Land Clearing Cost in Roane County, TN

What does land clearing cost in Roane County? The national cost guides start at a few hundred dollars an acre for mulching light brush and climb past $5,000 an acre for heavy woods with the stumps pulled. Where your job falls has less to do with the acreage than with the ground: how steep it is, how much chert and rock is in it, what's growing, whether stumps come out, where the debris can go, and whether TVA shoreland or a creek sets limits. Below are the published figures with their sources, what moves a local job, and how to compare quotes.

Published prices

Every figure below is national, from the guide named, checked in October 2026. HomeAdvisor's pages are titled as 2025 guides, and Angi's mulching page is labeled 2024 data; none of them shows a Roane County or Tennessee price. Use them to judge whether a quote is in the normal range, not to predict it.

Government fees that can come up

These come from the agencies' own pages, checked October 2026:

• TDEC construction stormwater permit: $250 for 1 to under 5 acres disturbed, $1,000 for 5 to under 20 acres, with an annual fee ($125 at the smallest size) if the project runs past a year.
• TDEC Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit: $50 for a personal residence or family farm under a general permit; nothing when no notice is required; more for larger projects.
• TVA Section 26a: TVA's FAQ lists a $1,000 application fee for minor shoreline alterations such as docks, piers, and boathouses. Ask TVA what applies if your request is only a vegetation management plan.
• Burn permits: the state permit and Kingston's city permit are free.

What moves a Roane County price

• Slope. Ridge flanks, the ground under Walden Ridge, and lake banks slow a machine and add hand work and erosion control. HomeAdvisor's stump guide alone lists terrain surcharges of up to $50 an hour. More on steep lots.
• Chert and rock. NRCS describes soils in this region with anywhere from 15 percent to 80 percent chert, and shale and sandstone underlie many ridges. Rock wears teeth, comes up in root balls, and slows grading.
• What's growing. Brush and saplings mulch fast. Large oaks and poplars need saw work and log handling. Thick young pine is slow either way.
• Stumps out or left. Mulching leaves roots in the ground and generally costs far less than digging; compare the mulching and heavily forested rows above.
• Where the debris goes. Kingston requires a city burn permit year-round, and the City of Loudon doesn't permit land-development burns without an air curtain unit. Where burning is out, debris is mulched, chipped, or hauled, and hauling usually costs the most. More on debris.
• TVA shoreland and creeks. Hand work near the TVA line, waiting on approval, and keeping out of stream channels all take time. More on lake lots.
• Permits and erosion control. State fees, silt fence, straw, matting, and seed on construction jobs.
• The trip. Hauling a machine to your property costs about the same for a half day as for a week, which is why small jobs often carry a minimum.

By the acre, by the day, or by the hour?

You'll see all three. A per-acre or whole-job price is easy to compare and leaves the contractor carrying the risk of a slow day, but it rests on how well they read the slope and the rock. A day or hourly rate shifts that risk to you: if the chert is worse than it looked, you pay for the extra hours. Hourly pricing fits small or hard-to-judge jobs and long, skinny fence rows. However it's priced, ask how many machine days they expect and what the price includes.

What the written quote should say

• The work area, flagged or drawn on a map, and what's off limits: keeper trees, the septic area, the TVA line, creek banks.
• The method for each part: mulch, cut and pile, or dig out.
• What happens to stumps: cut low, ground, or pulled.
• Debris: mulched, chipped, trucked away, or burned, and whose name goes on any burn permit.
• Rock: how it gets dealt with, and whether it's priced separately.
• Silt fence, straw, matting, and seed: included or not.
• Who files the Tennessee 811 ticket and any TDEC or TVA paperwork.
• Expected days on site, the cost of an extra day, and the plan for wet weather.
• Payment schedule and proof of insurance. More on hiring.

Ways to keep the price down

• Clear only what you need. Every tree left is one you don't pay to remove, and on a house lot it may keep you under the state's one-acre permit line.
• Mulch most of it, dig only the footprint of the house and drive.
• Leave stumps and rock alone where nothing will be built or mowed.
• Keep the firewood and logs instead of paying to have them hauled.
• Work in a dry season, when machines aren't fighting mud on clay.
• Join up with a neighbor who has clearing to do, so one machine trip covers both.

Cost questions

What does one acre cost to clear in Roane County?

By the national figures above, $500 to $2,000 for a lightly wooded acre and $3,600 to $5,600 for a heavily forested one, or $400 to $1,500 to mulch. Steep, rocky ground tends to push a job up. Only someone who has walked your acre can price it.

Will a small job carry a minimum charge?

Often. Getting a machine there costs nearly the same for a few hours as for a full day. HomeAdvisor's stump guide says plenty of companies won't grind a lone stump for less than $100 to $150.

Why do two quotes for the same land differ so much?

Most often they're pricing different jobs. One mulches and leaves the stumps; the other digs, piles, and hauls. Lay them side by side, line by line.

Does a lake lot cost more to clear?

It often takes more care: steeper banks, hand work near the TVA line, and keeping everything out of the water. Any work on TVA-owned shoreland also has to wait for TVA's approval.

How this site can help

Call or send a short request. One independent contractor who covers your area will receive it, look at the land, and give you a written price you can take or turn down. There's no charge for the referral.

Related pages

• Forestry mulching
• House-site clearing
• Stump grinding
• Permits by what you're doing
• Hiring a clearing contractor