Stump Grinding and Stump Removal in Danville, VA
Danville Tree Care & Removal grinds stumps below grade across Danville and Pittsylvania County — including stumps left behind by somebody else. Chips get hauled off or backfilled and tamped, and the spot is ready to seed. Free estimates. Call (434) 216-5589.
What "below grade" actually means
A stump grinder is a wheel of carbide teeth that chews the stump into chips a few inches at a time. The question is how deep.
Four to six inches below grade is standard, and it’s enough for grass. Eight to twelve inches is what you want if you’re replanting a tree in the same spot, laying sod, or pouring a slab. Deeper costs more, because it means grinding through the root flare and the buttress roots, not just the visible stump.
Tell us what’s going in the hole afterward. It changes the job, and it’s cheaper to grind deep once than to come back.
The part nobody warns you about — the chips
One stump produces a surprising volume of material. A 30-inch oak stump ground a foot deep yields a pile several times the size of what was sticking out of the ground, because grinding turns solid wood into fluff.
You have three options, and they should be on your estimate before we start:
- Backfill and tamp. Chips go back in the hole, compacted, mounded slightly to allow for settling. Cheapest. The mound will settle over a season and you may need to top it with soil.
- Haul off. We take the material away and backfill with soil. Costs more, looks finished immediately.
- Keep them. Fresh chips are decent mulch for beds and paths — just keep them off the root flares of other trees, and don’t till them into a vegetable garden while they’re green.
Why bother grinding at all?
A stump left in the ground isn’t neutral. It sprouts — many hardwoods, and Bradford pear especially, will throw a thicket of suckers from a cut stump for years. It feeds carpenter ants and termites close to your foundation. It’s a mower hazard and a trip hazard, particularly the low ones once grass grows over them. And it makes the spot unusable — you cannot plant, pave, fence, or build over a stump.
Access is what drives the price
Stump grinders are heavy, tracked or wheeled machines. The gate they have to fit through, the slope they have to hold on wet Piedmont clay, and the distance from the truck matter more than the stump’s diameter does.
If the only way in is a 36-inch gate, we bring a narrow-access machine, and that’s a different rate. Tell us about gates, fences, retaining walls, and septic fields when you call — surprises on site cost you money.
We grind stumps anywhere we remove trees, and plenty of places we didn’t: Chatham, Gretna, Blairs and Mount Hermon, Yanceyville, Reidsville, South Boston. Where the chips end up depends on the town — South Boston prohibits burning outright.
Not sure how bad it is? We will come look and tell you straight. The estimate is free.
Stump Grinding FAQs
Do you grind the roots too?
We grind the root flare and surface roots around the stump. Deep lateral roots stay — removing every root means excavating, which tears up far more yard than most people want and costs several times as much. For lawn, planting, or paving, grinding the flare is enough.
Can I plant a new tree in the same spot?
Yes, with two conditions: grind deep — ten to twelve inches — and replace the chips with soil rather than backfilling. Leftover wood chips tie up nitrogen as they break down and will stunt a young tree.
Do you take stumps you didn’t cut?
Constantly. If another company left the stump, or one has been sitting there for years, we’ll grind it. Older, weathered stumps are often easier than fresh ones.
Call (434) 216-5589 for a free estimate.
Get a Free Estimate
Call and you will talk to somebody local.
Or send us the details and we will come look.