Ground out below grade, not shaved off.
A stump ground level with the lawn is still a stump. We take it down below grade so the hole can be filled and the spot planted, sodded, or just mowed straight over like nothing was ever there.
What does stump grinding involve?
A grinder cuts the stump and the main root flare into chips, working below ground level rather than just cutting it flush. What is left is a hole full of grindings that can be filled with soil and planted, sodded, or mowed over.
American Tree Care runs its own grinders across Snohomish and King County, so stump work is not subcontracted out to somebody else's schedule.
A stump left in the ground is not finished.
People leave stumps to save a few hundred dollars and call us about them a year later for one of these reasons.
Suckers keep coming back
Alder, maple and cherry throw shoots off the stump and the roots for years. Mowing them off does not stop it.
It brings in what eats it
A decaying stump is food. Carpenter ants and beetles move into it, and a stump near the house is a bad place for that to happen.
You cannot use the space
No mowing over it, no planting through it, no fence post, no patio, no shed. The footprint stays dead until it is gone.
It disappears into the lawn
Grass grows up around a cut stump until nobody can see it, which is exactly when somebody catches a foot on it.
Book it with the removal, not after it.
Grinding costs less when the equipment is already on the property and the access is already open. Deciding a year later means paying for the trip, the machine, and getting the grinder back through a gate that now has a fence and a flower bed in front of it.
Usually an hour, sometimes less.
Locate what is buried
Irrigation, gas, invisible fence, septic and sprinkler lines. We find them before the wheel goes in, not after.
Get the machine in
We size the grinder to the access. Narrow machines fit through a standard garden gate for backyard stumps.
Grind below grade
The stump and the main root flare, taken down past ground level so the spot can be filled and used.
Decide on the chips
Grindings backfill the hole, or come away with us. That is set at the estimate, priced to your budget.
The rest of what we do.
Stump grinding is usually the last step of a removal. Here is everything that comes before it.
Tree Removal
Rigged down in sections when there is no room to fell it.
See the page →
Hazard & Storm Trees
Leaning, split, uprooted, or already on the structure.
See the page →
Wind Thinning & View Clearing
Open the sightline back up without stripping the property.
See the page →
Tree & Shrub Pruning
Deadwood out, clearance back, shape kept.
See the page →Stump questions, answered.
How deep do you grind a stump?
How much does stump grinding cost?
What happens to the wood chips?
Will grinding kill the roots left in the ground?
Can you get a grinder into my backyard?
Do I pay a deposit?
Can you grind a stump another company left?
Tell us about the stump.
Call, text, or send the form. A photo with something next to it for scale, and a note on how we get to it, is all we need.
A photo tells us more than a paragraph. Texting is usually the fastest way to a number.
Serving Snohomish & King County
WA #AMERITC887JO
Get the stump gone for good.
Ground below grade so you can plant it, sod it, or mow straight over it. The estimate costs nothing.