Awkward Stump Removal

cruizer101

We have a tree at the end of garden which was growing through the wall, it was like that when we bought the house.
Got around to chopping it down a week ago, still a bit of trunk left but will get rid of that.
The issue is what to do with the stump that will be left as it is right in the corner of garden, against back wall and neighbour's shed.



Have looked at various approaches online but not sure the best course of action.
Its some kind of cherry tree we think, fairly dense wood on it.

Online suggestions:
Burn it: obviously not possible in this case

Pull it: its out back garden so can't really get big equipment in, and even if was to try with mini digger not sure how well would work with roots under wall and neighbour's shed foundations.

Dig it out: Maybe, but gonna be very hard work to dig down around it and had saw through all the different roots

Stump Grinder: You can rent small ones, and could maybe try grind as much as possible, but with how close it is to wall its hard to know how effective.

Kill It: various suggestions of chemicals to put on it to kill it and let it rot, probably worth doing anyway to kill as much of the roots as possible but don't want to wait years for it to rot, given it is a dense enough wood could take a while, is there anything that will help it rot down quicker and what sort of timescale are we looking at.


It might be a case of a combination of tactics, treat it to kill it, grind out what we can and try dig the rest up.

Looking for any suggestions, pics attached.

fiacha

Cut it flush to the ground (or clear the soil back and cut below the level you want). Keep the cuts parallel to the ground so water won't run off the surface. Buy some cheap long drill bits and drill as many holes as you can. Cover with soil / mulch and let nature handle the rest. You can give it a whack of an axe every few months to expose more of the wood. I've no experience with the pour on chemicals.

You could also just leave it and turn it into a bird table / feeder area. As it rots it'll also make a great habitat for insects.

A chainsaw (and someone who knows how to use it safely ) will make the job a lot easier.

Paul_Mc1988

Took one out of my back this size last month. Easy enough with three of us. Started digging around it with a spade and when we hit a root we cut the root with a mini axe. Whole stump then just lifted up. Took about an hour.

blackbox

I find that the easiest thing is to dig out the soil about 20cm deep around half a meter all round.

This gives room to cut it below ground level with the chainsaw.

Clean the trunk carefully before cutting as any soil on it will blunt your chain.

Be sure to use your PPE.

This method doesn't work if you plan to put another tree in the space, but grass will be ok.

harr

blackbox wrote: »

I find that the easiest thing is to dig out the soil about 20cm deep around half a meter all round.

This gives room to cut it below ground level with the chainsaw.

Clean the trunk carefully before cutting as any soil on it will blunt your chain.

Be sure to use your PPE.

This method doesn't work if you plan to put another tree in the space, but grass will be ok.

This is exactly what I did with mine.. got a god distance down as well and covered with topsoil and put in a few small shrubs.

jmBuildExt

I had one about that size aswell - maybe a bit bigger - definitely didn't have it out in an hour

Depends on the roots.
In my case I dug around it to about 500mm depth, if not more, in parts and chopped any roots i could see.
The problem was the tree had huge roots and kind of multiple trunks, so near the epicentre, there were other roots going downwards which were making it impossible to budge.
After a few days digging at it on my own i got a guy in with a stump grinder.
Big enough yolk, brought it through the house.

Because i had dug around it and down far enough he was able to get all of it out after grinding the stump down.
My plan was to put a patio where the tree was - so had to make sure i got all the chippings out, and had to fill the chasm in with hardcore!!

Anyway - I'd definitely have a good dig around it first, chop the roots as you go - see how far you get. The walls in close proximity could cause you problems alright.