Hundreds of problems

The previous owner did tons of "landscaping" with wood - pine logs, 2Xs, 4x4s, and other wood products. For the most part he used 12" to 24" pieces of 1/2" rebar to secure all borders, steps, retaining walls, etc. Where he didn't use rebar, he used 1" steel pipe! And to make removal even harder, he drove each and every piece of steel at least 1 foot deep. Now this may not sound like much of a problem to remove, but the soil here is very hard when dry and extremely rocky. He also used a lot of T-posts, but I was able to use a pick to pop those out (and it was not easy!)

I have dug a few out - it is slow, exhausting work and does a number on my lower back. I have no power equipment other than an ATV w/ a front winch. A buddy suggested cutting them off with a 9" grinder, but I don't want to leave any part of the pipes or rebar in the ground.

Can anyone suggest a method or tool that will help make pulling up these damm pieces of rebar/pipe any easier than digging them out? All comments/suggestions are appreciated.

 

Forgot to mention that almost all these pieces are located in places where it's next-to-impossible to drive a skid steer or loader close.

 

There are a few manual lever-type post pullers out there. I haven't used one, but I have seen others use them.

 

THanks, fishingpol, for the reply.
My buddy has one of those (which I tried) for T-posts, which did work slightly better than a pick. It didn't even start to work on rebar or pipe.

 

At my last job we soldered a 1/2" copper pipe onto a brass water hose fitting. I hammered the end of the pipe a little flat to make a water pressure stream and stuck that into the ground to loosen the soil. It was hard rocky fill, but it loosened up.

As we say around here "work smaatah, not haadah."

Good luck.

 

Thanks again, Jon. I'll put this one on the list of possibilities. I had thought about using high-pressure water, and may end up doing this. Around here water is scarce and expensive, but if I (actually my wife) wants these POS rebar stakes gone bad enough, high pressure water will be tried.

 

Oh yah, you are in a dry area. I missed that.

How about renting a demolition hammer with a long chisel bar? Jam it down next to the rebar and let the vibratory action loosen it up.

 

Get a 20lb monster maul.
Wack rebar on all 4 sides a few times.
Pull rebar out.

 

Sounds promising, goes on "possible list"!

 

Thx. Seems like this should work, doesn't it? I've only tried a 12lb sledge. Bent the heck outa the rebar, but did not loosen it up enough to remove it. Go figure.

 

Used that around here Eric and works great.

 

I've also thought of using a utility jack and chain or cable, and I'm liking this idea more and more. Besides, it would give me a good excuse to buy a nice utility jack from HF. I found out the hard way once that I should never drive old logging roads in the forest during the spring melt w/o one.
Thanks, Eric VW

 

Use a pipe wrench put it on as if you were going to spend it then use a floor jack to push up on the pipe wrench the pipe wrench will pinch the post in the floor jack or left it right out of the ground

 

Keep the floor jack pad as close to the post as possible and it was left that straight up out of the ground

 

Use a steel pipe wrench

 

Hopefully this makes sense auto correct keeps changing my words

 

Makes perfect sense. I can try this tomorrow since I have several pipe wrenches and a couple of floor jacks. Thx ironpony

 

Thx, already thought of that, although there is no way anything is going to sink in this hard, rocky "grand".