One page with every range in it, plus the questions that make two quotes actually comparable.
A consolidated reference. These are typical Midwest market ranges, not quotes. Your property decides the real number — and a contractor who quotes without seeing it or seeing photos is guessing.
Forestry mulching
| Conditions | Typical range per acre |
|---|---|
| Light brush, saplings, flat | $500 – $1,200 |
| Medium density, stems to 6" | $1,200 – $2,000 |
| Heavy cover, dense understory | $2,000 – $3,500 |
| Wooded with real timber | Usually hourly |
Traditional land clearing
| Conditions | Typical range per acre |
|---|---|
| Light, mulched in place | $500 – $1,200 |
| Medium | $1,200 – $2,500 |
| Heavy wooded | $2,500 – $6,000+ |
| Full clearing with grubbing and haul-off | Often 2x the mulch-in-place figure |
Brush hogging
| Conditions | Typical range per acre |
|---|---|
| Open field, light, large acreage | $50 – $100 |
| Standard pasture cleanup | $75 – $150 |
| Heavy growth, briars, saplings | $150 – $300 |
| Rough or obstacle-heavy | Usually hourly |
Excavation and site work
Priced by volume, distance, and difficulty — not by acreage. Expect quotes as lump sum, unit price per cubic yard, or hourly depending on how well the quantities are known. A site that balances cut and fill costs dramatically less than one requiring import or export.
Driveways and lanes
Driven by length, width, cut and fill, subgrade condition, number of culverts, and aggregate haul distance. A short flat run on firm ground and a quarter mile with two crossings and a hill are not comparable numbers.
What always moves the price
- Stem diameter — the biggest single factor in clearing work
- Density — stems per acre, not height
- Slope — production drops above ~20% grade
- Access — gate width, bridge and culvert limits, travel distance to the work
- Total acreage — bigger jobs price better per acre; mobilization is fixed
- Debris handling — mulch in place is cheapest, haul-off is dearest
- Ground conditions — wet clay slows or stops everything
- Selectivity — "leave the oaks" costs more than "take it all"
Questions that make quotes comparable
Two quotes are only comparable if you know:
- Is it lump sum, unit price, or hourly?
- Does it include stumps? Grubbing?
- What happens to the material — mulched, piled, burned, hauled?
- Is the mulch spread evenly or left in windrows?
- Is mobilization included?
- Is the whole area covered, or just the accessible parts?
- What happens if conditions turn out heavier than assumed?
- Is seeding or reclamation included?
- Is a maintenance pass included or quoted separately?
- Insurance certificate — general liability and workers'' comp, sent from the insurer?
Most quote disputes trace back to one of these never being asked.
Where people over- and under-spend
Over-spend: clearing more acreage than the plan needs. Paying mulching prices for what a brush hog would handle. Grubbing ground that will never be built on.
Under-spend: skipping the follow-up maintenance passes. Thinning the driveway base. Skipping the soil test before seeding. Skipping drainage.
The pattern is consistent — people spend too much on the visible work and too little on the invisible work that makes it last.
Getting a real number
The instant pricing tool will walk you through the inputs and give you a range for your own property in a few minutes. For anything over ten acres, on steep ground, or with complications, book a walkthrough — those properties need eyes on them, and any number given without that is a guess.
Recurring, multi-site, or bid work? Contract opportunities welcome.
