Tree Stump Removal Advice

Kaelsin · 31 Jul 2015 at 12:52

Afternoon all,

I've recently moved into a house where the front garden previously had three small to medium trees.

The trees have been cut down but an unsightly set of stumps has been left and I'm debating the best way to deal with these tree stumps.

Has anyone had success with using the chemical treatments to kill off the stump? It looks like this could take some time – up to a year?

Another option is to try and dig each stump out but I’m not sure how successful I would be at doing this.

The other option is getting a tree surgeon out and getting a quote for either stump removal or grinding but it looks like this could be quite costly – which I would rather avoid at the moment but may have to go this route.

Has anyone had any tree stumps removed recently and wouldn't mind giving some advice?

tnx · 31 Jul 2015 at 12:59

When I bought my house there was a line of bushes all the way down the drive.
These were about three feet tall, the stumps were not as big as trees would be of course.
Took me two weeks of hard graft chopping down, digging down and finally digging the stumps and roots out.
I never knew about a tree surgeon having a grinding machine at the time.
If I did I would have definatly paid one to grind the stumps away.

Pay the man and sit watching him with a pint in ya hand.

koolpc · 31 Jul 2015 at 13:02

I would pay a tree surgeon. Otherwise it will cost you a lot of effort, maybe tool hire and back ache too!

'Stump' up the cash and get the pros in!

fireisdangerous · 31 Jul 2015 at 13:40

I had 4 trees stumps i needed to dig out, just takes a bit elbow grease and a lot of digging. One of the stumps was a pain as it went under next doors garden patio so obviously didnt want to reck that so had to be super carful. In the end my mate welded a large shovel onto a long scafold pole which gave us the leverage to get the root out.

Then you have to try and move the stump as they normally wiegh a ton! good luck

Amp34 · 31 Jul 2015 at 14:21

How big are the stumps? If they aren't full sized oaks or something silly then you could easily do it in a day with a combination of saw, mattock and a rope/your car if you need the grunt (probably won't if they are small).

Got a photo?

koolpc · 31 Jul 2015 at 14:42

Amp34 said:
How big are the stumps? If they aren't full sized oaks or something silly then you could easily do it in a day with a combination of saw, mattock and a rope/your car if you need the grunt (probably won't if they are small).

Got a photo?

lol, yea!!

roccles · 31 Jul 2015 at 14:59

Hire a stump grinder, pretty easy to use especially if they are just small stumps

http://www.hss.com/hire/p/portable-stump-chipper

Amp34 · 31 Jul 2015 at 19:39

koolpc said:
lol, yea!!

Yeah... As I said it will depend on how big the tree is. A small/medium tree to me is something with a diameter of a foot or less, which will usually come out quite easily in my experience.

If it's a 2 or 3 foot diameter oak then it'll be a totally different matter...

Dig round it with spade and mattock, cut horizontal roots with mattock/saw and depending on the tree it will pop right out with a bit of levering. Shouldn't take more than a couple of hours for a small/medium tree.

If it's got a tap root it'll be a bit more difficult but still doable.

Mark M · 31 Jul 2015 at 19:56

I had 12 to do, started with the biggest one which was approx 2 foot accross and must have took me 10 hours spread out over a week so I spoke to a tree surgeon who ground the rest of them out for £300! I had a few of the roots to get out but they seemed to dry up after a few weeks and were pretty easy to dig out.

Kutter · 31 Jul 2015 at 22:42

stump grinder

lude1962 · 1 Aug 2015 at 15:20

hire/buy a chainsaw if they're tiddlers

booyaka · 1 Aug 2015 at 16:23

stump grinder is the best way -- half a day if your doing it yourself.

Amp34 · 1 Aug 2015 at 21:33

doofski said:
stump grinder

Do stump grinders actually remove the stump or just flatten in to the surface/just below?

Conanius · 2 Aug 2015 at 07:03

as others have said, get someone with a stump grinder to do it for you.

We had a bloke come to our house who ground out:

- 1x Apple Tree stump (The tree was previously 4-5 meters tall)
- 1x Lilac Tree Stump (a mass of roots, covering an area probably 2m by 1.5m)
- 3x assorted smaller tree stumps

It took him about an hour, and cost us £140 for the lot.

The machine he used was an absolute beast, on tank tracks and remote controlled.

I wouldn't even consider the hassle of digging one out again. IT went down below ground to grind out loads of the root. There was obviously some missed root that was a bit further out, but no huge issue or surprise there.

Kaelsin · 2 Aug 2015 at 15:19

Conanius said:
as others have said, get someone with a stump grinder to do it for you.

We had a bloke come to our house who ground out:

- 1x Apple Tree stump (The tree was previously 4-5 meters tall)
- 1x Lilac Tree Stump (a mass of roots, covering an area probably 2m by 1.5m)
- 3x assorted smaller tree stumps

It took him about an hour, and cost us £140 for the lot.

The machine he used was an absolute beast, on tank tracks and remote controlled.

I wouldn't even consider the hassle of digging one out again. IT went down below ground to grind out loads of the root. There was obviously some missed root that was a bit further out, but no huge issue or surprise there.

Wow, £140 for the lot - I was expecting it to cost far more than that. I definitely think I'll get some one out for a quote and go from there.

Here is a link to the largest tree stumps in the front: https://imgur.com/bTEP1lq

norm · 2 Aug 2015 at 20:16

Dig out the soil around it and whack a saw through the roots.

Adam · 2 Aug 2015 at 21:30

I've found it's a lot of work if you don't have the right equipment (i.e. stump grinder etc). I called a number of local firms and the prices varied hugely. I was hugely flexible as I said I didn't need it done asap, they could do it after work/when they are busy and just call in for the cash once it's done.

In the end someone did it for £50 cash which I thought was reasonable but not necessarily a bargain.

Robdav · 3 Aug 2015 at 12:01

I'm just in the process of removing two trees in my garden, an apple tree which is about 20 feet tall and a pear tree that was only about 9 feet.

The pear tree came down easily with a bit of elbow grease and I am going to dig out the stump on that. The apple tree though, that might take a grinder to remove.

RoyMi6 · 4 Aug 2015 at 11:26

Never heard such a bunch of nacies

On Saterday, in our new house I took out 4 stumps from massive ivy bushes and 1 tree stump.

Saying that I was pretty fortunate as the ground is made up of fantastic, stone free, soil that allowed me to simple dig around the tree stump easily.

More stumps to come out next weekend but that's why I've cancelled my gym memberships for this year!

R3X · 4 Aug 2015 at 12:22

Adam said:
I've found it's a lot of work if you don't have the right equipment (i.e. stump grinder etc). I called a number of local firms and the prices varied hugely. I was hugely flexible as I said I didn't need it done asap, they could do it after work/when they are busy and just call in for the cash once it's done.

In the end someone did it for £50 cash which I thought was reasonable but not necessarily a bargain.

thats a bargain and imo the right price if it takes a good hour, its when they start to charge £100-150 for an hours work then we all know its a bit of a ripp off you can't ask a man to be paid one weeks wages for 1 hours work surely!