The site walk: what to cover before anyone quotes
A site walk done properly takes an hour and removes most of the ambiguity from a clearing project. Done as a stroll and a chat, it produces a quote built on two different sets of assumptions — and nobody finds out until the machine arrives.
Published by the Land Clearing Authority editorial team · Last revised 2026-07-29 · Editorial policy · Corrections
Who this is for
- Owners with a contractor coming to look at the property
- Anyone who has had quotes that turned out to describe different work
- People whose site has constraints that need showing rather than describing
The short answer
Walk it in the order the work will happen: the road entrance, the access route, the staging area, then the work zones, then anything to be protected. That sequence surfaces access problems before anybody has formed a view about the clearing.
Establish the objective out loud at the start. One sentence about what the ground must be capable of afterwards, before any discussion of method, so the whole walk is framed by it.
Point at things rather than describing them. The gate you cannot widen, the wet corner, the tree you want kept, the septic lid, the culvert of unknown capacity. Physical objects prevent misunderstanding in a way that sentences do not.
And finish by asking what they would do differently. That question, at the end of a walk, produces the most useful information in the whole meeting.
What changes the answer
- Whether the parcel can be walked in reasonable time
- How much of it is currently accessible on foot
- Whether the season lets you both see the ground
- Whether the work is selective, needing marking discussed on site
- Whether a following trade or another contractor is involved
The route, in order
Resist starting at the interesting part. The constraints are at the front and the middle, and finding them last means the whole conversation was built on an assumption.
| Stop | What to establish |
|---|---|
| The road entrance | Turning radius, gate width, sight lines, verge condition |
| The access route | Width, overhead clearance, surface, culverts, soft ground |
| The staging area | Where equipment and material can sit, and for how long |
| Each work zone | Density, stem sizes, what stays, what the ground has to become |
| Protected features | Septic, well, private lines, retained trees, boundary markers |
| The boundary | Where it runs, how it is marked, where you are unsure |
| Back at the entrance | What they would do differently, and in what order |
Opening the walk properly
Two sentences at the start change the entire conversation.
The first is your objective: what the ground has to be capable of on the last day. The second is your constraint: the thing that is fixed, whether that is a budget ceiling, a date, a gate width, or a lawn you care about.
Stating both before walking means every observation the contractor makes is filtered through them. Without it, you get a description of what a machine could do to your land, which is a different and much less useful conversation.
What to bring
Modest and it makes a difference.
- A tape measure, for anything either of you wants to check
- Your written objective and measurements, on paper
- Flagging tape, so anything discussed can be marked on the spot
- A phone for photographs of anything agreed
- A notebook, because you will be told things you will not remember
- The parcel map, for the boundary conversation
The five things to establish before they leave
Written down, on the day, while both of you are standing on the ground.
What scope they are proposing, in their own words. What they would exclude and why. What they cannot establish from the surface. What they want you to do before they arrive. And what they think the single biggest risk on this job is.
That last one is the most valuable answer you will get, and it is frequently something you had not considered. Two contractors naming different biggest risks is genuinely informative, and it is a question that costs nothing to ask.
Marking during the walk rather than after
Anything agreed on the ground should be marked on the ground before the contractor leaves.
A tree to be retained, a boundary you are unsure of, a no-traffic zone over a drainfield, a pile location, the edge of a phase. Marking it while you are both there means you are agreeing about the same object, which a conversation afterwards cannot guarantee.
It also produces a shared reference for the quote. A bid that says "as marked on site on the date of the visit" is describing something specific, and every bidder walking the same marked site is pricing the same job.
What a site walk cannot achieve
It cannot establish what is underground. Rock, buried debris, root plate size, old fill, and utility positions are all invisible, and a walk produces informed expectations rather than facts about them.
It cannot substitute for a locate request, a survey where the boundary matters, or professional advice where a structure, a watercourse, or material of unknown composition is involved.
And it cannot make a quote binding on things nobody could see. What it does is ensure that the assumptions inside the quote were made by somebody who had stood on the ground and been shown the constraints.
What drives the cost
| Driver | Effect |
|---|---|
| Constraints identified during the walk | Access limits found on the day cost mobilisation instead |
| Marking done on site | A marked site is priced consistently by every bidder |
| Objective stated at the start | Determines which scope gets quoted at all |
| Owner preparation before arrival | Cleared paths and measurements shorten the visit |
| Number of bidders walking the same marked site | Comparable quotes rather than divergent interpretations |
Common mistakes
- Starting at the work area instead of the road entrance
- Describing constraints rather than standing at them
- Not stating the objective until method is already being discussed
- Agreeing things on site and marking nothing
- Letting the contractor leave without naming what they would exclude
Questions to ask a contractor
- What scope are you proposing, in your own words?
- What would you exclude from this, and why?
- What is the biggest risk on this job as you see it?
- What cannot you establish from the surface here?
- What would you like me to do before you arrive?
What to do next
- Write your objective and constraint down before the visit
- Walk the route in order: entrance, route, staging, zones, protected features
- Mark anything agreed on the ground before the contractor leaves
- Record their answers to the five closing questions the same day
Questions people actually ask
Should every bidder walk the site separately?
Separately is usually better, because each forms their own view. What should be identical is the marking and the documentation they see, so their quotes describe the same job.
How long should a site walk take?
About an hour on a typical parcel, longer on large or overgrown acreage. A visit of ten minutes on anything substantial has not covered the access route, the protected features, and the boundary.
Is it worth clearing paths before the walk?
Frequently yes. A contractor who can reach the interior on foot sees the actual growth rather than extrapolating from the edge, and the quote is better for it.
What if a contractor will not walk the site?
On a small, simple, fully visible job that can be reasonable. On anything substantial it means the quote rests on assumptions nobody tested, and the resulting figure should be treated as indicative rather than firm.
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.