Easy Stump Removal - Complete Burn 

Thanks! I came to this video after struggling with a stump all day today. I built a fire pit around it, and set a fire on top. Didn't hardly phase it. Then I thought I would try charcoal for tomorrow, and was excited to see that I was on the right track when I saw this video. I was on the verge of looking to paying someone to grind up the stumps I have, but will give this a try first. And also, thanks to all that gave some extra tips to make the process go faster! I just love RU-vid! I've saved a ton of money fixing/doing things myself, dishwashers, dryers, cars, washers, you name it. Us woman rock!!!!!!

In 1965 (I was 10) my Dad and Uncle cut down 2 huge cedar trees, and 2 huge white oak trees at our deer camp in the Sierra Nevada's. One of the Oaks was 38 inches diameter and the stump was wider than that. One of the lower logs off the stump was about 6ft long and they left it next to the stump. Dad made a rock firepit around the stump and up against the log. The stump burned away after a couple of weeks, but the log just lost it's bark. Every year for deer and trout season that was the fire for the camp. They always built the fire against the log. In 1975 I was home from the Navy with some shipmates and we went to camp there. That weekend it snowed about 2 ft one night, I got the fire started back up the next morning, and the big charred side of that oak kept the camp toasty, and melted everything in camp. My Dad said it was 1980 when the forest service finally cut up and removed the last bit of that log and rebuilt the camp for day use only. That log lasted for 15 years! Thanks for the memory trigger!

I am retired forest ranger, I do this in forest many time , burn out stump , just big hole in ground stay, usualy need week or two. Good job.

I just ran across this, I've got a stump maybe ten inches wider, behind my shop, been cutting it down some fifteen years, finally realised it had substantial roots under the concrete, and dug all around it, about two years ago, taken out maybe a ton of roots, twenty feet and more away, finally got it dead this year, it's a sycamore, much of the roots were six to eight inches thick, and I've been chopping it apart with an ax, since, I think I'll do what you did, but mine's dry, at least the first three or four feet, I'm tired of the ax work. Thanks for showing this, think I'm going to have it gone in the next week or two. Awesome!

I love the commentary “throw some leaves on to make us popular with the neighborhood” I love It! Only because I have done the same thing....lol! Thanks for sharing.

I concede that this is a 3 year old video, and you are on HF (General class or higher Ham operator), you are an intelligent young man. With that said, most all of these videos on this platform are missing the thing you attempted with the compressed air & blower, O2 flow. I’ve got a 4’ diameter Red Oak stump, I’ve been putting of for 10-12 years. All this to say, thanks for the basic fire elements class (fuel, ignition, and O2). And with that said, I’ll be using a Milwaukee angle drill and the largest / longest auger bits I can find,,,,,,, I’ll make it look like Swiss Chess before lighting it off. I make a time lapse video, but I’m no creator, just modern day hillbilly/farmer/ET, so I’ll pray for y’all, and pray before I start on this one too. God Speed, and God Bless,,,,,,, Semper Fi,,,

I bet a lot of people can't wait to see this, to each his own

This reminds me of just chopping up wood with my grandpa back in the days. Literally would love spending all day just chopping wood than relaxing by the fire later watching dodger games. Rip grandpa, thanks for the nostalgia!

