Land Clearing and Grading Cost in Tennessee (2026 Guide)

You have a wooded lot, a house plan and a builder asking when the site will be ready, and you need to know what it costs to get from standing trees to a pad. Clearing the building site runs $1,500 to $4,500 an acre with Cut Brush, and around Nashville, Chattanooga and Maryville most complete residential lots total $2,000 to $6,000 with us. Grading is a second bill from a second trade, and in Tennessee it turns on how close the rock sits.

At a glance:

• Clearing is priced by us per acre; grading is priced by your dirt contractor by the hour or the job.
• TDEC’s stormwater permit starts at one acre of clearing, grading or excavation, with a $250 fee from one to under five acres.
• Metro Nashville wants a grading permit past 10,000 square feet of disturbance or 100 cubic yards of material.
• Davidson County prohibits debris burning except on land being cleared for development, which needs Metro Health and Fire Department permits.

Our crews clear building sites around Nashville, Chattanooga, Maryville, LaFollette and Brownsville. We clear to grader-ready ground and stop there: no grading, no pads, no septic and no permit filing. Your dirt contractor takes the site from us.

How Much Do Clearing and Grading Cost in Tennessee?

A Tennessee homesite is two jobs in a row. This is who does each phase and what we charge for ours.

Phase	Who does it	What it costs
Clearing the pad, drive and utility run	Cut Brush	$1,500 – $4,500 / acre equivalent; most complete lots $2,000 – $6,000
Mulching the wooded edges you keep	Cut Brush	$1,500 – $4,000 / acre
Stormwater coverage at one acre and up	Owner or site operator	TDEC fee: $250 from 1 to under 5 acres
Cutting, filling and compacting the pad	Your dirt contractor	Quoted by them, by the hour or the job
Fill dirt and driveway stone	A local yard	Priced delivered to your site

Where these numbers come from. Our bands are copied from our Tennessee pricing pages, starting with the Nashville pricing page; the $2,000 to $6,000 lot total is published for Nashville, Chattanooga and Maryville. Every market carries a practical floor near $1,500 a project. A small pad on gentle ground sits low. Heavy timber, shallow rock and a finish that has to be graded push toward the top.

For the dirt side, UT Extension’s Tennessee Custom Rates Survey, the latest edition with bulldozer rows, averaged $86.05 an hour for a D6 or smaller in 2013. That is a historical farm custom rate, too old to estimate a quote from today. A Franklin grading contractor publishes $5,000 to $20,000 for whole-yard grading or a building pad. Get fill and stone prices from the yard nearest your lot, since haul distance moves them more than the material does.

Grader-Ready: Where Our Work Stops

Grader-ready means a dozer can start cutting the day it unloads. Trees and brush are off the footprint, stumps are out of the pad and drive, and the wood is mulched or hauled where it will not end up under the slab. Grading cannot start through a root mat, so this is the part of the job that has to be done right.

Outside the footprint, we mulch in place and leave the mat. Every square foot a dozer bares counts toward Metro Nashville’s 10,000 square foot line and the state’s one acre line, and mulched edges with the root mat left in place hold both numbers down. Clearing only? Our Tennessee land clearing cost per acre guide prices it by what is growing, and the Tennessee forestry mulching cost guide covers the edges you keep.

Pro tip: Walk the footprint the week after we clear it, before the grader is booked. With the brush gone, a sinkhole throat or a soft round depression is easy to spot and photograph. Hand those photos to your dirt contractor and engineer so the pad moves before anyone pays to cut it.

What Changes the Grading Bill in Tennessee

How deep the rock sits. Much of the Central Basin and the limestone valleys of East Tennessee carry the Talbott soil: clayey residuum over limestone bedrock at 20 to 40 inches. A pad cut deeper than two or three feet on that ground can strike rock, and then it stops being dirt work. On the Cumberland Plateau the Hartsells soil reaches acid sandstone at the same 20 to 40 inches.

Sinkholes under the footprint. The U.S. Geological Survey’s karst study of Tennessee found the inner Central Basin has thinner soils and more sinkholes than the outer Basin. TDEC’s karst design guidance asks builders to keep cuts, fills and drainage changes away from karst features, and it treats sending more runoff from developed land into a sinkhole as a modification that needs a Class V underground injection permit. A depression in the pad area changes the plan, not just the price.

