Gardening with Soule

a blog by Teresa Soule and Garden Shoes Online

Outdoor Wednesday~ A Project

This is the front of our house.

The sidewalk leading up to the front porch has heaved because of the roots of the huge pine that sits way too close to our porch. It is a terrible trip hazard.

This tree is magnificent so we would never part with it.

It surrounds our upstairs porch and screens us from the street wires. I like to pretend they are palm tree branches (hey a girl can dream can’t she?) It gives us privacy and sounds really great when it swishes in the breeze.

Back to the point of the story ~ the sidewalk.

Since we bought this house 2 1/2 years ago, we have wanted to do something about that sidewalk but we weren’t sure what to do. We had estimates but concrete contractors weren’t interested in such a small job. We thought of having it jack hammered out but I was not keen on new concrete next to old concrete.

So, we tried prying it to lift it up to one side so we could eliminate the parts of the roots that make it rise up.

Hours of trying to cut those roots while the sidewalk loomed over the work area was fruitless.

It made it better, but not good enough. We just didn’t have the room to work under the square of concrete that we needed.

Our friend, Al, after hearing of our plight, offered to bring his boom truck over and lift it up for us.

What a great guy! Talk about turning a very difficult job into an easy job.

With a remote control he was able to raise and lower the boom and he had that 5 x 5 square of concrete that is 6 inches deep, raised up and out of the way in no time.

Then he, Ron(another friend), and Col (hubby) used a chain saw and an ax to cut away the roots.

My son and 4 of his friends were there to help if need be. There is nothing like strong young men to put to work and save the old guy’s backs. They all dug and axed also.

After dulling the chain saw and tiring out plenty of arms they were ready to lay down the stone.

After a few minor adjustments…

the square laid down perfectly as if it had just been poured.

We feel so lucky to have good friends that are willing to give up a Saturday morning and help us out in such a big way. We couldn’t be more grateful for those friends.

Friendship is a sheltering tree. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Visit Susan over at Southern Daydreamer for all the entries in Outdoor Wednesday

September 30th, 2009 Teresa Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: blooms, concrete, flower, flowers, friend, friends, garden, gardening, gardenshoesonline, perrenials, plant, plants, porch, uneven sidewalk

10 Responses | Add your Own

1 Linderhof:
September 30th, 2009 at: 7:29 am
Congratulations — the sidewalk does look so much better now that it is flat! Nice pumpkins and mums!
2 Karen:
September 30th, 2009 at: 12:03 pm
I would not have thought to do that. It really was successful. It looks good as new.
3 Mary:
September 30th, 2009 at: 12:32 pm
What a job, but what a reward when it was finished. It looks wonderful. I hope you are having a great day.
4 Tracy:
September 30th, 2009 at: 4:46 pm
Great job! Although, I would worry cutting the roots might damage the tree. I have a similar problem and was not quite sure what to do but finally came up with a solution yesterday evening. In my situation, I believe I can remove the cement (too bad I did not have a friend with one of those trucks!) and then replace it with a wooden deck and sidewalk raised above the roots.

You have a welcoming porch and the sidewalk looks great!

~ Tracy

~ Tracy
5 Wendy:
September 30th, 2009 at: 9:46 pm
Wow! I was concerned about which direction this might go…The end result is perfect! It’s all about the tools, don’t you think?!
6 JSELEP:
September 30th, 2009 at: 10:23 pm
Nothing like a good guy project where everyone gets to use power toys I mean tools. That will give them something to chat about for a couple of years.
7 Claudia@DipityRoad:
October 1st, 2009 at: 12:29 am
You certainly are right– Friends and family what a blessing!! Very cool project, thanks for sharing wow.. what an undertaking and great! result.

If you get a chance please stop by and say hi!

TTFN~~Claudia ♥ ♥
8 Grace:
October 1st, 2009 at: 1:14 am
Hi Teresa~~ Wow what a great bunch of brawn. And they did such a perfect job. Like Tracy, I hope the tree doesn’t suffer because of this. Fingers are crossed. I suppose better the tree than a person.
9 Miss Daisy:
October 2nd, 2009 at: 9:45 pm
OMGosh! What an amazing project you worked on! That looked a lot of HARD work! But how perfect that neighbors and friends came together to bring out a great result! Congratulations. It looks wonderful!
10 Meredith:
October 3rd, 2009 at: 6:24 pm
Wow — hard work paid off. It looks wonderful, and it’s so special to know how your friends were a part of it.

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a blog by Teresa Soule and Garden Shoes Online

Outdoor Wednesday~ A Project

This is the front of our house.

The sidewalk leading up to the front porch has heaved because of the roots of the huge pine that sits way too close to our porch. It is a terrible trip hazard.

This tree is magnificent so we would never part with it.

It surrounds our upstairs porch and screens us from the street wires. I like to pretend they are palm tree branches (hey a girl can dream can’t she?) It gives us privacy and sounds really great when it swishes in the breeze.

Back to the point of the story ~ the sidewalk.

So, we tried prying it to lift it up to one side so we could eliminate the parts of the roots that make it rise up.

Hours of trying to cut those roots while the sidewalk loomed over the work area was fruitless.

It made it better, but not good enough. We just didn’t have the room to work under the square of concrete that we needed.

Our friend, Al, after hearing of our plight, offered to bring his boom truck over and lift it up for us.

What a great guy! Talk about turning a very difficult job into an easy job.

With a remote control he was able to raise and lower the boom and he had that 5 x 5 square of concrete that is 6 inches deep, raised up and out of the way in no time.

Then he, Ron(another friend), and Col (hubby) used a chain saw and an ax to cut away the roots.

My son and 4 of his friends were there to help if need be. There is nothing like strong young men to put to work and save the old guy’s backs. They all dug and axed also.

After dulling the chain saw and tiring out plenty of arms they were ready to lay down the stone.

After a few minor adjustments…

the square laid down perfectly as if it had just been poured.

We feel so lucky to have good friends that are willing to give up a Saturday morning and help us out in such a big way. We couldn’t be more grateful for those friends.

Friendship is a sheltering tree. ~Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Visit Susan over at Southern Daydreamer for all the entries in Outdoor Wednesday

10 Responses | Add your Own

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