What Is Left After the Tree
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The Tree's Gone. Now the Stump.
In Lincoln, Illinois a stump tends to outlast any plan for it. It snags the mower deck, throws silver maple or hackberry sprouts by June, and after a few wet springs fills with carpenter ants. Logan County Tree Co. grinds it below grade so the spot can be seeded, fenced or poured over.
We grind our own, so tree and stump are one visit and one price. An old stump someone else left is fine too; the grinder is usually in your yard that week.
Where We Work
We grind stumps wherever we remove trees, Cornland, Burton View, Lake Fork and the section-road farmsteads included. See all the areas we serve →
The grinder rides on the trailer, so the stump usually goes the same afternoon as the tree, with no second trip or second bill. Want to see how the yard settles first? We leave it cut low and return later.
A parkway ash cut to a stool, a maple the last owner dropped at knee height, the row a traveling crew left after the June 2023 derecho before heading back down I-55. Ash and white oak stay hard for years, so we price what we find, not the age.
Silver maple grinds soft, but an old street-side flare can span four or five feet. Hackberry, catalpa and mulberry spread sprouting roots. Dead ash is dense and slow, oak and walnut are hard, spruce and pine go quickly, and hedgerow Osage orange is the toughest wood we grind.
Our standard grind goes 4 to 6 inches under the lawn, enough for seed or sod. For a fence post, shed pad or drive, or to get maple roots out of the mowing line, we go deeper and chase roots as a separate line.
Cost Planning
| Job | Typical cost range |
|---|---|
| Single stump (by diameter) | $100–$400 |
| Each additional stump | $50–$150 |
| Surface-root chasing / deep grind | $75–$200 extra |
Ranges are typical for central Illinois based on published industry cost guides; your written estimate reflects your specific tree and site.
Diameter drives the price, measured at the ground with the flare, so a silver maple that reads 30 inches at the cut can run 50 where the teeth work. Species, buried lines, the gate path and the stump count matter too, and a stump added to one of our removals gets the additional-stump rate.
Black prairie loam over clay is flat and stone-free, so the wheel reaches grade fast. What it hides is plumbing: sprinkler lines under the sod, downspout drains, and on farmsteads toward Broadwell, Hartsburg and New Holland a century of drain tile, well lines and cistern pipe. We ask, and call JULIE for a locate before every grind. Frozen ground slows the flare work, and a wet April can delay a deep grind.
A grinder throws chips hard and far, so we run with guards down and the area cleared, and our liability coverage protects your siding, windows and the neighbor's pickup. Lincoln has no tree-crew licence; ask every bidder for an insurance certificate.
Diameter, species and depth get settled at the estimate. That written figure is your bill, however long the stump fights back.
Stump below grade, hole backfilled, spot raked for seed, grindings hauled if you like. The City does not pick up stumps, and its landscape-waste site wants wood under 12 feet and stripped (§ 7-13-7). Replanting a parkway spot takes written approval of a listed species (§ 8-8-1), and a flush grind makes the room.
How It Works
You can, but it rarely stays a plain stump. Silver maple, hackberry, mulberry and catalpa stumps sprout for years, a dead ash stump rots and draws carpenter ants, and a white oak or walnut stump sits hard in the mowing line for a decade. Our Tree Diagnosis tool counts a stump in the way among its six symptoms.
Your choice. Most people have us backfill and leave the mound a little high, since chips and loam settle over a winter. Or we haul them. In town, chips do not belong at the curb or over a storm drain; for the free City site, call the Street Department for hours first.
Usually, within inches of a post, walk or foundation, with the chip guard facing the house. Septic, well, gas and water lines get located first. A stump between the sidewalk and the street sits in the parkway, covered by § 8-8-4, so we ask the Street Department before grinding.
Have a stump in the way? Call or request a free estimate.
Type a town or a ZIP like 62656 and see whether our Lincoln crew comes your way.