Cheap wood chisel bit in an SDS drill is a very effective way of severing roots below ground level. With enough of the roots cit, it becomes a much easier job.
Burn it out. Splash with cheapo vegetable oil to make it more flammable. May take quite a few application but it will remove pretty much all stumps - or reduce them to easily removed ashes anyway.
Just attack it with a hammer and an old wood chisel, half an hour work with same demolished a 10" stump in my lawn last year.
I have ground down bigger stumps with an electric chainsaw. I re-fitted an old chain and used a "G" clamp as a second handle on the end of the bar. That soon ground down 3 bigger stumps that had been cut off just 4 or 5 inches above ground. They were all in lawn, I wasn't bothered about removing them completely, just ground them down and turfed over.
Burning out stumps was the standard way of clearing land for farming here back in the day, at least for stumps that were too big to pull out with horses straight off. I think I recall reading somewhere that it could take a couple of weeks per stump, though - not a "light a fire for a few hours" kind of thing.
Yes, that's the way I've done it in the past, at least for stumps where the trunk was up to a foot in diameter. Anything larger and I'd go for powered equipment, renting if necessary, I think.
Something the size you describe can be dug out with a mattock - this will shift earth and chop through the roots. Sweaty work, but much more straightforward than some of the other options suggested ;-)
I managed with a pickaxe and a spade, all sharpened. Any roots were cut off with a jigsaw with a coarse blade. I did try with an angle grinder (in UK d-i-y tradition) but it was too dangerous and I'm no youngster either. The whole thing was removed roots and all Robbie
When we moved in 10 years ago, we felled an old apple tree (about 10'). Being completely new to the process, I sawed the truck off about 6" from the ground (doh !!!!!). I then had the bright idea of trying to burn the stump out.
Paraffin, diesel, petrol ... applied repeated, and left to soak for ages, and wrapping a rag round it as a wick all completely failed to catch. I drilled holes, poured paraffin into them and lit it ... still refused to burn.
After 2 afternoons of this, I had to dig it out, and cut the roots round with an axe. Bloody hard work. And I was amazed at the weight of the thing too. I'd guess at least 25 Kg ....
Yeah I've got a cherry-tree stump probably about 18" diameter, 10" high, completely dead, been there for about 10 years now, sticking through a patio, which I've really not wanted to disturb. So burning out seemed the sensible option. I 've attacked it with an axe and log splitters, which just made it look really messy, and last summer I tried setting a small coal fire on the top of it, and it's burned down a bit but after several day's worth of fires, it's still just dished the top of the stump into a charred mess. Think I may try buying a cheap wood chisel for my SDS drill before renewing the offensive this year!
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.