How clearing work is priced
This platform publishes no dollar figures, because a national number for a job priced by site conditions would be a guess dressed as information. What it publishes is the structure, which is what lets you read your own quotes.
Published by the Land Clearing Authority editorial team · Last revised 2026-07-29 · Editorial policy · Corrections
Clearing prices vary by a factor of several within a single county, on parcels that look alike from the road. That is not disorder — it is the honest consequence of pricing a job whose cost is set by stem density, material volume, access, ground moisture, and how deep removal has to reach.
A published average would obscure all of that. So these pages explain the machinery of a quote instead: what a per-acre rate is actually measuring, when hourly pricing protects you and when it exposes you, which line items are genuinely separate services, and how to normalise two bids that describe different work.
Used properly, the result is better than a number. A landowner who understands why a quote is what it is can tell an expensive bid from a bid that includes something the cheap one silently left out.
What this covers
- What per-acre, per-hour, and lump-sum pricing each actually measure
- Which variables move the price most, in rough order
- Line items that are separate services rather than extras
- How to normalise bids that describe different scopes
- Where contingency and unknowns belong in a quote
What this does not cover
Stated explicitly, with where the work actually belongs. A subject that cannot draw its own edge does not deserve a hub.
- Published dollar figures or national averages — see Why no prices are published
- Financing products, lending, or credit advice — see Claim boundaries and disclaimer
- Regional rate data, which this platform has not collected — see Research and dataset status
Articles
What each pricing structure actually measures
The pricing format is not a detail of presentation. It determines who carries the risk that the site turns out to be harder than it looked.
What an exclusions list is really telling you
Most owners read the price and skim the exclusions. It is the wrong way round: the number tells you what one contractor will do, and the exclusions tell you everything that still has to happen and is not yet anyone’s job.
Allowances, unit rates, and quantity risk
A fixed price is a promise about a quantity as much as about a price. Allowances and unit rates are the two devices that let a contractor quote without making that promise, and knowing which one you are holding tells you who absorbs the difference.
Answers
Can land clearing be financed?
Sometimes, usually as part of something larger rather than on its own. What matters more than the answer is understanding why clearing sits awkwardly in most lending structures.
What is mobilisation on a clearing quote?
Mobilisation is the cost of bringing the machine to you and taking it away again. It appears as a line item, it surprises owners who expected to pay only for work done on their land, and it is the single reason a half-acre job can cost nearly as much as a two-acre one.
The quote never mentions stumps — now what?
Ask ten owners holding a clearing quote whether stumps are included and most will not know. The document does not say, both parties have an assumption, and the assumptions differ. This is the single most expensive silence in the trade.
Why is there a minimum charge?
A quarter-acre of brush and two acres of brush can cost surprisingly similar amounts, and the reason is not that the contractor is uninterested in small work. It is that a large part of the cost happens before any clearing does.
Buying guides
How an estimate is built
An estimate is not a lookup. It is a sequence of judgements about your specific ground, and understanding the sequence tells you which parts of it you can change.
Change orders: agreeing the triggers before work starts
A change order is not a failure of planning. On ground nobody could see under, it is an expected event — and the projects that handle it well are the ones that decided the procedure before anybody needed it.
Payment schedules on a clearing project
A contractor needs cash flow and an owner needs assurance, and a payment schedule is where those two legitimate needs get reconciled. Most disputes about money on clearing projects are really disputes about timing.
Reading the schedule attached to a quote
Owners read the price carefully and glance at the dates. The schedule is where a contractor has written down their assumptions about weather, sequence, and how many other jobs they are carrying — and those assumptions are worth as much as the number.
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.