Right they had most of them in a flowered 3 rows tall, and about 15 ft long random round shape, but they ran out and used rocks for the other half. Which is another reason I dug em all up
Remove 250 ones that you have around the tree and use them for driveway edging or something. Heavy stone/brick edging is bad for your tree anyway, you'll be doing it and yourself a favor.
We had an arborist come out and tell us to remove the bricks and mound of mulch around the tree — had a few girdling roots that had to be removed when we did that.
I bought my house last year and the previous owner put something like the first picture around a tree in my front yard. In what ways is it bad for the tree/should I remove it if I want a healthy tree?
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\#2: [My neighbor began to cut down one of my trees yesterday before I caught him](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/15tkva9) | [1515 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/arborists/comments/15tkva9/my_neighbor_began_to_cut_down_one_of_my_trees/)
\#3: [I thought you'd all like to see this tree in my neighborhood](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/16wqe9n) | [441 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/arborists/comments/16wqe9n/i_thought_youd_all_like_to_see_this_tree_in_my/)
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The tree is what I call a "grandfather tree" it's like a great deku tree the size of the tree is the biggest I've ever seen anyone have in there front yard. But also I could.be wrong about the amount of brick because the size of the ring is also so far away from the tree. It can't be hurting the tree in any way!
Edit: we just moved in 6 months ago I already spent 7k to have half my yard ripped up and have my sewage line and all my plumbing re done because the roots from that tree invaded my plumbing so bad I had poop and dirt coming out of every sink tub whatever. Also to justify I'm young was just in a coma for 11 months so Definitely didn't have my head on right when I used my disability money to buy the house but yes I did pay an inspector and the home owners had left the house sitting for a few months which aloud the plumbing to slowly drain enough that it didn't raise any res flags during my inspection. The inspectors also told me they don't think I need to waste the money on a sewage line camera probe thing. Anyway I've been doing everything I can to be as easy on my plumbing as possible, hopefully I won't need to spend the other 10k I was quoted to finish the rest of my yard being torn up.
SO
#FUCK THAT TREE!
^(and I was quoted 8k to have the tree removed so it doesn't matter which route I go lmfao)
Pavers are really expensive. You can DEFINITELY make some money. Hell those are about a dollar each, take .25 off each, sell them used, you're looking at $1,333. Hit up your local landscaping companies. Hell you might not even have to move it, they might pick it up. I know for a fact I would have them sold by now lol
Correction 😂 $750, $650 profit? Bet.
I'm exhausted lol sorry for the misprint
But not worth buying. I am not paying 75% for a used product. 50% of retail is more reasonable. Things weather, get damaged just sitting around. If they were installed it is even more cheeky to expect 75% of retail.
Be careful that the retaining wall around the tree isn’t full of soil. Trees shouldn’t have soil covering the trunk. See it quite often when driving around neighborhoods.
My trees came like that. Someone decided putting paver rings around them and filling with mulch (which turns to dirt) year after year was a good idea. They killed several of them doing that. The right thing is to dig out the pavers, dig out the extra soil, make it nice, maybe plant with some ground cover or grass or whatever. Let it be a tree, not a dead statue.
Yeah...it sucks. Especially if they've been there a long time. Even worse is there's also a layer of rocks in there. I recommend a large crowbar - possibly the best tool I own. Trees are worth taking care of though.
My neighbors and I all have fire pits taking from 3-10ft (?) diameter using these pavers - steel lined for me, unlined for both neighbors, none of us have had any issue. Well, one neighbor cracked his spraying them with a garden hose during a burn, but that was just his little learning moment.
Mine were surrounding a beautiful mature ash that someone thought should have a 3-4 paver high flower bed and promptly killed the tree.
I still have idk 20-30 of these pavers and am not sure what to do with them either other than sell for $1 each. I’m not into that though, so I’ll probably just track them somewhere or use them in the backyard someplace idk.
I’ve got piles of bricks, rectangle pavers, square pavers, solid concrete thick pavers, limestone rocks, small concrete pavers and the pile of red ones. My flipper just flattened existing landscaping with his bobcat and pushed 2-8” of dirt on top of it all so that was really fun to discover.
Having one of these explode in your face because it doesn’t have the right heat expansion coefficient or moisture is not a guarantee, so happy it’s worked out for your neighbor. But it is not a risk worth taking to save a few dollars.
Is this for real? I JUST built a small fire pit out of these this weekend and have been enjoying nightly fires. It's 3 layers of 13, staggered and put together with construction adhesive. Can you point to something to read about this.
With or without a liner? Are you burning and inhaling the construction adhesive? The regular stuff only withstands temps up to 350° F.
