Are You Overpaying For Stump Grinding?

I've had two very similar situations with two customers in the past couple of weeks. The first one came from a couple looking to fix up their backyard. The first order of business was for them to get four pine stumps ground and the chips hauled away.

She reached out to one stump grinding company, and they quoted to grind the stump and haul debris at $1,000. A little surprised, the woman decided to get another quote. That company came in even higher! He said it would cost $1,300 to do the job.

The lady wasn't sure what she should do—should she go ahead and pay the, what she thought, was an exorbitant price? Or should they try and grind out the stumps themselves?

She had a landscaper quote her on other yard improvements, so she decided to bounce the numbers off him. He, too, agreed that the numbers seemed very high. He recommended checking the Facebook group "Greenville Young Professionals."

So that's what she decided to do. While on there, she found us, checked out our website, and gave us a call. When she called me and told me the situation, I was expecting some HUGE water oak stumps or something. So I warned her that our price might not be that different from the others.

(By the way, when you call to get a quote from another company, don’t tell them what others quoted you on the job. Otherwise, they may just try to come in right below their competitor instead of charging a fair price.)

When I arrived and saw the stumps, I was very surprised. For all of the grinding, I quoted the lady $370. For the chip removal, I quoted her $130 (we typically charge 1/3 of the grinding price to remove the chips). So we did the job for $500, half the price of the other companies. We were not trying to be the cheapest; we were trying to offer a fair price for the amount of work.

I'm not sure why the other companies charged so much—maybe they didn't have an economical way of removing the chips, perhaps they were so booked up they didn't want the job, or maybe they thought they could get away with charging as much as possible and the customer wouldn't know they overpaid.

A few days later, I received a text from a man who had a row of Leyland Cypress stumps. He had already contacted a stump grinding company, and they told him it would be $100/stump ($1,200 total). Since the man only paid $1,800 to get the trees cut down and hauled away, he was shocked by the quote. He, too, was about to find an alternative (i.e. rent a grinder and do the job himself), and then he saw our article on tree stump pricing.

He read that Leyland stumps should cost no more than $50/stump, even as low as $30/stump, since they are quick and easy to grind. So he texted me and asked if the price would apply to his stumps. I looked at the pictures he sent and said it did. Because the stumps were partly rotten after sitting for a couple of years, I told him I would grind them for $30/stump. So instead of paying $1,000 to get his stumps ground out, an unreasonable amount, he only paid $360.

I write this to protect everyone from paying too much for stump grinding. At Stumpro, we don't try to be the cheapest company. But we also don't fleece people. We try to offer quality stump removal services at a fair market value.

Please get several quotes before choosing a company. It could save you hundreds of dollars! Unfortunately, some companies will charge you whatever they think they can get instead of a fair price for the amount and quality of work.

Want to know what you should be paying for stump grinding? Shoot me a text with pictures and I will give you a ballpark estimate or submit a service request online below.