WHAT LAND CLEARING COSTS IN ELLIS COUNTY
Most land clearing companies will not put a price on their website. We will. A full day of forestry mulching with On-Scene Land Works is $1,800, plus a one-time mobilization charge of $200 to $300 depending on how far out you are. Below is exactly what that covers, why we price by the day instead of by the acre, and the things that can push a job higher.
Full day
$1,800
One machine, one operator, a full working day. Brush, cedar, mesquite and trees up to 8 inches.
half day
$1,000
Four hours. Fencelines, small lots, single areas. More than that and a full day is better value.
MOBILIZATION
$200-$300
$200 within 20 miles. $300 from 20 to 30 miles. Charged once per trip, not once per day.
A typical single-day job in Midlothian or Waxahachie comes to $2,000. One day of mulching plus one mobilization.
WHY WE PRICE BY THE DAY, NOT BY THE ACRE
Ask three companies what they charge per acre and you will get three numbers, and none of them will hold once somebody walks your property.
The reason is that an acre is not a unit of work. An acre of light brush and saplings is a completely different day than an acre of mature cedar growing tight together. Same acre on paper, and one of them takes a fraction of the time the other does. Per-acre pricing only works if the person quoting it either pads the number to cover the worst case, or comes back later and tells you the job was harder than expected.
We price by the day because a day is a day. You know what you are paying before we start, and you are not exposed to a change order because the brush turned out thicker than the satellite photo suggested.
When we come out and look at the property, we tell you how many days we think it will take. That estimate is free and you are not signing anything to get it.
HOW MOBILIZATION WORKS
Mobilization is the cost of getting the machine to you. Loading it, hauling it out, unloading, and doing the same in reverse when the job is finished. It is a real cost whether we clear a quarter acre or work for a week, so it is its own line rather than something buried in the day rate.
The part worth knowing is that it is charged per trip, not per day. If a job takes three days and the equipment stays on your property overnight, you pay mobilization once, not three times.
That is why doing the whole property at once is cheaper than splitting it into two visits months apart. Two separate trips means paying to bring the machine out twice. If you are weighing whether to do it all now or half now and half later, that difference is worth putting on the scale.
WHAT IS INCLUDED
Everything mulched in place. No burn pile, no hauling debris off site, no permit needed, and no pile of brush left in the corner of the property for you to deal with later.
What comes off the machine is a layer of mulch across the ground, which holds soil in place, slows erosion, and breaks down into the dirt over the following seasons. You are not paying for cleanup afterwards because there is nothing left to clean up.
WHAT CAN MAKE A JOB COST MORE
The day rate is the day rate. What changes is how many days your property needs. These are the things that move that number.
HEAVY DENSITY UNDERGROWTH
This is the big one. Light brush and saplings move fast. Heavy cedar, mature mesquite, or ground that has been left alone for fifteen years and grown in solid takes considerably longer for the same square footage. When we walk a property, density is mostly what we are reading.
LARGE DIAMETER TREES
Our mulching head handles trunks up to 8 inches. Anything larger needs a different approach and gets quoted separately, so a lot with a few big trees mixed into the brush is worth mentioning when you call.
STEEP TERRAIN CHALLENGES
Steep or uneven ground slows the machine down and limits what can be worked safely. It does not stop the job, but it stretches the hours.
OLD FENCELINES
An overgrown fenceline is rarely just brush. It is usually wire, T-posts and staples buried in twenty years of growth, and all of it has to be worked around rather than driven through. Fenceline jobs take longer per foot than open ground for that reason.
METAL AND DEBRIS IN THE GROWTH
Old barbed wire is the one we run into most, and it costs the most time. Wire wrapped around a trunk or buried in a brush pile does not mulch. It wraps around the drum, and clearing it means shutting the machine down and cutting it out by hand. Same story with dumped trash, engine parts, appliances and old T-posts. There is a safety element too, because metal fed into a mulching head at speed can come back out. If you know there is wire or junk in the area, tell us up front. It is far better to plan around it than to find it on the second pass.
MOBILIZATION AND ACCESS
If a truck and trailer cannot get reasonably close to the work area, that adds time at both ends of the job. Gates, soft ground and tight turns are all worth flagging before we load up.
GET A REAL NUMBER FOR YOUR PROPERTY
The rates on this page are what we charge. What we cannot tell you from a webpage is how many days your property needs, and that is the part that decides the total.
So we come out and look. We walk it with you, tell you what we see, and give you a written price. It is free, there is no obligation, and you are not signing anything to have us come out.
Serving Midlothian, Waxahachie, Ennis, Red Oak, Ovilla, Cedar Hill and the rest of Ellis County. Call or text (469) 856-1876.