Getting rid of dead ivy off an house wall

[Jukebag]

Hi,

Does anyone know of a easy (and safe) way of pulling dead ivy off the wall of house?. The ivy I have has been dead several months as I decided to kill it off due to it almost taking over the side of the house, which thankfully didn't get too far. However, I am not left with the dead branches (which are quite thick in places) that are stuck to the brick. I have removed some of it from the lower half of the wall as far as I can get, and using ladders, but I don't want to go further, and besides it will be pain to pull off. I have used a spade to scrape between the ivy and wall, and some of it does peel off in chunks. It's just getting rid of the rest that's in difficult to reach places that's the problem. If I got someone in to do it they'll want about 300 quid lol.

Is there some rotting powder I can use that will rot it away from the wall?.

[Boosted LS1]

You should have left it. It's greenery and somewhere for sparrows to roost not to mention a lot more attractive then the side of your house imo.

[Dr Murdoch]

Whats up with the side of the Op's house?

[darreni]

Jukebag said:

Hi,

Does anyone know of a easy (and safe) way of pulling dead ivy off the wall of house?. The ivy I have has been dead several months as I decided to kill it off due to it almost taking over the side of the house, which thankfully didn't get too far. However, I am not left with the dead branches (which are quite thick in places) that are stuck to the brick. I have removed some of it from the lower half of the wall as far as I can get, and using ladders, but I don't want to go further, and besides it will be pain to pull off. I have used a spade to scrape between the ivy and wall, and some of it does peel off in chunks. It's just getting rid of the rest that's in difficult to reach places that's the problem. If I got someone in to do it they'll want about 300 quid lol.

Is there some rotting powder I can use that will rot it away from the wall?.

Having done this before with scrapers, pliers, saws, then finally a drill mounted wire brush (wear goggles!), I’ d say pay someone else to do it.

[surveyor]

Fire.... surely the answer is fire....

[Andrew_S]

Buy an extension ladder.

[Notreallymeeither]

The answer is actually kill it with fire!!!

but I personally would pay someone to do it.

Ps don’t blame me if you burn your house down.

[Boosted LS1]

Dr Murdoch said:

Whats up with the side of the Op's house?

It's gong to be very bland.

[8-P]

There is a post on here about this somewhere which includes some great pictures of mine and others. There is no easy route, but as many meaty tools as you can involve the better. Mine was 20 bags to the tip!

[8-P]

Found it
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[anonymous-user]

I removed a lot of ivy off my stone house. As it was pulling the very old mortar out with it, I left most of it and just cut off loose bites each year. After 10 years it is now largely gone although a few tenacious bits cling to the mortar in places.

Ivy and old mortared walls don't mix in my view. I'd stop it as soon as I saw it growing now.

It also was getting behind drain pipes and gutters and forcing them away from the walls.

[Jammez]

OP I don't think there's an easy way to do this if the ivy has been dead for a while. In my experience it's easier to remove whilst it's still alive as you can pull it off easier.

Once dead it tends to be brittle and just breaks into tiny pieces. I ended up having to use pliers/screwdrivers, wire brush and it was a ball ache!

[anonymous-user]

After trying numerous tools, I found a small hand axe was perfect to remove mature ivy.

Ideally wait for a day when you're feeling really cheesed off, then take your frustration out on the ivy, its very satisfying when you get a good sized chunk off.

[dhutch]

Jammez said:

OP I don't think there's an easy way to do this if the ivy has been dead for a while. In my experience it's easier to remove whilst it's still alive as you can pull it off easier.

I did wonder this. Other half of our semi has loads, gladly, we dont.


Daniel

[anonymous-user]

I’ve used a large wall paper scraper on our wall previously and it made easy work of the dead stuff left from our neighbours Ivy reaching over.

[PCoulson]

Took a few days to remove mine. Worst bit was getting the stump out - it was rooted into the drain gully.

Managed to cut through my phone cable twice as well!

[Google [bot]]

I've had ivy removed from a building and the advice was to kill it at the stump then leave it through summer, at which point most of it comes off like a rug. This is in Australia, I don't know if we have different ivy and we probably have a hotter summer, so the information contained in this post is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation.

[megaphone]

Google [bot] said:

I've had ivy removed from a building and the advice was to kill it at the stump then leave it through summer, at which point most of it comes off like a rug. This is in Australia, I don't know if we have different ivy and we probably have a hotter summer, so the information contained in this post is general in nature and does not take into account your personal situation.

This is good advice, I did the same, left it to die, leaves dropped of, it just pulled away very easily.

[jb2410]

I live in a semi and our neighbours house is covered in this stuff. Did a cull a couple of years ago and removed anything encroaching, this thread has reminded me it’s probably time to do the same again.

[Le Vette]

Our house is stone and bloody ivy is always growing up the wall So I have to clear some of it every year. I use a bricklaying trowel as the point gets behind each strand and pulls it away easily. An old saw can work well too if the wall is flat!
By the way, I find it's easier to remove living ivy than to kill it and try to remove once dead as it becomes very brittle....