In October 2014, we had two large dead elm trees removed. A large crane was needed since there was little room between our house and the neighbor. Here is the post about that impressive removal job.
In March 2015, the tree stumps were ground out to complete the job. Here are a few pictures and video.
Stumps right after the trees were removed in October 2014.
This overall view of the grinding machine shows the operator at the side, steerable rear wheels, and the articulated front end. At the front is a spinning disc with teeth that cut into the stump. It is moved left and right and is lowered to several inches below ground level. The heavy machine is sitting on a 1″ thick piece of plywood to prevent damage to the lawn. It took about 30 minutes to finish grinding the stump. Grinding bits were scattered along the trail in the woods behind the house.
Overall view of the grinder.
Closeup of the spinning grinder disc in action.
This 30 second video shows how the operator moved the grinder to remove the layers of wood.
This gallery shows some of the stages of the process.
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- Positioned for action
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- First pass of the grinder
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- Completed to a depth of 8″
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- Cleaned and ready for dirt
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- Fresh topsoil and grass seed
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- A job well done
Our View From Iowa 
We have a couple of stumps like that. They take years to decompose but critters seem to enjoy it.
I also have some that are being left to their own devices. I will be long gone before they are decomposed.
They took out a few palm trees in a yacht club where I work, and brought in one of those grinders. It was interesting to watch the process, though I was glad I wasn’t working near them. They did their best to be neat about it, but ground-up palm tree bits can fly a good distance.
I can see how the pieces could fly all over. This guy had some skirts and deflectors on his machine that did a good job of keeping the debris close by.
He told me about an operator who didn’t have such protection. It was a muddy day. He sprayed mud and dirty wood chips on the house of the owner and in the driveway. The owner was furious. The operator got in his truck and drove off leaving him with the mess.
Not a good business model.
Amazing how neat it looks when done. Not the old fashioned way, pulling the stumps out – would make a bit of a mess of your yard 😉 Even if the stumps are now invisible, you’ll probably see signs of them in future, like fairy rings!
I don’t know if the elms spread fairy rings or not. If so, most of them will end up in the neighbor’s yard. 🙂
Those comments about fairy rings made me look up the topic. You will probably enjoy this link about them. Some are huge up to 600 meters across. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairy_ring