Removing Ivy from a house

[Cookie]

I don't know if anyone ever removed a large amount of ivy from a house, but if you have you know how hard exactly it can be. I guess, with spring coming it might be a project for some. My house was covered in it a few years back, even growing onto the roof and it had taken forever to take it off. On this old house they were showing how to easily remove it.

http://www.thisoldhouse.com/toh/vide...631583,00.html

[Dunbar Plumbing]

If you grow ivy on your house here in kentucky, take everything but the dog chained to the tree.

If the tree has ivy on it, the tree goes. Dog wandering aimlessly dragging a chain.

[Cookie]

Ok, now I was lost in replying to that, and then, I open my email to find a thought of the day sent from a friend, and thought there you go!

The thought for the day:

Handle every stressful situation like a dog.
If you can't eat it or play with it.
Pi*** on it and walk away.

(has nothing to do with ivy )

[Dunbar Plumbing]

Urine will burn ivy right off a house, including brick.


I've been trimming weeds this way for years. Where's my going green ribbon for saving the world.

[Cookie]

Will have to wait for my next thought of the day to answer that one.

[Cass]

Urine will burn ivy right off a house, including brick.


I've been trimming weeds this way for years. Where's my going green ribbon for saving the world.

A Kentucky plumber peeing all over someones house is not a good thought...

[Cookie]

I have a neighbor from Taiwan who every summer puts urine around her house where she got some shrubbery growing, she tells me it is to keep the deer away. I tell her it works on keeping people and burglars away, so why not the deer, too?
Hmm, she has no ivy either...or grass, lol. and, I am her only friend, lol.

[ddmoit]

I have removed ivy from a 2 story brick house before. I find that the ivy is easier to remove while it is still alive. dead ivy gets hard and brittle.

I just got some leather gloves and started pulling and cutting with pruning shears. To get the remnants off, I found that a paint scraper like this works best. It's a dirty job - wear a mask. And, pick a cool day if you have an aversion to lots of bugs.

[Dunbar Plumbing]

I have a neighbor from Taiwan who every summer puts urine around her house where she got some shrubbery growing, she tells me it is to keep the deer away. I tell her it works on keeping people and burglars away, so why not the deer, too?
Hmm, she has no ivy either...or grass, lol. and, I am her only friend, lol.

I know what she means,


I wobble out to the front of my truck and just let go in the morning, gets rid of the frost on my headlights and deters deer completely.

Proof is I've never hit a deer in years. The chrome however is pitting badly on the front bumper. :sighs:

[Cookie]

Yes, we found it easier also, when it was alive to pull off. It actually was growing up onto our roof, just out of control. Now, what I do is to make sure it doesn't get a foot off the ground. The stuff can look nice if taken care of, trimmed etc, but it kept our home alittle buggy and damp. I figured this might end up being a spring project for some people.

[master plumber mark]

Ivy can have some if its close cousins living
amongst it,,,,, and you can get a real mean mean case
of god knows what.....

poison sumac, oak, the chinese creeping cruds.......

the oils from different ivys can react with your skin
just like the poison ones do..

we had someone attempt to get the ivy out of our
yard and the side of our house once and they eventually
had to go to the hospitle for how bad it got .

[Wet_Boots]

What variety of ivy? It's supposed to make a difference, English Ivy being the worst, especially around old weak masonry. I wonder, has anyone planted Boston Ivy by a house, for the shading effect in summer? (for a supposed energy savings)

[Cookie]

The first crocuses are blooming, which as far as I am concerned means spring is here. Time to start cleaning up the garden beds. Time to mulch, to keep the weeds from coming on stronger than the plants. Time to choose seeds to start inside. I am working on that now. I recently had 3 large trees removed which had that dreaded poison ivy growing up it and hopefully, that will cure that problem which is a constant nuisance in my yard.

Mine was English Ivy.

[Cass]

I haven't seen any crocuses flowers blooming yet but I have my eye out. I love seeing them coming up through the snow.