Stump Grinding in Frisco, TX

Stump grinding in Frisco solves a problem the city will not take off your hands: Frisco's yard-waste collection does not accept tree stumps or roots, which have to go to a landfill, so most homeowners have them ground in place instead. A stump grinder uses a spinning wheel with carbide teeth to chew the stump into chips below the soil surface, leaving a shallow hole of chips and soil that can be backfilled and planted over. It is far less disruptive than digging a stump out, which matters on a Frisco lot where the stump is often a few feet from a fence, a foundation, a flower bed edged in stone, or a run of sprinkler pipe.

Before the grinder starts

The most common damage during stump work in suburban yards is to irrigation lines and heads, so we ask you to mark or tell us where the sprinkler zones run near the stump, and we look for valve boxes and heads before starting. Grinding near a buried utility line is a different matter: Texas requires a call to 811 before digging, and we treat grinding deep near the edge of a yard the same way. Small grinders fit through standard backyard gates, so a stump in a fenced backyard can usually be reached without removing fence panels.

How deep, and what is left

A standard grind takes the stump down several inches below the soil, enough for sod or a bed. If you plan to plant a new tree in the same spot, the stump should be ground deeper and wider and the chips mixed out, because a large volume of decaying wood under a new tree's roots is a poor start. Grinding also leaves a pile of chips roughly the size of the stump; they can be used as mulch, raked into the hole with topsoil, or hauled away. Large surface roots, common on cedar elms and oaks in shallow clay, can be ground out along their length where they lift turf or edging.

Oak and ash stumps

An oak stump left from an oak wilt removal can still be connected to nearby oaks through the roots, which is how the disease moves underground. Grinding the stump does not cut those connections; trenching is the method the Texas A&M Forest Service describes for that. Ash stumps can be ground and the chips left on site, which keeps the wood inside the EAB-quarantined county.