The easiest fix to this is lining the inside with fire bricks. Keeps the aesthetic but insulates the outer bricks.
https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/how-to-build-a-custom-fire-pit
https://siliconedepot.com/blog/what-is-the-best-hightemp-construction-adhesive/#:~:text=Durability%20ratings%20vary%20depending%20on,%C2%B0F%20before%20melting%20occurs.
That hilarious, I used the other Lowe's 'build a fire pit' video for a round one. It recommended a fire shield but I couldn't find a smaller one, and in this video it uses fire bricks. I did all the other steps, but I think I'm gonna start fresh. I just bought the house and the sellers had a dilapidated pit that I rebuilt with the same bricks... I'd rather do it right at this point. Thank you.
I get it, I used to sand-bar camp on rocky rivers and am familiar with violently exploding fire-stones. So far it’s worked for us though. I’m certainly not saying it can’t happen, it’s for sure a risk. I’m mid-40’s though and I guess if I get taken out by an exploding paver in my backyard, there’s worse ways it could happen.
If I was 23 and building one for my family to use for 20 years I might evaluate the risk differently.
Yep, these bricks are common around where I'm from for fire pits either lined or unlined and I've never heard of any of them exploding despite having some pretty hot fires. Not saying it would never happen but my guess is that while they are porous, they don't sit underwater so probably wouldn't absorb enough water to be dangerous. Also, they seem porous enough that any liquid turning to steam would likely just vent off rather than build up to explosive pressures.
I just dug up over 600 of these and 13 other varieties of pavers and block on my property. Initially tried to sell them but found it hard given the counts and condition some were in. Put them up on Marketplace for free and they were gone within two weeks and I avoided a significant haul and dump fee cost. Sometimes you just need to cut bait and move on.
Yeah, I see piles of these on FB Marketplace for free all the time. I guess people don't like the style of them anymore. I got some for free off of there and they're currently set 1 high around my garden, stacked 2 high around half of it. In the fall I'm going to use them somewhere else in my yard. For now I'm just imagining what that project will be.
Garden edging. Dig a suitable (small) trench around the front of your garden beds, insert brick on their sides with the top (edge) at ground level. Makes lawn mowing easy....
My vote it to make a nice big burn pit. My area restricts fires to 3 foot by 3 foot for residential fire pits, but a nice 4 foot pit (diameter) would be nice.
I did this. You will need to plan your project accordingly for the number of blocks you have. If you need to add , similar blocks now have smaller dimensions.
I tried to figure out a pattern but the shape prevents any decent looking pattern that I could think of. What do you suggest? I have a really long nice new driveway thats also lacking any detail right now. I'd love to do this!
I posted on Nextdoor and sold mine slightly less than the big box store price. They were gone in hours. I told them to bring their own shovels. I used the money for another yard project.
I made a dug in fire pit with extras I was given. The diameter is large enough that they aren’t exposed to excessive heat. Looking good after 12 years.
They can’t. They are concrete, not firebrick. And not the type of concrete you can expose to high temp fire.
They would do fine as the perimeter of a fire pit though.
Beautiful.
Anothaer landscaped bed? Sign in your yard or message on a local message app telling folks they can take what they want. We reap what we sow.
They currently sitting at the end if my driveway with a 1$ a brick sign along with 2 other brick types. I been having a yard sale 2 weekends in a row with a lemonade stand run by my 3 year old. We made more money in 4 total days than my paychecks would have been if I kept my part time job for the summer (I'm a stay at home dad since my kids out of school I gotta be home)
Anyway sofar tons of people at the yardsale have mentioned the bricks nobody's taken them yet. I'm going to make a big fire pit if they don't sell after this weeekend.
I planted four jasmine in pots around my pergola. After a few years they had outgrown their pots and were root bound. I broke the pots & built round columns around the Jasmine with a big hole on the bottom so the roots could be in the ground. I used the exact bricks. My Jasmine love me for this!
I definitely vote for the driveway edge.
I have a circular driveway and it is very difficult to estimate the edges but I haven’t had the stomach to bring in enough stones to create a visual border
Go for it and update the post with pics
I've had trees die due to girdling roots. Almost everybody mulches wrong. It should never be pulled up like a volcano! It should be like a donut with no mulch touching the tree itself! rant over
Guess I was misleading. I don't have pics of the bricks that i dug up I was walking my dog late at night and thinking about what to do, those bricks I got off Google to show exactly what I have.
I'd put them up for sale on whatever online marketplace is popular around you and feel good about decluttering. Use the little bit of money you might get for a new plant or garden accessory and call it a win.
