What is included in land clearing?

Last Updated: November 8, 2026 · Written by Sunward Palm Coast Land Clearing

Land clearing usually includes cutting brush, felling the trees in the plan, pulling stumps and roots in the building area, dealing with the debris and putting up erosion control. It doesn’t include fill, compaction, final grading, the engineered drainage plan, sod or the culvert; those belong to the site work after clearing. Sunward Palm Coast Land Clearing lists each item in our scope so you can see exactly where the line falls.

Usually included

Pulling stumps under the footprint is the item most worth checking. Buried wood rots and leaves voids under concrete, so on a building lot it isn’t optional; it is part of clearing and grubbing.

Sometimes included

Some items vary from quote to quote, and they explain most of the difference in price:

• Stumps outside the footprint: ground below grade, cut low or left, as the grind or remove guide explains.
• Debris: hauled away, or mulched and spread on the lot. On a Palm Coast street burning is ruled out by the 300-foot residential setback, so it is one or the other.
• Keepers: protection fencing at the drip line and hand work inside it, as in selective clearing.
• Fence lines and edges: hand cleanup along fences and the city strip, where machines can’t go.
• Silt fence upkeep: installed at the start in every case, but whether checking and repairing it after storms is included varies; we say on our scope which it is.

Not clearing

Clearing ends where the earthwork begins. Bringing in fill, compacting it, setting the pad height, shaping the lot to drain and installing the culvert belong to the site work contractor under the builder’s engineered plan. In Palm Coast that plan comes from a Florida professional engineer, most lots must drain rear to front, and for permits applied for from July 1, 2025 the final lot grading is certified. The clearing or grading guide explains the boundary. Sod, including the bahia sod a disturbed swale needs, usually comes with the finished landscaping.

Outside the price

The survey, the lot clearing permit and the tree removal permit are the owner’s costs, as are replacement trees paid into the city’s tree bank at $220 to $580 per tree. A gopher tortoise relocation, if a burrow sits where the house goes, is priced separately by an authorized agent. The Palm Coast cost guide shows how these sit next to the clearing price.

Brush-only and mulching jobs

Not every job is a full clear. A fire hazard strip next to a home, a backyard edge or trails on acreage are usually mulched: brush and small trees ground in place, no stumps pulled, nothing hauled, no grubbing. We write those scopes more simply, they cost less, and they leave the ground covered. The mulching or clearing guide explains the difference, and a mulching quote shouldn’t be compared line for line with a building-lot clear. The same goes for stump grinding on its own, which is priced per stump or per inch rather than as part of a clear.

Questions that make quotes comparable

Ask every company the same five questions, including us: Are the stumps under the slab and driveway pulled with their roots? Where does the debris go, and is hauling included? Is silt fence installed, and who maintains it? Which trees are kept, and how are they protected? Who repairs the swale if it is disturbed? Two quotes that answer all five the same way can be compared on price. The mulching or clearing guide helps when one quote mulches and another grubs.