Full Site Clearing in Austin & the Texas Hill Country
Every acre. One mobilization.
Clear Ground clears sites of one acre and up to bare, build-ready ground: trees cut, stumps grubbed, debris hauled or ground, rough grade set. Expect $3,000–$8,500 per acre, with a project minimum near $6,000. A 1-acre site often takes one to two days on site, and most jobs start 1–3 weeks after approval.
What does full site clearing include?
Bare dirt to spec.
Full site clearing is the whole property, cleared to construction-ready grade in one mobilization. Vegetation comes out, stumps are grubbed below the surface, and surface limestone is milled in place or broken out. Sites under one acre are priced as lot clearing.
This is for properties where partial clearing will not work: new-build homesites, large parcels, multi-acre pool and estate projects, and raw land that needs a full reset before anything is built. One crew, one schedule, one handoff.
If you want the vegetation ground up and left on the soil instead, that is forestry mulching, a different service on a different price card.
A drone models the ground surface. Rock, footings and buried lines below the surface are found with test holes, probing, 811 locates and GPR where needed.
How much does full site clearing cost per acre?
| Vegetation | Unit | Range | What it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light | Per acre | $3,000–$4,200 | Open ground, scattered brush and small trees |
| Moderate | Per acre | $4,300–$5,900 | Mixed cedar and oak, medium stems |
| Heavy | Per acre | $6,200–$8,500 | Dense cedar, multi-trunk oak, large stumps, slope |
| Site size | Range | Typical timeline |
|---|---|---|
| 1 acre | $6,000–$8,500 | 1–2 days on site |
| 2 acres | $6,000–$17,000 | A few days to a week, set by density and rock |
| 3 acres | $9,000–$25,500 | A few days to a week, set by density and rock |
| 5 acres | $15,000–$42,500 | A few days to a week, set by density and rock |
Prices reviewed: September 2026. Ranges for Austin and Central Texas; your site walk sets the final number. Project minimum is about $6,000. Rock milling ($2,500–$6,000 per acre), rough grading ($2,500–$8,000 per lot) and protected-tree work are quoted on top when they apply. Debris hauled off is priced by the truckload against the disposal site's ticket. See all pricing or the land clearing calculator.
Full vegetation clear
& grub
All trees, brush and roots come out across the property. The CAT 299D3 XE with FAE mulching head processes vegetation, and the mini excavator grubs stumps. Stumps are grubbed below the surface, not ground flush, because a construction-ready lot has no stump remnants to compromise the pad.
CAT 305.5E2 mini excavator for grubbing
Multi-acre scope · One mobilization
Protected tree
boundary management
More land means more trees, and more trees mean more root zones to keep clear. We flag every protected tree's root zone on the ground before clearing begins and photograph the trees before and after. Austin protects trees 19 inches and larger, and heritage species at 24 inches and larger. The thresholds, root-zone limits and permit steps are on the Austin tree rules page.
Before-and-after photos
Coordination with your arborist when required
Rock milling
& hammer work
Hill Country limestone can be a material. Shallow surface rock is milled in place, with a rock-milling head rented for the job, into aggregate for a driveway base, drainage layer or retaining wall backfill. Harder or deeper rock is broken with an excavator and hydraulic hammer. Rock that stays on site avoids the haul-off. See rock milling.
Excavator with hydraulic hammer for deeper rock
Rock found with test holes and probing
Rough grade to
your drainage plan
Clearing is phase one and grading is the handoff. After the site is cleared, the mini excavator and loader cut and fill to the elevations on your engineered plan. Finish grade is checked against the plan before handoff, so your engineer and builder start from a known surface.
Grade check at handoff
Optional drone topo scan
Site walk, written quote, root-zone flagging where protected trees are present, before-and-after photos, and cleanup of the equipment path. A drone topo scan is an add-on. It measures surfaces and quantities and is not a survey. RTK-corrected drone photogrammetry, checked against ground points on site.
Five steps from
raw site to handoff.
The order matters because each step sets up the next. The walk finds the trees and rock. Flagging protects the trees. Clearing works inside those lines. Grading finishes the surface. The handoff shows you what changed.
If something gets built after,
this is your phase one.
Pool & estate builders
Your dig crew is booked and the client is ready, but the lot is not. Full site clearing gets the property to the point where pool excavation can start without stump surprises or root-zone problems. We clear, mill and grade in one mobilization.
How we work with pool buildersDevelopers & builders
Sites of an acre or more where the whole footprint has to come clean. Root-zone limits go into the plan before clearing, and your GC receives the photo record. Smaller infill lots run through lot clearing.
How we work with developersEstate & ranchette owners
Building a custom home on multi-acre Hill Country land? Full site clearing is the first real phase. Cedar and brush come out, surface rock is milled, and the building pad is graded.
How we work with estate owners
Our own iron for
Hill Country terrain.
High-flow compact track loader with an FAE mulching head. It handles vegetation, and it does most of the work on a full site clearing job.
Compact-radius excavators, each with a hydraulic hammer, for stump grubbing, rock excavation and cut-and-fill grading. The compact radius allows close work near protected trees and property lines.
RTK-positioned drone for surface models and orthomosaics. Models processed in Pix4D; cut/fill checked in InSite Elevation Pro. Our drone scans measure surfaces, quantities and grades. They are not a boundary survey or a sealed survey by a licensed surveyor, and a drone cannot see below the ground surface.
A Ram 3500 dually and Diamond C equipment trailer carry the machines to site. Dozers, larger excavators and compaction equipment are rented locally when a job needs them.
Full site clearing questions
Get a written quote
for your site.
We answer the same business day. Written quote within 48 hours of the site walk. Call (512) 880-8888 or send the form.
Request a Quote