Lot and Land Clearing in Greensboro, NC

Crew working a treeline with blowers and a skid steer, clearing back the edge of a lawn — Working back the edge of a lot. The skid steer does the pushing, the crew does the tidying.

What we clear, and what that word covers

Land clearing means very different things to different people, so it is worth being specific about what Triad actually does.

Building lots. Taking a wooded lot down to the pad so a builder can get started, including the trees, the undergrowth, and the stumps.

Fence lines and property lines. Cutting a clean line through overgrowth so a fence crew can work, or so you can see where your land actually ends.

Overgrown acreage. Land that has gone back to scrub and saplings, brought back to something you can mow, fence, or graze.

The equipment is skid steers, a forestry mulcher, a grapple truck, and the same climbing and rigging crew as the tree side, for anything too big or too close to something to just push over.

Permits are your responsibility, and they are worth checking before anybody starts. Depending on the acreage, the slope, whether a stream or a buffer is involved, and whether it is inside city limits, clearing can need a grading permit and an erosion-control plan. Greensboro and Guilford County both publish their requirements. We are a tree company, not a permitting service, so ask the city or county first rather than after.

The methods

Mulch it in place, or haul it off.

Nearly all of the cost difference between one clearing quote and another comes down to what happens to the material. There are two honest answers and they suit different jobs.

Cleared and graded lot with the chip truck parked at the roadside and a ground stump in the foreground — A lot taken down to bare ground, stumps included, ready for a builder.

Forestry mulching, where the material stays

A forestry mulcher grinds standing brush, saplings, and small trees where they stand and leaves the material on the ground as a layer of chip.

It is fast, nothing has to be hauled anywhere, and the mulch layer holds the soil together through the next rain, which matters on any slope in Piedmont clay.

It is the right answer for overgrown acreage, fence lines, trails, and anywhere you want the land usable rather than bare. It is the wrong answer if something is getting built on it, because a builder does not want a foot of wood chip over the pad.

Skid steer loading a large log into the bed of a dump truck with a crew member on the truck — Everything worth hauling goes out by grapple, a load at a time.

Cut and haul, where the site ends up bare

The alternative is cutting everything, grinding or pulling the stumps, and taking the material off site on the grapple truck and the chip truck.

It costs more, because every load is a trip. What you get is a clean site with nothing left to settle, rot, or get in the way of a foundation.

Merchantable timber can change the arithmetic. If there is enough good hardwood on the lot, some of it has value, and that is worth raising at the estimate rather than assuming either way.

Skid steer lifting a log over a wooden fence into a dump truck on a cleared lot

Why nobody can quote your acre over the phone

Search for land clearing and every result promises a price per acre. Ask any of them to hold that number without walking the site and watch what happens.

An acre is not a unit of work. An acre of five-year-old scrub and an acre of mature hardwood are different jobs by a wide margin, and the second one is closer to twenty individual tree removals than to a mowing job.

What the estimator is actually pricing:

Density and size. Saplings and briar go through a mulcher. Mature trees have to be felled, cut, and moved.
Terrain. Slope, wet ground, and rock all slow machines down or rule them out.
What is at the edges. Houses, fences, and power lines mean the boundary work is done carefully by hand.
Where the material goes. Mulched in place, hauled off, or burned if the county allows it that week.
Stumps. Ground, pulled, or left, and that is your call.

Triad publishes no prices for this or anything else. The estimate is free and somebody walks the ground.

Clearing around the trees you want to keep

Almost nobody wants a bare rectangle. Most clearing jobs have a handful of trees the owner wants left standing, and getting that right is the difference between a cleared lot and a ruined one.

The mistake is thinking a tree that survived the machines survived. A hardwood that spent forty years in the middle of a wood grew a shallow root system and a tall thin trunk, because the trees around it took the wind. Clear everything around it and it is suddenly a lone tree in an open field, with roots and a trunk that were never built for that.

Some of them are fine. Others blow over in the first real storm after the lot is cleared, which is a bad surprise on a site somebody is about to build on.

The other half of it is underground. Driving a loaded skid steer over the root zone of a tree you are keeping compacts the soil, and compacted soil kills trees slowly enough that nobody connects it to the clearing job two years later.

NC Forest Service publishes guidance on managing standing timber, and NC State Extension Forestry is the place to look before you decide what is worth keeping.

So it is worth walking the site and saying out loud which trees are staying, before anything starts. The crew fences those root zones off and keeps machines out of them, and the estimator will tell you straight if one of your keepers is a bad bet once its neighbors are gone.

Worth clearing before it gets harder

A building lot that needs to be pad-ready
Fence line you cannot walk, let alone build on
Acreage that has gone back to saplings and briar
A treeline creeping further into the yard every year
Dead and leaning timber over a driveway or a track
Ground you want to mow, fence, or graze again

Where we work

Greensboro is home, and the yard is at 4262 Pleasant Garden Rd. The crews cover the wider Triad: High Point, Winston-Salem, Jamestown, Kernersville, Summerfield, Oak Ridge, Pleasant Garden, Archdale, Thomasville, Gibsonville, Whitsett, Browns Summit, Colfax, Stokesdale, McLeansville, Randleman, and Julian.

If your town is not on that list it is still worth asking. The answer is usually yes.

Common questions

Land clearing questions we get every week.

How much does it cost to clear an acre in North Carolina?

An acre is not a unit of work, which is why the per-acre numbers online are close to meaningless. An acre of young scrub and an acre of mature hardwood are different jobs by a wide margin. Density, terrain, what is at the edges, and whether the material is mulched in place or hauled off all move it. Somebody walks the ground and the estimate is free.

What is the cheapest way to clear land?

Forestry mulching, in most cases, because nothing has to be hauled anywhere. The material stays on site as a chip layer, which also holds the soil through the next rain. It is the wrong choice if something is being built on the pad, because a builder does not want that layer there.

Do I need a permit to clear land on my property?

Often, and it depends on acreage, slope, whether a stream or buffer is involved, and whether you are inside city limits. Grading permits and erosion-control plans are the usual ones. Greensboro and Guilford County publish their requirements. We are a tree company rather than a permitting service, so check before work starts.

Do you take the stumps out too?

If you want them out, yes. On a building lot they normally have to come out. On acreage being brought back for grazing or mowing, plenty of people have them ground and leave the roots. It is a line on the estimate either way.

What happens to the trees you take down?

Whatever you decide at the estimate. Mulched in place, hauled off on the grapple truck, chipped, or cut to firewood length and left for you. If there is enough good hardwood to be worth something, that is worth raising then rather than after.

Can you clear right up to a fence or a property line?

Yes, and that boundary work is done by hand rather than by machine. Anything near a fence, a building, or a power line gets the same rigging treatment as a tree removal in a back yard.

How long does clearing take?

A fence line or a small lot is often a day. Several acres of mature timber is a multi-day job with more equipment on site. The estimator will tell you which one yours is after walking it, not before.

Do you do the grading afterwards?

No. We clear, and we can take the site to bare ground with the stumps out, but finish grading and any compaction work is a grading contractor's job.

Also on this site

The rest of what we do.

Crane and bucket truck set up in a yard to take down a tall pine in sections

Tree Removal

Individual large and hazardous trees taken down in sections and hauled out.

Stump Grinding

Ground out below grade so the site can be seeded, graded, or built on.

Hauling & Chipping

Everything worth moving goes out on the grapple truck, and the brush goes through the chipper.

Lot and land clearing across Greensboro and the Triad