Stump grinding up close:

Stump grinding is more economical and practical than excavating a stump. But the fact remains that stumps are stubborn, and you need some serious horsepower to get rid of them.

​The violent process of stump grinding, and why it costs what it does
Stump grinding is more economical and practical than excavating a stump. But the fact remains that stumps are stubborn, and you need some serious horsepower to get rid of them.
The SG-75 Bandit is basically a 27” buzz saw on wheels. The teeth slam into the wood at high RPM’s, gouging out chunk after chunk.
This is a brutal process–metal impacting wood at high velocity. If you want to see just how brutal, look out the window when we’re stump grinding and watch the chips fly. Trees are tough. The stump loses, in the end, but it takes a toll on the machine. The teeth are where it’s felt most.

The teeth are large chunks of high-quality steel, carefully machined to a specific shape. Naturally, they’re not cheap. And they need to be replaced frequently. When you look out your window and see the operator tinkering with the stump grinding wheel, this is probably what he’s doing.
Tooling is a big operating expense. On an all-day job, we sometimes have to change the teeth multiple times. Then there’s the cost of the teeth. On the toughest jobs, where the wood is naturally hard or the stumps are still green, the teeth wear down faster.
It’s one of those things a customer might overlook, not being up close, but the cost of wear and tear has to be built into the price of every job. We bring this up because, sometimes, you guys are surprised at the price, based on what you see of a stump removal job.
What you see is one guy pull up with the stump grinder on a trailer, offload the machine, and stand behind it for a bit while the stump steadily disappears. But there’s more going into it than that.
On top of all the obvious factors that affect the cost of a stump removal, there’s the machine itself. Snohomish Tree has invested a lot of money into this little monster, and we need to protect our investment. Ultimately, that’s the best way to keep our rates down. Keeping the teeth fresh minimizes the wear and tear on less replaceable parts and maximizes productivity.
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​There are some real costs we can’t get around, but stump grinding is by far the most economical method of stump removal. And there are a few ways you can save money on your stump grinding job, which we shared in this article. To schedule an estimate on your stump or tree removal, you can fill out an estimate form, which you’ll find here.