Interesting method! Whatever works, preferably using what you have on hand so you don't have to spend anything, is always the definition of success. The fun of such projects is always taking your own situation, and your stock of materials and tools, and doing it with as little work and invested time as possible. 10 minutes per day is good work, and nothing to sneeze at. Well done! For a different approach, we had one a few years ago about the same size, maybe a bit bigger with how a couple of the fatter roots radiated out. It wasn't as green as yours, having been cut in the spring, and this was late summer when we burned it out. We took the approach of turning it into several rocket stoves around its edge, with most of the holes at each of the big roots. We chose this approach because we would often enjoy making a rocket stove in the firepit every so often, using an un-split firewood round (our rejects, that were half-rotten and no good for firewood), and were always amazed at how thoroughly and fast the intersecting holes would allow the fire to consume most or all of that huge chunk of wood, especially those where we had multiple horizontal holes intersecting the vertical 'chimney' hole. I had a 1" flat spade bit, 18" drillbit extension rod (gripped the bit's shank with a small socket end and set screws, then chucked into the drill), and an old corded drill (it was before I'd built up my current battery collection). My friend had a chainsaw, I want to say 24" bar, no tip guard, so he could make plunge cuts. We made I think 8 air shafts' in from the sides, right through the thickest parts of those roots, or just into the side of the stump to equally space them around the perimeter, then connected to each of those with a vertical hole from the top down to it. Within a day and a half of burning in each of these rocket stove holes, the connections to the roots were all severed, and most of the trunk part of the stump was gone in large burned-out circles at those points, like something had taken out huge bites from around the edge. After an overnight rain had extinguished it, we went in from 3 of those burned holes toward the middle, down from the top to connect to those, fired up those rocket stoves, and a couple days later it was all gone but a handful of narrow vertical slivers that had been between the holes. Burned down below grade (except for a hump of the fattest root), so once we knocked out the slivers (and chainsawed the top of that remaining root flat and below grade), we were able to cover with dirt and get some grass going. All told, 2 main burns over 6 days, with the majority of the working time spent drilling/chainsawing those rocket stove air holes, maybe half hour each day, for the 2 days. Built the fires in 5 minutes, walked away, fire did all the rest of the work. Getting air down below the stump with those 'shafts', which let the fire burn up from those intersecting 'combustion chambers', up through the stump, seemed to be what let it work so fast.

Thank you so much for taking time to make this video. I always gaffed at that process. I never realized how simple and effective it could be. God bless you.

Excellent video. I used a similar technique except drilled 1 inch holes with ship auger around top and sides of stump, then connected a HarborFreight Hercules 20V blower to one of the side holes with a metal pipe and left it on low speed to accelerate the burn.

That pusher you built onto the lawnmower was worth the viewing! Now...where's my saw and hammer!!

15 days of fire....I am impressed...

This is brilliant! I'm a city guy moving to a wooded lot. Been watching a lot of videos about how to remove a stump. Why isn't everyone doing it this way. I love when I see something that makes total sense and yet I never even thought of it before. I mean this is as common sense as the shoe lace. Thank you.

I was going to say you should use a leaf blower. Then you did. Thanks for posting, I'm dealing with an old stump that had burnt pretty well on about half, not the other half is not so dry/rotten. The charcoal it something I didn't think about so I'm gonna give that a try. Thanks for the idea.

I’m currently burning a 30” green mesquite stump down. Its currently been smoldering for the past 4 days and the active fire went out 3.5 days ago. I didn’t do any special setup to burn it other than digging the dirt out from around it, and putting about 40 kilos of charcoal on and round it. Worked like a charm.

Haha it cracks me up how dogs like to get into the middle of everything.

what prompted me to watch this video was that I decided to dig out out a large hickory stump. It was easy with a trachoe I had it out in less than a half hour. But! I had a huge hole opened up large enough to literally bury a small car in. This method leaves a very small footprint comparably. I tried this using a 24 qt. dutch oven lid for a damper. I also sawed a vent hole at the very bottom of the stump. next morning it was still cooking. the second morning it was still cooking, the third morning it was still cooking and burning below ground level. [this stump was one year dead] enjoyable and very little effort. Only way to go, especially for older folks with little brawn left. and when a stump is in a hard to access area or where you don't want to tear up the yard.

I like how you turned your mower into a bulldozer . That was cool. Keep on being creative. It gives others ideas on how to solve simple problems.

