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Cleaning up an overgrown sidewalk?

Ing3018

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Joined
Sep 3, 2009
Messages
188
Location
Michigan, USA
I would advise you to call the school. Just like they very likely keep the front of their facility cleaned up, the same logic would apply to the rear part of their property that faces the home you are at.
But if you want to tackle the cleanup yourself, go for it. The city or school is not going to be upset about you cleaning it up. A brush cutter would likely make quick work of getting things chopped down.
 
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ToolsRCool

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Dec 28, 2024
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231
Location
Plymouth, MI
For extreme sidewalk edging, gas powered lawn edger with a circular saw blade in it and the guard removed so you can see where you are going. Wear safety glasses. Use a flat coal shovel to scrape it up and off the sidewalk after. You'll have to find the edge by lowering the blade on the concrete, then keep dipping it further to the side until the blade drops way down and you hear it is not hitting pavement. Then as you proceed forward, push the blade against the edge of the sidewalk since you can't see the edge. You'll have to go over it several times to look nice, but it will do what you want.

Have used my gas powered edger with a fiber type metal cutting blade in it to cut 1/4" thick diamond plate steel sheet on my lawn to make my Bobcat bucket. Worked perfect. Have also used it to shallow trench for inground sprinkler add-ons by running 2 blades spaced apart, and also for cutting surface level tree roots with a circular saw blade in it. Love my gas powered edger.

You may have to do it yourself if you want it done. Nobody else cares, obviously, so....... Some things are just that way.
 
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n8n

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Mar 11, 2014
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Location
Curtis Bay, MD
Don't want to buy any gas tools as the city has already outlawed leaf blowers... Nowhere to keep it anyway. But you gave me an idea, there is an edger attachment for the M18 Fuel string trimmer, has anyone tried it? That might work; it's expensive, but if it means I can do this more quickly, I can do more of the hood...
 

jshillin

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Nov 9, 2008
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5,620
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PA
I've had good luck with EGO for battery tools. I'd get the multi head with the following attachments, hedge trimmer, weedeater and polesaw. I also have the Edger for mine and use it for my sidewalks.

I have a ton of M18 tools and they are great for tools, but not for outdoor power tools EGO is superior.
 

wolfhawk73

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Aug 27, 2016
Messages
164
Location
Eastern North Carolina
Don't want to buy any gas tools as the city has already outlawed leaf blowers... Nowhere to keep it anyway. But you gave me an idea, there is an edger attachment for the M18 Fuel string trimmer, has anyone tried it? That might work; it's expensive, but if it means I can do this more quickly, I can do more of the hood...
I have the edger attachment. It works very well. Better, actually, than the one I had attached to my Poulan Pro 22cc powerhead.

I also have the brush cutter, articulating hedge trimmer, and pole saw attachments along with an extension pole. They work ridiculously well. I could make short work of that mess across your street.

Are electric leaf blowers outlawed? I have the M18 single-battery version.
 
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n8n

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Location
Curtis Bay, MD
I have the edger attachment. It works very well. Better, actually, than the one I had attached to my Poulan Pro 22cc powerhead.

I also have the brush cutter, articulating hedge trimmer, and pole saw attachments along with an extension pole. They work ridiculously well. I could make short work of that mess across your street.

Are electric leaf blowers outlawed? I have the M18 single-battery version.

No, electric is OK just gas powered is outlawed. I already am in the M18 ecosystem as I have the impact gun and the string trimmer. There's weird white stuff now so more cleanup will have to be deferred a bit though.
 

no704

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Apr 27, 2016
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Saw a guy on YouTube cleaning up derilict homes. Neighbors alwas give him ****.
 

GRN96WS6

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Dec 23, 2012
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2,250
Location
SOMD
I have the edger attachment. It works very well. Better, actually, than the one I had attached to my Poulan Pro 22cc powerhead.

I also have the brush cutter, articulating hedge trimmer, and pole saw attachments along with an extension pole. They work ridiculously well. I could make short work of that mess across your street.

Are electric leaf blowers outlawed? I have the M18 single-battery version.
I second this, I have it as well and it works well, dare I say better than my old gas multi tool unit.
 
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n8n

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Mar 11, 2014
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Curtis Bay, MD
Is fire an option?

