Land Clearing in Jacksonville, Florida
Forestry mulching, underbrushing and lot clearing across Jacksonville and Duval County. One machine cuts, grinds and spreads in a single pass, so nothing is piled, burned or hauled off your street.
- Priced from photographs, usually same day
- Nothing burned, nothing trucked off
- From $3,000 a machine day
What we clear in Jacksonville
Eight things we are actually asked for on Duval County ground. If your job is not on this list, say so and we will tell you straight whether it is ours.
One machine cuts standing growth and grinds it back into the ground as chip in the same pass. No pile, no burn, no trucks.
Palmetto, gallberry and briar taken out from under a canopy you are keeping. On a wooded Duval lot this is often the whole job.
A platted lot that has filled in, taken back to usable ground in a day and left as mulch.
You mark what stays and we cut round it. The common brief in Jacksonville rather than the unusual one.
Where the roots have to come out rather than the top growth being ground off. Our 30 inch excavator mulcher.
Building envelope, drive and pad taken down to workable ground before your builder arrives.
Mulching leaves everything where it falls. Grubbing does not, so the haul is quoted per job when it applies.
Moving what has already come down, and lifting out what a mulching head should never meet.
Who calls us in Duval County
The most common call. A lot bought years ago, or one that got away from you, back to something you can walk across.
Clearing the envelope, the drive and the pad before the builder mobilises, so the site is ready rather than a delay.
Pasture coming back to scrub, fence lines disappearing, or a tract that needs opening up before it can be used or sold.
A parcel nobody can see across is a parcel nobody buys. A day with a mulcher usually shows the buyer what they are actually looking at.
Site prep on a schedule, with a machine day you can put in a programme and a rate you can put in a bid.
Fence lines, easements and the strip along the road, cleared without touching what the neighbour wants kept.
How the work runs
Four steps, and the first two happen before anything leaves our yard.
Pictures with something in frame for scale, the lot size, and a note on what you want left standing. Most Duval jobs can be priced from that without anyone driving out.
Usually the same day. It is a day count against a published rate, not a guess dressed up as a quote. If we think the ground will need a second day we say so before you book.
The mulching head cuts, grinds and spreads as it goes. No separate clear, pile and haul stage, which is where most of the cost and all of the mess normally sits.
Not bare ground and not a stump field. It holds the surface through the wet months and slows down what comes back.
Photographs from our jobs
Photographs from jobs we have run. Nothing here is stock photography and nothing here is generated.
What it costs
We sell machine days, not acres, and we publish the rates. A day is the unit whether your lot is a quarter acre or a full one, which is why a small lot does not cost a quarter of what a big one does.
Stems to 8 inches. Transport included. The machine for a platted city lot
Stems to 30 inches, and grubbing. Plus transport
Stems to 24 inches. Plus transport. The dearest machine we run
What moves the day count
The rate follows the machine rather than the size of the stem, which catches people out: the dedicated mulcher costs more than the excavator even though the excavator takes bigger timber and pulls roots. Transport is the cost of getting the bigger two machines to you and is separate from hauling material away, which is quoted per job.
What we have actually done around Jacksonville
One job inside the city limits, and we are not going to build a page pretending otherwise. Here is the whole northeast Florida run instead.
| Duval County | One job, 2 machine days, February 2024. Two acres inside Jacksonville |
| Clay County | Eight jobs, 15 machine days. Keystone Heights, Green Cove Springs and Middleburg |
| Nassau County | Five jobs, 5 machine days. Hilliard, Callahan and Fernandina Beach |
| St. Johns County | Two jobs, 3 machine days. St Augustine and Hastings |
| Baker County | One job, 1 machine day. Glen Saint Mary |
Seventeen jobs and twenty six machine days across the five counties. Most of it landed in Clay and Nassau rather than in the city, which is the honest shape of it. Same machines, same operators, either side of the line.