A leaf blower on “idle” connected to a 90mm pipe can speed this up big time, I normally leave the blower on it for 3 hours a day. Uses hardly any fuel. Also can shave off more time by cutting the log lower (if you have a big enough saw) or asking the tree crew to cut it lower to ground. Then try and plunge cut it in a few places to the depth of the Bar. Soak that in 50:50 fuel/diesel mix for as long as you can then use your method with charcoal. Good vid

Nice job... If i do the same thing,i would drill some holes deep as i can in the center and drill some sideways from the bark into the core. The fire gets more air and burn may better and faster

Love that bull bar you built on the front of your mower! I may have to try out your idea on mine lol.

When I had to burn one years back, I prepped it by spending 15 minutes going at it with an axe. It's so, so much easier to burn a clump of splinters that are held together than it is to burn a solid block.

CommonSense ain't so common. You nailed it clear the ash and let the heat do its work!

Thank you so much! I had several trees dead after a winter storm in Houston and now I have 3 new fresh huge palm stumps and a couple of citric tree stumps and this will be super handy. I'm planning BBQing them and maybe even fire some ceramics on them in the process! ;) Never let a good fire go to waste! I really apreciatte your time in making a video to share the process.

Man I've been working on a stump in my front yard. Burned it about 8 times so far. Its nearly gone, but I was starting to wonder if I messed up somewhere, with it taking so many days. But when you said it took 15 days I felt much better. Seeing you use the air compressor was pretty funny too. I started using my leaf blower the same way on the last burn.

Being from CA, I'd probably end up in jail for starting the "RU-vid Fire". 🤣 I enjoyed watching the video though.

Sir, we wanted to thank you for your video on how to burn a green stump out completely. I can’t tell you how many we have watched and yours is the first that did it in a way that was easy and concise. We haven’t had to do this yet and until your video we did not feel we had the information we needed to do it safely and simply. We do now and are grateful.

An old squirrel cage fan unit from an older furnace is a great way to supply neverending air to the fire. Easy to connect a 6-8" piece of metal ductwork to direct the air to best burn the stump. Thanks for sharing.

Here's one for the tree huggers out there... I had a coworker that had a HUGE stump in his yard. He doesn't one year doing oil changes on his cars and then drilled a bunch of holes in the stump. All the old oil went on the stump, filling the holes, wait a little while for the oil to soak in and pour on more until the oil he had was gone. Put a tarp over the lug until next oil change and repeat. That winter, he put a little charcoal lighter fluid on it and lit it up. He said it smoldered for about 2 weeks before before the hole was about 2' deep. Following summer he filled in the hole and planted grass. LOL

Great technique. One thing I would add to this, especially for a larger stump, is to drill a bunch of holes in the top also. Drill them as big and deep as you can. Next, fill them with diesel or kerosene. Do that over a few days to allow the fuel to soak into the stump. Once you have done that then proceed like this. You can also make the bowl when you drill the holes and put fuel in that too to help keep your greenish stump burning completely.

Nice job the air compresser was a awesome thought 👏 👍

When I have big ones like that I dig around them. You'd be surprised at how much a man can dig in say 1/2 hour to an hour. I try to get under it as much as I can. That one is probably 12"-18" deep. Something like that. Dig around it good. Now you have the stump suspended by the roots. If you have big roots you should consider cutting at least some of them. They often will supply a lot of water to the stump and prevent them from burning. That's what they're supposed to do after all. Now build your fire under it. I use the wood from the tree as well. Contain the heat. That stump should be all gone in a weekend. Just have to make sure to watch the fire.

Good comment about forcing the fire down. I had the same issue - big black crater. I actually had a metal galvanized outdoor fire pit that I ringed around the stump. Blew air under it - needs another burn!

I think you could've done it much faster if you turned the stump into a rocket stove. Basically you would cut a square hole in the top going as deep as possible then cut another hole at the base so that the two holes meet up. That would've allowed for ventilation and more heat at the bottom as opposed to burning in from the top down. Just a thought if you have to do another one. Either way, I enjoyed the video.

Thank u for the video. I have a stump and it’s a mutha.. I’ll just have to take my time with it. Your video helps a lot!