As I mentioned before, I am not sure how I managed to get a pic with no parked cars... That area is always full of parked cars (the other day, including in front of the fire hydrant, but that's another thing)

As I'm a corner lot, I did not shovel across the street yesterday... I have my limits. I'd have considered it if I actually had use of those parking spaces but I have actually just got to where I usually park my Jeep and GTI and haven't cleared that bit of sidewalk yet. There's three more yard waste bags set out today although I don't know if we'll have trash pickup today or no.
 

ATC

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May 12, 2012
Messages
8,336
Location
VA
Get someone in a wheelchair on that sidewalk and take pictures.
Take those pictures to the principal of the school and ask them who is maintaining their grounds and why they are neglecting the back sidewalk. If that doesn't work, take the issue/pictures to the city. If that doesn't work, take it to the local news stations.
 

wolfhawk73

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Aug 27, 2016
Messages
164
Location
Eastern North Carolina
No, electric is OK just gas powered is outlawed. I already am in the M18 ecosystem as I have the impact gun and the string trimmer. There's weird white stuff now so more cleanup will have to be deferred a bit though.
Well, at least you can use an electric one. I hate those bans and glad they haven't happened here (yet). If I ever hit the lottery I'm going to buy the M18 backpack blower with four 12Ah batteries. :LOL:

Keep that weird white stuff up there.
 

RegeSullivan

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Mar 30, 2014
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695
Location
Canonsburg Pennsylvania (South of Pittsburgh)
Well, at least you can use an electric one. I hate those bans and glad they haven't happened here (yet). If I ever hit the lottery I'm going to buy the M18 backpack blower with four 12Ah batteries. :LOL:

Keep that weird white stuff up there.
If I hit the lottery... someone else will be blowing the leaves! And, anything else I want blown 😀
 
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californiamilleghia

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Apr 11, 2020
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SoCal
Proud of you for caring enough to try and help the neighborhood ,

I have used my small Roybi chainsaw to cut up a big pile of ivy and branches into small sized pieces to put in big shop bags to get it out of the back yard.

Good Luck
 
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n8n

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Mar 11, 2014
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Location
Curtis Bay, MD
Did you ever get a resolution?

Not really. Actual cleanup is on hold right now due to snow (and last week's yard waste was not picked up yesterday either), I did find a GIS of the neighborhood and it's very, very weird. The street appears to be its own "plot" and is listed as being owned by an LLC that doesn't appear to exist (was this the developer of the neighborhood?) but it gives a street address in a building downtown. That "plot" encompasses both the hillside/sidewalk in question as well as everyone's front yard.

I'm not really sure how to explain in any more detail without someone finding this thread being able to figure out exactly where I live.

I'm very confused and haven't bothered to go any farther with investigating.
 

LB-1911

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Northwestern Il.
Not really. Actual cleanup is on hold right now due to snow (and last week's yard waste was not picked up yesterday either), I did find a GIS of the neighborhood and it's very, very weird. The street appears to be its own "plot" and is listed as being owned by an LLC that doesn't appear to exist (was this the developer of the neighborhood?) but it gives a street address in a building downtown. That "plot" encompasses both the hillside/sidewalk in question as well as everyone's front yard.

I'm not really sure how to explain in any more detail without someone finding this thread being able to figure out exactly where I live.

I'm very confused and haven't bothered to go any farther with investigating.
Have you checked here?
 

bluedog225

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Joined
Jan 31, 2012
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3,304
Location
Texas
Not really. Actual cleanup is on hold right now due to snow (and last week's yard waste was not picked up yesterday either), I did find a GIS of the neighborhood and it's very, very weird. The street appears to be its own "plot" and is listed as being owned by an LLC that doesn't appear to exist (was this the developer of the neighborhood?) but it gives a street address in a building downtown. That "plot" encompasses both the hillside/sidewalk in question as well as everyone's front yard.

I'm not really sure how to explain in any more detail without someone finding this thread being able to figure out exactly where I live.

I'm very confused and haven't bothered to go any farther with investigating.
Figure out a way to buy the company. Then charge all the resident for access.
 

