Land clearing

[BMFR6]

Okay, I understand a lot of it is going to do with the size of the plot, how thick it is, the terrain etc, but...

Anyone have a guess on what/how companies charge to clear land for a house plot. Let's say half an acre or so including the driveway?

[RandyO]

depends on what needs to be cleared, if it's mechantable timber, they may pay you or do it for the timber

[FlynGSXR1k]

When I had my house built last year, it was nearly a wash of how much they credited me for the trees vs the 120 trucks of fill it took to build up the land afterward. Are you acting as the GC for the project?

[BMFR6]

depends on what needs to be cleared, if it's mechantable timber, they may pay you or do it for the timber

thats kind of the boat i am in. curious if i should be considering doing it myself or not. i've cleared a plot before so i'm no stranger to the work involved and i know the timber is sellable. i'm actually consider picking up a used beat up skidder, doing the work, selling the wood and skidder and being done with it. possibly making some $$ rather than letting someone else make it.


although...... plowing the driveway with a skidder in the winter sounds like fun to.

[Cheese]

thats kind of the boat i am in. curious if i should be considering doing it myself or not. i've cleared a plot before so i'm no stranger to the work involved and i know the timber is sellable. i'm actually consider picking up a used beat up skidder, doing the work, selling the wood and skidder and being done with it. possibly making some $$ rather than letting someone else make it.


although...... plowing the driveway with a skidder in the winter sounds like fun to.

Call a logger to do the lion's share. If there is enough wood they will come for free. My lot was cleared for free this way. Your hard work comes later as the logger will only take the good size trunks for lumber and sometimes smaller trunks for pulp. All the stumps, tree tops and branches remain and that will probably be plenty of work for a do-it-yourselfer. If your lot is uneven, you can bury a lot of the stumps and branches as fill. If it's not, you can still have a backhoe dig holes in soft dirt and bury the stumps so you don't have to pay to have them hauled away.

[snowborder]

buy a chainsaw (call logger) and rent a bulldozer for month or so... you will still need to remove all the stumps. Best fun you'll have since you were a kid. Have a bonfire with the scraps.

[BostonSVkid]

If you are building a home and doing a chunk of the work yourself just let a logger do it if its Free. Save your time/energy for doing other stuff. Take my advice and ask me how I know.

[RandyO]

thats kind of the boat i am in. curious if i should be considering doing it myself or not. i've cleared a plot before so i'm no stranger to the work involved and i know the timber is sellable. i'm actually consider picking up a used beat up skidder, doing the work, selling the wood and skidder and being done with it. possibly making some $$ rather than letting someone else make it.


although...... plowing the driveway with a skidder in the winter sounds like fun to.

I would never buy a skidder just to do a houselot, a loader/backhoe tractor would be more practical, sure its not as efficient at moving logs, but it can move logs as well as dig stumps and other excavation

unless you got at least a full truckload of pine sawlogs (pecker poles don't count) , I don't see a logger coming in and doing it "just for the wood"

[Cheese]

unless you got at least a full truckload of pine sawlogs (pecker poles don't count) , I don't see a logger coming in and doing it "just for the wood"

The guy that did mine (Dave Hirko) wanted 25 pine trees 12" in diameter to do it for free. He probably cleared 2 or more times that counting the ones that were smaller. That was a good number of years ago but phone time and/or estimates are free so it's worth calling around.

It saves to use what's on your land as a bargaining chip. Here's another example; I've been looking for an excavator to bring about 3000sq feet of land down to driveway grade. Estimates have been up around $4K for excavation and hauling the dirt away. Today I meet a guy that's looking for 200 yards of fill. He'll come take all I want removed, regrade the property, add crushed stone to the expanded driveway and build a retaining wall. 50% less than competitors bids because he can charge someone else for fill "delivery" instead of charging me for fill "disposal".