Clearing Land

RobMcBee

RobMcBee

Slow n easy when you're not gettin greasy....
Joined
Jan 12, 2009
Location
Fort Mill / Indian Land SC
I have 2 acres Im planning on having cleared so I can start filling it in and later on sell it off. Im having someone come out tomorrow, to look at it and give me a guesstimate. It has alot of hardwoods on it and some really large poplars. I know these trees can be timbered for money. I honestly dont know what Im doing so Im here to ask.... What do I need to know? What ?'s do I need to ask?
 
Rob, Honestly what I've found in the business over the years, Trees don't bring that much. Hardwoods are worth more than pine, but no Fast-Fat money in trees. What I tend to see, when clearing land, the contractor will either haul the logs in or give them away. That saves paying Dump fees, & if the contractor can haul, he'll make a few dollars on a rainy day. You might get a small discount on the grading, "maybe". No, I don't know the cost or prices, but I've worked with grading & hauling companies for 20 years, & that's been the story.
You might give Will Richardson a call, just to see if he'd do an estimate. 704-309-2480 He may have too much work!
 
If the poplars are big enough (20+" DBH) they will bring A grade veneer prices.

Worth looking into.


Call Dean @ 803.242.0124 - Comer Grading.
He's local, great at what he does and priced right.

Drop my name and a 6 pack of bud light and he will only jack the price up 10%
 
Loganwayne said:
Filling it?


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Yeah its some bottom land. Not protected or anything and has some drainage issues. Mainly b/c Lancaster county came in and run a low pressure sewage line along the back edge of it. The silt fencing they put up makes it hold woter worse than it used too. I plan on fixing that by giving the local companies a free place to put fill (lots of construction in the area). And slowly fill it over the years. Good thing about them running the sewage line is that now this land can be built on. Before it would not perk. Now I have county water, sewer, underground power and cable available. Also the zoning in our area changed as did the density. Used to be 1 home per acre, now I think its R15PThis has all happened in the past year or so.
 
Ron said:
If the poplars are big enough (20+" DBH) they will bring A grade veneer prices.

Worth looking into.


Call Dean @ 803.242.0124 - Comer Grading.
He's local, great at what he does and priced right.

Drop my name and a 6 pack of bud light and he will only jack the price up 10%
Click to expand...


thats what I was thinking too. they are every bit 24-36" poplars and very tall some are larger.
 
RobMcBee said:
Yeah its some bottom land. Not protected or anything and has some drainage issues. Mainly b/c Lancaster county came in and run a low pressure sewage line along the back edge of it. The silt fencing they put up makes it hold woter worse than it used too. I plan on fixing that by giving the local companies a free place to put fill (lots of construction in the area). And slowly fill it over the years. Good thing about them running the sewage line is that now this land can be built on. Before it would not perk. Now I have county water, sewer, underground power and cable available. Also the zoning in our area changed as did the density. Used to be 1 home per acre, now I think its R15PThis has all happened in the past year or so.
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I'd be careful about letting people use it to fill if you just plan on owning it fine, but if you want to sell it as a useable house lot you'll end up in a bind, probably never be able to sale it or build on it once someone finds out it was a dump site.

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Trying to get someone to give you anything for that little bit of trees is more trouble tan it's worth. I just gave the logs to a guy with a sawmill last time we cleared any land. I messed around trying to get someone to pay for them but then I realized that my time was worth something.
 
If you can find a small guy with a 10 wheel truck and an incorporated knuckle boom, they'll buy it.
A heavy 10 wheel full of veneer grade is $4-6k...meaning Rob can probably clear $500-1000 per truck full.

A big logger, yeah they arent going to be interested.

If yo have time to kill, drive down to the board plant in Chester on #9.
I think Clint still runs their scale house. Just stop in and ask him for a couple names of small load guys.
 
Loganwayne said:
I'd be careful about letting people use it to fill if you just plan on owning it fine, but if you want to sell it as a useable house lot you'll end up in a bind, probably never be able to sale it or build on it once someone finds out it was a dump site.

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no, not just anything. only clean compactable fill. I dont want alot of trash in there. already got a neighbor asking to unload some brush in there. NOPE NOPE NOPE
 
RobMcBee said:
no, not just anything. only clean compactable fill. I dont want alot of trash in there. already got a neighbor asking to unload some brush in there. NOPE NOPE NOPE
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Ah! That's better. But, most fill is not very compactable. I've heard in NC that any fill or debris, is "supposed" to be show & listed on the property deed. Never checked into that.
And if someone was digging footings or a pool, they don't expect to dig into waste rocks, asphalt, & concrete!
 
I just had two acres behind my house done. Lots of trees taken out, re-dug a ditch, and hauled off a lot of debris. Cost me 7500 bucks. He had two 315C excavators, a D56 bulldozer, and a 299D skid steer with a mulching head going to town on this place. Got a lot of rain towards then end, so he wasn't able to grade it off like he wanted...gotta wait until it dries up.

I had BIG, straight, tall, pines on my lot. Good for light poles, lots of lumber, and even a few loads of pulp wood. Just depends on how much time and effort you want to put in to it. If it's worth your while to make some money, then find a one man show to haul the trees. My guy may have made a few bucks off my trees, but he had to handle the logs several times with the excavators, move them around, load them on his trucks, and then haul them to the saw mill. However, it was cheaper for me to let him deal with them because it was easier and faster for him to be able to push a whole tree over vs just digging stumps. I MIGHT could have made a few bucks from selling the trees, but it would have cost me more in machine time more than likely. So, take that in to account.
 

