The week before the visit, Lewisville, NC
Call 811 Three Business Days Before Stump Grinding in Lewisville
The 811 locate is free, it needs three business days in North Carolina, and it marks the gas, electric and water services but not your sprinklers or your dog fence. Book it the day you book us, give us the ticket number, and the visit goes ahead on the date we set.
Free, no-obligation estimates. We quote the whole job before we start, with no surprise charges after.
Calling 811 before stump grinding in Lewisville
A call to 811 brings the gas, electric and water companies out to mark their buried services near the stump, free of charge, before any wheel turns. 811 is the national "Call Before You Dig" number, and every stump grinding job in Lewisville begins with it, because the wheel cuts several inches under the turf and has no way of telling wood from a gas pipe or a power cable. Grinding without a locate risks striking a buried gas, electric or water service, which is why the "dig ticket" 811 issues is required before we start.
You make the request to 811 Before You Dig, describe where the stump stands, and the locators come out on their own schedule to paint and flag what is buried near it. Where the marks run, the wheel stays clear or takes only a shallow pass; where there are none, it grinds to full depth. None of it costs you a cent, and it is the one part of the job we cannot do for you: the request has to come from the owner of the yard. What it costs is notice, and that is the next thing to know.
The notice North Carolina needs
North Carolina 811 asks for three business days' notice, and the ticket number goes to whoever does the grinding. Three business days means three weekdays, weekends and holidays not counted, so a stump booked for a Monday needs the request in the week before. When you ring us for a quote, make the 811 request the same day; the two together set the earliest date the visit can happen. We need your ticket number before the wheel touches the turf, so have it to hand when we confirm the date. Without it the visit waits, however sharp the teeth are. What the locators mark is the next question.
The lines the locate covers
The locate covers the public gas, electric, water and communications lines running to the property. Four kinds of service are marked at no cost:
- GasThe buried pipe from the street to the meter.
- ElectricThe buried feed from the pole or the transformer to the house.
- WaterThe supply pipe from the main to the house.
- CommunicationsCable, phone and fibre where they are buried rather than strung.
Each company marks only what it owns, and what they leave unmarked is on you: the operator is not liable for damage to an unmarked service. That makes the next section the one to read twice.
The lines nobody marks for you
Irrigation, low-voltage lighting and pet-fence wire belong to the owner and are not part of the free locate. The companies mark only what they own; a sprinkler head, a drip hose, the cable to a path light and the loop of an invisible dog fence are yours, and 811 does not know they exist. Grinding without finding them risks cutting through them in the root zone, and a provider is not responsible for damage to "concealed or unmarked" items such as sprinkler heads and buried irrigation or lighting cable unless the homeowner marks or exposes them. So walk the yard before we come: stake or paint the sprinkler heads, the path lights and the fence loop within a few feet of the stump, and point them out on the day. A residential yard is where these private runs are most common, and what a stump grinding visit does in a family's yard is set out under residential stump grinding. What happens where a marked service sits under the stump is next.
When a line runs under the stump
Where a marked line sits under the stump, only a shallow pass is taken over it. The wheel is kept above the depth of the pipe or cable, so the stump comes off at the turf or a few inches below it rather than the usual six to twelve, and the wood beneath is left to rot on its own. That is the trade's "shallow grind", and it protects the buried service and the crew running the machine; the safety of that crew on a running wheel is what federal guidance on tree care from OSHA and North Carolina's own workplace rules from the NC Department of Labor are about. A stump that sits clear of the marks gets the full depth. The standard stump grinding depth for a lawn and the deeper depth for replanting are both explained on our depth page. Three other questions come up in the same week.
Book the visit while the locate runs
Tell us how wide the stump is and where it stands, then make the 811 request the same day. Three business days later the marks are down, and the machine comes on the date we set. We answer the phone or call back the same working day, and we show up when we say we will.
More before the visit
Three further questions come up in the week before a grind. None of them is about the locate, but each gets asked on the same phone call, so the short answers are here and the long ones are on their own pages. Permits come first.
Whether a permit is needed
A tree ordinance may govern felling a protected living tree rather than grinding a stump that is already cut. The permit question belongs to the tree, not the stump: where a town regulates removal, it regulates the living tree coming down, and grinding an existing stump generally needs no permit. When a standing tree must come down first, ask the town before the saw runs, not after.
A stump on public ground
A stump on a right of way or on town-owned ground should be reported to the local authority rather than booked privately. If the tree stood in the strip between the sidewalk and the street, or on any public "right-of-way", it may be the town's tree, and property owners may need to contact the town, through 311 where it runs one, to report it or request removal. If you are not sure whose it is, ring us and we will help you work it out.
Whether an HOA can require it
An HOA, an insurer or a local rule can require a stump to be taken out and can issue a notice while it stands. In North Carolina an HOA, an insurance company or a town ordinance may not allow a tree stump to remain, and any of them may issue "violation notices" until it goes. What follows from leaving a stump where it is, from the notice to the sprouts and the rot, is set out under leaving a stump.
What neighbors say after the visit
Tommy came out the same week and took the old maple right down below the lawn. He raked it level before he left and you cannot tell where it stood.
We had three of them and a mess of raised roots along the drive. All of it went in one visit and the spoil went back into the holes.
Needed a big pine out before the new turf went down. Quoted over the phone, done two days later, and the spot was left flat and ready.
Three days' notice. One visit. A level lawn.
Make the 811 request the day you ring us, keep the ticket number, and mark your own sprinklers. We quote the whole job before we start, and we clean up when the work is done.