Lot and Land Clearing in Pierce County

The short version: Trees, brush, blackberry and stumps off a lot or a section of land, for a build, a fence line, a driveway or a view. Wood and debris taken away. The estimate is free and Ismael looks at it in person. Call or text (253) 590-8194.

What lot clearing covers

Everything from the ground up: felling the trees, bucking and hauling the logs, chipping the brush, cutting out blackberry and scotch broom, and dealing with the stumps, either ground below grade or pulled with the excavator and hauled, depending on what you are building. For a house pad or a driveway we can rough grade with the dozer so your excavator contractor starts on open ground. For a fence line we clear a strip; for a view we take the trees that block it and leave the rest.

Small lots, big trees

Clearing an acre of alder is one job. Clearing half an acre in Spanaway or Graham with six 120 foot firs on it, a neighbor’s house on one side and the road on the other, is a different one, and it is the one we are set up for. The big trees get climbed and taken down in sections where they cannot be felled whole, the same way we do them in a city backyard. The rest gets felled and processed with the loader and the chipper.

Free estimate: call or text (253) 590-8194

What happens to the wood

On a clearing job there is usually a lot of it. Options: firewood rounds stacked for you, logs hauled away, or, for straight fir and cedar, milled into lumber you can use on the build, see wood milling and firewood. Chips can be spread on the lot as ground cover or trucked out. Tell Ismael what you want when he looks at the job and the price will reflect it.

Permits and critical areas

Clearing in Pierce County and its cities is regulated more than removing one tree. Unincorporated county land, Tacoma, Puyallup and the other cities each have rules on how much of a lot can be cleared, on trees near streams, wetlands and steep slopes, and on what has to be replanted. A building permit often includes a clearing and grading permit. We do the tree work; the permit is yours or your builder’s. If we see something on the lot that looks like a critical area, a stream, a wet spot, a steep bank, we will say so before we cut.

Fence lines, driveways and views

Not every clearing job is a whole lot. A lot of them are a strip: the trees and brush along a boundary so a fence can go in, a new driveway through the trees, or the two or three firs that stand between a deck and a view of the mountain. Those are priced by the tree and the day, and they are usually done in one.

What lot clearing costs

It is priced per job after Ismael walks the ground with you. The things that move it: the number and size of the trees, how many have to be climbed instead of felled, how much brush there is, what happens to the stumps, how far the trucks are from the work, and where the wood is going. There is no charge for the walk and the estimate.