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Does anyone have an idea how to estimate the cost of clearing the land for a house? The area is mostly small trees and probably can be all dozed. I'm trying to set a budget.
It varies so much...you can rent a small dozer for a weekend for a hundred or so and do it yourself, or you could look in your local paper in the classifieds and probably find someone to do it for a couple hundred. Your biggest challenge will be in what to do with it. Can you obtain a burn permit from your local county?
We did our ourselves and have a burn permit. Best of luck and hope to hear how it turns out for you :)
Ask around for the name of a good reliable site or excavation contractor. There are several things to take into consideration. Size and number of trees. Are they big enough and of the right kind to be used as firewood? What are you going to do with the stumps once they are pushed out? You could cut the trees down and have the excavator remove the stumps when he digs the foundation. You still need a plan to get rid of them. Also, we remove the trees and stumps and push the topsoil into a pile to use around the house after it's completed. It needs to be out of the way for the rest of the construction. There is more to building a house than it looks like. The pros make it look easy but there is a lot to know, not just how to do it, when to do it and when you are better off hiring someone to do it who is a professional at it. If you rent a dozer and you don't know how to operate it properly, you can do more damage than good and it will end up costing you a lot more money in the end than if you had a pro do it in the first place. Call around and talk to several contractors that do site work. (That alone will be an education for you.) This is the best way to get the true costs associated with clearing your land. There may be permits to be obtained, proceedures that have to be followed in your area, underground utility locating that has to be done in advance, etc., etc. After talking to the pros, then make up your mind on which way to proceed. Good-luck.
