Why a stump is a digging job under Georgia law
Georgia's Utility Facility Protection Act, published in full by Georgia 811, defines excavating as any operation using mechanized equipment or explosives to move earth, rock or other material below existing grade, including augering, digging, grading, ripping and scraping. In its definitions, the law also states plainly that stump removal shall be considered excavation.
In practice that means a grinder working below grade is digging, and digging near buried gas, power, water and communications lines is exactly what the 811 system exists to prevent. Before mechanized stump work, the person doing it should submit a locate request through Georgia 811 and wait for the lines to be marked. Ask any provider you speak with to confirm that they place the request and to tell you the ticket number.
What the locate request covers, and what it does not
Georgia 811 is the state's one-call center for utility locates, and the law describes how facility owners respond and how marks are made. The marks show where member utilities' underground lines run. They generally do not show privately owned lines, such as a buried line to a detached garage, a lighting circuit or an irrigation system, so tell your provider about anything you installed or know about.
Stumps near septic tanks and drain fields deserve extra care, because the tank, lines and field are private and will not be marked by the utilities. If you know where your system is, flag it. If you do not, a septic record from the county health office can help before grinding starts near the house.
Grinding versus removal
Grinding chips the stump down below grade and leaves the roots to decay in place. Full stump removal pulls the stump and main roots out of the ground, which disturbs more soil and leaves a larger hole to fill. Both are excavation under the law, but they differ a lot in how much ground they disturb.
Ask what depth the provider grinds to and whether they will rake out and remove the grindings or leave them. Georgia Power, describing its own right-of-way work, says its stump shavings are leveled out over the stump area and decay naturally over time. That is a common approach, but grindings settle as they rot, so expect a shallow dip later if you plan to sod or build over the spot.
Want a local provider to look at the tree?
Free Quote RequestProtect the trees you are keeping
Stumps often sit inside the root zone of a neighboring tree. Cherokee County's Article 27 defines the critical root zone as the area that must be left undisturbed to give a tree a reasonable chance of survival, with a radius in feet of one and one-half times the tree's diameter in inches. A grinder chewing through roots inside that circle can do real harm to a tree you meant to save.
Ask the provider how they will handle surface roots that run toward other trees, and keep heavy equipment off the root zone where possible; the ordinance describes compaction from repeated traffic and weight as a change that damages root conditions. Our root zone calculator will tell you how wide that protected circle is for any tree on your lot.
Stumps left from beetles, storms and clearing
Stumps from pine beetle removals and storm cleanup are common in north Cherokee. They are generally scheduled after the emergency part of the job, once hanging limbs are down and the debris is gone. For lot clearing, stump work is part of grading and may fall under a county land disturbance or erosion control permit rather than being a stand-alone job.
If the stumps are near Lake Allatoona or a stream, do not grind until you have read the buffer and shoreline rules. Cherokee County's land disturbance permit covers any disturbance of soil within two hundred feet of state waters, and federal shoreline land on the lake needs Corps of Engineers approval.
Planning the spot after the stump is gone
If you plan to replant, pick a new spot rather than the old hole. The decaying roots and the grindings make the old spot settle and change the soil. For a new tree, think about mature size and what is overhead; Georgia Power's easement guidance says trees with a mature height of less than fifteen feet are generally permitted in its transmission easement areas, as long as they do not restrict access.
If you plan to build, ask whether the grinding should go deeper or the stump should come out entirely, since organic material under a slab or footing will decompose. Either way, keep a note of where each stump was. For the removal itself, start with tree removal in Ball Ground.