Mini Digger in a terraced garden

[eddieed]

We bought a project house late last year - we have finally managed to clear the garden of the 6 massive conifers that had been allowed to grow too large - our neighbours are very grateful of the new light.

Next step for me would be to have two of the stumps ground out and then start to level the top terrace. This is probably quite a big job by hand but wondering if a mini digger would be able to get to the top of the garden in order to dig it out either by using ramps or climbing. (width at sid eof house is about 1m. I have put a photo in to show the garden as an indication the walls are about 5 foot high. If it's too difficult then we will wait to see what we do with the house as if we knock it down(which is a possibility) then we can use a bigger digger!

IMG-20160413-WA0003

• eddieed
• 19 Apr 2016

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

How wide are the steps?

 

[eddieed]

Mmmm - not sure - a bit less than a metre I think!
The biggest issue is that the steps don't go all the way up for some reason. There is a step of about 50 cm's maybe more at the top! and also they are a bit crumbly! The facing of the retaining walls will need removing eventually!

 

[roboughton]

Might be better off picking a side and digging its way up, if it needs refacing anyway it would save any worry.

 

[eddieed]

Might be better off picking a side and digging its way up, if it needs refacing anyway it would save any worry.

Thanks foor the response. Whilst it needs refacing the actual retaining wall is doing its job so ideally I don't want to have to knock those down - i think it might be a case of waiting until we decide what to do with the house.

I wonder if I may be able to speak to the people behind and ask them if we can track it through their garden! then use the soil at the top to make a slope for it to come down and digging its way down!

 

[noseall]

Just make a pair of ramps with a couple of scaffold boards and packers etc. You can 'climb' with a digger but it's not for the feint hearted.

I'd want the biggest digger I could get around the back for that project.

 

[r896neo]

Be aware there is no way a minidigger will deal with stumps that size. It is fine for trees that have perhaps a 6-8'' diameter but bigger than that you need a much bigger machine, like 3T or 5T, As noseall says get the biggest digger you can fit.

I would consider going the tedious stump grinder route as if you try and dig out and pull out the stumps on the bottom tier it will pull the wall over.

Likewise the force exerted on the wall by a digger climbing a ramp leaning on it will probably break it (if its a mortar built wall) If Its interlocking dry stack then it less of a big deal.

 

[eddieed]

Thanks r896neo.

We are likely to get the stumps ground down first as we realise that a big machine would be needed to dig them out - the trees were pretty big - we think they were about 50 years old! In fact we have had a stump grinding quote already which is reasonable given the access challenges.

Thanks for the info on the wall crumbling - we think that behind the facing blocks we have solid poured concrete retaining walls but we are not 100% sure. Think I will get my builder round for a look to see what he thinks.

I need to measure the clearance up the side of the house to see what we can get through - other option is to hire a crane and lift it over i suppose but that isn't going to be cheap!