Where the stumps go. Davidson County prohibits debris burning except on land being cleared for development, and that exception needs both a Metro Health Department and a Fire Department permit. Elsewhere the Division of Forestry requires a burn permit for debris piles from October 15 to May 15. On many sites hauling or grinding replaces burning, and that cost sits on our side of the bill.

Water in West Tennessee loess. The Loring soil of the West Tennessee uplands, first described in Shelby County, has a dense fragipan 14 to 35 inches down that water moves through slowly. A pad on that ground is usually built up and crowned rather than cut in.

Clearing and Grading Costs Across Tennessee

The Nashville Basin. Davidson, Rutherford, Wilson and Maury counties sit on limestone, often with Talbott clay over shallow rock. Rock sets the grading price on sloped lots, and the Metro permit sets the calendar. Our Nashville permit guide quotes the Metro thresholds in full.

Blount County and the Chattanooga valleys. Much of the valley floor around Maryville, Alcoa and Cleveland is Dewey ground: very deep red residuum with chert gravel and bedrock past 60 inches. That is good grading soil, so pads price on slope and sinkholes rather than rock. Maryville wants a sketch plan for disturbance between 0.10 and one acre, and Chattanooga’s land disturbing permit starts at 1,000 square feet; see the Maryville slope and sinkhole guide and the Chattanooga permit guide.

The Cumberland Mountains around LaFollette. Campbell and the neighboring mountain counties mix steep hillside with old mine benches. On plateau sandstone a level pad on a slope is often limited by how deep the cut can go. City rules are in the LaFollette permit guide.

West Tennessee loess around Brownsville. Haywood and the surrounding counties sit on Memphis and Loring loess more than four feet deep. There is no rock to fight, but the Memphis soil is rated for medium to very high runoff, so silt fence and fill height drive the grading bill rather than the cut. Read the Brownsville permit guide before the dozer is booked.

Permits in Tennessee

The state permit. The 2026 Tennessee Construction General Permit took effect on October 1, 2026 and runs to September 30, 2031. It covers clearing, grading or excavation of one acre or more, or less when the lot is part of a larger common plan of development. The operator files a notice of intent, site map and stormwater plan through MyTDEC Forms. Fees run $250 for one to under five acres, $1,000 to under 20 and $3,000 to under 50.

Local permits. Metro Nashville requires a grading permit past 10,000 square feet or 100 cubic yards, and lists tree cutting at or above ground level, with a tree removal permit, as work that does not need one. In Knox County, a site under an acre still needs a grading permit with five feet or more of cut or fill or over 10,000 square feet of planned pavement and roof; smaller jobs file a small lot erosion plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to clear and grade an acre in Tennessee?

Clearing the acre runs $1,500 to $4,500 with us. Grading depends on how much of that acre is cut, filled or paved, and your dirt contractor prices it. Most homesites grade only the pad and drive, not the whole acre.

Does Cut Brush grade or build pads in Tennessee?

No. We clear to grader-ready ground, with stumps out of the pad and drive and the wood hauled or mulched. Your dirt contractor grades, and the permit paperwork stays with you, your builder or your engineer.

Do I need a permit to grade a lot in Nashville?

Inside Davidson County, yes, once the work disturbs more than 10,000 square feet or moves more than 100 cubic yards. A house pad with a drive usually crosses one of those lines. Above one acre, the state stormwater permit applies on top.

What does a sinkhole on my lot do to the price?

It can move the pad, add an engineer’s investigation, or both. TDEC’s karst guidance asks for cuts and fills to stay away from karst features, and routing more runoff into a sinkhole needs a Class V permit. Find it during clearing, before the grading is priced.

Get a Clearing and Grading Quote in Tennessee

Pick the nearest area below and request a free quote for a written clearing price. Our crew will contact you to talk through the property, the way in from the road and the footprint your builder has marked for the house, drive and septic, so the handoff to your dirt contractor lands the same week.

Building across the line? See our Kentucky and Alabama clearing and grading guides.

Sources

• TDEC: Construction Stormwater Permit
• UT Extension: Tennessee Custom Rates Survey, 2013