Full excavation of the stump and root ball — for construction sites, new driveways, and total landscape rebuilds.
One free call connects you with an independent licensed tree pro who covers your ZIP code. The pro provides a free estimate — you decide from there.
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Full stump removal digs out the stump AND the root ball, usually with an excavator or backhoe after root-cutting around the perimeter. It's the heavy-equipment sibling of grinding: slower, more expensive, and much more disruptive to the surrounding ground — which is exactly right when that ground is about to become a foundation, pool, driveway, or utility trench where buried decomposing wood would settle and sink whatever sits on it. Expect a genuinely large hole; the crew backfills with compactable soil, in lifts, if the site is going to bear a load.
One-time, project-driven work. If nothing will be built where the stump sits, grinding is almost always the better-value choice — see our stump grinding guide.
Root balls tangle with everything — irrigation, gas services, old clay sewer laterals. Full removal digs where utilities live; an 811 locate plus a careful operator is non-negotiable.
An excavator crossing a lawn leaves a story. Pros use mats and plan the route, but full removal is honest about being a construction operation, not landscaping.
A poorly backfilled stump hole settles for years. Under lawn that's cosmetic; under a slab or pavers it's a structural defect. Compacted lifts of proper fill are part of doing it right.
Call (866) 313-3285 — TreeCrewFinder connects you free with an independent local pro who handles excavation-grade stump removal, and who'll tell you honestly if grinding would serve your project better and cheaper.
Building on the spot (foundation, slab, driveway, pool)? Full removal. Everything else — lawn restoration, replanting nearby, getting rid of the eyesore — grinding wins on cost, speed, and yard preservation. This is the most money-saving question in stump work, and a good pro answers it before quoting.
Substantially more than grinding the same stump, because it involves excavation equipment, more labor, disposal of the root ball, and backfill. Size, species, soil, access, and what happens to the hole all move the number. The matched pro quotes free after seeing the site.
Bigger than people expect — a mature tree's root ball can leave a crater several feet deep and wider than the canopy suggested. Plan for backfill in the project budget, and for compacted engineered fill if anything will bear on it.
Dead roots don't grow, so they don't push. The real post-removal issue is settlement as large roots decompose, which is why builds over old root zones use full removal plus compaction rather than grind-and-hope.
Both, and the best jobs are often tree crews with excavation capability — they understand both the biology and the dirt work. Our network includes pros equipped for full removal; the referral sorts that for you.
Half a day to a full day per large stump including backfill, plus equipment mobilization. Multi-stump lot clears scale better per stump — get the whole scope quoted at once.
Occasionally — burl wood and some hardwood root flares interest woodworkers. Realistically, most root balls are dirt-packed and saw-hostile. If the trunk is still around, that's where any lumber value lives.
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