So I recently finished cutting down the trees along what will be my new driveway. When i was doing it, my father-in-law advised me to leave stumps that stuck up a few feet above the ground, b/c (a) when they make the driveway, a bulldozer can just come through and dig them out by hitting the stump with the blade (b) if you leave that much sticking up, you won’t trip over the darn things in the meantime.
Now, I have been talking with other folks since, and they seem unsure as to the efficacy of (a). They think I’ll need to grind each one with a stump grinder.
Any dopers have experience here? And, for the record:
I don’t plan on using fire or explosives to remove them
the trees lie along the route of a future driveway, so there is no lawn, etc., to protect
those chemical stump-decay-accelerators take too long for my purposes here
I’d be tempted to cut them as close to the ground as possible and use a stump grinder to take them down to a few inches below grade. This can be rented from a rental center for about $80-100 a day. Not hard to run. Just stand there and work the controls. 15 or 20 stumps might take a while depending on how far apart they are. Distance matters a little because you need to move the stump grinder from one to the next.
On the other hand if the driveway needs to be “cut” in order to make a smooth grade the dozer may need to cut deeper than you can grind the stumps. If that’s the case it easier for the dozer to take them out if they are several feet high rather than cut close. More leverage available and less digging. It’s faster and that means cheaper for you.
If you are getting a dozer that will successfully to the job then let him do it.
If you know the dozer won’t do it. Go to the hardware store buy a box of copper nails and cut the stumps down to about a foot below the surface, or maybe 6". Nail the copper nails into each stump, maybe 5 to 8 nails a piece. This will prevent the stump from growing anymore. I’ve done it on countless stumps very easy and effective. They never sprout after the copper is nailed in. They can be effectively covered over at this time.
I removed a 3 ft diameter stump from my backyard. I concur with much of what Gary M has said. But what you want to do is grind out the root ball. If you don’t, the roots will be viable & they’ll keep growing (that’s what will mess up your driveway) and the tree will try to sprout shoots. Sounds like you have a good days work cut out for you.
The owner once came with a dozer & did it himself. I must say there were quite a lot of very large pieces to deal with later. A stump grinder seems a bit large for on foot trunks, doesn’t it? I’d probably take an axe to them but not having a look at them first makes the decision tricky.