Stump Grinding Services We Provide
As we have discussed on the page dedicated to stump removal, this is an important part of the overall removal of a tree. Leaving the stump behind is basically leaving the job half done, and the remaining part of the tree –the stump and the root system – will quickly rot, potentially starting a whole host of problems for you and your yard.
Luckily there is a range of ways to remove a stump, again these are highlighted on the appropriate page detailing our stump removal service.
One of these methods is to employ a stump grinding machine. This can be especially useful for larger tree stumps – although there are a range of grinding machine sizes available for use, making this is a fast and efficient method to remove stumps of all sizes.
As something of a specialized service, we thought it could be useful to give the grinding machines their own small description and guide here.
Generally there are two questions we hear most often about the stump grinding process and the machines involved, which are:
What is a Stump Grinder?
A fair question to start with especially if you’ve never heard of this contraption before!
Put simply, it’s a powerful machine with a blade attached to the bottom. When the machine is activated, the blade cuts, or “grinds” into the top level of the stump, chopping and grinding it into mulch and wood chips.
As we mentioned above, grinders come in a whole range of sizes – everything from extremely mobile, handheld machines to large wheeled rigs. This makes them an extremely effective tool in the removal of stumps of a whole range of sizes.
Irrespective of the overall size of the machine however they all operate in broadly the same way. The blade mounted to the bottom of the machine is the most important part of the set up, and our technicians will always ensure the blade is kept as sharp as possible.
What Will It Do?
If it looks as if a stump grinder is the most efficient way to remove your stump, then our staff will not actually start the process with the grinding machine itself. This may sound strange, however it is usually the best idea that we begin by using our other equipment to cut the stump right down to ground level.
This leaves as little as possible of the stump remaining before we get to grinding. By doing this, the whole process will be that much quicker to perform.
The next stage is the grind itself. The machine is set up so that the blade will remove the top layer of wood – probably about an inch to half inch of growth. This will be chewed up and shredded into mulch and chips. We will periodically halt to reset the blade and clean away the already ground up stump into bags for easy disposal.
We’ll keep going until there is nothing left of the stump in the ground but a large, empty hole – what we call a job well done!