Land Clearing & Grading
Land clearing involves more than cutting trees. The order matters - selective logging before grading, stump grinding before concrete, brush disposal before the excavator arrives. We coordinate the clearing schedule around your build timeline.
Call (517) 793-5658 - Free Site AssessmentComplete removal of all trees, brush, and vegetation from a defined area. Used for new construction or major landscaping renovation.
Removing specific trees or zones while preserving others. Common on residential lots wanting to open a view or remove hazard trees while keeping mature hardwoods.
Clearing and stump grinding to a spec suitable for excavation, foundation work, or grading. We coordinate with GCs and site prep crews in Ingham and Eaton County.
Clearing a defined corridor for fence installation, utility easements, or property line work. Common on rural and semi-rural properties in Delhi and Delta Township.
Forestry mulching for overgrown parcels where the goal is usable land rather than bare dirt. Material stays on site as ground cover, which cuts haul-off cost substantially.
Leveling and shaping after clearing so the parcel drains correctly. Skipping this step is how a cleared lot in Delta Township turns into standing water every spring.
Sequence is where clearing projects go wrong and where the budget overruns come from. This is the order we work in, and why.
Mark what stays
Property pins, easements, and any tree you want kept get flagged before a saw runs. Mature hardwoods add real value to a finished lot and cannot be put back.
Call MISS DIG before anything breaks ground
Michigan law requires notifying MISS DIG 811 at least three working days before excavation, and that includes stump grinding and root raking. It is free. Hitting a gas line on a cleared lot is not.
Selective logging first
Merchantable timber comes off standing, before it gets crushed into the brush pile. On a wooded parcel this can offset a meaningful share of the clearing cost.
Brush and undergrowth
Chipped, mulched in place, or hauled. Which one you choose is usually the single biggest line item you can control.
Stumps out before concrete
Stumps left under a build settle as they decay. Grinding costs a fraction of what a cracked slab costs to fix. See stump grinding.
Grade and stabilize
Rough grade for drainage, then seed or matting on any slope. Bare soil on a Michigan spring thaw moves fast.
| Job Type | Typical Range |
|---|---|
| Small residential clearing (under ¼ acre, light density) | $1,200-$4,800 |
| Medium clearing (¼ to ½ acre, mixed trees) | $3,500-$12,000 |
| Large clearing (½ acre+, dense or wooded) | $8,500-$28,000+ |
| Fence line / corridor clearing (per 100 linear ft) | $250-$975 |
| Forestry mulching, light brush (per acre) | $1,800-$5,500 |
| Rough grading after clearing (per acre) | $1,000-$3,800 |
We don't quote clearing jobs over the phone. Every project gets an on-site assessment first.
Density and trunk diameter. An acre of 6-inch scrub and an acre of mature oak are different jobs with the same acreage on paper. Diameter drives everything downstream: cutting time, handling, chipper capacity, haul weight.
Debris disposal. Mulching in place is the cheapest outcome. Chipping and hauling costs more. Full haul-off of trunk wood costs the most. On a big parcel this single decision can swing the quote by thousands.
Access and ground conditions. If a skid steer and a chipper can get to the work, the job is efficient. If everything is hand-carried past a house on a narrow lot, it is not. Saturated clay in a Michigan spring is its own delay.
Slope and wetland proximity. Grade work near a drain or a wetland edge brings permitting into scope, and it changes the sequence and the machinery.
Timber value. On wooded parcels with merchantable hardwood, the timber can offset part of the cost. We flag it when we see it rather than chipping value into the ground.
Requirements vary by jurisdiction, and a parcel in Delhi Township is not governed the same way as one inside Lansing city limits. Four things come up on nearly every clearing job in this area:
We will tell you what we believe applies to your parcel and what to confirm with your township. Verify with your local building department before work starts. Related reading: tree removal permits in Lansing.
Lightly wooded acreage with brush and small trees typically runs $2,000 to $6,000 per acre. Densely wooded acreage with mature hardwood runs $8,000 to $20,000 or more. Density and disposal method matter far more than raw acreage.
In practice, nothing. Lot clearing usually describes a defined residential or commercial parcel and land clearing usually describes acreage, but the work is the same. We handle both.
If anything is getting built, paved, or graded over the area, yes. Stumps decay and the ground settles unevenly on top of them. For a parcel that is staying open field, you can leave them and save the cost.
Often it is the better season. Frozen ground carries equipment without rutting, there is no foliage to work around, and scheduling is easier. The limits are deep snow cover and frost depth on stump grinding.
A quarter-acre residential lot is usually one to three days. An acre of dense woods with stump removal and grading runs one to two weeks. Weather and disposal logistics drive the variance more than the cutting does.
Regularly, across Ingham and Eaton County. We schedule clearing against your excavation date so the site is ready when the next trade shows up rather than three weeks early or a week late.
We clear parcels in Lansing, East Lansing, Okemos, Haslett, DeWitt, Holt, Mason, Grand Ledge, and the surrounding townships including Delhi, Delta, Meridian, and Windsor, across Ingham and Eaton County.
Free on-site assessments for all land clearing projects before we quote anything.
Call (517) 793-5658