Need some help estimating a large clearing job please

[gumper]

Hi All,

I've been asked to bid on a large clearing project. It's in excess of 40 acres mostly hardwood and I would need to fell all trees, chip on site ,remove the stumps and truck offsite. I was wondering if anyone has an idea of what a fair market cost estimate per acre would be for something like this?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Landclearer]

In our area it would go for about 4k per acre maybe a little more if it is wet.

 

[CM1995]

The same here as LC's cost for the spec's - cut, chip, grub and haul off. If we can burn on site that cuts the price in half but it's limited when and where we can burn tree debris.

 

[gumper]

Thanks for the responses guys...I was thinking 4K was the right number as well.

 

[ARPlante]

$4k per acre? Hmm, up here in the northeast that would go for $8000-$10,000 per acre. Stumping alone is usually a $4,000-$5,000 expense per acre in my neck of the woods once trucking costs to get the stump grindings (all stumps are ground onsite through a horizontal grinder) offsite are figured in.

What kind of salvage value for the wood are you figuring on per acre?

Andrew

 

[monster76]

Do you have to cut all the trees first me personally i like pulling them out and knocking as much dirt out of the root ball as possible heck even if i have to cut the stumps its ussually easier to cut them.with the wholentree plucked out than to dig them out afterwards

 

[CM1995]

$4k per acre? Hmm, up here in the northeast that would go for $8000-$10,000 per acre. Stumping alone is usually a $4,000-$5,000 expense per acre in my neck of the woods once trucking costs to get the stump grindings (all stumps are ground onsite through a horizontal grinder) offsite are figured in.

What kind of salvage value for the wood are you figuring on per acre?

Andrew

Andrew that's $320,000- 400,000 to clear 40 acres, is it that expensive to operate up there? Your number would be closer here for a 1-2 acre site.

Of course local pricing and local markets vary tremendously in pricing. Just curious if you could get that kind of money on a 40 acre site.

 

[Landclearer]

Andrew, it sounds like we do things the same as you. We come in, cut everything down including brush, log out the good wood then grind the rest. We pull the stumps and then grind them onsite and haul off the mulch. I wish we got 8000 to 10000 on a 40 acre site

 

[ALM]

6000-8000 per acre would be great in a small job around here but for what you are talking about in your conditions I think 4000 is reasonable.

 

[ARPlante]

Very interesting to hear of the price differences between different regions. We do a lot of union clearing work related to highway projects and the going rate for a clear and grub project is about $10,000 per acre up here. Taking out the cost differential for union labor and our clearing rate would be around $7-8k per acre. Our usual method of clearing involves bringing in a fellerbuncher to cut everything down or a 36 ton excavator to rip the trees out whole, then a skidder or a forwarder to move the wood to a landing where we then have a horizontal grinder and another excavator with a Rotobec grapple set up to grind everything (we're not allowed to burn at all up here). The grinding alone adds about $2-3k per acre so I guess I could see where some savings would be if you don't have to grind and haul grindings out. Like I assume it is for everyone else, getting rid of the stumps is usually the expensive/tricky part as not a lot of places can take in stump grindings due to the residual dirt in the processed material.

Thanks for the interesting discussion guys!- Andrew

 

[CM1995]

Andrew I can totally see $10K an acre clearing for a road widening project when your working next to traffic, if that's the type of project your talking about.

We can burn here from Oct 1 to May 1 with a lot of restrictions. The largest county requires an air curtain, permit and inspection. I used an air curtain last year and there are some pics in my projects done recently thread.

 

[ARPlante]

I saw the pics of the air burner- cool set up! I've heard of them using those on ROW clearing projects as well. Roadside work actually goes for a bit higher depending on the acre- I've seen some projects go for $15k per acre (granted you only get to work about 75% of the day). I just bid a 70 acre airport clearing project in the midde of the woods where myself and my three other competitors in the region were around $9500/acre to clear and grub the project.

 

[Mud Logger]

In Western WIS, Landclearing for agriculture use usually goes for 1500$ to 2500$ per acre. Usually the trees are utilized for saw logs, pallet logs, pulp or firewood. Then the slash and limbs are piled and burnt. Next the stumps are dug and piled on site in a corner or windrowed along one side of the lot, then the remaining roots/debris are raked.