Moncton & Southeastern New Brunswick
Land clearing that leaves you a lot you can build on
Wooded acreage to staked, grubbed, buildable ground. We clear the envelope, take the stumps and roots out where they matter, rough in the driveway so trucks can reach you, and hand the site over on the week your builder needs it. Fixed written price, free on-site quote.
Request a free quote
Tell us about the property. We'll come and look at it, at no charge.
What we do
Six pieces of the job
Most projects need three or four of these. The quote spells out which ones, so there's no argument later about what "cleared" was supposed to mean.
Building Lot Clearing
Wooded lot to buildable lot. Envelope, driveway line and septic area cleared to your staked boundaries, with working room your build crew can actually use.
Lot clearingSite Preparation & Excavation
Grading, drainage shaping, topsoil stripped and stockpiled, pad levelled. The work between a cleared lot and a foundation crew that can start.
Site preparationStump Removal & Grubbing
Stumps and root balls pulled with a bucket and thumb, not ground down and left behind. Root mat out of the footprint so nothing rots and settles under your build.
Stump removalBrush Clearing & Reclamation
Alder, scrub and sapling regrowth taken back off fields, pasture and yards. Reclaim land you already own instead of buying more.
Brush clearingForestry Mulching
Vegetation ground into chip where it stands — no burn piles, no hauling, no disposal bill. Our first pass on most jobs, and the whole job on plenty of them.
Forestry mulchingDriveways & Access Roads
The corridor cut, grubbed, ditched and shaped so a loaded truck can get in — in April, not just in July. The step people skip and regret.
Driveways & accessThe order it happens in
Clearing is a sequence, and the sequence is where projects go wrong
Almost every problem we get called about on a half-finished lot traces back to something done in the wrong order. Topsoil buried under basement spoil because nobody stripped it first. A driveway roughed in after the gravel was ordered. Stumps left in a corner that turned out to be where the septic bed had to go.
None of that is difficult to avoid. It just has to be decided before a machine starts, which means one walk-around with the lot plan and your builder's requirements in hand.
Lines and permits first
Find the pins, confirm the setbacks, and check for water within 30 metres. A permit found on day one is an inconvenience; found on day three it's a stopped job.
Clear the envelope, driveway and septic area
All of it, in one pass, to the staked boundary. Coming back for a forgotten strip costs a whole mobilization.
Grub what's going under load
Footprint, driveway, septic bed. Not the whole property — that's money spent on ground nothing will sit on.
Rough in the access
Before the deliveries start, not after.
Strip and stockpile the topsoil
Somewhere out of the way and out of the spoil pile, so you still have it for landscaping in a year's time.
Shape the drainage
Decide where the water goes before anything is built. Correcting drainage around a finished foundation is the most expensive fix on a build.
Staked and clearedThe finished lot shot from the road: envelope open, driveway roughed in, treeline left standing at the edges.
Equipment
An excavator, two attachments, one contractor
Our main machine is an excavator that runs a forestry mulching head for vegetation and swaps to a bucket and thumb for stumps, grubbing and grading. That combination covers the whole job from standing timber to a levelled pad without bringing in a second outfit.
It matters more than it sounds. On a small rural lot, moving equipment on and off site is a real line item, and every contractor you add is another mobilization and another schedule to coordinate around. One machine that does both halves keeps the price down and the timeline short.
The boom also earns its keep on the ground around here — soft spots, ditch lines, slopes and brook edges where reaching in from firm footing beats driving in and finding out.
- Mulching head for standing trees and brush
- Bucket and thumb for stumps and root balls
- Grading and drainage shaping
- Works on slopes and soft ground
- One mobilization instead of two or three
- No burn permits and no disposal loads
Bucket and thumbRoot ball lifted clear of the ground with dirt falling away — shows what's actually under a stump.
Who we work for
Four kinds of job, week in week out
People building a house
By far the most common. You bought a treed lot, you have a plan and a builder, and you need the ground ready by a date. We work to the stakes and the schedule.
