Best option to remove this stump? I cut all the main roots about a foot down. Think it’s to dangerous to use a truck and chain with the sidewalk so close? Other wise I am just gonna cut it as low as possible and let it rot away, but I want to plant another tree here sooner than later.
by ragstoethers
32 Comments
Blast it with a pressure washer
Keep digging (seriously)
Spade + pickaxe + fingers + elbow grease until the dirt/clay start to give a little. Then you can step on it to move it more, and use a sawzall or axe or spade + muscles to break the big root that goes down.
Sawzall with a 1’ construction blade. Works like a charm.
Rent a stump grinder.
Get a mattock, they’re made for this. Watch your toes.
Axes are helpful for these too
I removed a few stumps by hand in our garden. Just kept digging around and under it, using an old saw to cut through the roots as i ran into them. At some point it’ll get some wiggle room and after that i wiggled it loose until most of the roots snapped, cut the few remaining ones. Then rolled and dragged the stump out of the hole.
I’m sure it’s not perfect but it worked for me
Hit it with your purse
Probably get flamed for this, but as soon as I had something to get a rope or chain around down there, then my truck is the next tool I’d employ here.
Just keep working your way around and under it cutting roots as you go. It’s tedious but you’re getting close.
Next time leave 4-5 feet of trunk sticking up – the leverage makes removing the stump much easier.
A 5′ pry bar or a mattock will destroy that easily. I like that Milwaukee recip saw, though!
You need to dig it out further,and wider, before pulling on it. A foot down is just the surface to be honest.
Try at least 2x 2, and see where you are at
I just did this with a similar size stump.
You’re going to need to dig a much bigger hole.
I bought a small metal bucket with lid at Lowe’s, cut bottom out of bucket and set big end to ground, filled with charcoal, added lighter fluid and burnt mine off. I refilled the charcoal a couple times to keep hot with coals. I drilled some air holes around bottom and in the lid and i put the lid on after fire went out and charcoal was burning to minimize heat loss
Use a chainsaw and cut it in quarters try not to hit the dirt.
Dig it out. OR, drill a ton of holes in it and let it rot over winter and hack it to bits much easier next spring.
There’ve been several posts about stump removal recently. Use a pickaxe/maddox, aggressively, to break up the earth around the stump. It’s matter of time and energy…elbow grease. It helps to have two people with picks, or one with a shovel. Eventually, you’re gonna dig the thing out. Granted, that one’s big, but it’s not THAT big.
OTOH, using a chain and pickup truck is what we might call a “redneck thang”. Yes, we’re on the Atlantic coast and that’s derogatory to the good folks a few miles to the Southwest. Honestly though, the reason we don’t like it here is, it’s risky and us Yankees are cowards. (Whatever helps you do the right thing.)
Get under it and pry. Then start chopping roots as you find them. Eventually you will be done.
Last time I left trunk about my height so I could have leverage to push it over.
Make sure you get locates before you dig any further. You don’t want to hit any lines.
YouTube the old wheel & tire method. It’s genius.
We used an engine hoist to pull a bunch. The largest had to sit under tension for a day. The biggest one broke the hoist when we got impatient, we had to weld it back together and leave it under tension for another days
I used a reciprocating saw and cut it down as low as I could with a pruning blade. Just remember that if you go around in a circle you only have to make it about half way through.
Then I switched to an old pruning blade and sliced it up like it was a pie. I let it sit covered with soil for a year. I came back with a shovel and worked out a lot of it.
The worst part of all of it was having to wait but I couldn’t get a truck through my yard.
You have barely scratched the surface.
Pickaxe helps a lot.
Get a chain around the base and pry with 4x4s
Since no one answered your question about if using a chain is dangerous the answer is absolutely, yes. If you are going to do that use a rope or tie the chain off with a rope so it doesn’t go through your back windshield and kill you or someone else, let alone damage your vehicle.
Just keep digging!
Makes my back ache just looking at it. Pushing 70 though, so I don’t plan to tackle anything like this again.
Useful tool I found is a San Angelo bar or pinch bar. If you’re not acquainted it’s a heavy iron bar about 5 feet long with blade on one end and round point on the other. The blade can be used like an axe to chop off pieces, can dig with either end and then lever when needed. The weight supplies a lot of cutting/digging oomph so it’s not all your back.
A can of gas, a match and some marshmallows?
A trailer jack should work on this one. Looks small enough. Chain it up, jack it out.