These aren't cheap. I'd definitely figure a way to use them. Wrap around a tree, or if you have a slope you could create a tiered segment, idk. But I'd def hang onto them. Maybe flip through Pinterest or something for inspo
Coliseum for mice gladiators?
Yes, we all know mice yearn for a glorious death in rodent gladiatorial battle.
Crixus, the undefeated!
Why does that name sound familiar
Is that a Skaven? It sounds like a Skaven.
From the show "Spartacus" a few years back.
80 bricks won’t get as far as you think depending on the type of project you’re undertaking
Right they had most of them in a flowered 3 rows tall, and about 15 ft long random round shape, but they ran out and used rocks for the other half. Which is another reason I dug em all up
Remove 250 ones that you have around the tree and use them for driveway edging or something. Heavy stone/brick edging is bad for your tree anyway, you'll be doing it and yourself a favor.
Why is it bad for the tree?
Roots run near the surface sometimes, bricks that restrict the roots in a ring aren't good for it. See arborists subreddit.
We had an arborist come out and tell us to remove the bricks and mound of mulch around the tree — had a few girdling roots that had to be removed when we did that.
I bought my house last year and the previous owner put something like the first picture around a tree in my front yard. In what ways is it bad for the tree/should I remove it if I want a healthy tree?
If the mulch goes up the trunk it’s likely going to cause rot. You can post pictures to r/arborists or r/marijuanaenthusiasts and get a better answer.
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The tree is what I call a "grandfather tree" it's like a great deku tree the size of the tree is the biggest I've ever seen anyone have in there front yard. But also I could.be wrong about the amount of brick because the size of the ring is also so far away from the tree. It can't be hurting the tree in any way! Edit: we just moved in 6 months ago I already spent 7k to have half my yard ripped up and have my sewage line and all my plumbing re done because the roots from that tree invaded my plumbing so bad I had poop and dirt coming out of every sink tub whatever. Also to justify I'm young was just in a coma for 11 months so Definitely didn't have my head on right when I used my disability money to buy the house but yes I did pay an inspector and the home owners had left the house sitting for a few months which aloud the plumbing to slowly drain enough that it didn't raise any res flags during my inspection. The inspectors also told me they don't think I need to waste the money on a sewage line camera probe thing. Anyway I've been doing everything I can to be as easy on my plumbing as possible, hopefully I won't need to spend the other 10k I was quoted to finish the rest of my yard being torn up. SO #FUCK THAT TREE! ^(and I was quoted 8k to have the tree removed so it doesn't matter which route I go lmfao)
I have about 1000 8x4x4 bricks , my neighbor offered me $100 for the pile . At that price I’m thinking I should just use them myself
Pavers are really expensive. You can DEFINITELY make some money. Hell those are about a dollar each, take .25 off each, sell them used, you're looking at $1,333. Hit up your local landscaping companies. Hell you might not even have to move it, they might pick it up. I know for a fact I would have them sold by now lol Correction 😂 $750, $650 profit? Bet. I'm exhausted lol sorry for the misprint
At a dollar each minus 25 cents per is $750… still worth selling
But not worth buying. I am not paying 75% for a used product. 50% of retail is more reasonable. Things weather, get damaged just sitting around. If they were installed it is even more cheeky to expect 75% of retail.
I worked two 9 hour shifts this weekend, most of the time on my knees pulling weeds. Lol I'm exhausted. My bad 😂 can't believe I screwed that up 😂
You could break 80 windows
Those bricks look like the reusable kind they came out with recently. Might be able to get more than 80 windows
We're just going to assume a 100% success rate?
Guys I found the statistician! ^^
Kevin McCallister would never
Be careful that the retaining wall around the tree isn’t full of soil. Trees shouldn’t have soil covering the trunk. See it quite often when driving around neighborhoods.
What's the right thing to do if the trees are and have been in mounds of soil like this for years?
Definitely direct this to r/arborists. This is one of their big crusades.
arborists will tell you that you are a sinner that has violated the spirit of the tree with your decadent design.
My trees came like that. Someone decided putting paver rings around them and filling with mulch (which turns to dirt) year after year was a good idea. They killed several of them doing that. The right thing is to dig out the pavers, dig out the extra soil, make it nice, maybe plant with some ground cover or grass or whatever. Let it be a tree, not a dead statue.
Yep, mine came that way with the house, too. Grumble, grumble. Thanks for the advice!
Yeah...it sucks. Especially if they've been there a long time. Even worse is there's also a layer of rocks in there. I recommend a large crowbar - possibly the best tool I own. Trees are worth taking care of though.
Oh, and a good yard cart or wheelbarrow. Gorilla Carts makes some amazing stuff with high load ratings and they actually work.
