What decides the cost of lot clearing?
Why Plot Clearing Can Vary So Widely in Cost – What You Need to Know To have an accurate estimate for lot clearing services, it’s important to factor in what kind of trees, undergrowth, terrain and specific site preparation challenges your plot presents. Here at Nottingham Tree Surgeons we regularly clear everything from a garden full of tough overgrown weeds to large industrial sites ready for construction. We know what most property owners and developers worry about is getting a cost for clearing a neighbouring piece of ground that seems the same size but differs wildly in price from their own.
There are so many, very interconnected, factors that will define the final cost of any lot clearing project including, what type of trees are standing on the land, how accessible is it, what material has to be disposed of afterwards and the nature of the land itself.
Let’s delve deeper into each of these points:
1. SIZE OF YOUR PLOT Plot size is of course a primary indicator of cost for your land clearing project and the larger the plot then the larger the cost. Naturally it’s going to take more fuel, more equipment and a greater amount of labor hours to fully clear a ten-acre plot compared to one that is one acre in size. That said there are always variations as a field with sporadic growth and minimal trees might be quicker (or even cheaper per acre) than a small plot packed with trees and other vegetation. Whether you have a rectangular or irregular shaped plot can also be a key factor in its cost especially when access and disposal become an issue.
2. VEGETATION DENSITY AND TYPE Overgrown plots with light weedy growth, bushes and shrubs are far cheaper to clear than those with thick jungle like vegetation or areas of woods. A patch with lots of light grass and low bushes won’t require nearly as much equipment or man hours to clear as land covered in large woody plants, invasive bushes or dense thickets. Likewise dealing with softwoods and delicate flora is far easier than working with dense hardwoods and invasive thorny bushes or trees.
3. MATURITY OF TREES The number of large, healthy or even diseased mature trees on a plot of land is by far one of the largest factors that will determine its lot clearing cost. Lopping small, slender young trees is relatively quick, easy work. Conversely, the removal of tall, sturdy old-growth trees requires extensive planning, skillful rope rigging, climbing equipment and often heavy lifting cranes.
As with density, softwoods will be cheaper and quicker to remove than dense hardwood trees or even ones which are rotting or diseased.
Special attention needs to be taken with larger, riskier trees to ensure health and safety protocol is observed during the clearing process.
4. ABOVE AND BELOW GROUND ‘IN-FILL’ For many developers this could prove to be your most costly, and surprising, element when preparing the land for building. Beyond cutting the trees down and chipping the branches, will you need to remove or grind the underlying tree stumps, roots and other obstructions such as old buried debris? While a lot of clearing projects are merely just reducing the plot to the earth at ground level to be landscaped, many require the stumps and any remaining invasive roots to be extracted with the help of excavating machines to make the ground safe for building, paving or even just to avoid unwanted resprouting in the future. Removing those massive roots from deep within the soil is tough on machinery and human labourers, not to mention creating a significant amount of hole filling work.
5. GROUND CONTOURS AND SOIL TYPE Steep hills or boggy, water-logged sites may prove much slower, and far more difficult, to work on than perfectly level ground. Steep slopes require specialist tracked machinery and careful attention to avoid tipping or slides; while boggy ground can become completely unpassable with heavy equipment meaning only lighter, more manual processes can be used. Large boulders or unearthing significant rocks on the plot can significantly slow down your excavator or other earth-moving machines and create additional tool wear.
6. ACCESS The more accessible the plot then the easier and faster, and subsequently cheaper, it will be to clear. An easily accessed plot where heavy machinery can access the entire area of land can speed up the work considerably. This being said, narrow residential areas with access through small garden gates and over a number of difficult-access sites means we need to work a lot more carefully with smaller barrows and hand-carts, thereby greatly increasing your labour costs. A site accessible only via a busy public highway and with large, mature trees is another costly obstacle due to planning & parking restrictions.
7. WASTE DISPOSAL What is going to happen with all the brash and arisings once the clearing is done? One of our more direct and time saving costs for our lot clearing customers is whether they have arranged what to do with their cleared debris. Rather than leave the lot messy to be cleared later by someone else or have to ‘stuff it full’ with so much waste in your refuse collection area that you miss it entirely the quickest method often requires the full off site removal to a local recycling centre.
The price of this depends greatly on what has been cleared and will naturally add to the cost.
Where clients have large, mature trees the logs may be reduced to individual logs that could even be cut into your own personal supply of firewood for your hearth, thus in a way offsetting part of the clearing cost.
8. LEGAL REGULATION If your plot has existing Trees Preservation Orders on it, contains areas of natural habitat or is protected for environmental reasons or has to have an environmental study carried out before work begins (e.g. Due to the presence of rare species or nesting birds), then these have to be dealt with by local government – something that can take considerable time and also financial expense in consultants’ fees to remove the trees.
9. POST-CLEANING SITE PREPARATION If your project is just to clear the lot to its bare, earth equivalent, there may be additional requirements or costs involved. Some areas may need to be leveled and rolled to get them ‘builder-ready’ or deep excavations filled or even just litter picked from the area, all of which increase man-power required and, consequently, will significantly increase the cost of the lot clearing itself.
10. TIME OF YEAR AND Weather Conditions In many cases, clear working conditions lead to more speedy completion and hence more reduced overall costs. Working on perfectly level firm or frozen ground with relatively clear weather is far simpler and safer than trying to manoeuvre equipment over a boggy site or steep slope in torrential rain. If your work can coincide with naturally dryer conditions (e.g. The summer months or extremely dry periods) work can be more efficient, more cost effective and there will be less of risk of equipment becoming immobilised in mud and requiring recovery.
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