The order clearing has to happen in
A competent crew working in the wrong order produces a worse outcome than an average crew working in the right one. Several steps in a clearing project close doors permanently behind them.
Published by the Land Clearing Authority editorial team · Last revised 2026-07-29 · Editorial policy · Corrections
Who this is for
- Landowners planning a project with more than one activity in it
- Anyone coordinating clearing with a builder, fencer, or surveyor
- People who have been offered an early start date and are wondering what it costs them
The short answer
Determination comes before disturbance. Anything that establishes a fact about the property — boundary, utility position, regulatory status, protected features — happens while the ground is still intact and the evidence is still visible.
Marking comes before machinery. Every feature to be retained or avoided is physically marked on the ground, not described in conversation, because the operator making the decision will be inside a cab and cannot ask.
Surface work comes before subsurface work. Cutting standing growth before disturbing soil keeps the site trafficable and keeps the material accessible for processing.
Forming comes last, and it comes after settlement. Shaping ground that has not settled produces a surface that changes after you have paid for it.
What changes the answer
- Whether a boundary has ever been formally established
- Whether buried services may cross the working area
- Whether another trade has a dependency on the clearing outcome
- Whether the season allows soil work at all
- Whether any part of the parcel has a regulatory status attached
The sequence, with the reason for each position
The order matters because each step either creates information or destroys it. Steps that create information belong early.
| Step | Why here | Cost of doing it later |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm boundaries | Evidence is still on the ground | Fences and cut lines may sit on the wrong side |
| Notify for utility locating | Statutory process takes time | Struck services, and liability for the strike |
| Identify regulated features | Visible before disturbance | Disturbance may already have occurred |
| Mark retention and no-go areas | Operator needs physical cues | Retained trees removed by honest mistake |
| Establish access and staging | Everything after depends on a route | Damaged ground and rutted approaches |
| Erosion control where required | Must precede disturbance | Sediment already off site |
| Cut standing growth | Site still trafficable | Material harder to reach and process |
| Process or remove material | Before the surface is broken | Debris mixed into disturbed soil |
| Below-grade removal | After surface is clear | Working blind among residue |
| Backfill and allow settlement | Before any forming | Surface subsides after handover |
| Form and stabilise | Last, on settled ground | Rework at your expense |
The two steps that cannot be revisited
Boundary confirmation and soil disturbance are the two irreversibles, and they interact badly.
A boundary is established from physical evidence — monuments, fences, occupation lines, features referenced in a description. Clearing removes a great deal of that evidence in an afternoon. Establishing a line afterwards is harder, sometimes much harder, and if the line turns out to be somewhere other than where everyone assumed, the work has already happened on the other side of it.
Soil disturbance destroys the profile. Once topsoil and subsoil have been mixed and voids have been filled, the original structure is not recoverable. Anything that depended on knowing the soil — a percolation assessment, a foundation design, a planting plan — becomes an assessment of disturbed ground instead.
Marking, and why conversation is not marking
The single cheapest intervention in a clearing project is spending an hour with flagging tape before the machines arrive.
An operator in a cab has poor sightlines, engine noise, dust, and a production target. They cannot distinguish the three oaks you intend to keep from the surrounding growth on the basis of a discussion held in the driveway a week earlier. Retained features need tape, and no-go areas need a visible edge.
The same applies to features that are hard to see: a well head in long grass, a septic lid, a surveyed pin, a buried private line. Anything you know about and the operator does not is a risk you own until you have physically marked it.
Coordinating with the trades on either side
Clearing rarely stands alone, and its neighbours in the schedule have opinions about sequence.
A surveyor wants to work before evidence is removed. A fencing contractor wants a corridor that is clear but not churned, and wants post positions to be diggable. A builder wants a pad that has settled, and will not thank you for a surface formed the week before they arrive. A driveway contractor needs drainage decided before anyone shapes ground.
Where two trades disagree about sequence, the tie-breaker is usually irreversibility: whoever is establishing a fact goes before whoever is changing a condition.
Where weather sits in the sequence
Weather is not a step, but it constrains which steps are available, and pretending otherwise produces the most common schedule failure in the trade.
Surface cutting is relatively tolerant. Machines can work damp ground with some care, and cutting does little to the soil profile. Soil work is not tolerant. Excavating, backfilling, and forming saturated ground compacts it, smears it, and produces a surface that behaves badly once it dries.
The practical consequence is that a project can often start in a wet season and cannot always finish in one. Ask which parts of the scope are weather-dependent and what happens to the schedule if they cannot proceed.
What drives the cost
| Driver | Effect |
|---|---|
| Number of mobilisations | A phased project that brings machines back repeatedly pays for each arrival. |
| Sequencing errors | Rework is charged as new work. Forming unsettled ground is the classic case. |
| Waiting time | A crew held up by an unresolved boundary or locate request is usually still charging. |
| Access preparation | Establishing a route early costs less than repairing ground damaged without one. |
| Erosion control timing | Installed before disturbance it is a line item; installed after, it is remediation. |
Common mistakes
- Accepting an early start date that skips the utility locating window
- Describing retained trees verbally instead of marking them
- Letting soil work begin before the boundary position is settled
- Forming a surface before backfill has settled
- Scheduling clearing and fencing so tightly that a delay in one strands the other
Questions to ask a contractor
- What has to be confirmed before you can start?
- How will you know which features I am keeping?
- Which parts of this scope depend on ground conditions?
- How long after backfilling before the surface is stable enough to form?
- If you have to come back a second time, how is that priced?
What to do next
- List every activity your project involves, including other trades
- Put the fact-establishing activities first, without exception
- Walk the property with tape and mark everything you intend to keep
- Agree the sequence in writing, not just the price
Questions people actually ask
How far ahead should I request utility locating?
The statutory notice period varies by state, and the free national 811 process is the route to use. Request it early enough that a delay does not push your start date, and confirm the marks are still valid on the day work begins — they expire.
Can clearing and stump removal happen on the same visit?
Often yes, and it saves a mobilisation. The order within the visit still matters: standing growth comes down and material is dealt with before soil is broken, otherwise the below-grade crew is working among debris they cannot see through.
Do I need a survey before clearing?
It depends on how certain the boundary is and what is at stake. Where a fence, a structure, or a neighbour’s land is close to the work, establishing the line first is cheap insurance. Only a licensed surveyor can determine a boundary; nobody on a machine can, and neither can this site.
What if the contractor wants to start before I am ready?
An idle crew is a real cost to them, so the pressure is genuine rather than manipulative. It is still your decision. The steps that come first exist because doing them later is either impossible or expensive, and no start date is worth an unresolved boundary.
Work out the scope before you ask for prices
Answer the five questions every quote depends on — what is growing, where the material goes, how deep removal has to reach, whether equipment can get in, and what the land is for afterwards. Then send one properly described project to the right kind of contractor.
Nothing on this site is a recommendation of a specific company. The guidance describes categories of work and the questions worth asking. If you decide to request quotes, the introduction is free to you, contractors may pay to receive it, and you are under no obligation to hire anyone.