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.

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.

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.

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 19:56:52 -0400, in alt.home.repair meirman
wrote:

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.

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

meirman wrote:

-snip-
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.

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.


**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.

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

meirman wrote:

"Give
me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the world." I forget
who said that.

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

On Mon, 12 Sep 2005 23:43:33 GMT, Douglas Johnson
wrote:

| meirman wrote:
|
| "Give
| me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the world." I forget
| who said that.
|
| 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


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