What to charge for stump grinding
Price a stump by the inch across, and get your price for an inch from what an hour of you and the grinder costs you. Count the inches on the job, add up what the job costs, pick a price above that, and divide.
By TailGateBid. .
Count the inches the same way every time
A price for an inch is only fair if you and your customer are counting the same inches. Where the tape goes changes the number, so pick one place, measure every stump there, and write on the quote where that is.
We looked for a source worth quoting on where a stump should be measured and did not find one, so this page gives no rule for it. What matters for your price is that the inches you quote are the same inches you worked your cost out from.
The sum
- Add up the inches across every stump on the job.
- Count your hours: the grinding, the cleanup, the loading and the drive.
- Hours times what an hour of you and the grinder costs you, plus fuel and anything else the job uses up, is what the job costs you.
- Pick a price above it. The price divided by the inches is your price for an inch.
Work out what a job costs you
Start with the stumps
Type the inches across each stump, all measured the same way. The boxes add them up and put the total in the calculator below. A new box opens when the last one is filled.
Type the inches across the first stump. The total shows here.
Two people for a day of 8 hours is 16.
A rental, dump fees, a sub.
Type the size of the job to see a price for each inch.
If you want it checked. Leave it empty if not.
Type your hours and what an hour costs you, or your materials. The answer shows here.
A row of stumps, worked through
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
Say a yard has 3 stumps that measure 22, 14 and 9 inches across: 45 inches. Say the job takes you 2 hours with the drive, an hour of you and the grinder costs you $57.05, and fuel and wear on the machine come to $40. The job costs you $154.10. Charge $221 and you keep $66.90, which is $30 of every $100. Divided by the inches, that is $4.92 an inch.
The same stumps at five prices
An example with made-up numbers, not a going rate
| Price | You keep | Of every $100 |
|---|---|---|
| $172 | $17.90 | $10 |
| $193 | $38.90 | $20 |
| $221 | $66.90 | $30 |
| $257 | $102.90 | $40 |
| $309 | $154.90 | $50 |
The hours come from your own jobs
This page does not say how long a stump takes. We found no figure for it at a source worth naming, and it is your machine and your ground.
Your own jobs are the record. After each one, note the inches and the hours. A handful of those and you can tell what an inch really takes you, and the next quote starts from that.
What gets missed
- The drive and the loading. They are hours on the job like the grinding is. Count them: what a trip costs you works them out.
- The machine. A grinder you own has a payment, insurance and repairs, and those belong in what an hour costs you: work that out first. Or work out the grinder's own hour and add it to yours, counting it one way and not both. A grinder you rent for the job goes in the box for anything else.
- The grindings and the hole. If you haul the grindings away or fill the hole, that is more hours, and maybe a load. Put each on the quote as its own line, or say on the quote that it is not included.
- How deep. Say on the quote how far below the ground you grind, so you and your customer mean the same job.
- What is under the ground. 811 is the free national before-you-dig service, and it says every digging project, whatever its depth, needs a call or a request a few days ahead: Common Ground Alliance, 811 Before You Dig. Its page does not name stump grinding, so ask your state's 811 center about your job, and leave room for those days in the date you promise.
One small stump
A single small stump is few inches and the same drive. Run it through the boxes with the real hours, and what it costs you is the lowest price that job can carry. If your price for an inch comes out under that, the inches are not what you are selling on that job: the trip is.
On a quote
In TailGateBid a stump is a line charged by the inch: the inches, your price for each, and the line's total. It can be an add-on your customer ticks when the tree comes down. TailGateBid for tree services shows one on a sample quote.
Pricing from pictures the customer sent? Read what photos can and cannot tell you first. The sum on this page, for any other job, is the job price calculator.
Where each number comes from
- When this page works out a price for you, it never aims to leave you more than $90 of every $100. TailGateBid's own price suggestions stop at the same place. A price you type yourself can leave more.
- The ladder shows the prices that leave about $10, $20, $30, $40, $50 of every $100. The steps are our choice: a ladder to read across, not advice.
A calculator works from the numbers you type. Check the answer against your own books.
This page is about one kind of job. TailGateBid works for any trade, and Bid Partner is built to price a job in any of them: how it works for your trade.
Sources
Related
- What an hour costs youIn the example, $25 an hour of pay turns into $57.05 for every hour you can bill.
- Job price16 hours of work and $600 of materials cost you $1,320. See what five prices would leave you.
- Brush hoggingA 5 acre field worked through, from the width of the cutter to a price for each acre.
- Tree serviceCrew hours, loads and stump inches on one quote, and the crew on the schedule.
- Quoting from photosWhat photos can tell you about a job, what they cannot, and which ones to ask for.
A stump is one line on a TailGateBid quote: the inches, your price for each, and the total.
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