Although you probably don’t even need one, here are four reasons why do-it-yourself (DIY) stump removal—conjuring images of spinning saw blades and loud rotary noises—is a bad idea.
Pneumatic movements powered by hydraulic cylinders pound tree stumps into mulch, a wheel of carbide teeth cutting into the dark, gnarled wood.
If you’ve ever seen a gas-powered stump grinder at work—some of which look a little like a miniature tank with a bandsaw in place of a tank gun—you can easily see how they can be dangerous if operated without the proper precautions. Of course, safety equipment, wearing the right kind of clothing, and maybe a training class or two would be best if you’re set on doing it yourself.
The time it takes to get rid of a tree stump for someone who’s unexperienced is considerable when compared with professional stump grinders. It could possibly take days, when you factor in the time it takes to rent a stump grinder, the actual process, and then clean up. Compared with a team of professional, expert stump grinders, even the most difficult job taken care of in just a few hours.
DIY stump removal means that you have to rent costly equipment. Even if you’re an expert at stump grinding, if you don’t already own a stump grinder, there is the little problem of price. Even the experts at Home and Garden TV (HGTV) will tell you that “renting a stump grinder to do the job [of stump grinding] would only make economic sense if [you] were taking out several stumps at the same time.”
Sometimes chemicals are recommended by DIY stump removal guides to quicken the decay of a tree stump. Potassium nitrate is the usual ingredient in many of these noxious chemicals, which have a de-lignifying effect on the enzymes which compose cell walls of the tree roots.
But as tree roots are expansive and knotty, carving out long, intertwining paths with other tree roots, potassium nitrate can also have a negative influence on the health of other living trees via contact with the infected tree.
Of course, at Allied Stump Grinding, we provide professional, affordable tree stump grinding in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex, but that’s not to say that we don’t want to help anyone to be as safe as possible when trying to remove a tree stump themselves. So if you would would like to learn more about the best practices of DIY stump removal, give us a call today at 817-287-9413. We’re happy to help.
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