Stump Grinding in Richland-West End, Nashville TN
Yes, we come out to Richland-West End - at nine minutes it is the longest run we make, so we tend to group visits there and the calendar runs closer to a week than three days. Photographs are still priced the same working day.
Shallow maple roots, a narrow strip, and lifted pavement
The National Register paperwork for this district records something every resident already knows: the streets and the planted medians on Richland, Craighead and Bowling are lined with large maples. They were planted together, they are all roughly the same age now, and they root the way maples do - flat, shallow and everywhere.
Which is why the problems here look nothing like the estate lots a few miles west. A sidewalk panel tilted by a surface root. A tree lawn eighteen inches wide with a trunk in the middle of it. A bungalow lot where the stump from a maple taken out last winter is sitting three feet from a foundation wall and eight feet from the neighbor's porch. Small ground, big roots, and no room to be casual.
The median trees are not yours to remove
This is the first thing worth settling, because it decides who you should even be calling. The maples standing in the planted medians and in the strip between the sidewalk and the curb are in Metro right-of-way, not on your own side of the line, and what happens to them is Metro's decision rather than a homeowner's. Removing or grinding one privately is not a shortcut you want to take.
Anything behind your property line is a different matter entirely and we will get straight on with it. Where it is genuinely unclear - and on these narrow frontages it often is - we will walk it with you and tell you honestly which side of the line the trunk sits on before anyone commits to anything.
Surface roots, and the limits of grinding them
Shaving a ridged surface root flush with the lawn is a legitimate piece of work and we do it, with one condition: not on a tree anybody intends to keep, beyond a modest amount. Maples carry a great deal of their anchorage in exactly those upper roots, and taking a run of them out on a mature street tree buys a smooth lawn at the cost of stability in the next wind.
On a tree that is already gone, none of that applies and we take the whole plate out. That is usually the better answer here - the ridging people want smoothed is very often coming from a maple that is at the end of its run anyway.
Bungalow lots, alleys and where the truck stands
Well over two-thirds of the residential buildings in this district are bungalows, and they sit on lots to match: short front setbacks, narrow side passages, a good deal of the useful outdoor space at the back. Parking a truck and trailer on Richland or Central during the day is its own negotiation, and the alleys and rear access that exist in parts of the district are often the better approach.
We sort that in advance. Tell us whether there is rear access, whether the side passage has a step in it, and where a trailer can legally sit for two hours, and the job runs smoothly. Turning up to find out is how a short job becomes an afternoon.
Maple grinds fast and produces a mountain
Compared with the oaks and hickories we work east of here, maple is soft going. Silver and red maple in particular cut quickly, and a stump that looks intimidating can be down in well under an hour of actual wheel time.
The catch is volume. Soft wet wood grinds into a heap two or three times the size of the hole it came out of, and on a bungalow lot there is nowhere to put it. Practically every job in this district ends with the material leaving on the trailer, and it is worth agreeing that at the quote rather than standing in a small yard looking at a pile nobody has a plan for.
What we do in Richland-West End
Richland-West End questions
The tree causing the trouble is in the strip by the sidewalk. What now?
That strip is Metro right-of-way, so the tree is Metro's to deal with rather than yours or ours. Report it and let that process run. If a root from it has crossed into your garden and is lifting something on your side, that part we can look at, and we will be clear about exactly where we stopped and why.
Can you grind roots without killing the tree?
Some, carefully, on a healthy tree - a single root shaved down where it crosses a path is usually survivable. A whole run of them is not, particularly on a maple, which relies heavily on shallow roots to stay upright. We will tell you where the line is on your specific tree rather than take the work and leave you with a leaner.
Our lot is small. Where will everything go?
On the trailer. Maple produces far more ground material than a small yard can absorb, so on nearly every job here we load it out the same day. If you want a wheelbarrow's worth kept for a bed we will set it aside on a sheet first, which is much easier than trying to recover it from the pile afterward.
How much for a maple stump on a bungalow lot?
Most of them land in the smaller and mid-size bands - somewhere between about one hundred and three hundred fifty dollars depending on diameter and how much of it is reachable. What pushes one higher is access rather than the wood: a stump that has to be reached down a narrow passage with every wheelbarrow load carried out by hand takes real time.
Do you work in this part of town often?
Regularly, though it is the outer edge of where we go, so we batch the district rather than making single trips. That means a slightly longer wait for a date and no difference at all in the price. If a neighbor needs something similar, mention it - two on one street on the same morning suits everybody.