If you're preparing a plot for groundworks, forestry and site clearance in Nottingham means taking down the trees on a site and removing every stump until the ground is ready to hand over to your groundworks or civils team. It's a different job to removing one stump from a back garden — you're dealing with volume, access for plant, a programme to hit, and often a principal contractor who wants a method statement before anyone sets foot on site. We work with construction companies, local authorities and private developers across Nottingham and the surrounding county on exactly this kind of job, from a half-acre infill plot to multi-acre parcels being brought forward for housing. If the ground you're dealing with is more overgrown scrub and brush than standing trees, our land and site clearance page covers that side of the work in more detail.

A felled tree with the stump left in the ground isn't a cleared plot, it's an obstruction waiting to surface at foundation stage, so every stump on a contract like this is ground or excavated out as standard rather than left as a snag for someone else to deal with later. On sites where a principal contractor controls access, that work is backed by a method statement and RAMS pack rather than a verbal assurance that it'll be done properly.

• Felling of trees across the plot, including larger or multi-stemmed trees that need rigging and controlled dismantling near boundaries, buildings or overhead lines
• Full stump removal by grinding or excavation for every tree taken down — not left as a punch-list item for someone else
• Removal and legal disposal of felled timber and root arisings, with waste transfer documentation for commercial clients who need it on file
• Grading the cleared area level enough to hand over for topsoil strip or initial groundworks
• Working to a method statement and RAMS where a principal contractor or site manager requires one before access is granted
• Coordination with your programme so clearance lands ahead of your groundworks start date rather than holding it up
• Phased felling across larger or multi-acre sites where the programme needs sections handed over at different stages rather than the whole plot at once

• Scrub, bramble, hedgerow and general ground vegetation clearance — this service is scoped around felling and stump removal, so brush cutting and chipping on overgrown ground sits with our land and site clearance service instead
• Groundworks themselves — muck-away, levelling to engineered spec, or drainage runs sit with your civils contractor, not us
• Formal ecology surveys (bat, badger, great crested newt) or a Tree Preservation Order search — these need a qualified ecologist or arboricultural consultant, though we'll flag anything on site that looks like it needs one before we touch it
• Biomass or timber offtake arrangements — arisings are removed as waste rather than sold on, so factor that into your own timber value expectations if the site has significant standing timber
• Formal biodiversity net gain reporting for planning submissions — that's a specialist ecology deliverable, separate from the physical clearance work
• Demolition of any structures, hardstanding removal, or below-ground services work found on site
• Stump grinding depth beyond standard — if your foundation design needs roots removed to an unusually deep spec, that's priced separately once the depth required has been confirmed

1. Enquiry and initial scope call -- You send over the site location, rough acreage or plot size, and your target date for handing the site to groundworks. George takes this call himself, so the person pricing the job is the person who'll turn up to run it.
2. Site visit and survey -- We walk the site to count and assess the trees and stumps involved, check access for machinery, note any boundary trees or overhangs that need rigging rather than a straight fell, and flag anything — a watercourse, a badger sett, a tree that looks TPO-worthy — that needs a specialist eye before we proceed.
3. Quote and documentation -- You get a written quote based on what's actually on site, not a per-stump rate. For regulated construction sites we'll provide a method statement and RAMS alongside the quote so it can go straight into your site pack.
4. Site induction and access sign-off -- Before machinery arrives, we work through whatever access process your principal contractor runs — site induction, ID checks, traffic management for larger plant — so the crew isn't held at the gate on day one because paperwork wasn't sorted in advance.
5. Felling and stump removal -- Trees come down using NPTC-certified rigging and dismantling techniques where proximity to structures or boundaries demands it. Stumps are ground or excavated as we go rather than left until the end, so there's no separate return visit.
6. Waste removal, grading and handover -- Felled timber and root arisings are removed from site, with waste transfer paperwork provided on request. The cleared area is graded level and walked with you or your site manager before we sign off, so you know exactly what condition the plot is in before your groundworks team mobilises.

Construction and development clients tend to care less about how a contractor started out and more about who answers for the job once it's underway. On a clearance contract that's George: he quotes the job himself, and he's the one your site manager can reach if a boundary tree turns out more awkward than the survey suggested or a stump sits closer to a service run than expected. The business is structured into three divisions — Tree Services, Forestry Services, and Property Maintenance for Factors & Landlords — but all three draw on the same crew and equipment, so a clearance contract isn't handed off partway through to a separate stump specialist the way it would be with some competitors. The team that fells the tree also grinds the stump and grades the ground afterward, which matters on a programme because a subcontracted handoff is usually where delays and disputed scope creep in. The crew holds NPTC certification for aerial tree work, chainsaw operation and rigging/controlled dismantling — the kind of qualification a principal contractor typically wants to see before granting site access — and the business carries £5,000,000 public liability cover, which most site inductions require as standard before work can start.

Nottingham is the base for this work, and most of the larger clearance jobs we take on sit within reach of the city — infill and edge-of-settlement plots around Wollaton, Beeston and Bramcote, development land near the Ratcliffe-on-Soar and Attenborough end of the Trent floodplain where ground conditions and watercourse proximity need factoring into the plan, and sites further out toward Ravenshead and Southwell where clearance often means more established woodland edge rather than scrub regrowth. We also cover Long Eaton, West Bridgford, The Park Estate, Edwalton, Gamston, Ruddington, Bingham, Arnold, Woodthorpe, Carlton, Mapperley and Hucknall, and take on clearance jobs further afield in Derby and Mansfield where the scale of the site justifies the travel. Sites near the Trent or on the low-lying ground either side of it sometimes need extra care around root systems and drainage during clearance — that's the kind of local ground condition we'll flag at survey stage rather than after the machines are on site.

A clearance job that starts late pushes your whole groundworks programme back with it, and a site handed over with stumps still in the ground causes exactly the kind of foundation-stage delay that costs more to fix than it would have to do properly the first time. Get in touch with your site details and target start date, and George will arrange a site visit to scope the job and get you a written quote you can plan against.

Stump Grinding and Stump Removal Services
Call 0115-647-2443