Stump grinder rental in Washington and Oregon: cost, machines, and when to hire it out

How much does it cost to rent a stump grinder?

The table lists every Washington and Oregon stump grinder rate we could read on a shop’s own page or price list on October 2, 2026. They are posted rates, not quotes, and exclude tax; Interstate Rentals’ page says tax and other fees are not shown. Call to confirm before you plan around one.

Source: each shop’s published rate page or price list, checked 2026-10-02 (links under Sources). Reid lists a $135 minimum charge without naming the period.

Home Depot and United Rentals are missing on purpose. Home Depot’s rental pages list a 13 HP handlebar grinder and a Barreto E30SGB tracked grinder but show a price only after you choose a store, and United Rentals asks for a location first. For a stump grinder for rent from Home Depot, pick your store on the product page; the specs below still apply.

The posted rate is rarely the whole bill. Reid includes a trailer with its tracked machine; Cascade delivers for a $100 minimum plus $12 a mile. Ask how the shop bills for damaged teeth: Family Handyman’s walkthrough warns that running the cutting head into a rock can ruin them.

Walk-behind vs tracked: which stump grinder to rent

Rental grinders come in two classes, and both are walk-behind machines in the sense that you steer them from behind; EquipmentShare files the 31 hp tracked Barreto E30SGB under “walk-behind stump grinder.” The real split is weight, power and how the machine gets to your stump.

Source: Toro and Barreto specification pages and Home Depot’s rental listing, checked 2026-10-02.

Handlebar grinders are the 13 hp machines at the cheap end of the rate table. Toro’s SGR-13 cuts with a 9.5-inch wheel carrying three teeth, and its handle folds so it fits in an SUV, car trunk or minivan; Home Depot says two people can lift its rental into a truck by the side handles. Measure the gate: the Toro is 30 inches wide.

Tracked hydraulic grinders are the $225–$275 machines in the table. They drive themselves on tracks and swing a 19-inch (Toro STX-26, 12 teeth) or 19.2-inch (Barreto 30SGB, 16 teeth) wheel. For a Northwest yard, let the stump choose: a 13 hp unit handles ornamental and small hardwood stumps, while a big Douglas fir or western redcedar stump calls for the tracked class, with twice the wheel diameter and two to 2.4 times the horsepower.

Towing is the hidden requirement. Home Depot lists its E30SGB rental at 2,170 lb combined with its trailer, on a 2-inch hitch, so check your vehicle’s towing rating before you reserve a tracked machine, or pay for delivery.

How deep does a rental grinder go, and how long does a stump take?

Spec sheets rate common rental grinders to cut 11 to 12.5 inches below grade: 11 for the Toro SGR-13, 12 for the Barreto 30SGB and Home Depot’s 13 HP unit, 12.5 for the Toro STX-26. That is enough for lawn. Family Handyman’s walkthrough grinds 6 to 10 inches below grade, and says to go as deep as the stump is wide where you will build or pave, which no rental machine reaches and which is closer to stump removal than grinding.

The one published depth in the region is Portland’s: for a street-tree removal, the City can direct that the stump be ground out up to 18 inches below grade (PCC 11.60.050). That is deeper than any machine in the table above is rated to cut. How deep to ask for on a private lot is covered on the stump grinding hub.

Time is harder to pin down because it depends on the wood, the diameter and the roots. Family Handyman puts a 20-inch oak stump at about 45 minutes with a rental grinder. A wide, flared conifer stump is more wood to chew, and surface roots add passes, so save the 4-hour rate for one or two small stumps close together.

1. Request the locateCall 811 at least two full business days ahead, then flag what it will not mark: irrigation, lighting, a feed to a shed.
2. Measure and clearMeasure the widest point at the ground, flare included, and clear branches, rocks and debris from the work area (Barreto).
3. Gear upFace shield, hard hat, hearing protection, boots and gloves (Barreto); nobody within 75 feet while the wheel turns (TCIA).
4. Work the edge in passesSwing the wheel across the edge, lower it a few inches, swing again; Barreto says cutting the edge beats chewing across a wide area.
5. BackfillRake the grindings back into the hole to settle, or pull them out and add topsoil where you plan to seed.

Stump grinder safety and the 811 call

A grinder wheel throws what it cuts. Barreto’s operator’s manual warns that the wheel can throw chips, rocks and debris, and calls for a face shield and hard hat for anyone operating or watching, plus hearing protection, safety boots, gloves and close-fitting clothes. TCIA, the tree care industry’s trade association, tells operators to keep onlookers at least 75 feet away while the wheel turns.

Safety: Pace off 75 feet from the stump and plan for the people, pets and parked cars inside that circle. Barreto allows its tracked machine on a 20-degree incline at most and says to avoid slopes where possible; a stump on a bank or above a retaining wall is a crew job.

The locate is the step renters skip. Both states exempt an owner’s digging only when it is less than 12 inches deep, and rental grinders are rated to 11 to 12.5 inches below grade, right at that line. The call is free.

Oregon’s notification center says utilities mark their own lines to the meter or connection point; irrigation, lighting, a feed to a shop or a buried drain are yours to flag. The full rules are on the stump grinding hub. This is a summary, not legal advice.

Rent or hire: the math for your stumps

The comparison price is the site’s model for hiring a grinder: $4–$6 per inch of stump diameter measured at the ground, a $150 minimum per visit, each figure rounded to $50. It is a modeled estimate, not quotes (method), and the full table is on stump grinding cost. Because the minimum is per visit, several stumps on one visit share it.

Modeled estimate, not quotes: $4–$6 per inch at the ground, $150 minimum per visit, rounded to the nearest $50 (method).

Read it against the rental table. A $120 handlebar day undercuts even the $150 pro minimum by $30, before tax, fuel, getting the machine home and a day of your own work. A $275 tracked day sits inside the modeled pro range from about 46 to 69 total inches of stump; past that, renting is cheaper on paper, and the gap widens with every stump you add.

To put a number on your own hours, the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ May 2025 wage survey is one yardstick: tree trimmers and pruners earned a median $30.70 an hour in Washington and $36.27 in Oregon. That is what those workers earn, not what a crew charges, but at those rates eight hours of your own work is worth about $246 in Washington and $290 in Oregon, roughly the price of a tracked rental day.

When hiring a stump grinding crew wins

If the tree is still standing, the stump is a separate line from the removal: the tree removal cost calculator adds grinding to a modeled removal, and if you plan to drop the tree yourself, start with how to cut down a tree. Grindings come out as wood mixed with soil; for clean mulch, see free wood chips from tree crews.