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Japanese knotweed – removal from inaccessible gardens

Japanese knotweed – removal from inaccessible gardens

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You might think the bigger the Japanese knotweed infestation the bigger the problem. We can deal with large knotweed affected areas on commercial development sites with our bespoke Xtract™ machinery.

Japanese knotweed removal – not a problem. But when we were presented with a back garden in South London full of knotweed and no means of access other than through the house itself it got us thinking. We like to be innovative so didn’t want to be beaten by this one. We could hire in a gang of labourers with spades but past experience has shown that they tend not to turn up on Day 2 and can’t dig as fast or as well as one of those digging machines powered by hydrocarbons! So how could we get a mechanical excavator into the garden.

You could either go over the house, through the house or under the house. Being an educated bunch we quickly dismissed the latter. Getting a crane to lift a digger over the house is fraught with red tape, especially in certain parts of London, where road closures, health & safety, etc. add to the cost and cause very significant delays. So we decided on going through the house!

Our very own highly experienced digger driver took to the controls and with literally millimetres to spare got up the steps, through the front door and into the hall. An internal wall needed to be demolished, but then with a straight run we were able to drive it down some further steps, and out through the back door into the garden. This was a house undergoing major refurbishment, we wouldn’t recommend doing this whilst you still have the carpets down!

The garden was badly infested with mature Japanese knotweed and as time was of the essence, treatment using herbicide had been ruled out. So the Resi-dig-outTM commenced, digging into the ground to a depth of 1.5m we managed to extract all the Japanese knotweed rhizome, enough to fill 4 big dumpy bags (3 cu m of rhizome). Not bad going in just a few days.

The owner of the property now has the benefit of one of our insurance backed guarantees underwritten at Lloyd’s, making the property saleable once again. A happy ending for all.

Robert Spaceman

“We had a large stand of bamboo removed, thinned, contained and replaced. The customer service has been first class. Joe and Jason were fabulous and kept me well informed at all times”.

5/5