What It Takes, and What's the Difference

Land Clearing, the term may mean one thing to one contractor and something completely different to another.

But as a consumer that spends your hard-earned money into an investment that will make a drastic financial and/or difference to your home living situation, it's important to know what you're paying for, and more importantly what you're building on top of.

"Where it all should start, the grubbing phase"

Individuals and companies have been clearing land since humans have existed, and the oldest method since the invention of the internal combustion engine is with tractors and plows that scrape and remove as much biomatter from the soil and above the ground as possible. It is then hauled off site never to be seen again by large dump trucks.

Modern Excavators, Bulldozers, and Front End Loaders do all this work today and have been doing so for over the last century.

Why am I honing on this little bit of history? In the last decade a new piece of technology has entered the market that some crafty salesmen claim replaces the need for millions of dollar's worth of standard equipment, trucks, tree waste processing machines, laydown yards, environmental permits, employees ect. required by Land Clearing companies of even small sizes.

this piece of "revolutionary" machinery is called a "Forestry Mulcher"

"The Forestry Mulching Head attached to a Compact Track Loader"

I have to admit, I bought into the fad when cold called by a Gyro-Trac forestry mulching traveling sales rep several years ago, who toted it as the best thing since sliced bread and would cut down on my expenses by replacing 100's of thousands of dollars a year in bills with a $130,000 Skidsteer and mulching head combo running around $2000 a month in payments. We saw the mulcher as more of an opportunity to cut down on the volume of debris we had to haul off rather than a complete clearing solution after all its just a giant mower on steroids.

How it works

Specially formulated carbide teeth are fastened to a steel drum that spins at approximately 3000 RPMs using a hydraulic motor ran off of the Skidsteers auxiliary hydraulic supply. The skidsteer then cuts and grinds the brush and trees down to ground level leaving stumps, roots, and the worst part a thick layer of decomposing mulch that will wreak havoc on foundations and is almost impossible to scrape up in its entirety.

Forestry Mulching Finished Product

Why are Forestry Mulchers a Problem?

For one it always grows back, why pay a mulching contractor the average rate of $2500 a day for something that not only made a mess you'll have to pay to have cleaned up by a Land Clearing contractor when you're ready to build. But will start growing back immediately.

Two: Its easier to take down a tree and remove the stump when its standing, an excavator uses the leverage of the standing tree to uproot the stump, its also harder to identify stumps once they're ground to ground level. don't let anyone tell you any different, you cant build a house over a ground down stump.

Three: all the roots are still in the ground, you can't build on top of that, you'll never pull all the roots, but you need to have 98% of them removed or face multitudes of problems with your foundation.

Four: scraping up all the mulch requires root raking all the roots and the mulch out at the same time, the mulch gets mixed into the soil and now an additional 6 inches or so of soil and mulch mix now needs to be scraped and removed from the site to remove the mulch so that you have a solid clean compactable surface. Effectively lowering your elevation requiring expensive fill dirt to replace.

The Real Problem?

Mulching has its place, for thinning forest fuels to prevent fires, working on erosion prone areas like steep hillsides and places where lots of trees are to be left standing and root raking may damage the tree/s root systems. We got out of it because we felt we were doing our customers more of a disservice by offering it as a cheaper option rather than just doing it the right way. 6 months to a year later when customers called expressing dissatisfaction with how the land grew back to its wild state put a bitter taste in my mouth that had me trading our mulcher in on another bulldozer.

It's really a problem because anyone with a decent credit score and a truck can offer this service, and a mulching contractor that wants to stay in business will tell you anything they need to so that you pay them their couple thousand dollars a day and can move on to the next unsuspecting person on their home building adventure.

does it look great when it's done? Absolutely. Is it cheap instant gratification? Absolutely, but those results don't last long, and it's far from a finished product.

The Consequences of Going Down the Mulching Route

Now that we've established what the process of Forestry Mulching is, lets go over what you're left with.

Nothing has left the property, all of the rotting material is laying on the ground in small, shredded pieces, the underbrush is mowed but the roots are still intact and are able to start regrowing immediately, especially palmettos bushes. Trees over 8" are still standing.

A 2'-6" layer of mulch and pine needles masking low areas, stumps, and roots.

on average $4000 paid to a mulching contractor for a 1 acre lot (if they did a good job and did a regrind of the lot)

Costs Required to Make Useable Space After Mulching

average cost of root raking and removal of mulch, roots, stumps and additional top soil to remove mulch from 1 acre worksite. $7500

replacement dirt for removed topsoil $7500 for dirt for 1 acre site (factoring 4" loss).

grade work to spread and grade fill dirt $1000

Net cost of project including monies paid to mulching contractor

= ~$20,000

"Properly Cleared Land"

What it Costs to Clear Land the Right Way

Trees and stumps removed off site, root raked, and graded on a standard 1 acre parcel

averages ~$10,000

it won't ever grow back, you can build on it, you can plant grass on it, you can dig in it. the only additional thing you can do to it is raise the elevation with fill dirt.

Why is Proper Land Clearing Cheaper in the Long Run?

It's less work, you're not paying for clearing your land twice, you're not replacing unnecessary dirt and the clean wood and brush is recycled by us into sellable products like mulch and compost and timbers are sold to the sawmills.

Check out our collection of finished site and progress photos on our website

www.CCLandDev.com

Serving Franklin County Florida

Carrabelle, Eastpoint, St. George Island, Apalachicola, Alligator Point