Georgia Cost GuideWhat do land clearing, grading and drainage cost in Georgia?
Land clearing in Georgia: typically $2,050 to $3,400+ per acre, the middle half of the figures posted by 7 Georgia land clearing companies, collected November 2026.
An estimated price range per acre for clearing land in Georgia, from local companies' own websites, plus what moves the price of the work that often comes with it: forestry mulching, grading, french drains, gravel driveways and culverts.
The short answer
We checked 181 Georgia land clearing company websites.
Land clearing
$2,050 to $3,400+ per acre
Prices from 7 Georgia land clearing companies
Land clearing: what goes into itThis is a typical range, not a quote. Your price depends on how thick the growth is, the lay of the land and what you plan to do with it, and the sections below explain what moves it. The dot marks the middle price, and a + means some businesses charge more. Where a job has no range, it's because we only show a price once enough Georgia businesses publish one.
Land clearing
Land clearing removes trees, brush and stumps from ground you want to use, and many companies price it by the acre. The per-acre range is in the short answer above.
A clearing crew cuts the trees, pushes or pulls the stumps and gathers the brush and roots, usually with a bulldozer, an excavator or a tracked loader. The debris is then burned, buried, ground up or hauled away, and the ground is left rough unless the quote includes grading.
Unlike forestry mulching, clearing usually takes the stumps out and leaves bare soil, which suits a house pad or a field better and often costs more per acre.
The range for this job is in the short answer above.
What moves the price
- How thick the growth is
- Open land with light brush costs less per acre than mature woods full of large trees.
- Stumps and roots
- Pulling or grinding stumps, and raking out roots, adds to the cost of cutting the trees down.
- Slope and soil
- Steep, rocky or wet ground slows the machines and can call for different equipment, which raises the price.
- What happens to the debris
- Burning, chipping, burying and hauling are priced differently, and hauling everything away usually costs more than leaving mulch on site.
- Getting in
- A tract with no road in, a narrow gate or soft ground at the entrance takes more work before clearing can start.
- Timber value
- Mature pine or hardwood may be worth selling as timber, which can offset part of the cost, so ask whether the company buys timber or works with someone who does.
- Machine move-in
- Hauling a dozer or an excavator to the site costs about the same for any job, so it adds more per acre on a small one than on a large one.
- Property lines and wet areas
- Boundaries and wet areas that must be protected slow the crew and can raise the price, and marking them before work starts avoids mistakes.
- Erosion control
- Bare soil can wash away in heavy rain, and silt fence or seeding to hold it is often priced on top. Ask whether your site needs it.
- Buried lines
- Power, water or gas lines under the ground have to be located before digging, and working around them slows the job.
Forestry mulching
Forestry mulching grinds trees and brush into mulch where they stand, with one machine, and leaves the mulch on the ground. There is no Georgia range for forestry mulching yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Tree size
- Mulchers handle brush and smaller trees quickly, while larger trunks take longer or need cutting first, which costs more.
- Undergrowth density
- Thick undergrowth takes more passes than scattered saplings.
- Stumps left behind
- Mulching usually leaves stumps and roots in the ground, so removing them is extra.
- By the hour or the acre
- Some operators charge by the machine hour and others by the acre, so compare quotes on the same terms.
Lot clearing
Lot clearing gets a building lot ready: trees and stumps come out where the house and the driveway will go, and trees elsewhere are often left standing. There is no Georgia range for lot clearing yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Selective or full clearing
- Saving chosen trees means working around them, partly by hand, which costs more than clearing everything.
- House pad and driveway
- Stripping roots and topsoil where the foundation and driveway will go is more thorough work than clearing for a yard.
- Protecting the keepers
- Fencing off trees you keep, and keeping machines off their roots, adds time.
- What the builder needs
- Ask what your builder wants cleared, and whether your city or county requires a tree or land disturbance permit.
Brush clearing
Brush clearing cuts down overgrowth, vines, saplings and small trees without taking out the large trees. There is no Georgia range for brush clearing yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Room for machines
- Open ground suits a machine with a mulching head, while tight spots near fences or houses take hand work and cost more.
- Vines and briars
- Dense vines and thorny thickets wrap around equipment and slow the job.
- Haul or leave
- Leaving cut brush in piles or as mulch costs less than hauling it off.
- Regrowth
- Brush often grows back, and some companies offer follow-up mowing at a separate price.
Grading
Grading reshapes the ground so it sits level for a building, or slopes so water drains away from it. There is no Georgia range for grading yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- How much dirt moves
- Cutting down a high spot or filling a low one costs more as more soil is moved.
