Vines up a chimney

[Rickytree]

Anyone know the best way to get these off?

 

[ATH]

Patience is best: Cut them at the base, treat 'stumps' with tordon or other herbicide labeled for stump treatment then leave.

Come back in a couple of weeks to see if they are ready to easily pull off yet. If so, pull away. If not, leave. Repeat as necessary.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Boom truck and a putty knife.
Jeff :msp_biggrin:

 

[Rickytree]

One problem, guy wants them cut 8 feet up then remove upper which goes up 25 feet.

 

[Rickytree]

Boom truck and a putty knife.
Jeff :msp_biggrin:

no boom truck but I do have a large scraper/edger and an orchard ladder.

 

[ATH]

One problem, guy wants them cut 8 feet up then remove upper which goes up 25 feet.

Do I understand correctly...he wants the lower 8' kept alive?

If so, cut off at 8', then leave. Come back to inspect...

2 more thoughts on this:
1) I'd closely inspect that which is being left. If there were cracks in the mortar before, some of the vines could get into that and make them much worse, so if they are in the lower 8' he could have problems down the road.
2) You could scrape off as suggested, and that will certainly work...but it will take more time/money than letting them die first. I also think you are risking more damage to the chimney pulling off live vine (depending on species of vine of course).

I'd hope that explaining these things to the client will help him see the wisdom of cutting now and pulling off later in the fall. If he is worried about it looking bad, wait until fall/early winter to do the cutting, when everything else is brown too.

 

[Treetom]

Cut em off and start pulling.

I suggest you evaluate how far into the mortar the vines have grown. If you give a little tug and it looks like you'll rip out the mortar, unless you also charge for new tuck point, I'd pass. Good luck Ricky.

 

[blackoak]

I wove a log chain through the ones growing on my chimney and hooked it to my Kubota tractor front end loader and ripped most of mine off. I did have to break out the scraper to get a lot of what the tractor didn't get.

 

[Rickytree]

I suggest you evaluate how far into the mortar the vines have grown. If you give a little tug and it looks like you'll rip out the mortar, unless you also charge for new tuck point, I'd pass. Good luck Ricky.

Looks like a very similar job Treetom. How long were you on that for? Thanks for posting the pic's

 

[FanOFatherNash]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Usafl_rend.jpg

 

[Rickytree]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Usafl_rend.jpg

Thought about that. but really worried that the house will catch.