Our standards

How we vet contractors.

What a contractor has to meet before we send them your request — and, just as importantly, what our checks do not cover.

Start here

We are a matching service, not a contractor.

Mulching Knoxville is a free matching service for property owners. We are not a forestry mulching or land clearing contractor and we do not perform the work ourselves — we connect you with independent local crews who quote your property directly.

That distinction matters for this page. We are not vouching for work we performed, because we did not perform it. What we can tell you is the standard a contractor has to meet before a quote request from this site reaches them, and where that standard stops.

Our requirements

What a contractor has to meet.

These are the conditions we apply before routing requests. A contractor who stops meeting them stops receiving requests from us.

  • Current general liability insurance, evidenced by a certificate we have seen, from the contractor's insurer or agent.
  • A registered business operating under the name they give property owners.
  • Genuine coverage of the county the request comes from — not a crew several hours away treating this region as overflow work.
  • Equipment and capability appropriate to the work they accept, rather than taking every request regardless of fit.
  • Direct contact with you. The contractor who quotes the job is the one you talk to.
  • No payment collected through us, ever. You pay the contractor you hire, directly, on terms you agree with them.
  • Willingness to put scope in writing — including debris handling, stumps, and the condition the ground is left in.

What this is not

The limits of our checks.

Plenty of sites imply a level of oversight they do not have. Here is exactly what we do not do, so you know which checks are still yours to make.

  • We do not inspect job sites, supervise work or check quality afterward.
  • We do not guarantee, warrant or insure any contractor's work. Your agreement is with them, not with us.
  • We are not a licensing body and we do not verify trade qualifications beyond business registration and insurance.
  • We cannot confirm insurance stays current after we have seen it. Ask to see a certificate yourself before work starts.
  • We do not set or approve prices, and we are not party to your contract or your payments.
  • We do not publish reviews or ratings, because we have no verified body of them and inventing them would be worthless to you.

Your checks

Six things to do before you hire anyone.

None of these take long, and they are worth doing whether or not the contractor came from us.

  • Ask for a current certificate of general liability insurance, and check the dates.
  • Confirm the business name on the quote matches the name on the insurance certificate.
  • Ask who is actually doing the work and whether any of it is being subcontracted.
  • Get the full scope in writing before anyone starts: acreage, boundaries, stumps, debris, and finished condition.
  • Be wary of pressure to pay a large amount up front, or to skip a written scope.
  • For anything substantial, get a second quote. Two numbers tell you more than one.

If something goes wrong

Tell us. It changes who we route to.

We cannot resolve a dispute between you and a contractor — we are not a party to your agreement and we have no authority over their work. What we can do is stop sending requests to a contractor who has treated a property owner badly, and that is a decision we will make on the strength of what you tell us.

If you had a bad experience with a contractor we introduced you to, reply to any message from us and tell us what happened.

Tell us about your property.

One short form. We route it to contractors who work your county, and they quote your property directly. Free, and you are under no obligation.

Get my free quote