Awesome. Love the lawn mower hack.

I'd build a firepit around the stump, and let it burn itself out continually. To help it I'd mount an old hair dryer on cool to keep the fresh air flowing. Forget that rebuilding step, I'd prop up the grill and throw a couple 4-5lb pork loins well seasoned and wrapped in foil, slap a 55 gallon drum filled with holes over the stump and slow roast the rump. and don't forget the tater's.

Remember , burning wood carmelizes the sugars in the wood making it rot resitant . If you dont get a complete burn the leftovers will take much longer to rot.

After cutting the center hole, how about cutting some other slits in the stump on top? It would provide more surface area in the stump so that hot coals could fall into them and start burning also.

Excellent idea that works, it is inspirational. One thing I’d add to is to turn it into a jet stove like burner. Vertical combustion chamber and chimney in the core and one or few side holes 45 degrees down the combustion chamber base. For the inlet hole facing up wind place a front panel with a hole feeding the inlet hole. That eliminates frequent maintenance - air hosing the inlet to restart burn and ash evacuate.

Fascinating! I’m never going to need to do this, but I like that I know how. 😀 Thank you. I love that cute little dog!

In the 50s a neighbor removed Oak stumps twice that size with very little effort. He built a small fire at their base and placed the exhaust of an old Electrolux vacuum in a way as to create a forge. It took many sessions but he didn't seem to mind watching it from a lounge chair with a beer in hand.

I just hooked shopvac blower to hose to 6 feet of pipe into the heart of a charcoal fire, and left the air blow. It was gone pretty quickly.

This will be very helpful knowledge here on our farm!

I am going to have to do this. Bought a house about 4 years ago. Cut more the 3/4 of the tree down. Did not have a huge chain saw. So we did what we xould with what we had. Drilled holes and trief poising it. It is as if we just gave the tree some reason to grow even more. So I am going to ren a huge chain saw and cut it as close to the roots as possible. And give it a couple of weeks to dry a bit and then burm the stump. Our nabours sai the have been trimming the tree for more then 25 years. So O dont even want to see what the roots are doing to the houses around us. My house has started cracking. I have very liitle choice but to let the tree go.

I have burned out about 30 stumps on my farm ranging from 10” - 4’. I’ve found the fastest and most effective way of burning them is to use a chainsaw to cut a number of vertical slots in the stump, then take a large auger or forstner bit (at least 3/4”) with a bit extension and drill a dozen holes near the base reaching to near the center of the stump. Do this using the clock face as a circular guide and slope each hole slightly downward with a goal of having the last third of the hole beneath ground level. I use old used motor oil as my starter fluid and let it soak into the holes for a few hours. Then set it on fire and place a burn barrel around the stump to focus and control the fire. If the stump is too large for the diameter of a 55 gallon barrel I have four 1/4” metal plates that are 5’ long and 3’ high that I stage vertically around the stump to take the place of the barrel. I go out and use a leaf blower to remove ash daily and reignite the burn. It’s never taken more than 4 days to remove a big stump and most stumps that are under 3’ in diameter are gone in 2-3 days. A nice byproduct of these burns is the dust created is mostly potash which is beneficial to the soil. It works and takes no more than 1-2 hours of total effort from start to finish. It’s a safe, non polluting way of disposing of old motor oil which burns a long time in those holes. I’m presuming it’s non polluting because the grass grows back where the stump was in a brief period.

You should've drilled a few holes in the side, then some holes through the top going down to those holes. Like a tobacco pipe. That way, it would have constant airflow and more surface area to burn.

This is pretty much the way I do it, only I burn it out in about 3-5 days. Green or dead years doesn’t matter. I cut the tree off a little bit higher, about 2 feet. I dig around the base. I then cut a pie shape with my chainsaw into at least 6 pieces. Cut directly through the buttress roots as low as I can go without fouling the chain. Use the leaf blower to get the sawdust out and start the fire on the top middle of the trunk. It burns down to the bottom in a few minutes, but you need to blow it out and keep rolling logs into the middle for a few days after. I believe most of the time is really just driving the water out of the stump wood. Once it sets in, it will keep burning well below ground level and you need to use some dill dirt.

