everything. That can easily add another 3 to 5k to the price. You can forget about having someone come in and pay you for the wood. Most places won't bother to bring the machinery in for any less than 5 acres. It just isn't economically feasible to select cut a single acre.

The alternative is to do it yourself. We bought 5 acres last year and are slowly clearing parts of it for a barn and horse pasture. Dropping and cutting the tress is fairly simple once you get an initial area cleared to drop them into. If you aren't familiar with how to do it safely there are courses you can take (game of logging). Once on the ground you can buck and split the wood, and pile the brush for burning. None of that costs money but will take a lot of time. If you don't have a woodstove you can sell the split wood to recover a little bit of money for your work. Stumping and bringing in fill will take some machinery. We bought a very used backhoe for $3500. It is rusted, ugly, and leaks but will pull stumps and move dirt. You can rent them but it may be easier to hire an operator by the hour for just an acre. The dirt you can have delivered by the tri-axle. Around here it is around $400 for 20 yards of top soil delivered. Dealing with the stumps will probably be your biggest expense. Our town won't let you burn or bury them and it was very expensive to take to the landfill. We piled them in a place out of the way deeper in the woods. It is all do-able. It just takes time. Between moving and all the other things that will get in the way I would plan on it taking 2 to 3 years before you had something resembling a lawn if you decide to do it yourself.

Keith

 

[KEH]

In the mid 1950s my brother and SIL bought a nice large wooded lot. They liked having trees. One small tree was very close to the back wall of the house, my father told them they needed to cut that tree down while it was small. SIL wouldn't hear of it. Years passed. Brother had to go in full time nursing care, then passed. I commented to SIL about cutting the tree, now huge, and she said if it fell it fell, she wanted to be able to see the tree. SIL passed. Their son, who has health issues, had to get the tree removed by someone swinging a big crane over the house. Other trees down through the years had to be removed without so much trouble. My advice to the op? Don't be a tree hugger and keep trees around longer than they are convenient and safe. My personal opinion is not to have tress that can fall on the house. This means no trees shading the house all during the day.

KEH

 

[finn]

Just buy some pasture land if you want to live on a prairie.

I never understood why city people want to move to the woods, and then destroy them.

Makes no sense to me.

 

[ozyborn]

Raise beavers. A lot of them

 

[larry4406]

2 years ago cleared lots in Montgomery County MD. Stakeout per the approved site plan showing limits of disturbance (LOD).

Preconstruction meeting with arborist to see trees that would be impacted by clearing. Minor adjustments to LOD to save certain "large or desiresble species ".

Installation of tree save fencing along the approved LOD including root pruning by a certified arborist. Also silt controls.

Inspection of installed tree save fencing and silt controls.

Removal of all trees and vegetation within the LOD.

Inspection of removal.

Only then could I stake out the house and drainfield for construction.

I think in the end we were soaked for near $20k/acre including all of the above. Let alone the 4+ week process of working thru the steps and getting to an approved site plan.

 

[jloehlein]

I had just under an acre (~0.9) cleared when I built my shop. I paid $20k, which included clearing the trees and stumps, removing all of the trash, grading, and prepping for the pad. The grading on my lot was more than typical because I had over 20' of elevation change from corner to corner - we had to cut a good ways into the hill to level everything out. For me, it was difficult finding someone with large enough equipment to do this quickly/efficiently, but willing to do only an acre.

 

[fowldarr]

I don't know that anybody can answer this accurately without knowing 1) what kind of trees; 2) how old they are; 3) What's the logging market in your area, and a bunch of other stuff.

The business I work at just had a bout an acre or more cleared, and it was completely cleared, it ended up costing in the neighborhood of $10k, after the company sold the old growth pine trees that came out. If it had just been the old growth the logging company would have paid for them, but clearing the alders and underbrush costs some money.

 

[kd3pc]

BTW, as Larry mentioned...

all bets are off and estimates tripled or more, and work denied IF

you are waterfront or have wet locations or swales and so on. Impact studies and various state and federal, corps of engineers, CBF, etc, etc ....

My waterfront was a nightmare to get permits, let alone the overwatch and stupidity of the people, whose job it was, to be knowlegeable...the one inspector, degreed, told me the wife that the scrub pines were old growth.. and the wife remembers the lot being totally clear and meadow, and we had pictures showing it a decade ago....inspector was "right".

 

[SilverSS1969]

I never understood why city people want to move to the woods, and then destroy them.

Makes no sense to me.

As a "City People", I agree. But I'm also the type to get out of the city as much as I can. We have my family place in Higgins and in Irons, as well as my buddy's place up in the Thumb we try to get to.

Id clear just enough to give you some space between the house and trees, clear out some of the under brush and fallen/dead trees. Then make some trails for the family to ride on with the quads.

 

[6768rogues]

I like trees but I also like sunshine to penetrate and warm/dry things and I don't like bugs that are in wooded areas. I like your plan.

 

[steveo1o9]

I'm not sure about the real estate market in your area but doesn't sound too smart buying a house which requires a ton of work on a lot that will require a ton of work to make it what you want. Unless you can get it for an absolute steal you could be upside down very quickly.

If it were me and this was the house I wanted I would focus on the house and then slowly start thinning the land yourself over time.

 

[jonesg]

Up in Maine we get a very decent tax advantage to keep woodland intact.
You might want to check before clearing them all out.
other than that, do as you wish, its your property.

 

[Falcon67]

Like many things, may depend on how much you want to put into it. Sit and watch, $$$$$. Get in there and cut - maybe $$$$. Last time we did it - and it's been a while - it was a $200 chain saw and $100/hr for a D9 Cat dozer - min 8 hrs split with a neighbor. 3 hours produced a driveway, septic line clearing and house location. And a pile of oak trees and brush about 1 1/2 stories tall. Days and days of chopping, stacking and burning.

Here, to remove one good size Mesquite - say, about 2' wide base - and grind the stump, $400.

 

[Diesel Dan]

Sounds like he is wanting selective cutting and not clear cutting, big difference.

We grew up on 70 acres of mostly wooded property.
As the years go by the tree line keeps getting farther from the house.
Trees and buildings don't mix well.