Builders and general contractors
Clearing and grubbing to spec on lots you're developing, with the paperwork your lender or engineer wants. We'll coordinate sequencing so clearing isn't the thing holding up the pour.
Landowners with acreage
Rural property that's gone to bush, old fields worth reclaiming, or woodlot that needs opening up. Larger areas, less urgency, and usually the best value if you're flexible on timing.
Shops, garages and outbuildings
A pad on a property you already live on. Small, quick, usually one or two days, and the difference between a plan and a building.
Service area
Where we work
About an hour in any direction from Moncton — Westmorland, Albert and Kent counties, into Kings, and across into the Amherst area.
- Moncton
- Dieppe
- Riverview
- Shediac
- Salisbury
- Memramcook
- Sackville
- Dorchester
- Petitcodiac
- Havelock
- Hillsborough
- Riverside-Albert
- Alma
- Elgin
- Sussex
- Cap-Pelé
- Cocagne
- Bouctouche
- Rexton
- Richibucto
- Port Elgin
- Amherst, NS
Straight answers
Questions people ask before they book
Where does land clearing sit in a building project?
Near the front, and it's the step that determines whether everything after it runs smoothly. The usual order on a rural lot around here is: confirm your lot lines and permits, clear the building envelope and driveway, grub the stumps and roots out of the footprint, rough in the driveway so trucks can get in, strip and stockpile the topsoil, then hand the lot to your foundation crew.
Get the driveway wrong and the concrete truck can't reach you in April. Get the grubbing wrong and your builder finds root balls under the footing line. Both are cheap to do properly the first time and expensive to fix afterward.
Do you work with my builder, or do I coordinate it?
Either way. Plenty of homeowners hand us the plan and the stake locations and we work directly with the builder on timing. Others prefer to be the go-between. What matters is that somebody tells us how much working room the build crew needs, where they want the spoil, and what week the lot has to be ready.
Ten minutes on the phone with whoever is putting up the building answers all three, and it's the single best thing you can do to keep the cost down.
How much land needs to come off for a house?
More than the footprint, always. Plan on clearing 20 to 30 feet beyond the foundation on every side so there's room to work, plus the full driveway corridor, plus the septic field and its designated replacement area.
The most common mistake is clearing exactly the house and discovering there's nowhere for the excavator to sit, nowhere to stockpile basement spoil, and no room to swing a truss.
What's the difference between clearing and grubbing?
Clearing takes off what's above ground — trees, brush, stumps cut to grade. Grubbing takes out what's below it — the stumps, root balls and root mat.
Construction drawings say "clearing and grubbing" as one phrase because anything structural needs both. Pasture, trails and general cleanup usually need only the clearing. They're priced separately because grubbing is excavation work that moves real volume and produces material that has to go somewhere.
Do I need a permit to clear land in New Brunswick?
Two things to check. Provincially, any work within 30 metres of a watercourse or wetland requires a Watercourse and Wetland Alteration Permit from the Department of Environment and Local Government, and land clearing counts as work. Brooks, ditches and seasonal wet spots can all qualify, and people are caught out by this constantly.
Locally, Moncton, Dieppe, Riverview and the rural service districts each have their own development and building permit requirements, and your subdivision may have covenants on top of that.
We'll flag anything obvious on the quote visit, but the permit is the landowner's responsibility and we won't start work that needs one until it's issued.
How long does it take?
A typical half-acre to one-acre residential lot with decent access is two to four days all in — clearing, grubbing the footprint, and roughing in the driveway. Bigger acreage, heavy growth, slopes or a long soft approach extend it.
Frost and rain move schedules more than lot size does. Winter work on frozen ground is often faster and cleaner than summer, and it books up.
Are you insured, and can my lender see it?
Yes — general liability, and we'll send the certificate to you, your general contractor or your lender before anything starts. If you're financing a build, your lender will usually want it on file anyway.
Free, no-obligation
Building this year? Get the clearing quoted now.
Clearing books up ahead of the building season, and winter frost is often the best working ground of the year. Free on-site quote anywhere within about an hour of Moncton.