My uncle burned his shop down this way, a couple of the main roots actually came out of the ground under his shop and the fire traveled thru the root and set the shop on fire 40’ away a week after he lit it up. His was a 6-8 month old stump though but the tree was cut down in July so it was sappy

Great Video. I have an Oak that I'll be cutting down in the next month. My concern with your tactic is the tree/future stump is about 4 feet from the house. Not sure about having a fire going for that long that close to the house. Even though it's middle of winter, so everything should stay good and wet. The tip on keeping it covered to radiate heat down was a new one for me. Hadn't thought of that. I'll definitely give that a try if I go ahead and burn it out.

Good process, the only thing I do differently is I take a drill and 1/2 to 3/4 in bits and drill a bunch of holes in the stump, and if I have it I pour used cooking grease, old oil, or a little diesel into the holes for a couple of days to add something to help it burn a bit faster. Even without the add ons the extra holes help it to burn faster.

probably take a couple/three hours with Big 420cc stump grinder from the Box Store. Much more fun to play with fire, accelerants and Blowers.

I didn't know COKE was flammable. I see you used it to start the charcoal on fire. LOL

If you use wood cut for firewood and get an actual fire burning on it it will burn a lot faster. The more coals your fire produces the better, them big logs just smolder.

Good job budd

I drill holes and mine are completely gone in a weekend with me never having to do anything,one straight down and 4 around the sides,it’s called something stove lol but I don’t remember. I have to start with a small bit and keep working my way up to my 1” or you will break your wrist or burn your drill up since I’m to cheap to buy a better drill.

Wow I really appreciated this man good job haha 👍🏽

I currently have a stump this size. It's burning right now. I will win.

I appreciate your effort, but the libs would have a stroke with the carbon emissions removing that one stump. I removed 5 stumps larger than yours and it took about 45 minutes. Modern stump grinders are compact and maneuverable, so I think you could have gotten one in there.

If you don’t have a big compressor, you can use a leaf blower.

Great video. I’ve used and seen many methods over the years. There are three to consider IMHO as to what I am personally seen used. One: take a one inch diameter auger bit that is at least six inches long and drill holes in the top every 5 inches or so. Come out every morning for a few days and fill the holes with a flammable of your choice. Top the holes off and it’ll slowly absorb into the stump. After a few days a Take a large chainsaw with ripping chain and make two x patterns. This allows air flow. Then I start a fire on top and use some split limbs to reflect the heat down. Use a leaf blower to clear ash and Stoke the fire occasionally. Usually only a 3 day process once fire is started. Doesn’t tend to go out and need rebuilding. Just clear and add material at top as needed. Two: use splitting wedges and either a maul or a back hoe bucket or similar to split the stump. Soak in flammable of choice overnight. Start fire with reflector. Clear and add material as needed. Usually 4/5 days total process. Three: if small enough to fit a 55 gallon drum over build an incinerator. Use a metal hose to connect a fan or electric blower to. Get the fire started and build a coal base. Turn on leaf blower/Fan. It will incinerate it usually in 1 day. Caution, only use this method where you have space and can contain any brush fires started by sparks etc coming out of the funnel

That stump was blown away.

You are a Wizard turning a stump into a Dog!

A nice powerful shop fan in front of that sure would accelerate the burn.

Dont know how i ended up here, but im glad i did.

The compressed air is a major assist. Have you tried drilling lateral holes at an angle underneath a stump and then forcing air from below?

mmm.. Good idea, effortless, quick, cheap and clean..

Hard work! But great accomplishment ❤

i've seen people use an oil drum with the top and bottom cut off. the thing acts like a chimney when put over the stump, and keeps the air flowing, and has the same effect as the blower, just more steady. works in ~48 hours.