LB-1911

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Sep 24, 2011
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Northwestern Il.
I guess I should update my location, I didn't realize it even showed. I moved last year to a neighborhood within the City of Baltimore.
:see:
Good Luck
:beer:
 

Youngandfree

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Dec 29, 2020
Messages
877
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VA
I guess I should update my location, I didn't realize it even showed. I moved last year to a neighborhood within the City of Baltimore.
City of Baltimore explains why there's no code enforcement.
 
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n8n

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Curtis Bay, MD
City of Baltimore explains why there's no code enforcement.

I'm here for reasons... trying to live as frugally as possible with an eye towards buying a place as soon as interest rates come down a bit. Also, I'm 9 miles from my office. And my landlady likes me (oddly, we basically traded places.)
 

slow84lx

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Apr 8, 2019
Messages
78
Location
Plano, TX
Check out Midlife Stockman on YouTube. He has a whole series of videos cleaning up inner city sidewalks & abandoned lots. He uses a few basic and a couple of very specialized tools that get the job done quickly. He also uses an organized method and disciplines himself to starting & completing one section at a time.


I found it interesting enough to watch 15-20 of them over a few months time.
 

mikegt4

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Sep 12, 2005
Messages
3,277
Location
sw ohio
Just out of curiosity I looked at it with Google street maps, yes that is a mess but someone is cutting the grass in other parts of the slope along the street. I would suspect that whoever is responsible for maintaining the property (school or city, it has to be one of the two) is purposely not maintaining that section. As some have already suggested my first stop would be with the city.

On a side note I see that the OP is right next to Greenbelt, MD, one of 3 communities that were built in the mid 1930's by the Roosevelt Administration. The others were Greendale, WI and Greenhills, Ohio where I grew up. Self contained communities surrounded by greenbelt parks and in my case a 2000 acre county park with a few hundred acre lake for fishing and boating. It was a great place to grow up.

 

Magnum440d100

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Dec 2, 2018
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3,581
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Indiana
correct. I don't know if that's considered the property of the house directly across the street, or of the elementary school on the other side of the fence. Or if that's on a case by case basis and I need to see if the city has a GIS web site that would show the property lines.

Edit: I just reread this and it's kind of unclear. What I meant was, I don't know if the little slice of sidewalk and hillside across the street from any given house is part of that house's lot, or if it is property of the elementary school. As in, is my landlady technically responsible for maintaining a clear sidewalk across the street? She doesn't think so and it wouldn't make sense, but lots of things in life don't make sense.
My old house in California was on a dead end dirt road. We were privately owned property/street. Our deed showed we owned the road and the strip of land across from it (~10’ wide until the neighbors fence line).

Then we were annexed into city proper, the city now owned the street, and the property across from us.

The never came and cleaned the property, I suppose because each homeowner was doing it already.


I say that, because something similar sounds like what is going on there. A strip of land from the street to a fence line with no clear owner.


Easiest (?) thing I’d do is have the landlady pull her deed and see the property description. If it does not include that strip, it’s most likely the schools property, with the fence line set back from the street due to the hill.


Either way, good on you for wanting to make your neighborhood a neighborhood and not just a “place”.

Good luck!
 

Magnum440d100

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Dec 2, 2018
Messages
3,581
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Indiana
correct. I don't know if that's considered the property of the house directly across the street, or of the elementary school on the other side of the fence. Or if that's on a case by case basis and I need to see if the city has a GIS web site that would show the property lines.

Edit: I just reread this and it's kind of unclear. What I meant was, I don't know if the little slice of sidewalk and hillside across the street from any given house is part of that house's lot, or if it is property of the elementary school. As in, is my landlady technically responsible for maintaining a clear sidewalk across the street? She doesn't think so and it wouldn't make sense, but lots of things in life don't make sense.
My old house in California was on a dead end dirt road. We were privately owned property/street. Our deed showed we owned the road and the strip of land across from it (~10’ wide until the neighbors fence line).

Then we were annexed into city proper, the city now owned the street, and the property across from us.

The never came and cleaned the property, I suppose because each homeowner was doing it already.


I say that, because something similar sounds like what is going on there. A strip of land from the street to a fence line with no clear owner.


Easiest (?) thing I’d do is have the landlady pull her deed and see the property description. If it does not include that strip, it’s most likely the schools property, with the fence line set back from the street due to the hill.


Either way, good on you for wanting to make your neighborhood a neighborhood and not just a “place”.

Good luck!
 
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