Getting rocks out of lawn

[JOshua Gallerick]

I have a customer that has a stretch of lawn 425ft long. The winter snow removal service has left rocks scattered out a long this stretch. The rocks are scattered 10ft out into the lawn. My question is what is the fastest way of getting these rocks out of the lawn? Using rakes we got about 40ft in 2 hrs.

[awm]

put doubles on preferably wore out blades.
drop mower low and bat them out of the park.

[JOshua Gallerick]

ha ha funny

[cut-rite]

Power sweeper, if you dont own one you can rent a walk behind model for about $65 a day or buy a hand held power broom for about $450.
brad

[awm]

think of the fun man. probably get three squirrels an a house cat,um supper

[grassyfras]

Dont give the guy any ideas we wouldnt want anyone to get hurt yea......... sure

[mdb landscaping]

buy a broom. you can buy a trimmer power head by echo and put the broom attachment on, or buy or rent a sweepster broom. a company named BCS makes a nice broom as well. renting may be the way to go, unless you could use the broom more often.

[Eric ELM]

I have a Shindaiwa power broom that is good for this. When I saw it demoed at my dealers open house a few years ago, the rep poured 5 gallon of about 1" rock on a mushy lawn and spread it out. He had a guy about 250 lbs. jump up and down to mash the rocks into the turf. He then took the power broom and pushed all the rocks up onto the black top in no time. The dealer sold at least a dozen power brooms that day.

They also took it and pushed all the mulch from around a tree out into the turf and then took the broom and got the mulch out of the grass and up around the tree. They are a handy tool to have, especially in the spring for jobs like you have there.

[Edited by Eric ELM on 04-04-2001 at 07:44 PM]

[Grapevine]

If they're 1/2 inch stone or smaller we've been using our
Stihl backpack blowers.They do a pretty good job if the stones aren't too packed in. Maybe I'll demo one of those power brooms.

[Runner]

The powersweep attachment is the way to go. I just bought the Stihl FC85 unit stick edger, and bought the sweep attachment for it. The whole shabang was about 600 bucks. If I just bought the powersweep unit on a power unit, it would have costed almost that. The problem with the Echo, is that it is only available with the bristle brushes, and doesn't work NEARLY as well as the rubber paddles. Also, the bristles tend to tear up the grass a bit and the paddles don't. (ironic) Anyway, this unit uses the same rubber paddles as the Shindaiwa and Redmax, (Dunlop Tire product) and is about the best thing for this. I did my ditch, my neighbors ditch, our rental, and my aunt's ditch, all equaling about 500 ft. of footage, in about an hour - no exageration.

[kmcutters]

I have this problem at my own house and what I do is install my snow blade on my garden tractor and push the big stuff back in the road.Then I have a pull behind lawn sweeper that gets most of the rest.Then I rake the rest of them.Dont know about your situation but mine is usually at least 1-2 inches thick of mud and rocks from the road plow.Think he speeds up when he come by my yard to see how far he can make the stuff fly.


kmcutters

[Matt]

Power broom is the way to go, you will use it for a lot of other jobs also. The cost is more than made up in productivity and worker gratitude.

[weve]

I have used the Shindaiwa PB 270 Power Broom for the past three years for removing gravel, etc. that is pushed into grass from snow removal. I use it about 20 hours each spring. It can do the work of three or four men with rakes and shovels and do a better job. It's been a real time saver. If you have a Shindaiwa trimmer you can get the Power Broom conversion kit for it. It's just a matter of changing gear boxes.

[morturf]

POWER BROOM (Shindawa or stihl)
I have owned one of these for 8 years, it is the most useful tool for removing any winter garbage accumulation there is. I bought a second one 4 years ago and I am a 2 man operation. For the last 14 days our brooms have run for at least 4 hrs a day and some days as many as 8. Nothing better than these. One of my clients is a shopping center that has very patched asphalt lot. The snow crew pushes everything onto the lawn all winter and leaves 1" thick "pie plates" of asphalt all over the yard. The power broom make quick work of these and accumulated sand and gravel.
And to add to the usefulness, I wish I had a picture from last fall. I used my brooms to pick up the apples under apple trees. These apples were covering the ground solid for about a 30 foot circle around each tree. Some were rotten, some not. Used the tractor loader bucket and shot the apples into it and then dumped them into a dump trailer. Took us about 5 min. per tree and was very easy.


POWER SWEEP
If you have many, long, wide stretches with lots of sand and gravel (e.g. commercial parking lots and along busy throughfares), the power sweep on a tractor is ideal. I have a 955 JD with a 60" broom on it, makes quick work of the mess. To justify the cost you must have a lot to do. The broom alone was 3500. Word of caution, if you go to a rental yard and ask for a sweeper it will probably be mounted to a skidsteer...not good on a lawn. I have done about 3 miles of parking lots and curbs this year. Works great for this.

I am sure these are the way to go. good luck.

[landscaper3]

We have the same problem up here in Maine. We use Shidawa power brooms to clean up rocks and sand the are a GOD SEND for the situations!!!!

[David Gretzmier]

sounds like you people sleep w/ these power brooms...Dave g

[awm]

now that was funny, david.

[Jason]

You sold me on one just came in from tring to do my ditch bank raking, That sucks!!!! About 10 feet and my wife and I was whipped. I think I'm going to go rent one this weekend and try it out or maybe demo one thats better.

Jason

[cajuncutter]

how about 450 feet of power cord and put one of them thar 5 horse craps-man shopvacs on your sears card....when done take it back and get your credit back...kind a like free rental:D

[grassyfras]

SCRUB!!!!!!!! you scrub oh well i hear you can do the same thing at Home Depot


They rule

"When the grass starts growing i start mowing

[JOshua Gallerick]

HEY ERIC what did that shindaiwa powered broom run ya?

[cajuncutter]

Only a true scrub would know about the in's and outs of home depot ;) Home Depot was my business partner 11 years ago :D

[yardsmith]

Laughing my butt off guys!
This is definitely a post for next month's TURF magazine....
Before I even opened this post I had an answer from reading the title- Lower the blades & put the hammer down!
Seriously though, I may look into the power broom phenomenon. I have a Stihl FS-85 that'd take the attatchment. Just one more toy (I mean TOOL!) to add to the waiting list.....

[Eric ELM]

It was a bit over $500, I got it a few years ago. Handy tool to have. :)

[Runner]

If you buy the Stihl FC85, you can but the stick edger, then buy the powersweep attachment to go on it. The whole outfit will run about 600 bucks, and you have TWO pieces of equipment. The only thing is though, is DO NOT buy the powersweep unit as a whole unit, and get the edger as an attachment. This combo is much more expensive. You'll want to buy the whole stick edger and the sweep attachment - much cheaper.

[toddco]

It looks like Echo also has a unit that will allow you to use a trimmer head, edger, and a broom. Does anyone know if they have a paddle broom like the shindaiwa? Or does the shin paddle fit other brands?