Before and After Stump Grinding Around Hartsville, TN

Three photographs per stump, and the middle one is honest

Every job here is shown the same way: the stump untouched, the hole open before anything goes back in, and the ground raked and filled. Most companies publish the first and the third. The third is the least informative photograph in existence, because raked grindings look identical whether the wheel stopped at four inches or reached eleven.

The open-hole frame is the one that shows what you paid for. You can see how far below grade the cut went, whether the flare was taken out or skimmed, and how far the laterals were chased. Ask any contractor in this county for that photograph, ours included, and see what comes back. On our jobs it is sent to you as standard, along with the other two, whether or not you were standing in the yard at the time.

Why every stump grinding photo here is from Trousdale County

A licensed image of a bright orange grinder in an anonymous lawn costs about ten dollars and tells you nothing. It does not tell you whether the machine will fit through a thirty-six inch board gate on Thoroughbred Lane, or what a cedar stump full of fence staples looks like after somebody has picked the metal out of it, or how a grind hole behaves on the wet side of a Lock Six Road yard.

Those are the things a photograph can genuinely teach, and only a local one can. So this page fills up slowly rather than instantly, and every frame on it is a place you could drive past. Where a job is on a farm or behind a house we ask before publishing and plenty of people say no, which is their right. The gallery is thinner for it and more useful because of it.

How to photograph your own stump so the quote is right

Four frames and a tape measure. Lay the tape across the widest part of the flare at soil level and shoot straight down, so the number is readable. Step back ten feet and shoot again to show what surrounds it — walls, beds, slopes, fences, anything the wheel or the operator has to work around.

Then photograph the route. Stand where a truck could park and take one shot toward the stump, so we can see the surface and the gradient in between. Last, if there is a gate or a gap anywhere on that route, hold the tape across it at the narrowest point and shoot that. Thirty-six inches is the figure we are checking against. Do those four in daylight and you will get a firm price back the same day rather than a range and a request to come out.

What each gallery set shows you

• The stump before anything is touched, with a tape measure in frame for scale
• The open grind with the hole visible, which is where the real depth shows
• The finished ground, filled proud so it settles level rather than sinking
• The spoil pile, so you can judge the volume for yourself before you decide leave or haul
• Any wire, concrete or buried obstruction found in the stump, photographed as it came out
• The access route on jobs where the way in was the hard part
• Species and rough diameter noted with every set, because both drive the price