If you are a landowner who has to clear a swath to construct a new development or apartment complex, you want the job done quickly and effectively. Contracting the work out can cost a small fortune, so you decided to DIY. What’s next?
You’ll need to work up a plan based on your budget and available resources. Here are five easy ways to clear a larger property for development.
1. Determine Your Strategy
If you want to maximize your success, you need to treat your real estate endeavors like a business — which means sitting down at the drawing board, or, in this case, the accounting table. Ask yourself the following questions when determining ways to clear a larger property:
- What are the current market conditions? The least expensive route isn’t always the best. If your area is in high demand, leveraging a little equity by taking out a building loan might make better financial sense than waiting to see what conditions are like after you finish clearing by hand.
- For what purpose will you use the land? Chemical treatments can provide a nearly effortless way to clear land, but if you need to maintain the soil quality for planting, another method might work better.
- What tools do you have at your disposal? If you also own a construction business and have access to heavy equipment, your clearing process might be a no-brainer.
2. Rent the Right Equipment
You can’t beat heavy machinery when it comes to an easy way to clear a larger property. Devices like a forestry disk mulcher can clear small trees and shrubs while leaving older, more stately ones standing where you want them for shade. It’s also an eco-friendly choice, as you can use the resulting mulch in your future landscaping.
Even if you decide to clear by hand, it helps to have tools at your disposal. For example, if one of the trees you spared has a root growing through your fence line, you can use an auger to drill through the root and place the post without removing the towering oak or chestnut you hoped to save.
3. Use a Weed Burner
If you live in an area of high wildfire risk, you probably at least have a nodding acquaintance with the way the forest service uses controlled burns to prevent large-scale devastation. You can emulate the science to clear your larger property quickly.
The apparent risk in this method is that of the fire burning out of control. Plus, local or state ordinances may prohibit certain sizes of burns or forbid them entirely during times of high risk. Please check with your local forestry department or city manager’s office.
You might also want to give your local fire department a call before commencing on your project. While you should have materials at the ready to put out the flame, they’ll have to come to the rescue if things get out of control and will appreciate the heads’ up.
4. Invest in Herbicides
Let’s say you aim to attract quality tenants to your development by adding amenities such as a community pool. If you plan to cover the land that you clear with concrete, asphalt or other building materials, herbicides make a relatively low-cost and effective solution. If brush is your primary concern, products that contain Triclopyr works on it and other broadleaf plants. Apply the solution to the entire shrub, including the stem near the root and wait for it to die, then rake it away.
You have a trickier time using this easy way to clear a larger property if your land is located in an agricultural area. You could get embroiled in a court case — many small farmers have sued organizations using Monsanto products. While you might prevail, who needs the headaches or controversy?
5. Try Old-Fashioned Muscle Power
The most cost-effective way to clear a larger property is to do so by hand, but you then face labor and time constraints. You probably aren’t Hercules, and you might not feel like adding to your seven labors if you were. If you don’t have friends and family members willing to help, you might have to hire a crew.
If you choose to go this route, you’ll still need a hardware store trip to stock up on black plastic sheeting. Once you clear a portion of your land, cover it with plastic to prevent weeds from returning while you work on the rest of the back 40. You can also use this method to clear patches of lawn to create gardens on established properties.
Clear Your Larger Property These 5 Easy Ways
If you need to clear a swath for development or any purpose, you have the knowledge you need to attack the problem. Clear your larger property the five easy ways above and move on to the next stage of your project.
Oscar Collins is the managing editor at Modded. He writes about cars, fitness, the outdoors and more. Follow @TModded on Twitter for more articles from the Modded team.
