Texas Land Clearing Services in Houston, TX: Forestry Mulching, Brush Removal, Site Prep and Excavation
I've cleared ground from Dayton to Fulshear since 2018, and ran ditch crews for 19 years before that. We clear lots, pasture and pad sites. Skid steer mulcher: $3,000 a day, transport included. Big mulcher: $4,000 a day plus transport. Half an acre of tallow and yaupon is one day. Wet ground adds a day, and I say so before we start. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos of your place. Janine will have a number back to you by tomorrow.
HOUSTON, TEXAS
What Texas Land Clearing Includes: Brush, Trees, Stumps and Rough Grading
One service, five jobs, and I price each one. We cut and mulch the trees and brush. We grind every stump to grade or grub root balls out with the excavator. We rough grade so water runs off, not in. The debris then stays as mulch where it stood, or gets trucked out at $600 to $1,200 a load. Mulch means no burn piles and no trucks on your road. Haul-off is for a construction site that needs bare dirt next week. South of FM 1960 we clear tallow, yaupon and privet off gumbo clay, which holds water because the clay swells shut when wet. North of it we clear loblolly pine off sand. By Friday you see clear sky from the back porch.
Residential Clearing Service for a New Home Build
A residential lot in Katy, Cypress or Conroe runs $1,500 to $3,500 an acre to clear, by what grows on it. Light scrub is the low end. Yaupon and tallow thickets are the high end, and they add a day because tallow roots run 3 feet down and the head has to chase them. For a house pad we clear the footprint plus 15 feet all around and grind the stumps 8 inches below grade. Keep the shade trees you like; flag them with ribbon or send a sketch. Inside Houston, Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland and League City, tree rules apply to new builds, so we check before we cut. Send the survey with your photos.
Rural Acreage: Clear Your Land for Pasture, Fence Lines and Hunting Tracts
Pasture reclamation runs $2,500 to $3,500 an acre once tallow has had ten years to work. The big forestry mulcher will clear 4 to 8 acres per day on open ground, less in bottomland. Fence lines are a skid steer job: we clear an 8-foot path through yaupon and post oak sprouts, about 2,400 feet a day. On our jobs in Liberty County the Trinity River bottom stays soft from November to March, and a tracked mulcher at 6 psi floats where a dozer at 12 psi sinks, so we run tracks to minimize ruts. Land management on 40 acres of land means a mulcher pass every three years, or the privet wins. On hunting tracts north of Highway 290 we clear lanes and food plots and leave the hardwood.
Commercial Clearing and Site Preparation for a Construction Site
Commercial clearing in Harris County starts with a permit, not a machine. If your site touches the FEMA mapped floodplain, Harris County Engineering wants a development permit before dirt moves, and Harris County Flood Control District wants to know where the fill goes. Inside Houston, protected trees on a commercial site need a tree survey first. Then our crews clear, grub, load out and rough grade to the civil drawings. A dedicated land clearing crew with the big mulcher will clear 4 to 8 acres a day. We handle projects from one pad on FM 1960 to 20-acre tracts of land development along the Grand Parkway. Large jobs get a written schedule and a culvert in the entrance ditch if the county asks. Site prep is priced on its own line.
Clearing Methods: Forestry Mulching, Dozer Work, Excavation Services and Selective Clearing
Pick a method for the result you need, not the machine you saw in a video.
Four ways to clear a tract. The ground picks. Mulching turns standing vegetation into mulch in one pass. No burn piles, no trucks. A forestry mulcher on a skid steer eats anything under 8 inches; the big one eats anything. Carbide teeth hold up in clay and sand; knife teeth cut cleaner in pine but chip on the first rock. Dozer work leaves the ground clear and bare, which a builder wants and a rancher does not. Excavation services come in for stumps and root balls. Selective clearing keeps the oaks and pines you point at and takes the rest; it costs more per acre because the operator is thinking, not pushing. The right equipment for gumbo clay is a tracked mulcher. Advanced equipment, specialized equipment, equipment and expertise: none of it matters once a machine sinks to the belly pan.
Forestry mulching
Cuts brush and many smaller trees into a mulch layer. Roots normally remain in the ground.
Understand the method ↗METHOD 02Dozer work
Pushes vegetation and shifts ground. Useful when the next step needs grading or grubbing.
Understand the method ↗METHOD 03Selective clearing
Keeps marked trees while a crew opens the view, fence line, or building area.
Understand the method ↗Cost per Acre to Clear Land in Houston, TX
I tell you about the wet ground, the extra machine, and the haul-off before work starts. Not after.
To clear an acre of light scrub runs $1,500 to $2,000; medium growth like yaupon and small pine, $2,500 to $3,500; dense timber or a clear-cut with trucking, $4,000 and up. By the day: skid steer mulcher $3,000 with transport, big mulcher $4,000 plus transport. Minimum trip charge is $1,200 to $1,500. Trucking debris out adds $600 to $1,200 a load. Wet ground adds a day. Tallow thickets add a day. On 5 acres of medium brush, plan on two days with the big machine, about $8,000 to $9,000 with transport. Mulch left down is cost-effective; trucking is not. Free consultation by phone; for the free estimate I walk the property with you, on-site, inside Greater Houston and the surrounding areas. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and the address. Number by tomorrow.
