Get a fixed price on your stump.
Two numbers and one photo is usually all it takes: how wide the stump is across the cut face, and how wide the narrowest gate or gap on the way in is. Most residential stumps in Pakenham can be priced firmly without anyone driving out.
The quickest route is to ring (03) 9072 1387, because most stumps get priced in the conversation. If you would rather type it, the form does the same job and we come back within one business day.
How to measure your stump in thirty seconds
Put a tape across the widest part of the cut face, at ground level, and read the number in millimetres or centimetres. That is the measurement the whole industry prices from, and it is why two stumps from trees of very different heights can cost the same to grind. What matters is how much material the wheel has to remove, which is a function of width and depth, not of how tall the tree once was.
Two things change that number in practice. The first is the root flare, the skirt of thickened wood where the trunk spreads out into the ground. On a mature gum or a cypress the flare can be half again as wide as the trunk itself, and it all has to come out, so measure across the flare rather than the trunk. The second is what is around it. A stump sitting in open lawn is a straightforward job; the same stump wedged against a brick wall, a fence line, a retaining wall or a set of exposed pipework takes longer and costs more, because the machine can only attack it from one side.
If the tree is still standing, say so on the form. Felling and grinding are separate jobs, and in Cardinia Shire the standing tree may need a Local Law permit before anyone touches it, which we would rather flag now than on the day. Read grinding versus full removal if you are still deciding which one your job needs, or the cost page if you want to price it yourself first.