In the previous posts in the “how to remove railroad ties without really trying” series, we’ve taken an in-depth look at what is required before we start throwin’ out our backs trying to get those eyesores removed.  Now that we’ve got the right tools for the project, we can start removing the railroad ties with little to no impact or pain.

First, you’ll need to prep your area.  If you have grass, weeds, mulch, excess dirt, you’ll need to remove that so you’ll have easier access to the railroad ties.  To this end, I’ve used my Ryobi weed trimmer/edger with great success.  You’ll want to make sure you have a clear area to work with — it makes things 100 times easier.

Next, take your flat or square head shovel and start to dig a straight line  along the inside of the railroad ties (the side opposite the grass/material the railroad tie was edging).  I’d recommend going down at least 4 to 8 inches, depending on the size of the railroad ties.

Once the area on the inside of the railroad ties is clear, take your prybar or action bar and see if you can raise the railroad tie out of the ground.  In most instances, the railroad ties will have rotted slightly from years of being in wet soil, so you’ll have some mud/dirt that has filled in, making the railroad tie you’re trying to remove a wee-bit heavier.  No matter, this is what the sledgehammer is for!

With your prybar/action bar having successfully propped up the railroad tie, grab your flat or square head shovel and use it to assist the prybar in keeping the railroad tie above ground level.

Finally, the fun part: sledgehammer away.  Very methodically, take your first swing at the exposed end of the railroad tie.  Before you start swinging away, see what happened with your first swing.  Did it move anything else out of place?  Will it drive the railroad tie into your foundation?  Your siding?  Other landscaping?

With all that safety stuff out of the way, take your aggression out with the sledgehammer!  You’re almost done!

With the railroad tie successfully removed, the hardest part of the job is moving the dead weight railroad tie from the jobsite to the proper burial place.  For me, living in the city, it was a Gorilla Cart ride down my alley to the Yard Waste Only dumpster.  For non-city dwellers, you may want to check with your local waste management company to find out how to dispose of the railroad tie properly.

In our final post in this series, my wife will detail what we ended up doing with the cleared area. (Hint: it looks awesome now)

In our last post in the “how to remove railroad ties without really trying” series, we examined the right prybar/action bar for the project.  Now we’ll take a look at finding the right sledge hammer.

The primary purpose of the sledge hammer is to let the hammer head do all of the hard work so you don’t have to — something that I’m sure everyone can agree is a good thing!  To that end, there are a lot of various weights, sizes and shapes of sledge hammers.  Based on the needs of the job, I feel comfortable recommending a sledge hammer with a head weight anywhere between 4 pounds and 10 pounds.  Anything more than 10 pounds would be overkill for this project and would cost considerably more than you probably want to spend.

I used my father’s old 8 pound sledge hammer (as you can see in the picture, it’s quite old and rusty) because I was still searching around for the right tool.  Don’t get me wrong - it’s a great sledge hammer, but the handle was splintered towards the hammer’s head and would snag on my work gloves.

My solution is to spend about $30 and buy the Rubbermaid Roughneck 8-Lb. Sledge Hammer.  It’s important to note that while not all sledge hammers are created equal, most are constructed well enough to handle most around-the-house and outdoors jobs.  We’re not using ours for professional demolition projects or commercial applications, so just make sure the bases are covered:

• Hardened steel head
• Cushion grip
• 4 - 10 Lb

You should be good to go.  With all the tools out of the way, let’s detail how we’re going to remove those railroad ties!

Our last post in the “how to remove railroad ties without really trying” series featured finding the right flat-head/square shovel for the job.  Now we’ll take a good look at prybars - one of the most necessary tools for this particular project.

Readers of this blog will note how much I fawn over Stanley’s FatMax Xtreme FuBar.  It’s for good reason: the FuBar just flat-out OWNS.  In fact, I get downright giddy when I think about how sweet it is to demo things with it.

That said, it should come as no surprise to anyone who frequents this here blog that I’m going to recommend the Stanley FatMax Xtreme FuBar III as the most perfect prybar/demobar for any and all of your demolition needs.  With a 30″ length, the FatMax Xtreme FuBar III has superior leveraging capabilities.  At 8.5 pounds, the FuBar III is light and balanced enough for swinging precision and maximum striking power.