Skid steer mulcher
Per day. Transport included. Trees under 8 inches.
Dedicated mulcher
Per day. Transport is additional. Large timber and dense ground.
Brush Removal in Texas, Right of Way Clearing and Overgrown Lot Cleanup
Call it property clearing, ground clearing, brush clearing or lot cleanup. Same service, same two machines. Overgrown land in Harris County is mostly tallow, privet and yaupon, and privet will overgrow a cleared lot in three summers if nobody mows. Our Houston land clearing provides professional land clearing services under every name you have for it: brush removal in Texas, land clearing and brush removal, vegetation management, right of way clearing for a pipeline, and clear-cut land-clearing services for a developer. Mulching services and brush and tree work run by the day; a clearing project with trucking runs by the load. We specialize in clay and pine, not cedar. Central Texas, San Antonio and San Marcos belong to crews that live there. We work the Lone Star State's southeast corner only.
Field Sketches: Before and After a Land Clearing Company Comes Through
A pencil sketch tells you what should stay. The finished view tells you what got done.
Every job gets two pencil sketches, before and after, and the sketch and the invoice are on the page. Here is one. Three acres in Magnolia, Montgomery County: selective clearing, keep the oaks, clear the yaupon, see the pond from the porch. Two days with the big mulcher, $8,400 with transport. The before sketch is a wall of yaupon with oak crowns poking out the top. The after is oak trunks, a pond, and a mulch layer about 3 inches deep that held the sand through the first spring rain. That is efficient clearing on paper: fewer lines. If you need land cleared, I will sketch your clearing needs from your photos before a trailer drops. The sketch is free. The dozer isn't.
01 / FIELD SKETCH
02 / AFTER CLEARINGThree acres. Magnolia. Selective clearing.
The plan was simple. Keep the oaks. Open the pond view. The owner brief calls for two days with the big mulcher.
Texas Land Clearing Services Across Seven Counties, Not Central Texas or San Antonio
Our equipment yard is in Hockley. Send the address and Janine will confirm the route.
Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Waller, Liberty, Brazoria and Galveston. After Harvey we cleared storm debris in all seven. Texas land clearing changes by county, and the Census Building Permits Survey shows where the building is.
- Harris: 16,940 single-family permits in 2025. Tallow and yaupon on clay south of FM 1960, pine on sand north.
- Montgomery: 11,597 permits. Loblolly pine; forestry services like thinning a pine stand.
- Fort Bend: 9,638 permits. Coastal prairie, tallow, mesquite to the south.
- Waller: 339 permits. Our yard is in Hockley.
- Liberty: 1,010 permits. Trinity River bottom, wet half the year. Dayton is where I was born.
- Brazoria and Galveston: 2,789 and 2,521 permits. Tallow, salt cedar, live oak, and USACE wetland buffers you do not cross without a delineation.
Land clearing services in Texas are local or they are not worth much. Services available by the day, with insured crews, in those seven counties only. I do not pour concrete, set septic or demolish houses. I know people who do. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and start your land clearing today.
Land Clearing, Tree Removal and Mulching Services Questions I Get Every Week
If your question is about wet ground, Janine will ask me.
What does land clearing cost in Texas per acre?
In Houston, $1,500 to $2,000 an acre for light scrub, $2,500 to $3,500 for medium growth, and $4,000 and up for dense timber with trucking. Day rates are $3,000 for the skid steer mulcher and $4,000 plus transport for the big one. Wet ground and tallow thickets each add a day, and I say which before we start.
Do I need a permit to clear land on my own place?
Usually not, if you are outside the mapped floodplain and outside a city with a tree ordinance. In the Harris County floodplain you need a development permit from Harris County Engineering before dirt moves. Houston, Katy, Fulshear, Sugar Land, Pearland and League City have tree rules for new builds. We check before we cut.
What is the cheapest way to clear a lot?
Forestry mulching on dry ground with nothing trucked out is the cheapest service we run. One machine, one day, no loads. The mulch stays as ground cover and you skip $600 to $1,200 per load. Burning is cheaper only where TCEQ rules and your county burn ban allow it, and inside Houston city limits they do not.
Can you do selective tree work and leave the big trees?
Yes. Selective tree work is the service we run most north of FM 1960. You flag the keepers, or I sketch them from your photos, and our crews clear around them. It runs higher per acre than a clear-cut because the operator slows near every trunk. The Magnolia job kept every oak.
Who are the trusted land clearing companies around Houston, and how do I get a quote?
Ask any land clearing company three things: a day rate in writing, who sits on the machine, and what wet ground does to the schedule. Trusted land clearing companies answer all three. Land clearing contractors who quote by the acre without seeing the growth are guessing. Call (713) 587-6978 or send three photos and the address. Janine will have a number back by tomorrow, and you clear your land on a date you picked.
Send three photos.
Get a straight number.
Janine reads each request and manages the schedule. I check the photos. If I need to see the land myself, I will tell you.
Tell Janine about your lot.
The address. The growth. Three honest photos.
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