How to remove rootball of wind blown over tree

[Douggg]

Hi. I had tree in my yard blow over, where the roots broke and the rootball is sticking straight up to the sky 10 feet

I tried to find out how to remove the roots/rootball in this situation, but could only find videos online of people cutting at the base, and then the rootball flings back into its hole.

With homeowner tools, how can i remove the roots too. The majority of roots i assume snapped , and have only 135 degrees of roots to remove. Since less roots, can i hook the ball up to my pickup to try to pull it out, or, can i axe or try to sever the roots with a long pole with the wedge at the end. Is there a way i could cut it so that i could put it in my pickup to dump? thanks

 

[GenXer]

Cut as many of the roots closest to the ground and give it a tug with your truck. Be sure and put a couple of wraps of chain around the tree so it will want to roll when you start pulling on it.

 

[TheJollyLogger]

A 10' diameter rootball is going to crush your truck

 

[ZinTrees]

yeah a 10ft diameter root ball weighs as much as a small house, I dug one out a few weeks ago, it took about 8 hours of digging with a 10K pound excavator, this ball was about 8-9ft diameter and ~10ft tall, then another 3ft tall 45" diameter white oak stump ontop, with root rot, the stump still weighed close to 24000 pounds, if you chain a truck to that what you will end up with is a flipped/torn in half truck, a pissed off wife, and some hella expensive medical bills

if you are still planning to attempt to remove the root ball, the only safe option is to rent a 15-20K pound excavator and dig it out, with delivery it will cost you about $1500
id strongly advise hiring a professional
and no, you cant put a root ball that size in a pickup truck, unless you like the look of a crushed bed and broken leaf springs
also if something goes wrong insurance might pitch a fit because you didn't hire a licensed and insured company to deal with it just FYI

i'm all for a homeowner doing their own work, but one must know when they are under gunned for a project

 

[TheJollyLogger]

Some pics would help. One thing that might work with homeowner tools is to use a pressure washer with a zero degree or turbo nozzle and blast as much dirt as possible off, and then just start whittling away at it. You're better off buying about 10 pruning blades for a Sawzall, rather than a chainsaw, unless you invest in a carbide chain.

 

[sonny580]

IF you want to play around with it,---start chopping and you could wash dirt off as you cut,--not a bad idea, BUT its gonna take forever and cost out the wazoo! Ya your looking at a 12 to 15 TON chunk of mass there! Have the hole dug out deeper and bury the thing right where it grew!

 

[DP425]

yeah a 10ft diameter root ball weighs as much as a small house, I dug one out a few weeks ago, it took about 8 hours of digging with a 10K pound excavator, this ball was about 8-9ft diameter and ~10ft tall, then another 3ft tall 45" diameter white oak stump ontop, with root rot, the stump still weighed close to 24000 pounds, if you chain a truck to that what you will end up with is a flipped/torn in half truck, a pissed off wife, and some hella expensive medical bills

if you are still planning to attempt to remove the root ball, the only safe option is to rent a 15-20K pound excavator and dig it out, with delivery it will cost you about $1500
id strongly advise hiring a professional
and no, you cant put a root ball that size in a pickup truck, unless you like the look of a crushed bed and broken leaf springs
also if something goes wrong insurance might pitch a fit because you didn't hire a licensed and insured company to deal with it just FYI

i'm all for a homeowner doing their own work, but one must know when they are under gunned for a project

I was skeptical on this 24k figure.

So I looked into it.

A 10’ sphere is nearly 20 cu yd

A cubic yd of dirt is 1000-2000lb depending on the makeup and compaction… up to 3000 if wet.

That means a root ball that is roughly a 10’ sphere, would weigh somewhere on the order of 20,000 to 60,000lb, without the dirt cleaned out of it.

Which means, to move it, you’d pretty much need a large dump truck

 

[ZinTrees]

I was skeptical on this 24k figure.

So I looked into it.

A 10’ sphere is nearly 20 cu yd

A cubic yd of dirt is 1000-2000lb depending on the makeup and compaction… up to 3000 if wet.

That means a root ball that is roughly a 10’ sphere, would weigh somewhere on the order of 20,000 to 60,000lb, without the dirt cleaned out of it.

Which means, to move it, you’d pretty much need a large dump truck

Dis more math than me, mine was just an educated guess


So, 20k pounds is still 3 to 4 times what a half ton pickup weighs, at 60k pounds that's over 10k the trucks weight



This fight would be the equivalent of a 2000 pound angry bison vs a 185 pound person, bison being the root ball of course

 

[Oletrapper]

A 10' diameter rootball is going to crush your truck

He ain't lying! lol OT

 

[pdqdl]

Why has no one suggested flopping it back into the hole?

Unless there are compelling reasons otherwise, the cheapest and the best solution is to flop the upturned rootball back down, usually by detaching the main trunk. Be VERY careful that you don't flop it onto yourself or someone too close. Our Arboricultural Injuries forum has plenty of these injuries, and they are usually fatal.

Once it is back in the hole, trim the stump to the ground level. After that, just put a stump grinder on it until you can level the ground and re-seed, or whatever.

That stump grinder is made to take on huge stumps and lots of dirt, and you probably aren't worried about the dead roots that are two feet down.