Reshape sections, clear vegetation, remove small stumps.

Strip back, drop down, level off.

This is the full-section work the case study on the home page is built on. Stripping back top soil from three sides of a house. Pulling a fish pond, a foot path, a hillside. Bringing the section down level to the house so the next trade can build off it.

Most section reshape work falls into one of three jobs: cut for a new house pad, drop a hillside that is encroaching on an existing house, or level a paddock down to a useable platform. The 1.8 tonne does all three, just on a smaller bite each time.

What it usually involves

• Strip the top soil off and stockpile it for re-spreading later if the client wants
• Cut to the new level - either to plan, or to the level of the existing house
• Pull out anything in the way: hedges, ponds, paths, old foundations
• Push spoil to the dump area or load it for cartage off-site
• Run a final pass to leave a clean, even platform

Vegetation and stumps as part of the same job

Most reshape jobs involve a hedge, a tree or two, and a few stumps that need pulling. The bucket-and-ripper combo handles small stumps directly. Larger ones get a chainsaw on the trunk first and the digger on the roots after. Vegetation is pushed into a pile for the client to burn or get carted off.

Small tree stumps

• Stumps the chainsaw left behind get ripped out with the bucket teeth
• Roots followed back as far as needed for the next trade
• Hole back-filled with surrounding soil and rolled in

What the section looks like when I leave

Build-ready. Level enough that the builder string-line tells him the truth. Clean enough that you can walk it without rolling an ankle. Spoil either gone or stockpiled where you wanted it. No 12-tonne track ruts across the lawn on the way out.