How to Remove Tree Stumps | Ask This Old House

well today we're going to hand dig this stump now this is something any homeowner can do because it doesn't require any specialized equipment just a strong back which i hope you have today now we have a couple things going for us with this stump number one they left it up high so once we cut some roots i'm hoping that we can push on it and it'll pop out like a tooth would the other thing is the homeowner already half dug this they exposed all the roots they've even cut some of them through so some of our work is already completed so let's take and get started digging you're going to start right there and expose all the roots you can for me and i'm going to start here and then we'll cut them all right i got a couple small routes here paul i want to get rid of and i'm going to just usually hear me those loppers now i wanted to point out these aren't my good loppers we have sets of tools we use just for doing the work in the ground like this because it can ruin them so the first thing i'm going to do is get rid of this little one not much to that one great job one down 100 to go there you go you made more room to dig now we're starting to get into some of the bigger the roots and if you look at this root it's just too big for the loppers you can't even get them around it so what we're going to use now is that hand saw you grab that once again this is an older tool that we use for just cutting roots with so i want to make a cut right about in here and then one right about there and we'll take that piece of root out sounds good this handsaw is a lot of work well i don't think it helps any that it's a little dull i think it's time for some power tools we use a chainsaw this is a tough area to use a chainsaw and i think part of the problem why the homeowner stopped is they use a chainsaw over here to cut this route as soon as you hit the dirt your chain is dull if you hit a rock you can destroy the chain so that's not good that'll cost you a lot of money so what i want to use is a reciprocating saw it has a pruning blade on it that's about ten dollars so if we go through a few of those it's not so bad we're just gonna start cutting right here a lot better than the hand saw huh absolutely well here you go try get rid of some of those roots over there for me we'll do i can also use the sharpened end of an iron digging bar to cut these roots out all right i think i got most of these roots cut come on over here with me now i left this big root long so it would give us something to lift up on so if you grab hold ready yeah one two three beautiful oh you're feeling lucky you're feeling strong ready one two three i'm going get back here with you again ready one two three one more she's out one two three you're a proud owner of a stump all right thank you now we're just gonna backfill the hole now all you have to do in the spring is spread a little grass seed you'll never know that stump was here oh that's wonderful this was uh pretty back-breaking work well come with me i got a little easier way to do the other stumps now the other stumps are right back here and they're located right on the edge of your garden bed if we tried to hand dig these we'd end up digging up a big part of your garden yeah i wouldn't appreciate that so what we're going to do is we're going to grind these down now you can rent a stump grinder and it's great if you've got a lot of stumps to do it's a gas engine and it powers carbide teeth which turn and eat away at the stump like a piece of corn first thing we got to do is move the rocks take those off all right this machine is a manual machine which means you're pushing it around okay what we do is we lock the brake which locks up one tire and once a machine is running you're just simply going to wiggle it back and forth and chip away at that like i said like a piece of corn okay just work your way in lower it and try to grind it down six or eight inches below the surface sounds good all right all right what i want to do is clean up some of the grindings and then we'll just dump this loam in the hole and put the rocks back sounds good we're just taking freshen up the mulch a little bit it looks really nice it does thank you so much you

Channel: This Old House

Views: 2,353,229

Keywords: This Old House, Ask This Old House, DIY, Home Improvement, DIY Ideas, Renovation, Renovation Ideas, How To Fix, How To Install, How To Build, tree stump, landscaping, mulch, pruning, tree, yard, lawn care, gardening, plant, renovation, remodeling, home repair, diy, roger cook, norm abram, richard trethewey, kevin o'connor, tom silva, tom silva this old house, tom silva house, tom silva construction, tom silva tools, tommy silva

Id: OJ1e-d4gX8A

Length: 5min 54sec (354 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 06 2016