Stump Grinding in Chattanooga, TN

Stump grinding is the usual way to get rid of a stump without tearing up the yard. A grinder uses a spinning wheel fitted with carbide teeth to chew the stump and the top of its main roots into chips, a few inches at a time, until the wood is below the soil surface. Pulling a stump out whole leaves a crater and often damages lawns, beds and nearby pavement; grinding leaves a pile of chips and a shallow hole you can fill and plant. Around Chattanooga, where many lots are sloped and many stumps sit along driveways, walls or fences, grinding is almost always the gentler option.

How deep is deep enough

For grass, grinding a few inches below grade is usually plenty. If you plan to plant a new tree, set pavers or pour a slab in the same spot, the stump needs to go deeper and the larger surface roots need to be chased out as well. Tell us what you want the spot to become, and we grind for that use.

Before the grinder starts

Grinders cut into the soil, so buried lines matter. Tennessee 811 marks public utility lines for free before digging, and we ask that it be called before a grinding job. Private lines such as irrigation, landscape lighting, a dog fence or a line out to a shed are not marked by 811, so let us know where yours run. Rocks are the other hazard here: Chattanooga's ridges and hillsides are full of stone, and a stump that has grown around rock has to be ground carefully.

What is left afterward

Grinding a stump produces more chips than most people expect, often several times the visible volume of the stump. You can keep them as mulch, have us rake them into the hole, or have them hauled away and the hole filled with topsoil. Chips from a fresh stump will settle and break down over the following year, so a filled hole may need a little more soil later before seeding or sod.

Old stumps, pine stumps and sprouts

Old stumps that have begun to rot often grind quickly; dense hardwood stumps take longer. Pine stumps do not sprout, but stumps of some hardwoods such as sweetgum, maple, tree of heaven and Callery pear can send up sprouts from the roots for a season or two after the tree is gone. Grinding well below grade reduces sprouting, and any sprouts that do appear can be mowed or clipped until the roots give up.

Stumps on slopes and in tight spots

Many Chattanooga stumps sit on banks, between a fence and a wall, or at the bottom of a steep backyard. Smaller grinders fit through a garden gate and can be worked across sloped ground; very steep banks may need a different approach, and we will tell you on the visit what will work.