Why stumps overstay their welcome here
In our climate a pine stump can sit a decade before it gives up, and an oak longer than that. Meanwhile it blunts every mower pass, snags every backyard game, and pushes up suckers each spring. Worse, a fat dead stump in a Piedmont yard is an open dinner invitation — termites and carpenter ants colonize the soft wood first and explore toward the house second, and fire ants love mounding against the sheltered side. Grinding takes the buffet away.
What grinding does — and doesn't
The cutting wheel reduces the stump to chips, working down roughly eight to twelve inches under the surface — deeper on request if you're replanting. That kills the resprouting and clears the way for grass, a flower bed, or a new tree set slightly to the side. It does not chase every lateral root across the yard; those stay and decay quietly underground. You're left with a mound of chips: leave them to settle, spread them as mulch, or have them hauled and the hole topped with soil, which is the right call if sod is going down.
Pricing runs on diameter and count. One stump carries the trip cost alone; a second and third ground the same visit cost real money less per stump, so walk the yard before the machine comes. Most removals on this site add grinding for exactly that reason — see the removal page if the tree is still standing.
