Timberwood Park was platted through existing woodland. The lots were cut out of cedar and live oak that was already standing, the houses went in around 1975 through the 1990s, and outside the immediate yard almost nobody cleared anything. Forty five years later that is the situation most owners here are looking at, and it is what Hill Country Land Clearing spends most of its time in this area fixing.
This is the common experience here. The property is a half acre or an acre, it is genuinely wooded, and that is why it appealed. But somewhere past the mowed area the cedar closes in and the rest of the lot stops being reachable. Owners regularly discover on a walkthrough that they have been using perhaps forty percent of what they own. The other sixty is still there, still theirs, and generally recoverable without touching a single mature oak.
Timberwood Park is unincorporated. There is no city hall, no municipal tree ordinance, and no city permit office, which leads a lot of owners to assume they can do as they like. That is not quite right. Bexar County does not zone, but it does administer on site sewage and floodplain matters. And your recorded deed restrictions and the property owners association almost certainly do address clearing extent, tree removal, and what may be left on site. The association is the practical rulebook here, and it is enforceable.
We say this on every job in this area. Restrictions on lots here commonly cap how much of a property may be cleared, protect trees above a specified size, and control burning and material storage. Owners who assume the absence of a city means the absence of rules occasionally learn otherwise in an expensive way. Pull your documents before scheduling and bring them to the walkthrough, and we will design the scope to sit inside the limits rather than around them.
This is northern Bexar County limestone with soil measured in inches across much of it. Where there is depth, stumps grub cleanly. Where the shelf sits shallow, pulling a stump means tearing into rock and leaving a hole that does not backfill neatly. Inside a structural footprint the roots come out regardless and we handle what the rock presents. Everywhere else, grinding below grade is usually the better outcome, and we would rather say that at the walkthrough than after a machine has stopped.
A great many properties here are on on site sewage rather than a sewer connection, and on a wooded lot the field is frequently not where the owner believes it is, particularly on a property that has changed hands. Before excavating anything we want the system, the tanks, and the field located, along with irrigation, propane runs, and any earlier work. Running a machine across a drain field is an expensive way to establish where it was.
Burning is generally prohibited by restrictions here and is a poor idea on wooded lots with neighbours close by regardless. Around the house material is hauled off. In the back sections, mulching in place is often preferable since the chip suits a wooded setting and avoids repeated truck trips. Some restrictions address whether material may be left on site, so check that before assuming mulching is available on your lot.
A good share of our work here comes from properties changing hands. The original owners built in the seventies or eighties, maintained the yard for decades, and never had reason to touch the rest. A new buyer walks the lot, finds most of it unreachable, and calls. Those are the biggest jobs we do in this area and also the most satisfying, because a property that looks like a lost cause usually is not. It is one clearing away from being what the listing photos suggested.
On a wooded acre there is a case for opening it gradually. Clear the area you most want back, live with it through a season, and see how the property behaves before deciding about the rest. You learn how much light actually reaches the ground once the cedar is out and which trees you are glad you kept. It also spreads the cost, which on a first reclaim after forty years is worth considering.
We work throughout Timberwood Park and the surrounding area, including Bulverde, Stone Oak, Cibolo Canyons, Fair Oaks Ranch, Garden Ridge, Spring Branch, Hollywood Park, Shavano Park, and across northern Bexar and southern Comal counties.
Send the address, photos of the area, and your deed restrictions if you have them handy. Call 210-942-1961.
No, and this is the most common misunderstanding in Timberwood Park. Bexar County does not zone, but it administers on site sewage and floodplain matters, and your deed restrictions and property owners association almost certainly address clearing extent, tree removal, and material storage. The association is the practical rulebook here and it is enforceable.
Often more than you expect. Owners here frequently find they have been using around forty percent of their property, with the rest closed off by cedar that has been filling in since the house was built. Most of that is recoverable without removing a single mature oak, since the problem is understory rather than canopy.
Because the subdivision was platted through existing woodland and nothing beyond the immediate yard was ever cleared. Cedar has been regenerating in the understory since the 1970s. Maintaining a lawn does nothing about that, and after four decades the accumulated growth is well past what a mower or a weekend can address.
Inside a structural footprint they come out regardless of what the rock presents. Elsewhere, grinding below grade is usually better, because grubbing where limestone sits shallow means tearing into rock and leaving a hole that will not backfill cleanly. We tell you which situation applies on your property during the walkthrough.
Tell us where it is before we start, and if you are not certain, find out. Many properties here are on on site sewage and on a wooded lot the field is frequently not where the owner believes, especially after the property has changed hands. Running a machine across a drain field is an expensive way to locate it.
Around the house it is hauled off, since burning is generally prohibited by restrictions and is a poor idea on wooded lots regardless. In the back sections mulching in place is often preferable. Some restrictions address whether material may be left on site, so check that before assuming mulching is available on your lot.
It is quoted by the job rather than by acre, since the work is defined areas. Drivers are the size of the area, material size, rock, how much stump work is genuinely required, machine access through the gate, and disposal method. On a lot that has been closing in for forty years the first clearing is the expensive one.