Clearing a Lot to Build a Home in the Orlando Area

Clearing a lot is a smaller, tighter job than clearing acreage. It is usually one homesite: an infill lot between two finished houses, a parcel in a subdivision that never got built on, or a lot bought years ago that has grown back into laurel oaks and vines. The trees that come out, the trees that stay, and where the stumps go are decided by the house plan, the permit and the building code.

Tree Service Orlando FL does not clear lots. It is a free phone line. Call (689) 407-5379, tell the automated assistant where the lot is and what is on it, and your call is transferred to an independent, locally owned company that clears lots in your part of the Orlando area. That company walks the lot, quotes its own price and does the work. If you have many acres rather than one homesite, see land clearing instead.

Start with the survey, not the saw

On a building lot the order of work matters. Most owners and builders get these done before any tree comes down:

1. Boundary survey. On a narrow infill lot, a few feet decide whether an oak is yours or your neighbor's. Clear only inside the lines.
2. Tree survey. Orange County's tree permit application asks for a survey that shows the property lines and every regulated tree, 8 inches or more in diameter at breast height, with its location, diameter and common name, plus specimen and heritage trees. On plans that go through the county's development review, the survey has to be signed and sealed by a Florida registered surveyor.
3. Site plan. The house footprint, driveway, septic or sewer line and pool show which trees are actually in the way.
4. Permits. The building permit, and any tree permit, before clearing starts.

Clearing first and planning later is how lots end up with no shade, a code violation, or both.

Saving a specimen oak on a building lot

A mature live oak at the front of a new house is worth a lot, and Orange County's development rules reward keeping one. Its development review checklist calls any live oak or southern magnolia 24 inches or more in diameter a specimen tree and counts preserved specimen inches at a 2 to 1 ratio. Plans must show a protection barrier around each preserved tree, and no fill or excavation is allowed closer than six feet from the trunk or inside the drip line, whichever is greater.

The barrier is the part that gets ignored. UF/IFAS Extension says root damage is the biggest danger from construction: soil compaction from equipment, changes in grade, and trenches for utilities. One UF/IFAS Extension agent puts it plainly: leaving the tree is not saving the tree. Even with fencing at the drip line, half or more of the roots can be affected, and the decline often shows up several years later when nobody connects it to the build.

That is why the lot clearing crew should set up the fence before its own machines arrive, and why utility trenches should go around or under the roots. If you are unsure whether an oak is sound enough to build around, get an arborist assessment before the plan is final.

Stumps: grind or pull?

This is the question that most separates lot clearing from ordinary tree removal. Where the house will sit, stumps have to come out completely. The Florida Building Code's termite protection rules require the foundation area, and the area within 1 foot of it, to be cleared of all vegetation, stumps, dead roots, cardboard, trash and foreign material before construction. Buried wood under a slab is exactly what that termite rule is written to prevent.

So a lot clearing quote often splits the work:

• Full stump and root extraction with an excavator inside the footprint of the house, garage and slab areas
• Stump grinding below grade in the yard areas that will become lawn or landscape
• Root balls and debris hauled off, not buried on site
• Holes backfilled so the builder's grading starts level

Ask the company to mark on the site plan which stumps it will pull and which it will grind, so nothing gets missed under the pad.

Silt fence and keeping sand out of the street

Once a lot is cleared, bare sand can wash with the first heavy afternoon storm. Erosion and sediment controls, most often a silt fence along the low side and the street edge, keep it out of the gutter, the storm drain and the neighbor's yard. Ask your builder what the permit and inspections for your lot require.

The Florida Department of Environmental Protection requires stormwater permit coverage and a written pollution prevention plan for construction that disturbs one acre or more, or less than an acre when the lot is part of a larger common plan of development or sale. A single home in an established neighborhood is usually below that line, but a lot in a subdivision still being built out may be part of the larger plan. Your builder should know which applies.

Talk through who installs the silt fence and who keeps it standing. If the clearing company installs it, put it in the quote.

Timing the clearing with the permits

Clearing too early is the most common and most expensive mistake. In unincorporated Orange County, removing regulated trees from a vacant lot before you have either a tree permit or an approved building permit can turn into a violation. Clearing months before construction also leaves bare sand to wash and weeds to regrow. It usually makes sense to clear shortly after the building permit is issued and close to when the pad will be formed; agree the timing with your builder.

Check for wildlife too. On sandy lots, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission treats any work within 25 feet of a potentially occupied gopher tortoise burrow as a disturbance that needs an FWC permit. The land clearing page covers that in more detail.

How a lot clearing call works

1. Call any hourAn automated assistant answers (689) 407-5379 and asks what kind of tree work you need.
2. Describe the jobGive your name, a callback number, your city or ZIP and what the tree is doing, including anything on a roof, a car or a line.
3. Get put throughThe call goes to an independent, locally owned tree service company, which hears a short summary before it picks up.
4. Deal with them directlyThat company looks at the tree, quotes, does the work and is paid by you. If it cannot answer, it gets your details to call back.

Related services

• Land Clearing
• Stump Grinding and Removal
• Tree Removal
• Arborist Tree Assessment
• Tree Debris Removal and Hauling

Guides for this job

• Orlando and Florida Tree Removal Permits
• Tree Removal Cost in Orlando

The line takes calls from across the Orlando area:

• All Orlando-area service areas
• Orlando
• Kissimmee
• St. Cloud
• Clermont
• Winter Garden
• Ocoee
• Apopka
• Winter Park
• Altamonte Springs
• Longwood
• Lake Mary
• Sanford
• Oviedo
• DeLand