Woodworkers often pride themselves on their knowledge of trees and wood. Most folks simply go to the lumber yard or big box store to pick up wood that has been processed by others. Some have felled their own trees and dried their own wood. But for many once the body of the tree hits the ground they are left with a large unsightly stump.

What do you do with your larger stumps?

Small stumps can be dug out by hand. Larger stumps can be left to rot (or accelerated via chemicals or bacteria), burned out in a controlled burn, ground down below the surface with a large stump grinder, blown out with explosives or dug out by hand or machine.

I needed to clear some of my yard for an upcoming barn build and after trying to get out some larger stumps by hand last year I decided the best avenue for me would be to enlist the help of a tractor with a backhoe.  If you don’t have a tractor you may have a neighbor, local machine rental store or landscaping company that can help you out.  I prefer this method of removing a stump by digging it out as I know when it’s completely out I won’t have sink holes or obstacles during future digging at this location.

How do I remove a large stump?

I start by digging around the base of the stump to see where the major roots are. If they are too big for the back-hoe to directly rip through I will move further out away from the stump until I can rip them out with the bucket. I’ll work my way around the root ball until I can knock it over with the backhoe.

If the stump is still too big/heavy I’ll spray down the stump with water to remove dirt, grit and weight. (Thank you Dad for that idea as it saved the day on some of the real big stumps that maxed out what the tractor could lift and pull).  If the watering doesn’t work you can let it dry out a bit and cut the freed stump into more manageable pieces. (Make sure to take all necessary safety precautions when attempting that)

Next up, I got out my hefty 3/8″ thick logging chain and secured it to the stump. The trick for me was to get it around the roots in such a way that pulling up makes the stump tumble end over end and thus make its way out of the hole with minimal friction. If I tried to just drag it up on its own the friction makes it almost impossible to get out.

Each time a stump clears the pit it’s a mini celebration as even with a big machine stump removal can be a lot of work.

What do you do with the stump once you have it out of the ground?

Some town transfer stations will accept them and grind them up. Some folks will let them dry out and cut them up to burn as part of a bonfire. A last resort is hiring someone to come take them away — this option still a lot cheaper than paying for digging it out and grinding estimates were coming in at $100/stump so things can add up fast. I don’t recommend re-burying them elsewhere as they take a LONG time to rot on their own and buried stumps often lead to sink holes.

I know I flew through the above steps in this post, so if you’d like to see a video of some of these techniques in action in the removal of another stump, please check out my new YouTube video which you can watch by clicking the link here or by clicking on the image of the tractor below.

Now it’s time to be back out into the yard — there are still a LOT of sizable stumps left to clear out….

Take care,
-Bill