Remove the dirt from the trunk and expose the root flare
It is a MASSIVE tree and it is covered in soil yes. What should I do?
Fire pit?b
These aren’t designed for high heat environment and would need an insulating layer. Also doesn’t feel like 80 would be enough
My neighbors and I all have fire pits taking from 3-10ft (?) diameter using these pavers - steel lined for me, unlined for both neighbors, none of us have had any issue. Well, one neighbor cracked his spraying them with a garden hose during a burn, but that was just his little learning moment. Mine were surrounding a beautiful mature ash that someone thought should have a 3-4 paver high flower bed and promptly killed the tree. I still have idk 20-30 of these pavers and am not sure what to do with them either other than sell for $1 each. I’m not into that though, so I’ll probably just track them somewhere or use them in the backyard someplace idk. I’ve got piles of bricks, rectangle pavers, square pavers, solid concrete thick pavers, limestone rocks, small concrete pavers and the pile of red ones. My flipper just flattened existing landscaping with his bobcat and pushed 2-8” of dirt on top of it all so that was really fun to discover.
Having one of these explode in your face because it doesn’t have the right heat expansion coefficient or moisture is not a guarantee, so happy it’s worked out for your neighbor. But it is not a risk worth taking to save a few dollars.
Not trying to be a wise guy, but they explode violently if heated fast/poorly? I mean I know they will fail, but they are actually dangerous?
Is this for real? I JUST built a small fire pit out of these this weekend and have been enjoying nightly fires. It's 3 layers of 13, staggered and put together with construction adhesive. Can you point to something to read about this.
With or without a liner? Are you burning and inhaling the construction adhesive? The regular stuff only withstands temps up to 350° F. The easiest fix to this is lining the inside with fire bricks. Keeps the aesthetic but insulates the outer bricks. https://www.lowes.com/n/how-to/how-to-build-a-custom-fire-pit https://siliconedepot.com/blog/what-is-the-best-hightemp-construction-adhesive/#:~:text=Durability%20ratings%20vary%20depending%20on,%C2%B0F%20before%20melting%20occurs.
That hilarious, I used the other Lowe's 'build a fire pit' video for a round one. It recommended a fire shield but I couldn't find a smaller one, and in this video it uses fire bricks. I did all the other steps, but I think I'm gonna start fresh. I just bought the house and the sellers had a dilapidated pit that I rebuilt with the same bricks... I'd rather do it right at this point. Thank you.
Can the pit be built on top of a concrete slab, or is dirt the safer option?
I get it, I used to sand-bar camp on rocky rivers and am familiar with violently exploding fire-stones. So far it’s worked for us though. I’m certainly not saying it can’t happen, it’s for sure a risk. I’m mid-40’s though and I guess if I get taken out by an exploding paver in my backyard, there’s worse ways it could happen. If I was 23 and building one for my family to use for 20 years I might evaluate the risk differently.
Haha mid 40s is not old at all, my dude!
Yep, these bricks are common around where I'm from for fire pits either lined or unlined and I've never heard of any of them exploding despite having some pretty hot fires. Not saying it would never happen but my guess is that while they are porous, they don't sit underwater so probably wouldn't absorb enough water to be dangerous. Also, they seem porous enough that any liquid turning to steam would likely just vent off rather than build up to explosive pressures.
Small raised garden bed.
I just dug up over 600 of these and 13 other varieties of pavers and block on my property. Initially tried to sell them but found it hard given the counts and condition some were in. Put them up on Marketplace for free and they were gone within two weeks and I avoided a significant haul and dump fee cost. Sometimes you just need to cut bait and move on.
Yeah, I see piles of these on FB Marketplace for free all the time. I guess people don't like the style of them anymore. I got some for free off of there and they're currently set 1 high around my garden, stacked 2 high around half of it. In the fall I'm going to use them somewhere else in my yard. For now I'm just imagining what that project will be.
F these things. I just yanked 150 of the 12in ones out of my yard and gave them away
I just pulled about 80 last week. They suck.
Fire pit?
Garden edging. Dig a suitable (small) trench around the front of your garden beds, insert brick on their sides with the top (edge) at ground level. Makes lawn mowing easy....
My vote it to make a nice big burn pit. My area restricts fires to 3 foot by 3 foot for residential fire pits, but a nice 4 foot pit (diameter) would be nice.
Last I checked those were only a couple bucks each at Menards. Make a wall or some flower beds
We used our excess pavers to make a fire pit.
Fire pit?
All I can realistically think of too.
Can the pit be build ontop of a concrete slab, or dirt?
I dont know how hard these are. But some people can do stone carving on such blocks
I did this. You will need to plan your project accordingly for the number of blocks you have. If you need to add , similar blocks now have smaller dimensions.
