when clearing land in Ak what to do with stumps (apartment, mortgage)

[blueflames50]

alrighty all you seasoned Alaskans...when clearing land is burying stumps a good idea or not??? Where we live right now you don't do it as you end up with carpenter ants that will eat your house. What is happens in Ak if you bury wood...do you end up with carpenter ants or any other insect that eats your wood your house is built of??? thanks all of you for your time and dedication to this forum!!

[starlite9]

Originally Posted by blueflames50

alrighty all you seasoned Alaskans...when clearing land is burying stumps a good idea or not??? Where we live right now you don't do it as you end up with carpenter ants that will eat your house. What is happens in Ak if you bury wood...do you end up with carpenter ants or any other insect that eats your wood your house is built of??? thanks all of you for your time and dedication to this forum!!

Stack them up and burn them in the winter before the snow gets too deep.

[Marty Van Diest]

We do have carpenter ants in Alaska but I haven't heard of burying stumps causing a problem with them. Something to think about however, it makes sense.

Almost all builders buried their stumps until just recently. Many still do. The house I'm in now has a 3 foot deep depression where the stumps were buried and it has settled.

The builder building the house next door chipped up all the trees and spread the chips on the lot. Then hauled the stumps and roots away, apparently to a fill site somewhere. I think that's a better option, but I hated to see all those trees get chipped, they were useful firewood.

[rotorhead]

Believe it or not, I've even seen a house locally built on stumps, using the felled trees as floor beams. It's obviously not quite "up to code" as far as it's foundation goes, makes me wonder how anybody would get mortgage financing on something like that.

[Marty Van Diest]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

Believe it or not, I've even seen a house locally built on stumps, using the felled trees as floor beams. It's obviously not quite "up to code" as far as it's foundation goes, makes me wonder how anybody would get mortgage financing on something like that.

Probably would be a real stable foundation for the first few years...then it would rot.

Be better to let the trees live and attach the beams to that...that would be fun.

My grandfather could not bear to cut down a huge magnolia tree in his backyard right behind his garage but he wanted to add a kitchen, two bedrooms and a bath. So he built around the tree. I will never forget the huge magnolia trunk in my grandmothers kitchen with pots and pans hanging from it. I grew right out the ceiling and was still there when the city bought them out to expand the road more than 30 years later.

She was always complaining as the trunk grew larger and pushed her house apart. "I've got a crack in my wall big enough to throw a cat through!"

At least they didn't have to get rid of the stump.

[JohnPF]

That is a beautiful story! As a former builder, I could probabely avoid the cracks but just the idea! Very cool.
Blueflames... how can you let the ants do it to your home! Simple ways to prevent it... Metal flashings and caulk.

[redbean]

Cool story Marty. I like trees; don't know if I'd build around one.

[JohnPF]

Got me thinking that I saw one before. There are plenty!
Mayfield, NY - Tree Through House
There's a tree growing through our house! on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/43555660@N00/2798143320/in/set-72157606674474126/ - broken link)
Building Around a Tree - The New York Times > Home & Garden > Slide Show > Slide 1 of 11
Apartment Therapy Boston | Look! Building a Deck Around a Tree Boston
India: To save tree, man builds house around it
Tree grows inside Winans Lake house - Livingston Community News - MLive.com

I wonder how it may affect the tree. Outside subzero freezing temps. Middle trunk cozy +/- 70deg.

[ASpilot2be]

I always thought that cutting down a few trees, then carving a chair into the stump would be pretty awesome.

[BudinAk]

I would haul the stumps off to a landfill, or other suitable disposal site, or push them off to the side with a cat and burn them. Buried wood will eventually rot, and then the ground will settle. I still have a "stump pile" about 40' across, and 12' high.

But....I would NOT cut down any trees around the building site. Instead, PULL them down with a dozer, backhoe, truck, etc and a long steel cable. That's what I did on my property. It eliminates the hassle and headache of digging out stumps all over the yard, or hiring someone with a D8 to push them out, because the stump is pulled right out of the ground when the tree falls over.

Get an extension ladder and set it against the tree so you can access the lower branches. Climb up about 3/4 of the height of the tree with a half-inch rope. Have the other end of the rope tied to your steel cable coiled on the ground. When you are at the proper height, secure yourself to the tree with something, then pull up the steel cable with the rope and fasten it around the trunk of the tree. Take the pull rope back down the tree when you climb down. Fasten the other end of the steel cable to your heavy equipment, and then pull the tree down. It may take a few pulls on the bigger trees, but they will come down, stump, roots, and all. I found 1/2" diameter cable works quite well with most trees, even big ones. I pulled a 5' diameter spruce down with my F250 truck years ago. (took about 20 runs at it, in 4-wheel drive, to finally make it fall) (ok...so I cheated. The tree was real old, and the roots half-rotted) Most of them I had to use my John Deere backhoe.

PS: Make SURE your steel cable is long enough! (you don't want to get "squashed")
The length from near the top of the tree will be LONGER than from the base of the tree to your pulling location...so be sure to account for that factor...

Bud