An old timer hog farmer told me how they used to do this. They would use a pick ax to made pockets for corn kernels, and the hogs would shred the stump to get at them.

My HOA.would have a fit if I try this in my backyard.

Yes cut into all sides of stump with chain saw,creates draft will burn out much faster.

15 days? One stump. Wow, that seems like a long time. Digging with water pressure and various cutting tools, we averaged 3 hrs total per stump × 11 for removal and cleaning. Burned clean stumps in one huge pile. Now THAT took some time 😉 A D-8 would've come in handy.

When I burn stumps I dig the sod away from the stump and go down about 1foot. The air can get to the fire easier when it gets to ground level.

Cool project.

Use a cordless drill and drill a hole directly into the center strait down. Then drill a hole into the side of the stump as close to the ground as possible making the two holes meet. This allows the fire to breathe from the bottom and you can add air through the bottom hole by using a leaf blower. Much quicker and hotter fire.

I would of done some BBQ and beer and whiskey while that was burning two weeks of that would be Heaven. Good Video, Thanks mate. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

01:13 Hey Bossman, you uhh......planning on returning the ole electrical chainsaw? 🤣🤣🤣🤘🤘🤘

The burn technique is a lot faster with hot coals and holes drilled from the cut face and out the side of the stump. I used to keep a barrel of pea coal for this purpose. I used a propane torch to get the coal going on the stump, then rolled it over and walked away.

Great job man

I burned out a 26 inch pin oak stump in 10 hours. Dig out around the roots cut across the stump as deep as possible to form a +. Build fire on 1 side and set squirrel cage blower to force heat through the + and get stump burning. Keep enough wood on it to maintain the heat. Use blower occasionally to clear ashes away. Drink beer as needed while the stump burns away.

We use a 55 gallon drum and it works great

A hotdog on a stick makes this a legal cooking fire. Looks to be about a 7 day hotdog roast. The neighbor that complained most gets a free hotdog. 👍

Sometimes when I watch these stump burn videos, I wonder why before rebuilding the fire, one doesn't strike a few hits with a large hammer. Many of those ridges look like they'd break easily, and the broken off pieces can still be used as fuel, but the new surface of the break would be available quicker.

I drilled numerous holes with 1"bit and filled them with old drain oil. Let it soak for several months and then set it afire. Burned out in a few days.

I usually drill holes around the stump. Use charcoal stater, let the charcoal fluid soak into the stump. Let it soak for a day, and reapply. Once the charcoal lifter fluid is completely soaked into the stump, light and let it burn. You can use a opened barrel to keep the fire in check.

Done this before. Same method but used a sheet of corrugated to to reflect the heat back to the stump. Only problem was the roots underground started burning. Took several days to get that stopped.

i generally start with the stump closer to the ground

Holy mackerel! coca-cola here in the UK isn't nearly as flammable as that!

You might want to try cutting a "x" about 6 inches deep and use wood wedge to split the stump . It would let more air and heat in .

This seems like a really fun process, honestly. Couldn't you have cut the stump a lot closer to the ground to speed it up? Thanks for the video.

I've used a leaf blower on stubborn fires before, but never compressed air. I have a big compressor in the basement, 300 feet of hose, and if all else fails, a pony tank. This could change my life.

I thought about buying one of those Harbor Freight floor blower and aim at my stump.

Well, and patiently, done...entertaining too, thanks

i thought youd plant a tree there for sure lol

I destroyed 3 stomps in a year with NH4NO3. Made some holes (20-30 cm) and put ammonium nitrate with water here. close holes with slivers.Year will pass and most of stomp (and roots) will be decomposed

Drill 4 holes as low as you can to the middle of the tree

I believe the rocket stove concept is the best. With at least a small fan. At least a littl bigger that a computer blower fan.

Awesome. This is the only way to burn a stump. It takes a long time and like you've shown; gotta' get that ash out.