Now, I know what you’re thinking - “Why is this FuBar III necessary when all I need is to pry up some railroad ties?  Can’t I just get an action bar that’ll do the same thing?”

My answer is simple: Yes, you can.  However, it’s worth noting that the FuBar III is extremely versatile - it’s excellent for prying, splitting, board bending and heavy striking jobs - so it goes far beyond the one or two applications of most normal action or prybars.

Trust me on this - you won’t be disappointed with the Stanley FatMax Xtreme  FuBar III!

In our last post in the “how to remove railroad ties without really trying” series, we looked at a pair of work gloves to help lighten the burden on your hands.  Now we’ll examine the other item on our checklist: the flat-headed shovel.

First, it’s important to note that you don’t want to use a digging shovel - the shovel’s blade is slightly curved and it will not provide you with the straight line you need for the job.  (However, if you wanted to use a standard digging shovel after you dug out the railroad tie, I’d recommend something with a nice, long handle for extra torque.)

I was searching Pricegrabber for a square shovel and ended up purchasing the Fiskars D-Handle Square Shovel and couldn’t be happier.  For starters, the shovel is pre-sharpened and ready to use right away.  I’ve purchased shovels in the past that just don’t have anywhere close to a sharp edge and are practically useless.  In my opinion, ALL shovels should be pre-sharpened.  But that’s besides the point…

The sturdy steel construction makes easy, light work out of the job.  The Fiskars D-Handle Square Shovel has a comfortable step for that initial push into the ground, which you’ll find is very important for a job like removing railroad ties.  The Fiskars D-Handle Square Shovel has a poly coating for easier clean-up and nice rust protection - not that you’d leave your tools sitting outside overnight or anything!

In my last post in the “How to remove railroad ties without really trying” series, I laid out some basic tools for the job.  This post will focus on the most important item for the job – work gloves.

You may be asking yourself – “Why do I need work gloves?”  The answer is simple: they save your hands from all sorts of wear and tear.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the yard raking leaves or shoveling dirt without work gloves and ended up with some serious calluses on the meat of my hands.  As an added bonus, they’ll keep your hands clean and free of debris and sharp objects.

I recommend a glove with a padded palm.  When operating high-vibration tools, like a tiller, the padded palm can really come in handy.  When swinging a sledgehammer, like this job entails, the padding will save your hands from developing all sorts of unsightly calluses.

As for gloves, I’ve been wearing a lot of different kinds over the years.  I think I’ve finally settled on a pair of Milwaukee Heavy Duty Work Gloves. The gloves feature the padded palm with memory foam to reduce vibration and minimize hand fatigue.  The gloves also have silicone finger pads for superior gripping - which, as I’m sure you can imagine, are just what you’ll want to have when swinging an axe or sledgehammer.  To top it off, the gloves are very comfortable, which cannot be understated!

In my previous post, ‘How to remove railroad ties without really trying,’ I spoke at length about how sore I was after doing roughly 75% of the job with the wrong set of tools.  And just like yesterday, I’m here to set you straight.

First and foremost, you need to prep your area.  In my case, this meant pulling out my weed whacker and trimming all of the renegade zoysia that had grown over the railroad ties.  Once the area is clear and you can see your target, make sure you have the following tools on hand:

• Work gloves – quite possibly the most important item for the job.  A baseball player who cares about his hands wears a pair of batting gloves to the plate, so why shouldn’t you wear a pair of gloves, too?
• Flat shovel – used for digging a straight line behind the railroad tie.  More on that later, though.
• Prybar/Action bar – the meat and potatoes of the operation.  The prybar is used to work underneath the railroad tie to prop it up for our next essential tool…
• Sledgehammer – the single most important tool for removing these blasted railroad ties.  If you don’t believe me, just try to remove one of these guys from the ground with nothing but your lower back:
  

I’ll explore each of the above mentioned tools for the job in my next post in this series.

