Grinding versus digging out
Digging a stump out with a machine leaves a crater the size of a small car, wrecks the surrounding lawn, needs the void backfilling with imported topsoil, and requires access for an excavator. Grinding uses a toothed wheel to chew the stump and the top of the root plate into chippings in place. The garden around it is untouched.
The exception is where you need the ground genuinely clear of all root material — a building footing, a new drainage run — in which case full excavation is the correct call and we will say so.
How deep, and why it matters what you are doing next
- Returfing or seeding — 150–200mm below ground level is plenty. Topsoil goes back over the grindings.
- Planting a new tree or shrub in the same spot — 300mm plus, and the grindings need removing rather than backfilling. Fresh woodchip in a planting hole locks up nitrogen as it decomposes and will stall a new plant for a season.
- Paving, decking or a shed base — 300mm and grindings out, because the residual timber will continue to settle as it rots and your slabs will follow it down.
- Foundations or an extension — grinding is not sufficient. You need full stump and root-plate excavation, and your building inspector will want to see it.
Access
Standard machines need about 900mm of clear width. Narrow-access grinders go through a 760mm gate, which covers most Victorian terraced side alleys in Leicester and Wigston. Tell us the width of your tightest gate and whether there are steps, and we will bring the right machine first time rather than turning up and rebooking.
The things that stop a grinder
Buried services are the real risk. Water, gas, electric and telecoms runs frequently pass right beside where a tree was planted, and a grinding wheel does not care. We scan and probe before starting. If your stump is within a metre of a meter box, a manhole or a known service run, expect us to work more slowly and by hand at the margins.
The other one is stone. Trees planted in old rockeries or against demolished walls swallow rubble as they grow, and buried masonry destroys grinder teeth. It is not a reason not to do the job, but it can affect the price once we are into it — and we will stop and tell you rather than let it run.
Honey fungus and why old stumps are a liability
A dead stump left in the ground is a food source. Armillaria — honey fungus — colonises dead root systems and then spreads through the soil by rhizomorphs to attack living plants, and Leicestershire clay gardens see plenty of it. If you have lost a tree to it, getting the stump and as much root plate out as possible is part of the control strategy, not just tidiness.