How To Prepare Before Clearing Day

Mark What Stays

Flagging tape on the trees you want kept is the single most useful thing you can do. Memory and hand-waving during a walk-through are not reliable once a machine is running and the property looks different by the hour. Same for anything else that has to survive: a well head, a septic field, a garden, a spring, a stone wall under twenty years of brush.

Locate Utilities

Call 811 before any digging, stump pulling, or grading. It's free, and in North Carolina it's required. Locates typically take a few business days, so make the call early rather than the night before. Private lines, irrigation, invisible fence, a line running out to a shop or barn, are not covered by 811, so point those out yourself.

Check Permits And HOA Rules

In Mecklenburg County and most of the surrounding counties, disturbing more than an acre generally triggers a land disturbance permit and an erosion control plan. Smaller jobs usually don't, but local tree ordinances and HOA rules can still apply. We flag what we see during the walk-through, but the property owner is the one who knows whether an HOA is involved.

Clear The Way In

Equipment arrives on a trailer and needs a way onto the property and room to unload. Worth sorting out ahead of time:

• Where the truck and trailer can park and turn around.
• Gate widths, and who has the key or code.
• Vehicles, trailers, and equipment moved out of the work area.
• Low limbs or soft ground along the route in.
• Whether a neighbor's driveway or a shared easement is involved.

Decide What Happens To The Debris

This is usually the biggest cost lever on the whole job, so decide before the estimate, not during the work. Options are mulching in place, piling, burning where the county allows it, or hauling off. Some people want the wood kept, firewood-sized logs stacked or a pile of usable timber set aside. That's easy to do if we know beforehand and annoying to fix afterward.

Ask These Before You Sign Anything

• Is the price firm, and is it in writing?
• What exactly is included, and what isn't?
• What happens if conditions change once work starts?
• Who handles debris, and is haul-off in the number?
• What will the ground actually look like when you leave?