follow-up on sidewalk and tree roots.

[meirman]

About a year ago I asked a question about the tree roots that were lifting up my sidewalk.

The guy repairing the neighborhood sidewalks cut my two sections in half (they were already cracked along the line at the two ends).

Last year I got my neighbor and when he lost interest, a friend, to help me lift up and flip over onto 4x4's each of the cement sections.

I cut out a lot of root, but not enough, and one section looked great, but the other no, when we put them back.

BUT THIS YEAR, neither guy was enthusisastic so I did it myself, with

4 5-foot 2x4's, 4 8-foot 2x4's, 5 pieces of wood for fulcrums, and one 4x4 fence post for a ram, to move a fulcrum when there was weight on it. I didn't flip it over, just lifte it up and wiggled it to the side.

Took maybe 45 minutes, plus 30 minutes to chisel out more root**, and

30 minutes to put the slab back.

It's amazing what one can do by himself with the right tools. "Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the world." I forget who said that.

**Maybe I should just cut out the whole root. But I'm still thinking the tree gets some nutrition from the half-section root, and that it might die without that or the other two trunk roots that I trimmed last year.

Meirman

-- If emailing, please let me know whether or not you are posting the same letter. Change domain to erols.com, if necessary.

[User Example]

Yep, I took off an entire car body from its frame and replaced it on another frame all by myself using nothing but some cinder blocks, a floor jack, and a couple 4x4s.

[FACE]

Wasn't that the greek guy Artesius?

I believe that several years ago you removed all the grass from your front yard and went with a "forest floor" theme. How has that worked out?

(Are you still in Boston?)

FACE

[Jim Elbrecht]

-snip-

I enjoy working alone. I move at my own pace-- do it my way-- and don't have to listen to loud music. [what's up with that-- I have never worked with anyone else who likes to hear the stroke of a paintbrush, or the birds singing in the background?]

There is a good series of books called "Working Alone" by a guy named Carroll. He concentrates on building and construction, but there was another good book, maybe from the 70's, that wrote about the pleasures of working alone from a homesteading angle.

Depends on the tree. I've got a 100 yr old soft maple that has lots of offending roots. 3 years ago I lowered the grade about 6 feet out from the trunk on about 1/4 of the circumference of the tree. I cut roots as large as 6" in diameter and cleared them out down 3 feet. The tree never blinked. It might have thrown off a few more seeds the next spring, but it is just as healthy as ever.

I'd be careful not to trim a 6" root on the upwind side of the tree if my house was downwind- but other than that I'd ask a nursery about the resistance of the tree to root pruning.

Jim

[Douglas Johnson]

My dad. I'm sure someone said it earlier, but that's OK. Those words are the lever spell. They must be said whenever a lever is used, otherwise it won't work.

-- Doug

[Tom Miller]

the

Actually, the person who supposedly said it was Archimedes (287-212 B.C.)