Why that stump is still costing you
A stump looks harmless. Then you mow around it for the fifth summer in a row. Then shoots start coming up from the roots, or the wood goes soft and termites and carpenter ants move in, a few feet from your house.
Leaving a stump to rot on its own takes years, and longer for oak and redwood, which hold up in the ground. Meanwhile it's a trip hazard, a spot where nothing else will grow, and one more thing in the way when you want a patio or a garden bed.
Grinding fixes it in one visit. We chew the stump down below the soil line, and the spot is ready for topsoil and seed.
What we do
Stump GrindingOne stump or twenty. We grind each one below the soil line so you can lay sod, set pavers or plant something new.Stump Grinding →
Stump RemovalBuilding a foundation, a driveway or a pool? Grinding isn't enough there. We dig out the stump and its main root ball so the ground is clear.Stump Removal →
Surface Root GrindingRoots that heave the lawn, crack the walkway or catch your foot on the path get ground down level with the soil.Surface Root Grinding →
Commercial & HOA Stump GrindingApartment complexes, HOAs, schools and business parks. We handle multi-stump jobs on a schedule that works around residents and traffic.Commercial & HOA Stump Grinding →Why Sonoma County homeowners call us
- We grind deep enough for what comes next. Lawn, garden bed or new tree, we set the depth to match.
- We call 811 before we start. California requires two working days' notice before any digging, and we handle it so no one digs into a buried gas or water line.
- We leave the yard clean. The grindings get raked back into the hole, hauled away or piled up for your garden, your choice.
How it works
- Call us. Tell us how many stumps you have and roughly how wide they are. We'll give you a price.
- We mark the utilities. We put in the 811 request and wait for the locators to mark gas, water and electric lines.
- We grind. A single stump is usually done in the same visit.
- We clean up. We rake out the grindings, backfill the hole if you want, and walk the yard with you before we leave.
Tired of mowing around it?
Call [TRACKING NUMBER] for a free estimateStump grinding across Sonoma County
Every part of the county leaves its own kind of stump. Old valley oaks in Petaluma and Sonoma. Redwoods in Sebastopol and down along the river in Guerneville. Fruit trees that finally gave out in backyards all over Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park. Plenty of yards still have stumps left from trees taken down after the 2017 fires.
The ground matters too. A lot of the county sits on heavy clay that bakes hard in summer and turns to mud in winter, so we plan each job around it. We work from Cloverdale down to Petaluma and out to the coast side of the county, with Santa Rosa right in the middle.
Common Questions
It comes down to the stump's width, how many you have and how close we can get the grinder. Nationally, one stump usually runs about $130 to $440, and many companies charge a minimum of around $100. Big oak and redwood stumps cost more, and the price per stump drops when you have several. You'll have a firm number in hand before the grinder ever starts.
For most yards, grinding. It's faster, it costs less and it leaves the soil around the stump alone. Full removal makes sense when you're building right on top of the spot, like a foundation, a driveway or a pool, because then the root ball has to come out. It costs more and leaves a bigger hole, so we only recommend it when the project calls for it.
With the stump gone, the roots lose their food supply and break down in the soil over the next several years. Most trees won't come back. A few, like redwoods and some fruit trees, may push up shoots for a season or two. Clip them as they show up and they'll give up. If roots are lifting a path or lawn, we can grind those down too.
You've got options. We can rake them back into the hole, haul them away or leave them in a pile for you. Aged grindings make a decent mulch for paths and shrub beds. Just don't plant straight into fresh ones. They pull nitrogen out of the soil as they break down, so mix in plenty of topsoil before you seed or plant.
For grass, as soon as the grindings are cleared and you've filled the hole with topsoil. You can seed or lay sod that week. A new tree is different. Plant it a few feet to one side if you can, because the old roots are still breaking down right under the stump. If it has to go in the same spot, tell us up front and we'll grind deeper.