Stump Grinding in Sleepy Hollow, Springfield
Five minutes down South Main and we are on Sleepy Hollow Drive, and yes, Shelby Lynn too. Nearly everything here is a hand-carried machine, which we plan for at quote time rather than on the morning. Photos in by noon get priced before we shut down.
Six Thousand Square Feet, and Half of It Is House
Sleepy Hollow Drive and Shelby Lynn Drive were built out between about 2001 and 2006 on lots averaging just over six thousand square feet, the tightest in Springfield. Side yards run under ten feet before you subtract the fence, the condenser and the meter, and the back yards are small enough that a mid-size stump takes up a visible share of one.
The trees that came with these houses are now twenty-odd years old, which is roughly where a Bradford pear stops being an asset. So the calls in here are small stumps in small spaces, and everything about the job gets decided by the space rather than by the stump.
The part nobody thinks about until the machine is running is where all the material ends up.
There Is Nowhere to Put the Pile
A ground stump gives back two to three times the volume you would guess from looking at it, because what comes out is loose and mixed with soil instead of packed the way it grew. On a two-thirds acre lot in Indian Hills that gets raked into a fencerow and forgotten. Here it does not fit anywhere.
So on Sleepy Hollow jobs we settle it before we start. Either it goes on a tarp in the driveway and into the truck on the same visit, which is a line on the quote rather than a surprise, or we spread it thin across the back and you accept a lumpy season and a mower throwing chips for a while.
A mid-size pear will produce enough to cover a couple of parking spaces ankle deep. Worth picturing before you decide which way to go.
The Side Yard Obstacle Course
The route in is nearly always the same on these plans. Through a gate off the driveway, past the air conditioner, past the meter and the hose bib, then a right turn at the corner of the house into the back. Every one of those is a spot where three inches decides which machine comes off the trailer.
We bring a walk-behind that gets maneuvered through by hand, and we lay boards over the turf on the way in, because slab houses on small lots tend to have thin topsoil over compacted builder fill and it marks easily.
One thing that helps enormously: unlatch and swing the gate fully back the night before, and move anything stored down that side, bins, bikes, a grill, somewhere else. Five minutes of your time takes twenty minutes off the visit.
Slab Houses Mean Everything Is Shallow
There are no basements on these. What there is instead is a slab with plumbing under it and a lot of shallow runs around the perimeter that went in with the house: downspout drains taken out to daylight, a sleeve under the walk, the occasional irrigation line added later.
Downspout drain is the one we find most. It is thin corrugated pipe buried about a foot down, usually running from the corner of the house across precisely the ground where the builder set the tree, and nothing in any locate system marks it. If you know where your gutters discharge, walk that line with us before we start.
The other thing worth flagging is where that drain lets out, normally the low back corner. That is the softest ground on the lot and it is often exactly where a machine would want to sit.
What we do in Sleepy Hollow
Questions from Sleepy Hollow and Shelby Lynn
How much material comes off a stump this size, really?
More than the stump. Grinding turns solid wood into loose chips mixed with soil, so the heap ends up several times the bulk of what you were looking at. An eighteen-inch pear gives you a heap you would struggle to fit in a pickup bed. On a lot this small that is the deciding factor in how the job gets quoted.
Can you get a machine into my back yard on Shelby Lynn?
Almost always, but on the small unit and by hand. Measure the gate posts and the tightest spot past the AC unit before you call. Anything twenty-six inches or more, we are in. Below that we start talking about a fence section or a route through a neighbor's side, and we would rather know that a week ahead than on the morning.
Do I have to pay to have the chips taken away?
Not required, but on these lots most people do, because there is genuinely nowhere to put the pile. Haul-off is quoted as a separate line so you can decide with a real number in front of you. If you have a bed that wants mulching, we will happily leave you a barrow load and take the rest.
The tree is right beside the AC unit. Is that a problem?
It is a thing to plan around rather than a problem. We shield the coil, because grinding throws chips hard and a fin pack full of debris costs you efficiency all summer. Where the stump is within about a foot of the pad, we work the near side by hand. Tell us before the visit so the right guards come along.