Lot Clearing for New Construction in Jonesboro, AR
Before the pad gets poured, somebody has to decide which trees stay — and the answer can't be "whatever the dozer rips out on its way to the footprint." We clear homesites the way builders wish every lot was handed to them: keep-trees protected before equipment arrives, the pad and drive corridor open, and the chipper long gone before the foundation crew needs the site.
Different From Agricultural Land Clearing
Our land clearing page covers the farm side of the work — pasture, fence rows, and acreage across the county. This page is the other job: the wooded half-acre in west Jonesboro, the ridge-top lot in Brookland, the infill lot in an established Nettleton block, or the homesite off the new subdivision plat where the site plan shows a house, a driveway curve, and a half-dozen trees somebody loves. The tools overlap; the judgment doesn't. On a farm, "clear it" is usually the whole instruction. On a homesite, clearing is a set of decisions that affect the property's value for the next fifty years.
Builder Coordination, Start to Grading
The sequence matters more than the saw work:
- Walk the lot together. Builder, site supervisor, us — before anything is cut. We mark the footprint, drive corridor, septic or utility easements, drainage swales, and the keep-list, then flag everything accordingly.
- Clear before the dozer. Trees come down under control, and stumps in the footprint and corridor get ground so the dirt crew never fights a root wad. Trying to save money by letting the dozer "just push them over" on a homesite usually costs more — torn grade, roots woven through the pad zone, and a keep-tree snapped by a careless swing.
- 811 and utility corridors. We place the Arkansas One Call locate before any digging or grinding near service runs, and we know which removals belong to the utility instead of the builder. Don't pay to clear a tree Entergy was going to handle on their corridor.
- Leave the site clean for the next trade. Chips and logs dealt with — hauled, spread on the keep-tree side as instructed, or staged for the erosion-control plan. No brush piles waiting for the framing crew to complain about.
Keep-Tree Flagging and Root Protection
The trees that survive construction were protected, not lucky. For each keep-tree we fence a protection zone sized to the trunk — roughly a foot of radius for every inch of trunk diameter — before any equipment is on site. That means the dozer doesn't grade over the root flare, concrete trucks don't park in the drip line, and the trench crew doesn't cut the main anchoring roots on the windward side. The fence comes with a plain-language care sheet for every contractor who follows us: no fill over the root zone, no fuel storage under the canopy, no cutting grade within the circle. It's unglamorous work, and it's the difference between a house with a 100-year oak and a house with a stump and a story.
What's Included
- Selective felling and sectional dismantling of take-down trees, including the leaners and hangers builders' crews shouldn't touch
- On-site chipping of all brush — blown to a designated area or hauled
- Log handling: stacked for the owner's firewood or hauled off
- Stump grinding in the footprint, drive corridor, and utility runs
- Keep-tree flagging, fencing, and written protection requirements
- Photo documentation for the builder's file and the eventual buyer's disclosure packet
Lot Clearing Prices (2026)
| Scope | Typical Range | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Small infill lot | $800–$2,500 | Depends on tree count and keep-list complexity |
| Half-acre wooded homesite | $1,500–$4,000 | Selective clearing + footprint stump grinding |
| Keep-tree protection program | +$200–$600 | Flagging, fencing, written contractor requirements |
| Site consultation for builders | Free with booked work | Lot walk and cut-list markup before you schedule dirt |
Builders: sending us the plat and a phone photo of the lot is often enough for a working number before you ever bid the house. See the full pricing guide.
Book Lot Clearing
Related Services
The construction story usually continues after the certificate of occupancy: replanting what the build removed, assessing the keep-trees' first years under new conditions, or grinding the stump the builder's crew swore they'd handle.