Stump Grinding or Stump Removal in Bendigo

Most calls we get about an old stump start with one question: can you get rid of it? People usually say stump removal, and what most of them end up wanting is grinding. On a quote the two look alike, but they leave your yard in a very different state. This is how we talk people through it, from the tight backyards of Golden Square to the bigger blocks out past Eaglehawk, so you know which job your stump needs before a machine comes through the gate. If you already know you want it gone, our page on stump grinding in Bendigo covers how we run the job.

What is the difference between stump grinding and stump removal?

Grinding works from the top down. A stump grinder has a heavy spinning wheel fitted with teeth, and the operator sweeps it back and forth across the stump, taking a layer of timber off with every pass until the wood sits under the surface. The stump becomes a heap of chips. The root plate, the mass of anchor roots spread out under the soil, stays put and slowly rots away where it is.

Removal works from the bottom up. To get a stump out whole you dig around it, cut through the anchor roots and lift the lot out, timber, roots and a fair bit of soil with it. You end up with a clean hole and a big lump of root and dirt to get rid of.

The photo at the top shows the scale we are often dealing with. That is an old gum stump on a cleared block, with the grinder parked beside it and a second stump on the left already chewed down to near ground level. Digging that one out would take an excavator, a trench right round the root plate and a hole you could lose a wheelbarrow in. Grinding it takes a morning and leaves a pile of chips.

Which one does your stump actually need?

Start with what you want on that spot next year. That decides the job more than the stump itself does.

• Lawn going back over it. Grind it below the surface, cover it with soil and turf or seed it. Nothing else to it.
• A garden bed. Grind it, then either clear the chips out or mix them through with plenty of fresh soil.
• A new tree in the same place. A deeper grind, with the chips swapped for clean soil. Moving the new tree a little to one side is often simpler still.
• A slab, shed or driveway. Ask your builder before you book anything. Some footings need the root plate gone, and that is where digging out earns its keep.
• A pool or other deep excavation. Usually removal, done as part of the dig, because the excavator is coming anyway.
• You are just sick of mowing around it. Grinding, every time.

How deep does a stump grinder go?

As deep as the next job needs, which is why we ask about your plans when we quote. Turf needs the least. A garden bed needs a bit more, a new tree more again, and anything solid going over the top more than that. Within the reach of the machine, depth is something we set for your yard rather than one fixed number for everyone.

What grinding does not do is pull every root out of the ground. The grinder follows the thick surface roots out from the stump, but the deeper and finer roots stay in the soil and break down over the following years. Under a lawn or a garden that makes no difference. Under a footing it might, and that is a call for your builder or engineer, not a guess from us over the phone.

What happens to all the chips?

A decent stump makes a surprising heap of them, a mix of wood and soil. You can have them raked back into the hole and topped with soil, spread over garden beds as a coarse mulch, or loaded up and taken away. Most people keep some and lose the rest.

One thing to know before you plant into the spot: fresh wood chips pull nitrogen out of the soil while they break down, so plants sitting right in them can look hungry for a while. If you are planting straight away, clear most of the chips and bring in clean soil. And turf laid over a hole full of fresh grindings can sink a little as the wood rots underneath, so top it up through the first season.

Will the stump grow back after grinding?

Some will have a go. Plenty of our local eucalypts can shoot again from buds low on the trunk or from a lignotuber, the woody swelling at or just below ground level that stores food and dormant buds. Colac Otway Shire's fact sheet on coppice regrowth explains how cut eucalypts send up new shoots this way. Grinding down through that zone takes away most of what the tree would regrow from.

Other trees send shoots up from their roots instead, sometimes a good way out across the lawn from where the trunk stood. Grinding the stump does not stop roots that are already out there doing that. Cut the shoots off as they appear and the roots eventually run out of energy. If you know your tree is one of the suckering kind, tell us when we quote and we will tell you honestly what to expect.

What should you check before any machine goes in?

What is underground. Stumps tend to sit right where services like to run, and roots love to wrap around water, gas, power, phone, irrigation and stormwater lines. Before You Dig Australia runs a free enquiry service and its FAQ page says anyone planning to work around underground assets, homeowners included, should lodge an enquiry before starting. We look over the area and ask about anything buried before the wheel touches the stump. Digging a stump out raises the stakes, because the hole goes wider and deeper than a grinder ever reaches.

Also check what the stump is attached to. If the tree is still alive and it is native vegetation, the permit question belongs to the tree, not the stump, and our guide to tree removal permits in Bendigo walks through how to check your block.

Is grinding cheaper than digging a stump out?

In most yards, yes. There is less machinery, less time on site and far less damage to fix afterwards. We price each stump job on what is in front of us: how wide the stump is, how many there are, how deep the grind needs to go, how hard the timber is and how easy it is to get the grinder to it. Several stumps in one visit cost less each than the same stumps done one at a time.

Digging out costs more for the same reasons in reverse. A bigger machine, longer on site, a root ball to cart off and a hole to backfill with soil you have to buy. Worth it when a footing needs it, hard to justify for a lawn. You can see how we approach the work on our stump grinding service in Bendigo page.

Stumps around Golden Square and Eaglehawk

Older suburbs tend to collect old stumps: trees that came down years ago, cut off at knee height and left for someone else to deal with. In established streets like Golden Square the side gate often decides the job, so measure it before you ring and we will know which machine fits. There is more on our page for stump grinding in Golden Square.

On bigger blocks there are often several stumps from one old clearing, and doing them together is the cheaper way. If that sounds like your place, have a look at stump grinding in Eaglehawk or the neighbouring stump grinding in Kangaroo Flat page. And if you are still deciding whether a tree should come down at all, our post on the signs a Bendigo tree needs removing is a good place to start.

Frequently asked questions