Clearing a wooded lot

[cycleman77]

I am currently on the market for a house. However I am still undecided if I want to buy an existing house or build on an empty lot. I have found some reasonably priced lots in my area, but they are wooded lots.

I do plan on calling some local services, but I have no idea what to expect or what I should be looking for (with regards to price).

Anyone have any experience with this type of service? What kind of price range should I look for?

I am in the Springfield, MA area. One of the lots I saw was 15,000 sqft. I wouldn't think the whole lot would need to be cleared. Maybe 5,000 - 6,000 sqft?


-Thanks

 

[iamwiz82]

If the lots are unimproved there is more than just clearing. You have to level and prepare drainage along with run the utilities.

 

[cycleman77]

From the picture it looked fairly level. I would definitely go see it if I get serious about that lot. However I don't want to spend too much time on this route if the additional cost of clearing exceeds a predetermined percentage of an equivalent lot with an existing house.

Just a side note...
this lot in particular is close enough to town, so no septic/leech field would be needed.

 

[ObiDon]

i think oldsmoboat is our resident stump-puller

 

[wwswimming]

some people will pay you money for that wood.

if it's old growth that's good for wood, or newer growth that's good
for firewood, you might be able to finance some of the clearing with
the wood itself.

 

[Vehemence]

Depends on how many beavers you rent.

 

[PepePeru]

Originally posted by: cycleman77
From the picture it looked fairly level. I would definitely go see it if I get serious about that lot. However I don't want to spend too much time on this route if the additional cost of clearing exceeds a predetermined percentage of an equivalent lot with an existing house.

Just a side note...
this lot in particular is close enough to town, so no septic/leech field would be needed.

you'll still have to pay for the connections to the municipal utilities.
plus in addition to clearing a wooded lot, you'll have to have a road built and having a good road built is not cheap.

i have a friend that bought a heavily wooded lot. yeah its great to own land but he's looking at I cant remember how many thousands of dollars to get a decent road built through the trees and to the spot at the back of the lot where he wants the house to sit.

 

[cycleman77]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
some people will pay you money for that wood.

if it's old growth that's good for wood, or newer growth that's good
for firewood, you might be able to finance some of the clearing with
the wood itself.

Huh, I didn't even think of that. I'll definitely keep that in mind.

Originally posted by: G Wizard
you'll still have to pay for the connections to the municipal utilities.
plus in addition to clearing a wooded lot, you'll have to have a road built and having a good road built is not cheap.

i have a friend that bought a heavily wooded lot. yeah its great to own land but he's looking at I cant remember how many thousands of dollars to get a decent road built through the trees and to the spot at the back of the lot where he wants the house to sit.

The ad didn't explicitly say if there was road frontage, but from the part of town it is in, I would assume so. Something I would need to ask if I did call on it. Even so, the lot is only 15,000 sqft. It's not exactly huge. I think it's roughly a third of an acre (an acre being ~44,000 sqft?).

 

[Jumpem]

If you call some loggers you can probably get paid to clear it.

 

[cycleman77]

Bump for some numbers.

and by numbers I mean a price guesstimate for what it would cost to clear some wooded land.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: cycleman77
Bump for some numbers.

and by numbers I mean a price guesstimate for what it would cost to clear some wooded land.

Without seeing it or knowing how rich it is, we really can't give an estimate.


Just because it "looks level" doesn't mean it doesn't need to be worked over a bit. Especially if you are ripping stumps out of the ground. If it's a bunch of brush and overgrowth you might get off a bit light, but if it's heavy trees you might have to pay a bunch more. Some of the stumps might just be able to get drilled, but I'd imagine that the larger, deeper stumps might need fully removed.

Depending on what you actually need done and how much of it you need cleared, expect in the ballpark of $1-$5 per square foot. I know it's a wide range but you haven't been very exact in what is on the property.


If you have some buddies, some beer and grill you can take with you, you could probably rent a wood chipper and a few chainsaws and clear a lot of it down to the stumps, leave some large logs on the property and sell them for firewood, although I would consider it very dangerous to take down larger trees. This might cut the costs down considerably as a company will only have to take out stumps then turn and level the soil.

 

[Throckmorton]

Please don't remove all the trees like morons here in Texas do

 

[The Sauce]

Mature hardwood trees suitable for milling are selling for around $800 to $1400 a piece (depending on the species). Pine and other softwoods are worthless and you would have to pay someone to haul them away. Then excavator for the stumps.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Buy about $5 in gasoline (roughly 1.4 gallons) and grab a book of matches. Just be sure to call in a bunch of prank calls to the fire department just before you light it.

 

[FeuerFrei]

Originally posted by: Snatchface
Mature hardwood trees suitable for milling are selling for around $800 to $1400 a piece (depending on the species). Pine and other softwoods are worthless and you would have to pay someone to haul them away. Then excavator for the stumps.

Hmm. Maybe they'd clear the land at no charge, in exchange for some valuable wood.

