You’ll need to clear land for your new house and yard. Before clearing the land, check with your local zoning and building departments to see if there are any permits required. While land clearing in many areas were developed for logging companies, they might apply to you too. Your town may also require larger trees be saved. Also, make sure you know who you’re hiring and have a good reputation. An unprofessional company could make a mess of your land if you’re not careful.
PLAN YOUR PROJECT
You should care about the results, don’t just let any land clearing crew show up with bulldozers and start clearing. Plan things out beforehand what you want to be cleared and what trees you may want to keep. If you are hiring a contractor to do the land clearing, make sure you find a person who understands and respects your needs. Get a few different bids and find out value of the timber. Mark the area where the house and footer will be placed with bright tape or paint. Also clearly mark the property line/boundaries for the land clearing crew. Do a walk-through with your forestry mulching or land clearing contractor when they come to dig the foundation.
Before the first machine touches the ground, walk the land with your contractor together and agree on which trees to cut, letting them know your desires of construction. The house footprint, driveway, septic tank and well, will need to be pointed out beforehand. You will need to provide an access for construction equipment. Always be careful to take down only the trees and brush you want cleared and leave the rest of the site untouched. Remember that operating a piece of heavy equipment near a healthy tree can damage or kill it by disrupting the soil and roots around it.
PRESERVING TREES
Most new home owners like to keep as much of nature and trees as possible around the home. Any unhealthy trees should come down, so they don’t come down on your new home in a storm. The closer the woods are to the house, the greater the risk of limbs falling onto your new house.
Be aware that trees close to excavations are likely to be damaged and maybe unable to be saved. Depending on the tree species excavators should be kept away from the tree trunk, although I have seen trees closer than that survive. Most trees have a good chance of survival if at least 70% of the root system is unharmed. If saving trees around the construction zone is important to you, consider hiring a forester to help oversee the process.
Discuss how the crew is going to clear the land with the land clearing contractor. The fastest and cheapest way is to use forestry mulching equipment to take away unwanted trees and brush. This type of equipment is lighter in weight and very likely to NOT damage the root systems of the trees. Clearing land areas with bull dozers are more expensive, and give nearby trees a less chance of survival.
South Atlantic Landworks
1416 Poorhouse Rd.
Rice, VA 23966
mike@salandworks.com
1-434-603-1964
