Salt Lake City’s old neighborhoods hold old stumps — elms taken down decades ago in the Avenues and Liberty Wells, mulberries cut flush and left to sprout, fruit trees from backyard orchards reduced to trip hazards. City lots are tight, but our grinders fit through a 36-inch gate and down the narrowest Sugar House side yard, so "no access" stumps mostly aren’t.
One SLC-specific wrinkle: if the stump sits in the parking strip, it’s on city ground — Urban Forestry manages what happens there, including replanting requirements. On your own property we grind 8–12 inches below grade, rake out the mulch or haul it, and leave a spot you can seed, sod, or — the best use of an old SLC stump hole — plant a better tree in.
How stump grinding works with us
- 1
Locate and mark
We confirm utility locations (Blue Stakes) when grinding near lines, and mark the grind area.
- 2
Grind below grade
Stump and surface roots ground to mulch, 8–12" down or deeper for replanting.
- 3
Backfill or haul
Grindings left as mulch, or hauled and replaced with topsoil — your call at quote time.
Stump Grinding in Salt Lake City — your questions
Can you grind a stump in a Salt Lake City parking strip?
Only through the city — the strip is SLC Urban Forestry’s ground, and they handle (and often schedule) stump removal after street-tree removals, usually with replanting plans of their own. If a strip stump has sat for years, a service request to the city moves it; your own yard’s stumps, we can grind this week.
The old elm stump in my Avenues backyard keeps sprouting — will grinding stop it?
For elms, grinding plus follow-up does it. Siberian elm stumps resprout aggressively from remaining roots, so we grind deep, remove the grindings (which otherwise shelter new shoots), and recommend treating any sprouts that appear the first season. By the second year the roots’ energy is spent and the sprouting stops for good.
Serving all of Salt Lake City
Around Liberty Park, the Avenues and Sugar House — wherever your tree is in Salt Lake City, we can get to it.