The previous owners of our house weren’t all that handy.  In fact, I’m quite sure they didn’t do much of anything, other than paint the walls a hideous hot pink or powder blue (yes, it was that bad).  Our backyard – something that we really take pride in – was in really poor shape.  From a landscaping perspective, it was a hot mess!

Rather than use an edging material that people in the 20th century would use (paver stones, et cetera), the previous owners opted instead for wooden railroad ties.  That’s scary enough when they’re brand new, but just imagine 40 years of weathering. Yeah.  I thought so.

This past weekend my wife and I set out to remove these stupid railroad ties from our backyard so we can actually return our backyard to its intended glory.  And let me tell you… my back is sore.  I did the majority of the removal before realizing that I was using the wrong tools, thus leading to a lot of unnecessary frustration, angst and a surplus of curse words.

The new few posts are going to show you, the reader, in great detail, how to remove railroad ties successfully and without extreme lower back pain.  Please, learn from my mistakes!

Living in the city without a tool shed, it can be kind of a chore to keep running out to the garage for supplies when tackling landscaping projects in the front or back yard.  I can’t tell you the amount of Ibuprofen I’ve saved not throwing out my back running heavy tools back and forth.

The Gorilla Cart has a 600-pound distributed working load, so you can really load it up with all sorts of heavy-duty gear.  With the all-terrarian tires, the Gorilla Cart goes where wheelbarrows fear to tread, over rocks and stumps with ease.  Constructed with some really thick components (the frame, wheels and tow bar are really durable), the Gorilla Cart is built to last.

The one downside to the cart is that you actually have to assemble it, and while not difficult to put together (really, how hard could it be?), some of the bolts are tricky for guys with bigger hands, and I had a slight problem with a few nuts and bolts with sloppy threading.

Assembly problems aside, the Gorilla Cart lives up to it’s moniker: it’s big, tough and durable!

I love my Leatherman tools, and hardly ever leave home without one.  I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been around someone who needs a screwdriver, knife, pliers, wire cutters - you name it.  I’m happy to be the guy who pulls out the multitool to get things done.

Constructed with all the “cool” metals - stainless steel, carbon-fiber and tungsten - the Leatherman 830850 Skeletool CX Multitool is durable enough to handle whatever you throw at it.  At 5 ounces, this could be the lightest and most functional tool in any collection.  Versatility is the name of the game when it comes to multitools, and the Skeletool certainly isn’t short of form, function or features.

To bring you up to speed on the features, I’ll list what tools are available:

• Needlenose Pliers
• Regular Pliers
• Wire Cutters
• Hard-Wire Cutters
• 154cm combo straight/serrated blade
• Carabiner/bottle opener
• Universal bit driver

There are optional accessories available, such as a bit kit that offers 21 additional double-ended bits to handle a multitude of jobs, but really, you probably won’t need them.  This is the one tool that belongs in every man’s kit.  It’s versatility will not disappoint!

Our neighbor feeds the birds.  She’s a very nice woman, except for the bird feeding.  We live in the city, not the suburbs.  The only birds we get are pigeons and blue jays.  And where do these well-fed, probably diseased birds go when the food is gone?  Yep, our patio.

Years ago, I had birds nesting on my apartment balcony.  I bought a plastic owl to scare them off.  Needless to say, a stationary and silent owl did not deter them.  Earlier this summer, after cleaning off our tables and chairs for the third time in a week, I had enough.  I knew a static replica wouldn’t cut it against the very savvy city birds.

We ordered the Easy Gardener Garden Defense Electronic Owl in June.  While it won’t completely deter every bird, there are significantly fewer “presents” left on our furniture.  The jays don’t act as if we’re invading their territory and no pigeons have tried to live above our patio.  It also doesn’t interfere with our neighbor’s feeding area, so she can still enjoy the birds, but we don’t have to.

We did have to mute the sound.  It’s pretty loud for a small space with close neighbors.  The movement is more than enough to frighten the birds, however.  We also didn’t permanently fasten it to anything, but rather tied it down so we can move it as the birds adjust to the placement.