 

[uberman]

I had 1.5 acres of wine grapes. We used to cut down weeds with chainsaws. It took days. Then I had a loader clear it in 2 or 3 hours. We let the piles dry for six months and burned them. The loader is the only way to go. It was like 6 to 8 hundred dollars in eastern Washington state.

 

[Wheezer]

Originally posted by: cycleman77
I am currently on the market for a house. However I am still undecided if I want to buy an existing house or build on an empty lot. I have found some reasonably priced lots in my area, but they are wooded lots.

I do plan on calling some local services, but I have no idea what to expect or what I should be looking for (with regards to price).

Anyone have any experience with this type of service? What kind of price range should I look for?

I am in the Springfield, MA area. One of the lots I saw was 15,000 sqft. I wouldn't think the whole lot would need to be cleared. Maybe 5,000 - 6,000 sqft?


-Thanks

I just timbered about 14 acres and got a very nice chuck of change for it.

Do yourself a favor and have someone who is experienced go through and assess the value, I never thought of having the land timbered, but I was approached by an Amish guy who was doing the land beside me and offered me about $15,0000....I did some research and hired a professional to check the value and needless to say....after he marked it looked at what was there, he put the bids out I got several times that amount out of it and in about 5-10 I can do the rest.

 

[Turin39789]

Originally posted by: uberman
I had 1.5 acres of wine grapes. We used to cut down weeds with chainsaws. It took days. Then I had a loader clear it in 2 or 3 hours. We let the piles dry for six months and burned them. The loader is the only way to go. It was like 6 to 8 hundred dollars in eastern Washington state.

but, you could have made wine

 

[cycleman77]

Originally posted by: Injury

Originally posted by: cycleman77
Bump for some numbers.

and by numbers I mean a price guesstimate for what it would cost to clear some wooded land.

Without seeing it or knowing how rich it is, we really can't give an estimate.


Just because it "looks level" doesn't mean it doesn't need to be worked over a bit. Especially if you are ripping stumps out of the ground. If it's a bunch of brush and overgrowth you might get off a bit light, but if it's heavy trees you might have to pay a bunch more. Some of the stumps might just be able to get drilled, but I'd imagine that the larger, deeper stumps might need fully removed.

Depending on what you actually need done and how much of it you need cleared, expect in the ballpark of $1-$5 per square foot. I know it's a wide range but you haven't been very exact in what is on the property.


If you have some buddies, some beer and grill you can take with you, you could probably rent a wood chipper and a few chainsaws and clear a lot of it down to the stumps, leave some large logs on the property and sell them for firewood, although I would consider it very dangerous to take down larger trees. This might cut the costs down considerably as a company will only have to take out stumps then turn and level the soil.

$1-$5 may be a wide range, but it is a starting point. Thanks

 

[cycleman77]

Originally posted by: Wheezer

Originally posted by: cycleman77
I am currently on the market for a house. However I am still undecided if I want to buy an existing house or build on an empty lot. I have found some reasonably priced lots in my area, but they are wooded lots.

I do plan on calling some local services, but I have no idea what to expect or what I should be looking for (with regards to price).

Anyone have any experience with this type of service? What kind of price range should I look for?

I am in the Springfield, MA area. One of the lots I saw was 15,000 sqft. I wouldn't think the whole lot would need to be cleared. Maybe 5,000 - 6,000 sqft?


-Thanks

I just timbered about 14 acres and got a very nice chuck of change for it.

Do yourself a favor and have someone who is experienced go through and assess the value, I never thought of having the land timbered, but I was approached by an Amish guy who was doing the land beside me and offered me about $15,0000....I did some research and hired a professional to check the value and needless to say....after he marked it looked at what was there, he put the bids out I got several times that amount out of it and in about 5-10 I can do the rest.

Wow!
If anything, it's worth making a few phone calls.
Thanks Wheezer
:beer:

 

[MBony]

When we cleared our lot it was about $1700. The lot was about 1 acre.

 

[crystal]

Something my brother had to do when he built his house. Paved the road (it was gravel road before), put in a fire hydrant, and for some reason he had to plant a few trees along the fence (still scratch my head on that one).

 

[txrandom]

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Please don't remove all the trees like morons here in Texas do

Are you from Kingwood too? All the new subdivisions pretty much strip every tree out. The subdivision looks dumb for 15 years until the planted trees get big.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: txrandom

Originally posted by: Throckmorton
Please don't remove all the trees like morons here in Texas do

Are you from Kingwood too? All the new subdivisions pretty much strip every tree out. The subdivision looks dumb for 15 years until the planted trees get big.

oh man i hate it when they do that.

there was a beutiful wooded area with a lake here for auction. people were trying to get the city to buy it for a park.

but a developer (come to find out was paying people in charge to win auctions) won the auction. he tore out EVERY Tree then planted small saplings.

oh reminds me. he also somehow got the city to "condem" a bunch of property along some he already owned. he then purchased them for very cheap and got the city to give him a tax exempt to build stores on. 3 years latter most are still empty.


WTF! it was such a nice area.