The ground on a Duval County lot
| What grows here | Pine flatwoods, saw palmetto and gallberry through the west and south of the county, live and laurel oak on the better ground, and Chinese tallow and camphor along anything disturbed once already |
| What that means for a machine | Palmetto root mat is slow going and hides everything underneath it. It is the most common reason a Duval lot takes longer than the acreage suggests |
| Water | Flat ground with shallow swales that hold water into the autumn. Tracked machines cope, but they cope slowly, and a wet summer moves the day count more than the acreage does |
| Access | Platted city lots with street frontage, and rural acreage west towards Baldwin and the Nassau line. Gate width matters more than distance |
Where a tree becomes protected in the interior of a Duval lot. Nearer the street it is about 6 inches, which is why where a tree stands matters as much as how thick it is.
What customers say
FloridaLandClearing.com was beyond helpful in getting our property cleared. They were spot on with their quote, their crews arrived on time, and the machines they used were impressive to watch.
Jenny AndersonWe had a difficult project a few other companies attempted and left. Florida Land Clearing was able to get the job done and a day earlier than quoted.
Joseph KellyThese guys are pros. Watching these machines just devour acres of underbrush in a day was one of the coolest things I have seen. I cannot believe how this transformed my property.
Adam WilsonBefore you book: the Duval tree thresholds
Jacksonville protects a tree partly by where it stands on the lot, not only by how thick it is. Worth a look before you decide what comes down.
| Where the tree is | Protected from about |
|---|---|
| Within 20 feet of the street right of way | About 6 inches |
| Within 10 feet of a property line | About 8 inches |
| Anywhere else on the lot | About 11.5 inches |
| Hardwoods at 24 inches and over | Treated separately |
An occupied single family lot that cannot be subdivided is treated differently from development land. And a Duval address is not automatically a Jacksonville ordinance address: Jacksonville Beach, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach and Baldwin never consolidated and run their own codes.
These come from the city's published guidance on Section 656 Part 12 and Article 25 of the charter. We are a clearing contractor, not the permit office, and we do not file applications. Confirm your own parcel with the City of Jacksonville before you commit.
Jacksonville questions
How much does it cost to clear a lot in Jacksonville?
From $3,000 a machine day. Most platted city lots are one day. A quarter acre lot and a full acre lot often cost the same, because the day is the unit and most of what you are buying is a machine, an operator and a day of their time. Send photographs and we will give you a day count rather than a range.
How long does it take?
Most Duval lots are a single machine day. Thick palmetto, trees you want kept and awkward access are what turn one day into two, and we tell you that before you book rather than at the end of day one.
What happens to everything you cut?
It stays on the ground as mulch, spread as the machine goes. Nothing piled, nothing burned. On a platted street that matters more than it sounds, because the alternative is a line of trucks past your neighbours for a day.
Can you clear around the trees I want to keep?
Yes, and in Jacksonville that is the usual brief. Mark them before we come out. A mulcher going round a tree is slower than one going through it, so selective work can add to the day count, and we will say so when it does.
Do I need a permit?
It depends what is standing and where. Jacksonville protects trees from roughly 6 inches diameter within 20 feet of the street, about 8 inches within 10 feet of a property line and about 11.5 inches elsewhere, with larger hardwoods treated separately. Occupied single family lots that cannot be subdivided are treated differently. Confirm your parcel with the city rather than taking a contractor's word for it, ours included.
You have only done one job in Jacksonville. Why should I call you?
Fair question, and it is why the number is on the page rather than buried. Seventeen jobs across the five northeast Florida counties, most of them in Clay and Nassau. If you want a contractor who has cleared fifty lots inside the city limits, we are not it. If you want the machine, the operator and a straight answer about how many days your ground needs, we are.
Are you licensed and insured?
Insured, and we send the certificate before the machine moves. Florida does not issue a contractor licence for forestry mulching, so nobody holds one. Insurance is the document worth asking every contractor to produce.
Get a price on your Jacksonville lot
Send a few photographs, the lot size and a note on what you want left standing. Tell us roughly how close the big trees are to the road and to the boundary and we can flag the permit question before you spend anything.
Call or text 813-733-6607