Forestry Mulching
We grind palmetto, underbrush and especially the extremely invasive Brazilian Pepper in place, leaving your mature native trees standing and the ground open and walkable.
See Forestry Mulching →
Complete lot clearing with excavator and root rake, plus fill dirt delivered and compacted for a house pad. No deposit and no long wait.
Lot clearing in Sarasota, FL for homeowners and builders. Average $5,000 to $9,000 for a standard lot. No money up front. ACI has worked Sarasota County for 23 years, out of Venice. Free estimates, no obligation, and someone answers 24 hours a day. Text 941-445-3027.

Sarasota has two clearing markets and they barely resemble each other. East of the interstate, past Fruitville and out toward the county line, people are clearing raw acreage to put a house, a barn or a driveway on it. West of there, inside the built out grid, it is infill. A lot that sat empty between two houses for thirty years and grew a jungle, or a teardown that has to be stripped before a slab can go down.
Both come down to whose tree rules cover the lot: Sarasota County's in the unincorporated county, the City of Sarasota's inside city limits. That is not something you want to sort out after the machine is already parked there, so we walk the lot, mark what stays and tell you what applies before a single stem is touched.
A standard lot clearing here averages $5,000 to $9,000. We never take money up front on land clearing, so you pay when the work is done and you can stand on it. Scheduling is generally never more than two weeks out. Free estimate with no obligation. Text 941-445-3027.
The order matters. Trees that are staying get identified and protected first. Then the understory comes out, then the stumps and root balls, then the grade. Doing it backwards is how a builder ends up paying for a tree that should never have been touched, and how a homeowner ends up with a lot that ponds water the first summer after the trees are gone.
On the acreage east of I-75 the ground itself is part of the job. Much of that country is flat with a high wet season water table, and the water has to have somewhere to go before a pad goes down on it. We handle the swale and drainage side as well, so the clearing plan and the water plan are one plan instead of two arguments.
A lot clear is not a mow and a haul. Trees come down, stumps come out, and the excavator and root rake work the ground until the organic material is gone. Roots left in the ground rot, and that can turn into soft spots under a slab years later.
Everything we pull gets loaded and hauled off site. What you are left with is open, level ground a surveyor and a foundation crew can work on. If the lot is staying a lot, we finish it clean and walkable, a park like finish instead of a torn up field.
Plenty of lots around here need to come up before anything gets built on them. We deliver fill dirt, spread it and compact it so the pad is ready when the foundation crew arrives.
Doing the clearing and the pad with one company keeps it on one schedule. There is nobody to point at when a date moves, and nobody waiting on somebody else to finish first.
Most people who call us have never cleared a lot before and have no idea what the permit side looks like. That part stalls more projects than the machinery ever does.
The rules for clearing a lot change from county to county and city to city. We walk you through what applies to your property, tell you who you need to talk to, and make sure the work is done properly. Ask early. It is much easier to sort out before a machine is sitting on the ground waiting.
Speed is the whole point of hiring us. Getting on the calendar is generally never more than two weeks out.
Customers tell us about contractors who took a deposit and then did not come back for months. That is not how we work. We do not take money up front, and a large portion of our work is repeat business.
Some of our customers have held onto a lot for years and are finally building on it. Others are contractors who need a site open on a specific date, or developers taking a larger parcel down in phases. Property that has sat empty and grown over is normal work for us.
Two things bring most of these calls in. We are fast, and we do not ask you for money before the work is done.
ACI has been working in this area for 23 years. The crew shows up in uniform, in clean lettered trucks, and the site gets cleaned up before we pull out.
Your county or city decides that, not us. Most of our customers have never been through the process. We explain what is involved, point you to the right office, and make sure the clearing is done properly.
A standard lot clearing averages $5,000 to $9,000. Lot size, tree cover, access and how much material has to be hauled off all move that number. The estimate is free and there is no obligation.
No. We never take money up front on land clearing. You pay when the job is complete and you have walked the property.
Land clearing is generally never more than two weeks out. Call or text and we will tell you exactly where the calendar stands that week.
It depends on the lot. Size, tree cover, access and how much material has to come off all change the answer. Larger parcels and heavy tree cover take longer, and we will give you a straight answer on that before you commit to anything.
Yes. We deliver, spread and compact fill dirt for a house pad, so the clearing and the pad stay on one schedule with one company.
A standard lot clearing averages $5,000 to $9,000. What moves it inside that range is how heavy the growth is, how many stumps come out, whether the material can be mulched on site or has to be hauled, and how much grade work you want once the trees are down. We give you a written number after we walk it.
That is the county's call or the city's, depending on where the lot sits: Sarasota County's tree permit rules in the unincorporated county, the City of Sarasota's inside city limits. We check the lot against the rules that apply to it and tell you what the process looks like before anything gets scheduled.
Land clearing is generally never more than two weeks out. And we never ask for money before we start. You pay when the lot is finished.
We work across Sarasota, Charlotte and Manatee Counties, and travel further for storm work.
We grind palmetto, underbrush and especially the extremely invasive Brazilian Pepper in place, leaving your mature native trees standing and the ground open and walkable.
See Forestry Mulching →
We bring in fill, set the grade and compact it, so your house pad, driveway or parking area sits on ground that drains right and stays put.
See Fill Dirt & Grading →
One stump or hundreds, any species, ground out clean with our own turbo diesel machine anywhere from Sarasota to Punta Gorda.
See Stump Grinding →Free, no obligation estimates. 24/7 emergency service.