Digging out stumps by yourself from the ground

Hello everyone,

we have a few tree stumps standing in the construction area that need to be removed as part of the earthworks. There are about 10 stumps with up to 25cm diameter and then three larger ones. The largest is a Douglas fir stump with about 80cm diameter. Everything is cut off at about 1m height. So all that still needs to be cleared before the base slab comes.

Now, over the weekend we already dug out three about 15cm stumps and a bush by hand in the back part of the property and now we know what a damn hard job that is.

Now to the question: I have been thinking for a while about renting a mini excavator over the weekend to make some progress. However, half the relatives tell me we should just hand a 50cm bucket to the wheel loader driver who is coming anyway for the base slab and then he will pull everything out. But I am very skeptical and think that you might come under pressure later when the construction company arrives and wants to start. Don’t want to end up paying 3,000 EUR for that.

Is it worth it now or is it an easy job for the builders afterwards?
Best regards, Redsonic

hello,

currently, business is booming for the craftsmen. It can happen that you disrupt their schedule. I would take the mini excavator

we have a few tree stumps standing on the construction site that still need to be removed as part of the earthworks.

What have you agreed with the civil engineer? Does he assume that everything is clear so far, or does he know the property as uncleared? (Learned something again ... tree stumps can also be called "Stubben" ).

(Learned something new again ... tree stumps can also be called "Stubben" ).

That was new to me too. Until now, I only knew "stubbies," which you can also pull.

The same thing happened to us yesterday. We had various roots pulled out by an excavator. As far as I know, it is charged per root. Then there is the question of whether to have them taken away or not. Disposal costs quite a bit as well, and those things are so heavy you can't just carry them between two people and put them on a trailer. We had diameters from 10 to 50 cm, I still need to check what will ultimately be charged.

Have it done, it can't possibly cost as much as it costs you in time and muscle soreness. Important: Negotiate the price beforehand, so you don't get a surprise.

Digging out tree stumps is not as easy as one might think beforehand. The roots are usually firmly anchored in the ground, and simply pulling them out is not that easy. We had several stumps milled out and paid about 400 euros for it. It was absolutely worth it to us, it was quick, and we had no work from it. A large oak stump was then removed as part of the earthworks, and the big excavator of the earthmoving contractor really got into trouble, as the stump underground was bigger than expected. So: better to have it done, even if it costs a few euros.