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So heres my plans. Im looking into taking out a small equity loan against the land. I own it so no money is owed on it as of now. I want to pay someone just to timber it. With the loan I plan to buy a small dozer or track toader. Im going to put up a sign and let the local grading companies know there is a spot for clean fill if they need to dump. Several neighborhoods are going up around the area, along with a large industrial park. As they dump I can spread it and grade it saving myself some money. It will take more time this way, but I got time. An acre in our area is going for 55k + w/o water and sewer. I plan on splitting these 2 acres into 1/2 acre buildable lots with water and sewer. If I have my builders license by the time I finish, I may go ahead and put homes on the lots and sell them.
 
RobMcBee said:
So heres my plans. Im looking into taking out a small equity loan against the land. I own it so no money is owed on it as of now. I want to pay someone just to timber it. With the loan I plan to buy a small dozer or track toader. Im going to put up a sign and let the local grading companies know there is a spot for clean fill if they need to dump. Several neighborhoods are going up around the area, along with a large industrial park. As they dump I can spread it and grade it saving myself some money. It will take more time this way, but I got time. An acre in our area is going for 55k + w/o water and sewer. I plan on splitting these 2 acres into 1/2 acre build able lots with water and sewer. If I have my builders license by the time I finish, I may go ahead and put homes on the lots and sell them.
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im not trying to bust your bubble but grading companies will only be looking for a place to dump top soil, and ground cover, if its usable fill they usually own land that they will unload it on and store it to sale later on. this may not be the case where you are but it is in the mountains. you are required to make fill hole areas on a dead in my county dont know if thats state wide. even if its compact able soil it can only be compacted in 6-7in lifts, if you wanted to build on it right after its all full youd most likely have to have a log book with an engineer report that every lift was compacted to the standards. or wait 10? years that they say it takes fill to compact enough to build on. unless you sitting there watching every load that comes in you will get some random shit in their period. i can think of three lots that would be great locations for commercial use in my county that should sell for well over 80,000 an acre due to location and they are all empty due to being fill sites at some point and time.

In my opinion its not worth it, the land may not lay good but its still good sale able land. if you fill it you may not be able to sell it due to it being filled.
 
Loganwayne said:
you are required to make fill hole areas on a dead in my county dont know if thats state wide. even if its compact able soil it can only be compacted in 6-7in lifts, if you wanted to build on it right after its all full youd most likely have to have a log book with an engineer report that every lift was compacted to the standards.
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^This
Loganwayne said:
unless you sitting there watching every load that comes in you will get some random shit in their period.
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^And especially this.

Building on randomized fill is a folly and a recipe for trouble. If its all done at once, observed, and engineered at an industrial construction level, it is acceptable. But just as a dump site without controlled compaction, it will never settle evenly or be as firm as it should.
 
If you have neighbors, or anyway anything can run-off, stop, block, or change drainage, a County Inspector will be knocking on your door. I Questioned & Cautioned a Builder, doing his Son's New home. "Naw, it's Lincoln County, No Problem" Yep, his Neighbor is a Dick, * called the County. He was Fined, & required to remove/relocate 1/2 the fill, & install Double silt fencing!
[I Told you SO!]
 
If you clear more than 1 acre DENR typically requires an E&SC Plan approval put together by an engineer. Sometimes they don't require if its for agricultural but since you plan to subdivide and build homes, they generally expect the e&sc plan approval.

Regardless of plan approval or not, you are still required to follow BMPs and are still subject to water quality standards.
 
Along with that, make sure any ditches on the property aren't blue line streams. If they are, you can't touch them.
 
rockcity said:
If you clear more than 1 acre DENR typically requires an E&SC Plan approval put together by an engineer. Sometimes they don't require if its for agricultural but since you plan to subdivide and build homes, they generally expect the e&sc plan approval.

Regardless of plan approval or not, you are still required to follow BMPs and are still subject to water quality standards.
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BMP's?

Croatan_Kid said:
Along with that, make sure any ditches on the property aren't blue line streams. If they are, you can't touch them.
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Explain blue line streams please. There are some storm culverts that run under the road and dump out onto my prperty. No ditches they just spill out. Also there is a creek that runs along the back side. there is already a silt fence between my property and creek from where Lancaster county came through with the LP sewer line. My plan was to run another one along side of it to basically create a double silt fence.
 
If it's considered a contributary or major passageway for water runoff.

“Blue-line stream” means that a stream appears as a broken or solid blue line (or a purple line) on a USGS topographic map. Streams do not have to be “blue-line” to be considered waters of the State.

I had a ditch that ran diagonally through my property and really made the front part an odd shape and looked terrible, so I checked the GIS map for my county and it wasn't blue (or even drawn on the map, for that matter) so, I could pretty much do with it as I pleased. However, two houses down, my cousin has the same deal, but his is blue on the map and he can't do anything with it because it drains in to Great Branch and that flows to Brice's Creek and then in to the Trent and Neuse Rivers.

It's amazing what you can and can't do from a legal aspect when it comes to the Department of Water Quality and the Department of Environmental Quality.

Just check your county's property maps. It should tell you what you need to know.
 
Even if it isn't a blue line stream on the map and you do touch it, nothing says they can't come back, delineate the water area in question and redesignate it. Ask me how I know :shaking:
 
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