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Persistent Stump Removal
NorthernJoe
Posts: 660
Huge conifer stump. Third cut out with neighbour's chainsaw and a few inch thick wedges on the other side. It's cut through almost completely through at about inch or two below soil surface? It has three wedges opening it up about 3 inches gap from a chainsaw cut thickness. It's still not giving up.
I have no more chainsaw to use. I have one more grenade wedge left, felling axe, hatchet, splitting maul, 6 ft wrecking bar, mattocks with a pick point, folding pruning saw, bow saw and a little brute strength.
I have wedges jammed as far as they'll go on one side at each end. This has the biggest gap going from inch to almost 3 inches in the right. Too the right side there's a grenade wedge in towards the back. The bar doesn't move it anymore but it did at first. It's now just forcing through the soft wood at the front. Feeding from the right side it goes in nearly right through. I think the rear is almost cut right through. To the rear and left there is no longer a gap due to it being wedged from the front and right side.
As I see it there's a tap root/bulk of the stump holding in in the middle. I need a way to cut through deep in the stump. Is there a kind of cutting bar or extra long chisel we can get to cut the middle through the wedged gap? The wrecking bar only cuts when we can use gravity and it's weight to full benefit.
I am running out of ideas. No saw except a longer chainsaw could reach the middle. It's about 75 cm wide stump or greater. A beast! It's above a retaining wall over a pavement. No stump grinder possible due to access and location I think.
So any solutions?
I have no more chainsaw to use. I have one more grenade wedge left, felling axe, hatchet, splitting maul, 6 ft wrecking bar, mattocks with a pick point, folding pruning saw, bow saw and a little brute strength.
I have wedges jammed as far as they'll go on one side at each end. This has the biggest gap going from inch to almost 3 inches in the right. Too the right side there's a grenade wedge in towards the back. The bar doesn't move it anymore but it did at first. It's now just forcing through the soft wood at the front. Feeding from the right side it goes in nearly right through. I think the rear is almost cut right through. To the rear and left there is no longer a gap due to it being wedged from the front and right side.
As I see it there's a tap root/bulk of the stump holding in in the middle. I need a way to cut through deep in the stump. Is there a kind of cutting bar or extra long chisel we can get to cut the middle through the wedged gap? The wrecking bar only cuts when we can use gravity and it's weight to full benefit.
I am running out of ideas. No saw except a longer chainsaw could reach the middle. It's about 75 cm wide stump or greater. A beast! It's above a retaining wall over a pavement. No stump grinder possible due to access and location I think.
So any solutions?
0
Posts
Well the above ground bit has gone. 1-2" down it's still there with the remnant of its bulk. No idea what to put over it as it's kind of in the middle of the front of the garden which is where you want it to be ornamental. In a corner you could cover it up with something that spreads but right in show you want something better.
My only suggestion, Joe, would be to tie ropes or chains round the lower stronger roots, tie the upper ends to a piece of strong timber like a stout pole as low down as possible, put a small pile of bricks/blocks beside the root and use them as a fulcrum on which to lay the pole so that it can be used as a lever to apply pressure to the root.
There's a moral to this episode. Always leave 8-10 feet of trunk above ground to give plenty of leverage to achieve the same result.
It first the normal sized trunk was above ground with about 3" of the stump showing, peaking out of the soil. As we dug down we were forced further and further out as more soil was refunded. Eventually the beast was exposed. It became well known in the village? We became known as the people with the stump.
I cannot explain how big this stump was at the base/root area. If it was a Beech tree trunk using the foresters formula of diameter X 4.8 you get a 480-500 year old tree if there is a beech tree that old. No idea how it formed but the sheer mass with 4 or 5 roots bigger than the trunk that grew out of this huge bulk of wood. It's like 4 or 5 piles forming the trees foundation.
BTW once we cut through the side to remove a third and cut through another third of the remaining bulk we used a 6ft steel wrecking bar. We shoved it into the chainsaw cut, put a big stone to lever it out and nothing. We pressed the stone in the ground without even getting a creak from the stump. We were lucky and cut through the stump leaving the lower part still in the soil but removing the top part. It's now buried under at least 2",. That'll have to do I'm afraid.