Grubbing

Tree care and landscaping service providers often have land clearing equipment at worksites, as their work requires those items. Specifically, land clearing may involve bulldozers, chainsaws, and backhoes for a large area.

Since it occurs underground, grubbing demands more specialized, invasive equipment than clearing. Many machines—including stump grinders, skid steers, excavators, and forestry mulchers—play a role in the grubbing process: 

• Stump grinders process mid-size to large tree stumps—even those that chainsaws and similar cutting tools struggle to affect—where they stand, turning them into mulch. 

• Skid steers plow through a site’s soil and rip out underground root systems by leveraging one of their several attachments. 

• Excavators can move large rocks and boulders or break up compact soil to facilitate underground installations.

• Forestry mulchers are heavy-duty attachments used for clearing and grubbing to demolish logs and dig up the thick brush in a wooded area.

The labor necessary for clearing and grubbing will depend on the number of machines used and the property’s size. While clearing can lean on cutting and grinding instruments, grubbing must incorporate heavy equipment that reaches underground.

Land clearing can go quickly on lightly wooded land. Yet the denser the vegetation, the greater the time commitment to clear. For instance, excavation and tree removal can add to the timeline. Thus, a heavily wooded area can take an entire day to excavate. Likewise, the time frame for grubbing depends on the site’s growth density. Deep, tangled roots—or thick ones from old-growth trees—will necessarily take longer to remove than young trees’ roots.