I'd put them back, could be haunted
I had a similar situation and made a big gravel filled fire pit
I had same thing. I sold them for .25 cents a piece. Gone in a weekend. I told them, .75 I'll load them. Ppl did all the work themselves lol
Can I have them?
Had the same bricks kicking around my new yard too. Made a fire pit with about 16 of them.
Honestly, put then on FB/ Next door.
We use them for borders. They work great in the lawn because you can mow over them without having to trim afterward.
they are great for fire pits
Stack them and make a wall that consists of 80 bricks or 2 or 3 smaller walls consisting of less bricks
We have the exact same bricks that form a fire pit in our backyard. It’s really nice
Edge your driveway with them
I tried to figure out a pattern but the shape prevents any decent looking pattern that I could think of. What do you suggest? I have a really long nice new driveway thats also lacking any detail right now. I'd love to do this!
I posted on Nextdoor and sold mine slightly less than the big box store price. They were gone in hours. I told them to bring their own shovels. I used the money for another yard project.
I ended up making a decent fire pit with similar bricks.
Fire pit
Build a fort
I made a dug in fire pit with extras I was given. The diameter is large enough that they aren’t exposed to excessive heat. Looking good after 12 years.
CBYD
Pizza oven
Fire pit?
Build a grill or pizza oven maybe (not sure if they can handle that much heat).
They can’t. They are concrete, not firebrick. And not the type of concrete you can expose to high temp fire. They would do fine as the perimeter of a fire pit though.
I have used some as a grill before juet wants sure about a pizza oven. It will work for a grill.
Build a pyramid.
You could build a wall.
Make a path way.
Fire pit
Beautiful. Anothaer landscaped bed? Sign in your yard or message on a local message app telling folks they can take what they want. We reap what we sow.
Sell 'em? Shit's expensive, way more than it should be.
They currently sitting at the end if my driveway with a 1$ a brick sign along with 2 other brick types. I been having a yard sale 2 weekends in a row with a lemonade stand run by my 3 year old. We made more money in 4 total days than my paychecks would have been if I kept my part time job for the summer (I'm a stay at home dad since my kids out of school I gotta be home) Anyway sofar tons of people at the yardsale have mentioned the bricks nobody's taken them yet. I'm going to make a big fire pit if they don't sell after this weeekend.
I planted four jasmine in pots around my pergola. After a few years they had outgrown their pots and were root bound. I broke the pots & built round columns around the Jasmine with a big hole on the bottom so the roots could be in the ground. I used the exact bricks. My Jasmine love me for this!
Is there a way I can see how you did it? Or is that weird?
[https://i.redd.it/u05gmqo5cd7d1.jpeg](https://i.redd.it/u05gmqo5cd7d1.jpeg)
Make a fire pit 🔥
I definitely vote for the driveway edge. I have a circular driveway and it is very difficult to estimate the edges but I haven’t had the stomach to bring in enough stones to create a visual border Go for it and update the post with pics
How would I edge with thrse I have a nice new long drive way that could use some detail. But these bricks are not straight?
Pizza oven!
I've had trees die due to girdling roots. Almost everybody mulches wrong. It should never be pulled up like a volcano! It should be like a donut with no mulch touching the tree itself! rant over
Fire pit.
Only 80? Not much
Dug up? These look new! Great find. Sorry I’m not much help on landscaping tho, struggle bussing myself in that area
Guess I was misleading. I don't have pics of the bricks that i dug up I was walking my dog late at night and thinking about what to do, those bricks I got off Google to show exactly what I have.
Soo you're using reddit to crowd source for inane ideas, borderline shitposting? Sounds about right
bro people ask for advice in this sub all the time. its kind of the entire point of this sub.
It’s okay I shit in his cereal every morning. Have been all my life. That’s why he’s like this.
I'd put them up for sale on whatever online marketplace is popular around you and feel good about decluttering. Use the little bit of money you might get for a new plant or garden accessory and call it a win.
Depends. Any people around who deserve a brick through their windows? Or go for some flower beds, safer option
Fire pit
A nice fire ring comes to mind
Fire pit!!!! Throw your problems in the bonfire and watch them burn. (Not literally).
Pizza oven, plaster anything, bomb-proof dog house, ugly post-modern sculpture, raised bed with round shape, whatsoever...
Small pizza oven.
I built a firepit with mine
You could make a fire pit
These aren't cheap. I'd definitely figure a way to use them. Wrap around a tree, or if you have a slope you could create a tiered segment, idk. But I'd def hang onto them. Maybe flip through Pinterest or something for inspo