A stump has one job left, and it's being in your way. The grinder takes it down in passes, six to twelve inches below grade, until what's left is a mound of chips where a trip hazard used to be. Rake it, top it with soil, throw seed, and by mid-summer you mow straight over the spot.

What grinding is, and isn't

Grinding chews the stump and the top of the root flare into chips. It does not pull the whole root system, and it doesn't need to: with the stump gone the roots stop, rot slowly, and feed the lawn on the way out. If you're planting a new tree, we grind deeper on request and you plant offset a couple of feet. If you're pouring concrete or setting a post there, tell us at the estimate and we take it down further.

Before the grinder starts

Utilities get located first. New York's Dig Safely mark-out is a phone call and a couple of days, and we handle it. Grinders and gas lines do not meet.
Access gets measured. The machine fits through a standard gate; if your gate is narrower, say so when you call and we plan around it.
Sprinkler heads, invisible-fence wire, and landscape lighting near the stump: point them out and they survive.

What it costs

Mostly diameter and count. One big cottonwood stump is one price; nine little arborvitae stumps along a fence line are another, and doing them all in one visit is cheaper than three visits. Surface roots running off the stump add passes, so show us everything at the look. The estimate is written, and the estimate is the price.

The chips

Grinding makes more chips than people expect, a wheelbarrow becomes several. We rake the mound tidy and leave them to settle, which is the cheap option and the good-for-the-soil option, or we haul them and backfill with topsoil so the spot is seed-ready the same day. Your call, priced in writing either way.

Taking a tree down too? Removal and grinding booked together means one crew, one cleanup, one number.

On the day, and the weeks after

Grinding is loud and it throws chips. The operator aims the wheel so the spray goes where nothing matters, but move cars off the driveway if the stump is near it and close the windows on that side of the house. A single stump is usually a short visit. A fence line of them is a morning. You don't have to be home; a clear gate and a phone that picks up are all we need.

Fresh stumps and old stumps grind differently. A stump cut last week is solid and takes its time, oak and hard maple most of all. One that's been rotting for years crumbles fast. Rocks in the root zone are the real slowdown: every stone the wheel finds is a stop and a look at the teeth, so if you know the fill under the lawn is rubble, say so at the estimate.

After we leave, the mound settles. It looks like a lot on day one and less by week three as it packs down and starts to break down. If we backfilled with soil, expect a dip a month or two later as the chips underneath compress; top it off once and it holds. Seed takes best in spring or early fall, not July heat.

A few species won't quit. Tree of heaven, black locust, poplar, and some others send up sprouts from the roots left behind, sometimes yards from where the stump stood. Mow them and they usually give up. Mushrooms on the lawn near an old stump are the roots rotting out, not a problem, and they stop when the roots are gone.