Stump Grinding in North Pointe, Goodlettsville

Every third house on the street has the same stump

When North Pointe went in between 1989 and 1996 the builder planted Bradford pear down both sides of Mansker Drive, Lassiter Drive and Valley Drive, because in 1992 everybody did. The tree has a known lifespan before its branch structure fails, roughly twenty-five years, and this neighborhood passed that mark a while back.

So the failures are not random any more, they are a wave. One storm takes out four on a street, a crew comes through and cuts them to knee height, and a year later the strip between sidewalk and curb has a row of fourteen to twenty inch stumps with grass growing over the shoulders of them.

What brings the call is usually mowing, or a neighbor who has already had theirs done and made the street look uneven. Occasionally it is the city, and occasionally it is somebody who caught a toe on one in the dark.

Pricing a row instead of a stump

The economics here are entirely about how many. A single fourteen to eighteen inch pear on its own, with the minimum service call included, generally lands between $150 and $225. Put four of them on the same street on the same morning and the per-stump number drops by a third or better, because we are not hitching, driving and setting up four separate times.

That is why we tell people on these streets to talk to a neighbor before they book. Two or three houses in a row going in together is the single biggest discount available on this whole side of town, and it is not a promotion, it is just what the work actually costs when the trailer stays parked.

We will quote each address separately so nobody is chasing anybody for money, and we will do them back to back.

Why the curb strip is the fussiest ground in the subdivision

That six-foot ribbon between the sidewalk and the street is where the utilities live. Gas service, the water line to the meter, cable and telecom drops, sometimes street lighting conduit, all running parallel to the curb and all crossing at right angles toward each house.

We file a locate ticket for every one of these and wait the three working days, no exceptions and no matter how small the stump looks. The paint tells us what direction things run and how close to the trunk we can take the wheel. Where a mark passes within a foot of the stump, we grind to a shallower depth on that side and say so on the invoice rather than guessing.

What the ticket will not show is a private irrigation line or the low-voltage wire to a lamp post, and this neighborhood has plenty of both. If you put it in, or the previous owner did, tell us.

Pear grinds easy, then the sweetgum ruins the afternoon

Callery pear is a soft, forgiving stump. The wood cuts quickly and the root plate is compact, which is why these jobs are quick and why they do not cost much on their own.

The surprise on these lots is what else is out there. The reclaimed farmland edges along the back of Valley Drive carry loblolly pine and sweetgum, and both are more work than the pear out front. Pine gums the wheel. Sweetgum is stubborn about suckering, so if we do not chase the shallow runners you will be pulling shoots out of the lawn all next summer.

Silver maple shows up too, planted at buildout and now big enough to matter, and those bring the wide surface plate you would expect. When you are getting the front pear done it is worth having us look at what is out back while the machine is off the trailer.

How a North Pointe curb-strip job usually goes

• Photo in, firm price back the same afternoon
• Locate ticket filed, three working days for the paint
• You flag anything private: sprinkler line, lamp post wire, invisible fence
• We grind to depth, shallower where a mark runs close
• Spoil raked back and tamped, or hauled if you would rather
• Grass seed over the patch if the season is right for it