Hi,

My neighbor doing some work on his house and let an entire bag of stucco set right between our yards. I'm trying to sell my house, and after numerous attempts to get him to remove it (speaking with him, contacting the community, etc) I've realized I'm just going to have to do it myself.

I've tried to remove it from the yard with a dolly, but it seems embedded in the dirt and I don't have a pry bar or anything to lift it out. The only other option I see at the moment is breaking the clump up with a sledge hammer.

Is there anything I could do that might be a bit easier? I'm not at all familiar with the properties of stucco.

Thanks.

 

Surely you can find something to pry it up with. If you break it up you will get a few big lumps and a lot of little crumbs and a place that has the residual dust and color. Maybe the neighbor had a shovel or bar or 2 X 4 or something you can borrow to pry it up. It will probably break but there should be less crumbs if you try to get it up whole.

 

Stucco is made up of Portland cement, sand, water, and some lime.

It probably will need to be broken up the same as concrete.

 

Exactly where is this? If it's at all on your neighbor's property, I wouldn't touch it.

 

nagzilla ( my lovely bride ) was complaining about our/neighbor's magnolia tree,,, not knowing exactly where the property line is, i waited til very early on a sunday am it was risk vs reward - appearance ticket/cold shoulder vs eating every evening - my stomach won anyways, i could always plant another tree for the out-of-state owner - any hammer would do the trick

 

If the bag is still intact I'd think you'd be able to move it in one piece [more or less] A shovel should work well for prying it up although I'm having a hard time understanding why it can't be picked up .... maybe enlist the help of someone younger/stronger ??

btw - welcome to the forums!

 

Just be grateful it's not a junk car collection, instead of a single bag of hardened stucco.

 

Well last resort, carefully remove the sod next to it, dig a deep hole, roll it in the hole, fill hole, and replace the sod.

 

Hmm, if it might crumble I think I'll take the suggestion to try and dig it out and maybe pry it up with a 2x4. Thanks for warning me about that, tightcoat. I'd like to avoid making a giant mess.

If stucco is sold in the same weight quanties as concrete, judging by the size I'd say it was nearly an entire 80# bag. Plus, it's been there for several months and I think it settled into the ground pretty well. I'm not exactly the biggest or strongest guy in the world, but at 26, 150#, I can squat near 300 and I couldn't even get this stuff to budge.

Also, thanks for the warning, but I'm not really concerned about the property lines. We lease our property from the community, and the community is in the works of filing an eviction notice over this and a number of other things. I doubt anyone is going to say anything if I go into his yard.

 

Famous last words before the click of the safety on the shotgun: "I doubt anyone is going to say anything if I go into his yard".

 

Depending on the brand the bag could weigh 80#, 90# or 94#. Wet it could weigh about 20% more. Once you get it loose it should be easy for you to lift it. It probably has some dirt attached on the bottom and the sides, too. It has been known to happen that when there is controversy about a person or his presence that sometimes all it takes is one seemingly harmless incident for things to escalate to confrontation or violence. Just saying.

Stucco or other cement based materials in bags that get wet are often set around the sides of the bag but still dry and powdery on the inside. Material that gets wet never seems to set as hard as material that is properly mixed. Once you get the bag loose and rolled over check inside and underneath for something heavier than what the bag says it is. Remember Jesus' parable about the man who bought the field with the treasure in it.