Tree Removal Wollongong
Dead, dangerous and badly sited trees taken down in sections, including escarpment blocks that need climbing or a crane.
Learn more →Why stumps do not just get left
A stump in a lawn is a trip hazard, a mower killer and an obstacle to whatever you wanted to do with the space. Left long enough it becomes something worse: dead standing timber in the ground is exactly what termites are looking for, and inviting a colony to establish itself ten metres from a house in a region with plenty of them is a poor trade for saving a few hundred dollars.
They also stop you planting. The most common reason people ring about a stump is not the stump itself, it is the garden bed, the shed slab or the second tree that cannot go in until it is gone.
Grinding: the usual answer
A stump grinder is a wheel with carbide teeth that cuts the stump away in passes, turning it into coarse woodchip. The machine works from the outside in and takes the stump down to 200 to 300 millimetres below the surrounding grade, which is enough depth for turf to establish, for a garden bed, or for pavers to go over the top.
What you are left with is a depression full of chip and soil. Chip can be raked out and used as mulch elsewhere, or the hole can be topped with soil and turfed. Be aware that the chip breaks down over the following year and the ground will settle, so it is worth overfilling slightly and checking it again in six months.
Access decides the machine. A narrow-access grinder fits through a standard 750 millimetre gate and handles most suburban jobs. Where a stump sits behind a house on an escarpment block with stairs — common through Figtree and Thirroul — a smaller machine and more hours are needed, and the price reflects it.
Full removal: when it is actually required
Excavating the stump and root plate is a bigger job. It means an excavator or a bobcat, a substantially larger hole, disturbance to the soil around it, and material to cart away. It costs more and it makes more mess.
It is the right call in exactly one situation: something structural is going over the top. A slab, a pool shell, a retaining wall footing, a driveway or a new fence post line all need the root mass out rather than decaying in place, because decaying timber under a footing means settlement later. For everything else — lawn, garden, paving, a new tree nearby — grinding is the better value option.
Roots away from the stump
Grinding deals with the stump and the root crown. It does not deal with a large surface root lifting a path fifteen metres away, or a root that has found a stormwater joint. Those are separate jobs, and cutting a major structural root on a tree you are keeping is a decision with consequences for the tree's stability — worth an arborist's opinion before a shovel goes anywhere near it.
Where the whole tree is coming out anyway, the stump conversation happens at the same time as the removal quote, and doing both in the one visit is cheaper than calling somebody back.
Before the grinder starts
Underground services are the reason this job goes wrong. Water, gas, telecommunications, irrigation and low-voltage garden wiring all end up near old stumps, and a grinder finds them instantly. Services get located before cutting starts, and where there is any doubt the area is hand-dug first.
For a free quote on one stump or twenty, ring (02) 4210 5885.
More services
Explore our other services
Tree Lopping
Crown reduction, clearance from roofs and power lines, and deadwooding — cut to AS 4373, not topped to stubs.
Learn more →Tree Pruning
Canopy lifting, selective thinning and storm-season preparation for trees worth keeping.
Learn more →
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
How much does stump removal cost in Wollongong?
A rough guide is 150 to 600 dollars per stump. The two things that move it are size and access. A small stump on an open front lawn is at the bottom of that range; a large hardwood stump behind a house where the grinder has to be carried through a gate and down steps is at the top. Several stumps done in one visit cost less each than the same stumps done separately.
What is the difference between grinding and removal?
Grinding uses a cutting wheel to chew the stump down below ground level, leaving a hole full of woodchip and the root system in place. Removal means excavating the stump and root plate out of the ground with machinery. Grinding is cheaper, faster and far less disruptive to the surrounding yard. Full removal is only necessary when something is being built over the spot.
How deep is a stump ground?
Usually 200 to 300 millimetres below the surrounding surface, which is enough for turf, garden beds or paving. If a new tree is going into the same hole, or a slab, pool or footing is planned over it, it needs to go deeper or be excavated entirely. Say what is going over the top before the quote is written, because it changes the job.
Will the roots keep growing after grinding?
Not for most species. Once the stem and the top of the root crown are gone the roots have no leaves to feed them and they die and decay in the ground over several years. Some species do sucker from remaining roots — camphor laurel and privet are the local offenders — and those need follow-up treatment rather than a second grind.
Free, no-obligation