- Fill brought in
- A site short on dirt needs fill trucked in, which adds material and hauling.
- Rough or finish grade
- Rough grading shapes the ground, and finish grading smooths it for seed, sod or a slab, which costs more for the extra passes.
- Compaction
- Ground under a building or a driveway may need packing down in layers, which adds time.
Stump removal
Stump removal pulls stumps out with the root ball, or grinds them below the surface, after the trees are down. Grinding a few stumps in a yard is usually a tree service job; see what stump grinding costs. There is no Georgia range for stump removal on a clearing job yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Pull or grind
- Pulling a stump with an excavator gets the roots out but leaves a hole, while grinding leaves the roots in the ground and the surface close to level. Which one costs less depends on how many stumps there are and what machine is already on site.
- Stump width
- Wider stumps take longer to pull or grind, so they cost more.
- Per stump or per acre
- On a clearing job stumps are often priced by the acre, and on a yard job by the stump.
- Filling the holes
- Pulled stumps leave holes that need filling and packing, and some quotes include that.
French drain installation
A french drain is a trench lined with fabric and gravel around a perforated pipe that carries water away from a wet spot or a foundation. There is no Georgia range for french drain installation yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Length of the trench
- The price rises with every foot of trench, pipe and gravel.
- Depth
- A deeper trench, such as one along a foundation, takes more digging and more gravel.
- Where the water goes
- The drain needs an outlet downhill, such as a ditch or a dry well, and a long run to reach one adds cost.
- Digging conditions
- Roots, rock and hard red clay make trenching slower, and digging by hand close to a house costs more than with a machine.
- Restoring the yard
- Replacing sod or landscaping over the trench may be extra.
Gravel driveway
A gravel driveway is a graded bed of crushed stone, often laid over fabric, from the road to the house or a building site. There is no Georgia range for gravel driveways yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Length and width
- More driveway means more stone and more grading.
- Base preparation
- Soft or uneven ground needs grading, fabric and a thicker base layer before the top stone goes on, which raises the price.
- Type of stone
- Crusher run, clean washed stone and decorative stone are priced differently.
- Stone delivery
- Stone is often priced by the ton plus delivery, and a site far from a quarry costs more to supply.
- Drainage along it
- A driveway that crosses a ditch may need a culvert, and one on a slope may need ditches to keep it from washing out.
Culvert installation
A culvert is a pipe set under a driveway or path so a ditch or stream can keep flowing beneath it. There is no Georgia range for culvert installation yet.
No Georgia range for this job yet. Here is what moves the price. Get a quote
What moves the price
- Pipe size and length
- A wider ditch or more water calls for a larger, longer pipe, which costs more.
- Pipe material
- Plastic, corrugated metal and concrete pipe are priced differently.
- Ends and cover
- Stone or concrete at the ends, and the gravel and fill over the pipe, add materials.
- Road ditch approval
- A culvert where a driveway meets a public road may need approval first, so ask who applies and whether the road department sets the pipe size.
What a good land clearing quote should list
Clearing quotes can cover very different work under the same name. Ask each company to put these in writing:
- Exactly what is being cleared: every tree, brush only, or a marked area around trees you keep
- Whether stumps are pulled, ground or left, and whether the holes are filled
- What happens to the debris: mulched in place, burned, buried or hauled away
- Whether the price is by the acre, by the hour or for the whole job, and what moving the equipment in costs
- For grading or a driveway, how much stone or fill is included and what more would cost
- Whether your city or county requires a permit or silt fence for the work, and who handles it
- What the ground will look like when the crew leaves: rough, raked or ready for seed
- Whether the company buys timber, or works with a logger when the trees have value
Where these numbers come from
We collect these prices with our own crawler, which reads the public websites of Georgia land clearing companies and follows each site's robots.txt rules. It has read 181 of their websites so far. Each range is the middle half of the prices and cost guides those businesses publish, collected November 2026. A price list is what a business says it charges; a cost guide is a business's own estimate of what the job usually runs in Georgia. We check every figure against the page it came from, leave out national averages and prices from other states, and count a business only once, even if it has several websites. We never name the businesses behind a range. This page is written and published by Georgia SEO Company.
| Job | Businesses that post a price |
|---|---|
| Land clearing | 7 (3 price lists, 4 cost guides) |
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Land clearing guides
Answers to the questions Georgia landowners ask before they clear, grade or drain their land.